Agricultural technology of peonies. Part 1: Choosing and preparing a landing site

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When creating good conditions during planting and in the process of growing peonies grow in one place 25 - 35 years. In the literature there is information about flowering bushes aged 50 years and older.

Agricultural technology of peonies. Part 1: Choosing and preparing a landing site
Agricultural technology of peonies. Part 2: Landing
Agricultural technology of peonies. Part 3: Care

Peonies are light-loving plants, it is better to place them in open sunny places, but protected by the prevailing winds. Peonies quite easily tolerate partial shade for 2-3 hours a day. In the shade, their bushes continue to develop well, but cease to bloom profusely. Peonies should not be planted closer than 1.5 m from the house, in the zone of the root system of trees and large shrubs, since their development can be affected by a lack of nutrition and moisture.

Peonies grow well on almost all soils of different climatic zones, however, they prefer well-cultivated loamy soils, they do not tolerate only wet wetlands. If in the garden plot groundwater comes closer than 50 cm from the soil level, the bushes are planted on high ridges or drainage ditches are arranged. Otherwise, the roots of the plants rot, they become sick and may die in a few years.

The further growth and long-term decorativeness of flowering bushes depends on how well the soil is prepared and planted. In most cases, the soils in the areas allocated for individual gardens are not very suitable for growing fruit, berry and flower plants and require cultivation. To improve them, we need organic fertilizers that can provide plants with the necessary nutrients and improve the physical properties of the soil: structure, ability to retain moisture, etc. By influencing the water, air and thermal conditions, organic fertilizers help regulate the vital activity of microorganisms necessary for the conversion of mineral fertilizers into substances digestible by plants.

The most affordable organic fertilizer is compost. It can be prepared at any garden site. The materials necessary for its preparation in each section are quite enough. Compost is obtained as a result of the decomposition of various household wastes - domestic garbage, waste from the kitchen, as well as weeds, tops of various plants. In addition, amateurs often use separately prepared or mixed mixtures of nutrient substrates that contain organic fertilizers: sod, humus, leaf, peat and other soils. Methods for preparing compost and various nutrient mixtures are given in Appendix 2. The optimal acidity of any nutrient substrate when growing peonies is 6–6.5 pH.

Pits with a depth of at least 60 cm and a diameter of 60–70 cm are prepared for planting. This will enable the bushes to form a powerful root system that goes to a considerable depth. By the age of five to six, it goes to a depth of 50-60 cm and reaches 60-70 cm in diameter. In smaller planting pits, the growth of the root system is delayed, and the development and flowering of bushes is accordingly suspended. The distance between the bushes when laying the flower garden for a long period should be 70-100 cm. In the future, this will facilitate the processing of the bushes, provide sufficient air circulation between them, and to a large extent prevent the spread of fungal diseases.

Landing pits should be prepared in advance (in July), so that by the time of landing the land has settled properly in them. When digging holes, the upper cultural soil layer is laid aside, the rest of the soil is removed. A mixture of organic fertilizers (preferably a mixture of rotted manure with compost and peat), 150-200 g of superphosphate or 300-400 g of bone meal and 150-200 g of potassium sulfate are introduced into the lower half of the pit. On clay and loamy acidic soils add 150-200 g finely ground slaked lime. Soil is added here from the upper layer (approximately to the middle of the pit), everything is thoroughly mixed and compacted. The resulting nutrient layer will serve as a supply of plant nutrients for the future.

The upper part of the pit (25-30 cm) is filled with the remaining soil from the upper cultural layer without mineral fertilizers. If it is not cultivated enough and heavy in composition, you can add to this soil two or three buckets of sifted compost, turf or leafy soil. On clay soils, half a bucket or one bucket of river sand is added to the mixture, and on sandy soils, one and a half buckets of clay are added to the lower part of the pit before mixing.

If you plan to plant a significant number of peony bushes on the garden plot, planting them in specially prepared trench ridges will give the best results. The laboriousness of preparing trenches in the future will fully pay off with good growth and many years of highly decorative flowering of bushes. In the trench, the most favorable conditions are created for the development of a powerful root system and thereby for obtaining high-quality flowers. In the trench ridges, bushes can bloom profusely up to 10-15 years of age or more. So, in our experience, plants even at the age of 20 - 25 years had up to 50 - 60 flowers of high quality. A trench is laid as well as a separate pit: organic fertilizers are added to the lower part and mixtures are prepared in layers. At the bottom of the trench you can lay a layer of grass, leaves and other plant debris 10-15 cm high. Within a few years, plant debris will cross over and form a good organic layer. It is not recommended to put fresh manure in the lower part of the pit, since it decomposes very slowly under the given conditions. It is better to prepare humus soil from it, which is added at the rate of two or three buckets per 1 m2.

Before digging a trench, a section for it is divided in width and length, driving in pegs. If planting will be carried out in one row, the width of the trench should be 70–80 cm, if in two rows (staggered) - 110–120 cm. It is not recommended to make the trench wider, as weeding, loosening of the soil, fertilizing and fertilizing are difficult t. The trench must be densely filled, because the loose soil then settles heavily. It is desirable to prepare the trench, like the pits, in advance - two to three months before planting. When preparing, take into account that garden soil and organic fertilizers will be required much more than when preparing pits. It is also necessary to prepare in advance a place for uncultivated soil from the lower layer, which will also be a significant amount.

To grow non-standard delenki with one or two buds, school ridges are arranged, better trench ridges, but you can also use ridges with a fertile layer of at least 30 cm. They are seasoned with compost or rotted manure with peat - two or three buckets per 1 m2. On heavy soils, add half a bucket of river sand per 1 m2.

Materials used:

D. B. Kapinos, V. M. Dubrov - “Peonies in the Garden”