How to properly plant mustard
By learning how to plant mustard, you will learn how to grow it to yield crops. In fact, growing this spice in your home garden is not so difficult. But if you know some secrets, it will be easier to do.
Mustard is considered a green manure. This means that it is a fertilizer plant. The main property of mustard is that it saturates the soil with nitrogen and phosphorus.
You can plant mustard so that it fertilizes the garden
Mustard also has other beneficial properties:
- It cleans the soil from harmful microorganisms, from scab and phytophthora, helps to fight pests – slugs, moths, wireworms.
- Mustard grows rapidly, inhibits the growth of weeds.
- It improves the structure of the soil.
- With its help, you can stop the process of leaching of garden land.
- With the first frosts, mustard turns into the best shelter for the earth. It not only protects it from freezing, but also retains moisture in the soil until spring.
- Mustard is an excellent honey plant, if you have an apiary, plant nearby crops of this plant.
Mustard is considered a companion plant. It coexists well with potatoes, beans, grapes and other garden and vegetable garden plants. You can plant this spice around fruit trees, it interacts especially well with apple and pear trees. Mustard protects its neighbors from pests and makes them grow more actively.
How to plant mustard correctly?
You can sow mustard both in spring and autumn. In spring, this is done a month before planting potatoes, in autumn – immediately after harvesting. Seedlings appear in 3-4 days. If you want to get the full benefit of mustard in your garden, it’s best to start growing it in the spring. Mustard is a light-loving plant, so it is better to sow it in sunny areas of the garden. The optimal amount of seeds per one hundred square meters is 120-150 g.
After sowing the spices, you need to roll the soil a little
If you want more seeds to sprout, it is better to prepare the ground in advance. Loosen the soil with a flat cutter or cultivator. Apply fertilizer – any formulation with effective soil microorganisms.
In about a month, the mustard will grow to 15-20 cm. After that, it must be watered with a solution of the EM preparation and cut with a flat cutter or cultivator. Water mustard abundantly as it loves moisture, especially during the germination period.
Now that you know how to plant mustard, grow this spice every year. After the first sowing, you will notice how the quality of the land in the garden has improved.