Biological features. Profseeds germinate at 3-5°C for 24 days, at 20-25°C for 4 days. The optimal temperature for growth is 20-22°C, but even at 15-17°C growth is very intensive. Long day plant, demanding on light and moisture. With age, the leaves become more fragrant, but abundant moisture, high humidity, low temperature and light, and high nitrogen content in the soil reduce the content of essential oil in the product, thereby deteriorating its quality.
Variety selection. Dill varieties are divided into two groups, the first - bush (Alligator (Gavrish), Salyut (VNIISSOK), Buyan (R.A. Komarova)) and the second - ordinary (Gribovsky (VNIISSOK), Dalniy (R.A. Komarova), Borey ( R.A. Komarova), etc.). There are a sufficient number of varieties for cultivation in protected ground. The Dalniy variety is of the greatest interest; it is the only one specially bred for protected ground. Of the other varieties, Alligator, Salyut, Buyan, Borey and Gribovsky have proven themselves not bad.
Growing technology. Sowing dates - from the beginning of February to the end of August. The growing period is 40-50 days. Sowing is carried out with seeders with a row spacing of 10-15 cm to a depth of 1 cm or manually spreading the seeds in a continuous way. Seeding rate 3 - 6 g/m2. The temperature regime before germination is 16-18°С, after emergence 10-12°С, on a clear day 14-16°С. Optimum soil moisture before germination is 80-85% FPV, after the emergence of 75-80% FPV. Air humidity is not higher than 70%. It needs to be constantly ventilated. Watering is carried out rarely, deeply wetting the soil.
When growing bush varieties, a slightly different technology is used. First, seedlings are grown using 3-4x3-4 cm pots for this. The seedling mixture is the same as for Beijing cabbage or lettuce. Temperature regime before germination 22-24°С, after germination within 7-10 days 12-14°С during the day and 10-12°С at night, then 16-18°С in clear weather, 12-14°С in cloudy and at night 10-12°C. In the early stages, backlight is used. The term for growing seedlings until the appearance of 3-6 true leaves and depends on the period of growing seedlings. Seedlings are planted according to the planting scheme 15-20x20-25 cm. The temperature is kept at 16-18 ° C in clear weather, 12-14 ° C in cloudy weather and at night 10-12 ° C. Soil moisture is at the level of 75-80% of PWV and air humidity is 60-70%. Harvesting is either continuous, removing rosettes weighing 100-200 g to obtain highly transportable products of excellent quality, or picking individual large leaves, which allows for repeated collections. The yield in this case is 3.0 - 4.0 kg / m2, while with the usual method of cultivation 1.5 - 2.5 kg / m2.
With the classical cultivation technology, it is best to harvest plants in the morning by pulling them out with the roots, for better storage and transportation. Shelf life at 0.5°C is two weeks.
