Pest protection for dill and organization of planting in the greenhouse

Dill has a couple of pests – the carrot psyllid and the flea beetle. The carrot psyllid, which causes the leaves of dill and carrots to curl, is an early bird. If you cover crops sown in late April with lutrasil immediately, it will not be a threat, as it overwinters on pines and other conifers and flies out in early spring to lay its eggs on umbellifers.

The small black flea beetle overwinters in the soil, so lutrasil will not save you from it. You can deter the flea beetle in the following ways:

• Spray the growing dill with a solution of the biological preparation "Fitoverm". Protection is guaranteed for 3 weeks, and you will be able to eat the dill 48 hours after spraying.
• Use flea shampoo for dogs (3 tablespoons per 10 l of water) on garden beds not only with dill but also with all brassica crops, which the flea beetle loves at a young age.

Among diseases, the most common is powdery mildew, which appears as a white coating on the leaves. Spraying with the biological preparation "Fitosporin" or "Zircon" is very effective. Dill can be eaten 48 hours after spraying.

Verticillium wilt of dill is an incurable viral disease. There is nothing to be done for the plant; it must simply be pulled up to avoid infecting other plants and burned, rather than placed in the compost.

Damping-off is less common in young seedlings. Here, "Fitosporin" will help, which should be used for soil irrigation.

Sometimes dill leaves turn red and then die. This happens most often on acidic clay soils. At the first signs of leaf reddening, apply a potassium and calcium top dressing, water with limewater (1 cup of lime per 10 l of water), and spray with "Fitosporin" or "Zircon".

The sequence for filling the greenhouse is shown in Fig. 6.

In late April or very early May (in the North-West; earlier in warmer regions), prepare a trench for sowing cucumbers, moving 25 cm away from the wall. Cover it with a strip of black spunbond (instead of cutting it, simply fold it into several layers).

Right by the wall, use the edge of a board to press a furrow 2 cm deep and sow (as if you were salting food) a row of early carrots along the strip of spunbond, mixing 1 teaspoon of seed and AVA fertilizer powder with half a cup of used tea or coffee grounds. Loosen and firm the soil over the seeds (do not use ash under carrots instead of AVA – the carrots will become multi-rooted). Cover the bed with white spunbond (lutrasil).

On the opposite side of the greenhouse, prepare a trench for transplanting pepper seedlings in a similar way, moving 25 cm away from the wall:

• Along this trench, right by the wall, plant radish seeds individually in a single row, simply pressing them 2 cm deep with your finger, 5–6 cm apart (about 40 seeds per 6 m).
• Moving 20 cm from the edge of the bed, use the edge of a board to make 2 furrows along the entire length of the bed – sow lettuce seeds in the same way as the carrot seeds.

Now loosen all the soil and cover with white spunbond.

On May 5–10, sow cucumber seeds along the carrot row in the prepared trench – 2–3 seeds per hole. The holes should be 25 cm apart (24 holes, from which you will later keep one plant each, i.e., 24 cucumbers).

• To avoid covering the carrot row, first cover the crops by folding back the black spunbond from the area where you are sowing the cucumbers.
• First, cover the sown cucumbers with transparent film (or place bottles with the bottoms cut off over the holes).
• In the remaining space along the edge of the bed, plant home-grown bush dill transplants 40 cm apart (15 plants in total).
• Now remove the black spunbond from the bed and cover it with two layers of white spunbond.

On May 10–15, plant tomato transplants in two rows in the center of the middle bed. Space the rows 30 cm apart, and the plants 30 cm apart within each row. Plant them in a staggered pattern. You will have about 20 plants in each row, totaling 40 tomato bushes.

• Tie each plant to a stick pushed into the ground next to the tomato stem, slightly taller than the transplant.
• To prevent the spunbond you will cover the bed with from snagging on the ends of the sticks, put beer cans or 300-gram plastic beverage bottles on top of the sticks.
• Mulch the tomatoes with newspapers.
• You have a 30 cm strip left on each side. Starting about 10 cm from the ends of the bed, plant home-grown parsley transplants 30 cm apart. A total of 6 plants will be more than enough: 3 at each end.
• Fill the remaining space behind the parsley with annual flower seeds (zinnias, salvias, upright marigolds, calendula, nasturtium, and others).
• On the other side of the tomatoes, in individual "compartments" as described in the second chapter, plant cabbage and late beet seeds individually, and sow dill in the remaining space.
• Now cover the entire bed with a double layer of white spunbond.

Lettuce in a bed with radish should be transplanted, or even better, eaten by thinning it out so that after planting the peppers, the lettuce plants are 30 cm apart.

From May 25–30, after you have harvested the radish, sow basil, marjoram, and cilantro in its place. To avoid dirtying the lettuce, cover it with newspapers beforehand. You will plant peppers and eggplants at a distance of 30 cm from each other (20 plants in total). Remove the cover from the lettuce and cover the entire bed with double white spunbond. If the plants set out during May require irrigation, perform it directly over the spunbond.

Intensive use of the greenhouse's usable area allows for multiple harvests in a single growing season. Through companion planting and conveyor-belt crop cultivation of vegetables, greens, and flowers, the space is used with maximum density. This approach helps to efficiently distribute space in the beds of an arched greenhouse and protect heat-loving crops during the early stages of development.

Conveyor-belt cultivation and companion planting scheme

Before planting the main nightshade crops, the beds are densified with fast-growing greens and transplants. In May, some of the grown plants are transferred to open soil, and secondary crops are immediately sown in the vacated areas. This ensures continuous bed rotation and allows for the harvesting of fresh greens and root vegetables until the end of summer.

• Cabbage planting scheme — 40x40 cm
• Tomato planting — May 10–15
• Pepper planting — May 15–20
• Parsley planting at the ends — 3+3 plants

For the correct distribution of areas after the greenhouse, it is important to observe the technology of transplanting into open soil. Growing cabbage together with other crops allows for saving space and protecting plantings from pests. Work on planting cabbage transplants and companion plants is carried out at the end of May, following a specific sequence.

1. Mark out the bed for planting cabbage in two rows according to the 40x40 cm scheme.
2. Plant the cabbage transplants, and place tall marigold transplants in the row spacings.
3. Plant beet transplants along the sides of the cabbage bed, and celeriac transplants at the ends.
4. Cover all plantings with the double Lutrasil that was freed up after use in the greenhouse.