How To Cut Chives Correctly - Cut Maintenance Tutorial

Content

• How To Cut Chives Correctly - Cut Maintenance Tutorial
• Chive blossom and rumor mill
• Cut care as a kitchen herb
• background
• Cut chives with bypass scissors
• Autumn cut favors wintry seasoning
• Tips
• Cut care as a perennial
• Cut shrimps like chives
• foray
• Division preserves juvenile perennial shrubs
• frequently asked Questions
• Are chives flowers edible?
• I would like to plant chives as a flowering plant, but also as a kitchen herb. Can that succeed? It is often said that chives should not blossom if you want to eat them.
• I have harvested my magnificent chives in the pot regularly, but not radically blended after the flowering period. Now the plant is withered and stained. What to do?
• Is chives hardy and perennial?
• Should I equip chives in the bed after the last cut with winter protection?
• The 3 most common cut defects
• Tips

Cutting chives is about delaying flowering

How To Cut Chives Correctly - Cut Maintenance Tutorial

As a treat for the eyes and palate, chives are one of the most valuable garden treasures. The multi-faceted attributes of the popular herb benefit from a cut at the right time. Read in this tutorial when and how to properly cut chives.

Chive blossom and rumor mill

Around the flowers of chives entwine myths and rumors. It is said that flowering chives are poisonous or at least inedible. We invite you to a brief excursion that clears up with mistakes and misunderstandings around the chive flower.

When the picturesque flowering begins in June, chives go through a process of change. Until then, the local herb plant inspires with juicy, delicate tube leaves, which give many dishes special spice. With the onset of bud formation, strong stems rise above the grassy eyrie, which have a heavy flow of flowers to bear. For this purpose, the tubes are thicker, firmer and lignified. On the track remains the fresh-spicy taste. Who now costs from a stalk, is disappointed by the bitter taste. That does not mean the flower tubes are poisonous.

In the flowers chives invest all its energy, so that neighboring leaves are affected. Gradually, the characteristic aroma is lost and the tubes assume a woody consistency. Suitable for consumption, the stalks are still, but not in spring-fresh premium quality. For a culinary delight now the purple flower heads, which give cold food extra pep.

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Cut care as a kitchen herb

If the use of chives as a kitchen herb in the foreground, the Schnittpflege aims at the aroma-destroying flowering time delay. As long as the plant does not form buds and flowers, the juicy tube leaves benefit from the valuable plant energy. How to properly cut chives as a culinary herb:

If you notice the first stems with buds during the harvest, cut the shoots back to 2 cm. From each interface fresh leaves drift out. As long as no flower stalks einmogeln, the delicate-spicy herb pleasure is preserved.

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Cut chives with bypass scissors

The smoother you cut the juicy tube leaves, the better the harvest quality. For every cut on chives, a pair of scissors with a bypass mechanism should be ready. In this version, the tool has two sharp blades that cut the herbaceous tissue even when it is already woody. Alternatively, use a sharp kitchen knife. Not recommended for cutting and harvest is an anvil scissors with a sharp and a blunt side, because here bruises on chives are pre-programmed.

Autumn cut favors wintry seasoning

As a native shrub, chives in the bed attracts its herbaceous plant parts before winter. It only overwinters the root ball with its many frost-resistant onions in the protection of the soil. So that you do not have to give up fresh herbal pleasure during the cold season, the following strategy has worked well:

On the bright, warm window sill, chives are continuing to grow. Adjust the water and nutrient supply to the reduced light conditions. Keep a lookout for flower stems when harvesting. Where the herbal plant feels in good hands, the attempt of a winter flowering is not uncommon with all the described negative consequences for spicy culinary delights.

Tips

Delaying the heyday by cutting measures often results in a crop surplus that the kitchen can not readily process. By freezing the fresh leaves, prepare a tasty stock. Clear the stalks with clear water and cut them into small pieces. Filled in a freezer and frozen in the freezer, the unmistakable aroma is almost completely preserved for many weeks.

Cut care as a perennial

Gardeners without a penchant for the spicy herbal taste yet integrate chives into the fanciful planting plan. It is the lavish and colorful flowering time, the decorative accents sets in the perennial flowerbed. Now the purple flower heads are welcome, so that a different cut is the focus. How to cut chives as a flowering plant:

Undoubtedly, withered chives are only a shadow of oneself. Nevertheless, you should be patient with the pruning until all the leaves have withered. In this transition phase, the perennial moves all nutrient reserves from the above-ground shoots into the subterranean organs of survival in the form of onions. The more plentiful the energy depots filled, the more luscious the fresh budding and opulent the flowers in the next year.

Cut shrimps like chives

A close relative complements perfectly with the flowers of chives. Ornamental is also part of the versatile Allium genus. His trademark are large, purple flower balls that float at eye level through the perennial flowerbed. Even during the flowering season, the first leaves move in. In order to fill the resulting gaps in a decorative way, chives are useful as an underplant. In late autumn, cut both perennials in one go until just above the ground.

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Division preserves juvenile perennial shrubs

Regardless of whether you are cultivating chives as a herb or blossom beauty, you should divide the perennials every few years. The best time is in the fall, if anyway a cutback is on the care program. Cut all shoots down to two fingers across the root disk. Then you dig out the root network. Pull the bale apart with both hands to gently separate the numerous onions. Each section is planted at the new location. Thanks to this makeover your chives start again with fresh energy.

frequently asked Questions

Are chives flowers edible?

The garden practice has proven that the flowers are edible and very tasty. The rumor persists that chives are basically no longer suitable for consumption with the flower. In fact, the fresh stalks are particularly aromatic just before the flowering time. In the following years, the aroma is lost and the stems are woody. As a culinary herb chives are still to use, as long as you do not consume the flower stalks.

I would like to plant chives as a flowering plant, but also as a kitchen herb. Can that succeed? It is often said that chives should not blossom if you want to eat them.

You can certainly make chives bloom. The flowers are not only decorative but also edible. However, the stems are slightly woody after the beginning of the flowering period and lose their taste. Optionally, you can cut back the herb plant, whereupon fresh stalks sprout and can be harvested. Alternatively, cut back one half of the perennial and enjoy the flowers of the other half.

I have harvested my magnificent chives in the pot regularly, but not radically blended after the flowering period. Now the plant is withered and stained. What to do?

Premium quality chives are dependent on regular pruning. The plant goes back strong within a week and provides aromatic replenishment for the kitchen. Therefore, cut back all shoots and administer an organic herbal fertilizer.

Is chives hardy and perennial?

Chive is a native perennial and therefore reliably hardy. To date, wild species can be discovered in the wild in wet meadows and floodplains. In winter, the above-ground, herbaceous shoots move in. Only the frost-resistant root ball with many onions winters deep in the ground and drives out again next spring.

Should I equip chives in the bed after the last cut with winter protection?

In the planting year, it is advantageous to cover the bedding area with a thick layer of foliage and needled rice. Especially in winter-gray regions protect the tender onions in this way from severe frost and persistent.From the second or third year, the herb has become so established that it outlives the winter by its own power. This does not apply to chives in the pot. Behind the vessel walls, the bulbs are vulnerable to freezing cold. A warming fleece winter coat effectively prevents frost damage.

The 3 most common cut defects

Chives do not live up to its reputation as a herbal treasure, if you let a flowering free hand. Which other cutting errors affect the premium quality brings this table to the point:

Tips

Starting with the first crop cut, young tube leaves often sprout with brown tips. This is not a cause for concern, but a normal reaction to the previous cut into the juicy plant tissue. Anyone who is bothered by the purely aesthetic impairment simply cuts off the brownish leaf tips before eating them.