Dill: A portrait of the cucumber herb

Dill is a tried and tested herb in the kitchen and even has healing properties. Here you can find out everything you need to know – from cultivation to use.

dill (Anethum graveolens) belongs to the umbelliferae family (Apiaceae). What is special about the dill genus: Anethum graveolens is her only kind. Thus, it is referred to as a so-called monotypic genus. The dill is further subdivided into three individual taxa. The best known is the garden dill (Anethum graveolens var. horrible). This is mainly found in domestic gardens and in commercial cultivation. Dill has a long history of targeted cultivation. Native to North Africa and the Near East, it was already cultivated in ancient Egypt as a spice plant with healing properties. From there it made its way to Europe more than 5000 years ago and has been proven to be used to refine dishes. But dill doesn't just go well with gherkins and fish dishes. Finally, dill is derived from the Icelandic "dilla" which literally means "to soothe". We introduce you to the filigree herb - from "A" for sowing to "V" for use.

Grow your own dill

location
In your own garden, the dill stands in a sunny spot. There should be no permanent waterlogging. Therefore, clay soils that have some draining percentage of sand or gravel are perfect for growing dill. In commercial cultivation, dill is also grown in the greenhouse. The plants are both in the grown soil and in pots. Even culture without soil in so-called hydroponic systems is possible. If you decide to cultivate the dill in a pot for the terrace or balcony, you should choose a container that is high enough. Dill forms a deep-reaching taproot. In addition, the plant grows up to 60 cm high and has a corresponding water requirement, especially in the pot. A larger substrate volume in the pot is advisable so that the cucumber herb does not hang its head too often and quickly on warm summer days.

propagation
Dill is only propagated by seed. From April, the seed can be spread directly outdoors. The individual seeds should not be placed too close together. In this way, you can save yourself the hassle of thinning out, in order to create enough space for the individual plants to develop if they are too dense. Of course, dill can also be grown indoors from March and then planted out in May with a head start in growth. At temperatures around 15 °C, it takes about three weeks until the first seedlings can be seen.

Although dill is a so-called light germinator, the seed should be covered with some soil outdoors. This reduces the risk of the fine seed being carried away by the wind. The seedling initially develops very slowly. This results in a relatively large amount of weed growth in the bed. At the beginning it means diligently picking out what doesn't belong there. The annual herb will self-seed in situ if allowed to flower off. However, it is better to change the location every year, since repeated cultivation in the same place increases the risk of typical pathogens.
You can find detailed step-by-step instructions in our article grow dill: The cucumber herb from your own garden.

watering and fertilizing
The borage prefers an even water supply. Strongly fluctuating substrate moisture levels increase the probability of infestation with root fungi. Therefore, especially on hot days, when growing in the bed, you should reach for the watering can. When it comes to nutrients, dill is more than easy to care for, mainly because of its relatively short lifespan. When cultivating in a bed, it is absolutely sufficient to use some primarily organic fertilizer like ours before sowing Plantura organic universal fertilizer to mix in In pot culture, you either look for a high-quality, fertilized substrate like our Plantura Organic universal soil out, or occasionally fertilizes with the irrigation water. Excessive nutrient supply would only lead to soft shoots and excessive growth. Less is more with dill.

crop protection
Dill is also afflicted by diseases and pests that are typical of members of the umbelliferae family. Some viruses can lead to stunted growth. Animal pests are nematodes in the root area as well aphids and the miner fly. But it is above all the fungal pathogens that cause problems for cucumber herb. Due to the so-called casserole disease, large losses of seedlings are recorded immediately after sowing. A combination of several plant-damaging fungi causes the tender plants to suddenly fall over. There is not much that can be done here apart from keeping the seed evenly moist but dry and selecting the infected plants. representative of the fungus genus Fusarium can also hunt down the herb at a later point in time in the culture. Since these pests remain in the soil, the location for the dill should always be changed next year, especially if there is an infestation.

dill varieties

The type of dill (Anethum graveolens) is still subdivided. The best-known representative is the variety Anethum graveolens var. hortorum, the garden dill. There is also the so-called field dill (Anethum graveolens var graveolens) and the Indian dill subspecies (Anethum graveolens subsp. something), which differs from garden dill only in its less pronounced aroma.
You can find more information in our Varieties overview.

Among the ranks of the widely grown garden dill, a few varieties can be found on the market. We present the characteristics of the most important representatives:

• bouquet: Fine-leaved variety that grows compact.
• ducat: Green-leaved variety with a strong aroma due to its high essential oil content.
• Ella: compact growing variety; can be sown directly into the pot for terrace and balcony.
• elephant: Particularly rich in leaves and late flowering with a long harvest time.
• Hercules: Particularly productive due to vigorous growth and late flowering.
• mammoth: old variety that grows strongly and has a particularly strong aroma.
• Sperli's Brevi: Leafy variety with exceptionally good properties for pot cultivation.
• four of a kind: Strongly growing; with strikingly beautiful inflorescences and therefore also suitable as an ornamental plant and cut flower.

Harvesting and storing dill

harvest
The main focus when growing dill is on the young, fresh shoots. It should therefore be harvested before flowering, which in our latitudes appears from May to October, depending on the sowing date. In order to be able to harvest freshly in the long term, it is advisable to sow in several time-shifted blocks. It takes six to a maximum of nine weeks to harvest. Dill is a so-called long-day plant. This means that the days must be at least a certain number of hours long for the plant to get the stimulus to produce flowers. In order to avoid flowering too early, the herb is mainly cultivated in the warmer regions of the south in winter and early spring. During the growth phase, you can already harvest freshly as needed. Then shoots up to 15 cm long are simply cut off. From a size of 30 cm, it makes sense to harvest the whole plant and, if necessary, to process it to preserve it. But you can also let the dill flower off for seed production. Incidentally, the seeds can also be interesting for use.

storage
The most aromatic is of course the use of freshly harvested dill. However, if the tender shoot tips are stored in relatively high humidity around freezing point, they can be used for up to three weeks after harvest. As is usual with herbs, the dill can also be air-dried and is thus available in the kitchen over a longer period of time without any major loss of aroma. However, if the moisture is not to be removed from the cucumber herb in order to preserve it, you can simply freeze the fresh harvest and remove it in portions if necessary.

Dill: uses and ingredients

Usually only the tips of the dill shoots are used. These are the most intense in aroma. Incidentally, the dill owes this to its essential oils, the mammoth content of which makes up the germ-inhibiting carvone. The tender shoots are popular with various fish specialties, for example. It is also good in any spicy salad dressing and meat dishes can also be refined with it. But even gherkins from the jar would only be half gherkins without the gherkins. Incidentally, you can also add the flower umbels of the dill to the vinegar brew to refine the aroma. Furthermore, the propellant tips are infused as a tea and used as a stomach-soothing drink. Dill water, which is obtained from pickled seeds, also has a beneficial effect on digestion. In the past, the oil obtained from the seeds was a popular all-purpose remedy that Paracelsus was already counting on in the late Middle Ages.

So dill definitely deserves a place in the garden. Fish gourmets in particular should not do without the aroma of the fast-growing herb from their own cultivation.

Learn more in our article Dill: harvest, store and use.