The tailed poultry, popularly known as the Indian onion, is an exotic plant that has now become popular in home indoor growing. It has spectacular green leaves, bright flowering, and still Indian onion is healthy. No wonder it is grown both in room conditions and in open ground.
This article tells about the properties of a “wonderful doctor”, as people say about it, about how to grow it properly.
What is good Indian onion
Indian onions come from South Africa, difficult growing conditions have left their mark on the plant - it is very hardy and resistant. Because of its unpretentiousness, lovers of indoor floriculture take Indian onions for growing at home and often breed a poultry house, and also because the plant is exotic, has an attractive appearance and blooms for a long time.
Bright juicy green plant will decorate any apartment
Interesting. Otherwise how surprising this plant is not called. It is healing, while it is toxic, attractive in appearance, but it is better not to touch this beauty with your hands. Finally, its flowers are beautiful, but onions are used to multiplying by children.
During the flowering period, the onion throws a long arrow, covered with discreet buds, they open one by one and for a long time please the eye.
Although outwardly the flowers are small and have a pale color, they can still look very good. The rest of the time, the onion is a rosette of juicy bright green long leaves that grow quickly, create a lot of greenery, and a rosette is formed from the bulb. The bulb itself looks quite original: covered with whitish-green scales, it bulges out of the ground, gradually becoming a ball, this only adds some exotic to the plant.
Important! Despite the “edible” name, the poultry is poisonous, so you can not only eat it, but you also need to avoid getting juice on the tongue. In this sense, the plant can be dangerous for pets.
It is also important that the juice of the plant, like many milky people, is very burning, so it is used in many recipes of traditional medicine as a distraction.
Growing at home
The plant multiplies easily, quickly forming new bulbs. Therefore, many plant him not only at home, but also in the garden, where there is a free spot. In the garden, it grows rapidly, the roots can go one meter deep into the soil. For the winter, the bulbs need to be dug up, divided into children and taken to the basement for wintering.
Bulbs in pots live quietly and without hassle, care consists in watering, top dressing, they still need to be separated and transplanted when new bulbs are formed.
How to plant
Landing is simple - you need only good drainage, a small pot and earth. A mixture of sand, turf and leaf land in a ratio of 2: 1: 1 is best suited for the lactor. They plant a plant, like all bulbs, deepening planting material by no more than a third. The rest should be on the surface of the soil.
It looks like an Indian onion flower stalk
By the way, such a planting allows you to completely completely separate the small bulb bulbs from an adult plant.
Care Rules
It is not difficult to take care of the plant. First of all, this is watering, then top dressing. Here are a few basic care guidelines:
- Regularity and moderation when watering are very important. In winter, onions are watered only after the soil has dried, in the summer more often, but without leading to root jamming. From excessive watering, the plant may die. He really needs humidity. If the room has dry air, which happens during the heating season, you need to periodically refresh the leaves with water from the spray bottle. Although the resistance of the plant is such that even without watering it will last 2-3 months;
- Lighting should be good, but not too bright. The eastern side of the windows, the southern (slightly shaded) part, and even the northern one, if you periodically take the plant to the south side for sunbathing, will do;
- Fertilizing with mineral and organic fertilizers is also important. The plant responds well to the introduction of mullein infusion. It can also be watered once a month with a weak solution of potassium permanganate and infusion of wood ash.
Each next pot should be a couple of centimeters wider than the previous one, no more
Transplanting an adult plant, you can grow a rather impressive bulb size, framed by an abundance of greenery.
Medicinal properties and use in medicine
Indian onions have long been used in folk medicine. Treatment with tinctures and juice of the plant is associated with its chemical composition, which includes aromatic acids, essential oils. Some claim that the plant also contains alkaloids. The concomitant effect of the plant in the form of pain relief is based on flavonoids and glycosides, which also contain a lot of onions. Basically, the use of Indian onions is local, in the form of compresses and lotions, onions are valued mainly for their main property - burning.
Diseases that are treated with Indian onion
Indian onion is able to help with various diseases, it is most effective for radiculitis, arthrosis, polyarthritis, osteochondrosis and for problems after sprains and injuries. Anesthetizes the juice of the milker of the place of the bite of bees, bruises, abscesses. Muscle and tendon pain also relieves rubbing the juice of Indian onions.
Interesting! Poultry juice and tincture of it relieve pain and manifestations of the disease with a cold, you just need to rub the nose bridge and near the nose.
The easiest way to use fresh plant juice. So, a room milkman should always be at hand for those who suffer from migraines, headaches of a different origin (the back of the head and temples are rubbed).
Among all types of Indian onions, there is one whose action is recognized not only by folk healers, but also by official medicine. This is an umbrella poultry house. Valuable in it is colchicine - an alkaloid that can treat such a complex disease as gout, as well as autoimmune diseases.
Dosage Forms
All preparations based on Indian onion are poisonous, therefore they are suitable only for external use. They must be used carefully, cooked with exact adherence to the recipe.
Contraindications for use are:
- pregnancy and lactation period;
- bleeding gums;
- allergic reactions;
- hemophilia.
Long-term use of plant-based products is contraindicated, since colchicine helps to lower the level of leukocytes in the blood.
A decoction of the onion peel is prepared by infusion. The husk remaining from the bulb transplant is ground, poured with a glass of water and allowed to boil. Then insist 4 hours and filter.
Water tincture is much more effective than alcohol
Infusion for compresses is prepared on the water. You can use a thermos or insist on a water bath. To prepare, take a sheet 20-25 cm long, grind and pour 1 liter of hot water, then hold it for a further 25 minutes for a couple or in a thermos.
However, alcohol recipes are common. To prepare a solution based on alcohol, a whole bulb is taken, washed, crushed and filled with 1 liter of alcohol. It is necessary to withstand tincture for 21 days.
Note! Kerosene-based agent is considered effective for the treatment of radiculitis. The recipe is this: in 200 g of kerosene and 200 g of vegetable oil, chopped onion (the total length of a half-meter leaf) is added, shaken and left to infuse for 2 weeks in a warm place, occasionally shaking the contents of the jar.
Healing ointments from Indian onions are good for treating purulent wounds and for inflammation of the joints. A composition based on sea buckthorn is very popular:
- a spoon of kerosene;
- 3 tablespoons of sea buckthorn oil;
- a piece of beeswax larger than a walnut;
- 2 yolks;
- onion juice (about a couple of sp. spoons).
The oil heats up, the wax dissolves in it, then, as everything cools down a bit, juice and kerosene are added, at the end - yolks. With this mass, you can lubricate the affected joint, then wrapping the place with a film and a woolen cloth.
Indian onion is an interesting exotic plant that can be brought into the house and planted on a personal plot. Its green bright appearance, flower stem, large bulb will delight the eye and surprise guests, useful properties can be used in the treatment of many diseases. You need to remember about precautions. This flower is as beautiful as it is poisonous.
