trends & technology
Hieracium easily adapts to all substrates and is quite easy to
grow. But it has two characteristics that make it less attractive to
traditional soil growers.
One is that it is “allelopathic,” which means “invasive.”
Hieracium pilosella forms dense, prostrate mats in open
space through vegetative development, which extends quite
rapidly. Its roots emit a substance inhibiting neighboring root
growth, which makes it a true intruder in some countries. It is
recorded as a weed and forbidden to import in some countries
like Australia or Canada because when the right conditions
are met, it competes with neighboring plants to the point of
invading the soil completely and threatening local biodiversity.
It is a native of England and grows well in the rest of Europe,
especially in areas like the dry prairies of the Pyrenees.
It forms a very pleasant mat to walk upon, and makes an
excellent candidate for lawns in poor soil.
Its other less-attractive characteristic is that it is a rampant,
which has two disadvantages when harvesting: When in contact
with soil, the blades of the harvesting machines become blunt
and they have to be regularly sharpened or replaced, and
become an economical setback. The harvest is also dirty, full
of soil and debris, and has to be cleaned before starting proper
processing, which represents another economical burden.
While presenting an obstacle for soil growers, these two disad-
vantages make Hieracium pilosella a perfect candidate for
hydroponics. In this system the plant is cultivated in enclosed
growing modules and cannot spread out. There are no need for
harvesting machines as in hydro your plants grow on high beds,
making harvesting a much more practical process. They grow
in clean and easy to wash-off substrate like clay pellets, which
eliminates the cost of cleaning and sorting.
“The most common way of preparing
it is by infusion of the fresh leaves
for internal cleansing.”
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grow cycle