From the article you will learn how the irga is useful, how to prepare medicinal potions from its leaves and bark, and delicious treats from the fruits for the winter. In addition, the material tells about planting, care, pests, diseases of irgi. Irga vulgaris is a small fruit tree or shrub with erect branches. Leaves are oval, whole. Irga ordinary blooms in early to mid-May with cream or white flowers. In June, small round berries ripen on irga - reddish-purple or bluish-black. They look beautiful, besides, they are also tasty, sweet. By autumn, the tree becomes decorative due to the fact that the leaves turn from green to dark red.
The healing effect of the game
Fresh fruits are not only a delicacy, they are also used for medicinal purposes. Irgi berries contain vitamins P, C, carotene, carbohydrates, phenolcarboxylic and other acids of this type, catechins, tannins, leukoanthocyanidins, trace elements, anthocyanin peonidin, beta-sitosterol, organic acids. Phenol carboxylic acid and its derivative isochlorogenic acid, as well as tannins, are present in the leaves of the irrigation. The juice squeezed from berries is used in folk medicine as a multivitamin, astringent, enveloping agent. It is diluted with water and gargled with sore throat, stomatitis. Treat with juice and purulent wounds. Irgi berries are used for the prevention, treatment of gastrointestinal diseases, atherosclerosis. Fruits are an excellent multivitamin remedy; they are used for the prevention and treatment of vitamin deficiencies.
Tinctures made from irgi flowers lower blood pressure, berry juice will help prevent vascular thrombosis and reduce blood clotting. It is very beneficial for people suffering from cardiovascular diseases.
Here are the remedies that can be prepared from the leaves and bark of the irgi:
- With colitis, diarrhea, enterocolitis 2 tbsp. l. crushed dry leaves are poured with 300 ml of hot water, boiled for 5 minutes, infused for 1 hour with the lid closed, filtered. Take a decoction 3-4 times a day for half a glass.
- To prepare an astringent, the crushed bark and leaves of irgi must be poured with boiling water in a ratio of 1:10 and cooked over a minimum heat for half an hour. Then you should cool, strain and squeeze the raw material. Drink three times a day for 1 tbsp. l.
- For diarrhea, enterocolitis, colitis, gastritis in folk medicine, the following remedy is prepared. In 200 ml of water, put 10 g of crushed bark, boil in a water bath for 15 minutes, insist for 1 hour, filter. Add boiled water to the original 200 ml. You need to take 3 times a day for half a glass or 4 times a day for a third.
Features of planting irgi
Grows wild in sunny places, on rocky soils. Irga grows quickly and quickly begins to bear fruit. You can pick the first berries the next year after planting the seedling. But mostly irga begins to bear fruit from 2-4 years.
With proper planting, good care, the tree can be grown in your area, and it will grow there for 50-70 years. Irga does not make any special demands on soils, it feels good on almost any, it does not like only calcareous and swampy areas. Grows best on fertile, light soils - medium loamy or sandy loam.
When planting and caring for a tree, it must be borne in mind that its root system is shallow. It is better to place the seedling in open areas. Here the bush will be spreading and will give an excellent harvest, unlike a plant planted in a shady place, where it will stretch strongly in height and bear little fruit.
The best time to plant is mid-September to mid-October. Can be planted in spring - from mid-April to the second decade of May. The plant is able to withstand frosts down to -40 ° C, and its flowers will withstand slight spring frosts. A hole is dug 60 x 60 cm in size, 1 bucket of humus, 2 buckets of sod land, 150 g of superphosphate and a glass of wood ash are added to it. It would also be nice to add manure. 1 kg of fresh manure is diluted with 8 liters of water, mixed, allowed to brew for 5 days, poured into the planting pit. All this is mixed well. A seedling is placed in the center of the pit, covered with soil, well spilled with water. The trunk circle is mulched with peat.
Irga care rules
Plant care is simple. Periodically loosen the soil in the near-trunk circle, weeding out the weeds, and water in dry times. In the spring, it is necessary to remove diseased, weak branches lying on the ground, damaged.
Every year, 2 of the strongest stems are left on a young seedling. When 12 trunks are formed at the tree, so much is left, and the rest are removed as it grows. From the 10th year, they undertake anti-aging pruning. To make it convenient to pick berries of irgi, you need to prune the upper branches, otherwise they can grow up to three meters. Such a plant will form in the form of a bush.
Irga is propagated by dividing the bush, root suckers, seeds. The easiest way to propagate irgu by root suckers. Anyway, the growth that has appeared must be removed annually. If you wish, you can dig in the undergrowth bush, find the place of its connection with the mother plant, chop off this part with a shovel or ax and plant the young tree in a permanent place along with a clod of earth. Then the survival rate will be better.
In summer, irgu is fed with fertilizers made from ammonium nitrate, maintaining a proportion of 50 g per bush, or bird droppings, diluting 250 g of the substance in 5 liters of water. 5 liters of this product are poured under the bush, the next day after heavy rain or watering.
Since irgi berries are very tasty, they are loved not only by people, but also by birds. You can try to compete with the birds, picking berries before them. But the fruits ripen unevenly, and the birds wake up early, so they can peck berries in the morning.
Tie rain on the irgu, the tinsel left over from the Christmas tree, you can make a garland of shiny candy wrappers and hang on a bush. In the wind, these objects rustle, which scares away birds. You can put tall turntables near the tree. They rotate according to the principle of a weather vane and also scare away birds. You can put a fine mesh on the bush.
Irgi pests and diseases
Irga rarely suffers from diseases, and leaf-eating insects usually do not do much harm to her. If a reddish-brown moth caterpillar appeared on the young leaves of the irgi, it must be fought with, as with the light green caterpillar of the winter moth, the gray-green caterpillar of the rose leafworm, which gnaws not only the leaves, but also the young tops of the shoots.
Rounded dark brown spots on the leaves of the irgi indicate the appearance of fungal diseases, such as ascochitous spot or phyllostictosis. Rot on brown fruits is moniliniosis. Nectric necrosis of the bark leads to the drying out of the branches and shoots of the irgi.
What to cook from irgi
The fruits of this miracle tree are especially useful fresh, but even when properly harvested, they retain most of the vitamins and valuable trace elements. For the future, compotes, preserves, and jams are prepared from irgi. In addition, the berry is rubbed with sugar, dried, and frozen.
Concentrated compote from yergi and currant
To prepare the compote, you will need the following ingredients: 1 kg of irgi, 450 g of black currant, 1.5 liters of water, 450 g of sugar.
Pour sugar into the water, put on fire, bring to a boil, cook for a couple of minutes until the sugar dissolves. Sort the berries, rinse, put in sterile jars, pour sugar syrup. Put a towel on the bottom of a wide saucepan, pour warm water, put jars in it, cover them with iron lids.
Bring water to a boil over low heat, sterilize jars at + 85 ° C, half-liter jars - 10 minutes, and liter jars - 15 minutes. Boil the iron lids for 3 minutes, roll up the jars with them, turn them over on the table, wrap them in a newspaper, cloth or light blanket.
Jam from irgi
Irga jam is also very tasty. At the same time, the gooseberries also ripen, after they have eaten enough of them, there are still many berries left. They are also good for jam. Take 500 g of sirgi and gooseberries, 400 g of sugar.
Wash the berries, dry on a towel, put in a bowl, sprinkle with sugar. Heat over low heat until boiling, boil, stirring for 7 minutes, then rub through a sieve or colander. For color, you can add 50 g of red beet juice. Put the mass on the fire again, bring to a boil, after a minute put in jars, roll up.
Rubbed Irga
To wipe the berries, they are sorted out, washed, laid out in one layer on a towel, and allowed to dry. Then pass through a meat grinder or grind in a blender. For 1 part of the berries, add 2 parts of sugar, mix, put in sterile jars, on top, where the neck, pour sugar with a layer of 1 cm, seal with plastic lids, lowered for sterility for 20 seconds in boiling water.
This blank is stored at room temperature. If you want to wipe it with a minimum amount of sugar, store it in the freezer. To do this, for 1 kg of berries, it is enough to take 300-500 g of sugar.
Irgi fruits are easy to dry using special tools. In addition, laid out on trays, baking sheets, white paper, dried berries in the shade. You do not need to wash them. When, as needed, you want to cook compote, brew tea from dry berries, then wash them immediately before cooking. How to grow irgu - watch the video:
Of course, such a priceless plant must be kept on your site. The game bears fruit from mid-June in stages. The last berries are enjoyed in August, but if you wish, you can always make compote or jam with the irgi for the winter.
