Growing houseplants can be not only fun, but also healthy. Many representatives of the flora have medicinal properties that help cure certain diseases. Cuban cherry at home requires simple care, but at the same time the shrub has excellent aesthetic properties. It is worth knowing that pepper nightshade, and this culture has such a botanical name, belongs to the group of poisonous representatives of the flora. Therefore, precautions must be taken to avoid direct contact with animals and small children. At the time of ripening berries, the temptation to taste them is very great, but you should not do this.

Look at the photo of Cuban cherry - pepper nightshade looks very impressive in all stages of its development:

Brief description and photo

The culture belongs to the nightshade family, many of which are grown in vegetable gardens and are successfully used as food. The most famous "relatives" are tomatoes. A brief description should begin with the fact that the shrub is similar in appearance to felt cherries, in fact, this quality formed the basis of the popular name. Look at the photo of the foliage, berries and flowers of the Cuban cherry - at the same time, ovaries, ripened fruits and buds may be present on the plant:

Pepper nightshade is intended for decorative indoor gardening. In open ground conditions, it can grow only in the southern regions, since it is not resistant to sub-zero temperatures. This is a perennial culture. As growth and development occurs, lignification of the cuttings occurs. In young plants, the stems are olive or dark green in color, subsequently the bark turns into a rich brown color. The leaves are simple with cuttings, bright green. Compositae flowers, predominantly white. The budding phase appears in the plant 1 year after planting. Flowering continues continuously for more than 7 months. At the same time, new fruits are tied and berries ripen. At first they are green, then acquire a yellow tint and at the moment of full ripening become crimson.

Reproduction and care at home

Reproduction of Cuban cherries can be carried out in two ways: sowing seeds and cuttings. The first option is suitable if there is difficulty in obtaining a cutting. The stems easily take root in ordinary water, even in a lignified state.

Sowing pepper nightshade with seeds resembles the procedure for planting tomatoes or peppers for seedlings. Nutrient soil is being prepared, which is important to sterilize thoroughly, since the culture can be affected by fusarium, nematode and late blight. Aftercare for Cuban cherries at home also includes measures to prevent such bacterial diseases. Ready soil with a predominance of organic matter is poured into a wide container up to 10 cm deep to about half. Then the seeds are laid out and sprinkled with soil to a depth of 3 cm. The container is covered with plastic wrap and placed in a warm place. Shoots appear after 2 weeks. During this period, the film is removed. Watering seedlings is carried out every other day with warm filtered water. In the phase of formation of the first pair of true leaves, transplantation into peat pots with a diameter of up to 10 cm is carried out. Planting in pots is carried out after 2 months.

Follow-up care is regular watering. It is necessary to ensure that the earthen ball does not dry out. The plant is sprayed daily with warm water. The first flowers will appear 8 months after emergence.

As the bush grows, pruning should be carried out in order to form a crown. In autumn, all shoots are cut at an equal height from the ground. In the spring, twigs are plucked off, thickening the bush.

Subsequent transplants are carried out 1 time per year, in the spring. A pot is taken 5 cm wider and 3 cm higher than the previous one. As soon as the plant reaches the age of 5 years, transplants can be carried out only once every 3 years. But at the same time, part of the soil should be periodically changed, replacing it with a more nutritious substrate.

Top dressing is applied from April to October 1 time per week in liquid form. Ready-made mineral complexes for domestic shrubs are used. Excellent growth gives a mixture of a solution of chicken manure and wood ash. For 1 liter of the finished solution, 1 teaspoon of chicken manure and 2 tablespoons of wood ash are required.

Useful properties of pepper nightshade

Cuban cherries are highly poisonous and can cause severe poisoning if mishandled. Its symptoms include burning of the mucous membranes, vomiting, loose stools, severe headaches, nausea, and red blisters on the skin.

The beneficial properties of pepper nightshade can be used to treat certain pathologies. Berries are saturated with bactericidal substances. Help with tonsillitis, tonsillitis, acute respiratory viral diseases. To prepare an infusion for gargling, you can take only dried ripe berries. They are ground into a fine powder. 1 teaspoon of powder is poured with boiling water in an amount of 200 ml. Then you need to insist 30 minutes. Gargle for 5 minutes 3 times a day.

Such a solution helps to cope with caries, periodontal disease and bad breath. Other uses of any part of the plant are excluded. Don't experiment with your health.

Solanum(Solanum) in the people as soon as they call it: nightshade, coral bush, room cherry, Chinese cherry, Cuban, Jerusalem.

houseplant nightshade is a low evergreen deciduous shrub native to South America and Madeira Islands with oblong glossy leaves.

Nightshade unusual persists all year round: the branches are simultaneously showered with flowers, green ovaries and bright orange ripe berries, which really look very much like cherries.

Unfortunately, such a bright representative of the nightshade family - poisonous. It should not be kept in a house where there are small children who can pluck and taste the poisonous berry. If the fruits of nightshade are not eaten, then there is nothing to be afraid of - the plant cannot bring any harm.

Varieties

More than 1,700 species of saline grow in the tropics and some areas with a temperate climate. But we will consider only two of them, which are most often grown at home.

– S. pseudocapsicum. Upright evergreen shrub growing up to 120 cm. Leaves with short petioles, oval or lanceolate, glabrous and slightly wavy.

The flowers are white, small, with five petals; fruits are round, red or yellow, up to 1.5 cm in diameter. Originally from Fr. Madeira. For indoor cultivation, undersized forms of decorative nightshade are bred.

– S. capricastrum. Much smaller than the false-pepper, it has smaller berries and more delicate shoots, green with a grayish tinge. At home - in Uruguay and Southern Brazil, grows in forests. The most popular varieties are: Craigii - with multi-colored fruits and Variegatum - a variegated variety.

Popularly peppery nightshade is called "angina tree", since the infusion from it is an excellent remedy for sore throats.

Nightshade indoor flower care involves optimal spring-summer air temperature for solanum about +15 +25°C. With the approach of cold, the bush will need to lower the temperature level - up to +13 +15 ° С. Lighting also plays a huge role. Keep in mind that nightshade loves bright light, but not heat.

Humidity level it is advisable to measure the air in the room with a hygrometer - it should not be lower than 60%. In case of insufficient humidity, it is necessary to spray the plant daily and once a week place it in a tray with wet expanded clay or pebbles.

reproduction

home nightshade can be grown from seeds or cuttings. Depending on the method of planting, the fruits can be more or less large. At growing from seed the bush usually grows strong and bears fruit well. At propagation by cuttings the plant needs more time to adapt and root in the new soil.

Nightshade seeds are sown in late February - early March, using this substrate composition:

• peat 1 part;
• clay soil 3 parts;
• sand 1 part;

nightshade seeds sown at a distance of 20 mm from each other, pressed into the ground by 1 cm, watered and sent to a windowsill with good lighting. When will seedlings(after 8-10 days), they need to be shaded a little. Within a week, when the young shoots gain strength and release 2-3 leaves, they are transplanted into separate containers. Grown up 10 cm plants pinch the top, remove side shoots, giving the bush the shape of a ball.

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Winter and summer nightshade care

Caring for a nightshade indoor plant in the cold and warm seasons has its own distinctive features.
Features of seasonal care spring-summer.

• Young seedlings are watered as the soil dries.
• Feeding is not needed during the growth period. It is enough to gently loosen the soil along the edges of the flowerpot so as not to injure the roots.
• When nightshade blooms, it needs help to transfer pollen from one flower to another (pollinate).
• Upon reaching the age of 4-5 years, the plant is transplanted into a substrate mixed with turf.
• With the onset of summer, the flower is taken out into the open air in a place shaded and protected from drafts.
• It is watered abundantly, fertilizing the soil at least once every 2 weeks with a mixture of useful substances for tomatoes. Liquid fertilizers like "Ideal" or "Rainbow" also give a good effect.
• Spray the leaves twice a day - in the morning and in the evening.

Features of seasonal care autumn-winter.

• As cold weather approaches, the intensity of fertilizing and watering is reduced (watered once every 10 days with soft water without chlorine). Nightshade should be in a dormant period from October to February.
• The pot with saline is placed in a cool, lit place with high humidity.
• Air the plant once a week.
• At the end of February, the cherry will begin to wake up. During this period, you need to increase watering and start spraying.

Difficulties and their causes

Few fruits- it means that the bush is not pollinated enough. During the flowering period, it is necessary to gently transfer pollen from flower to flower with a soft brush or cotton swab.

Falling fruit and leaves. The reason is usually too high temperature and humidity in the room.

Defeat. The reason is insufficient air humidity.

Solyanum, like other nightshades, can be affected whitefly. Greenish larvae settle on the underside of the leaves and suck the juice out of them. First, the leaves become stained, then dry and fall off. If you touch a diseased plant, a swarm of small white flies flies out of it.

It attacks more often in the summer, especially if the pot of nightshade is taken out into the fresh air. It affects the tops of stems and leaves. In both cases, plants need urgent treatment with insecticides: Actellik, Decis, Fitoverm, Intavir, etc.

Here she is so exotic and unlike anyone else - Chinese cherry, she is Jerusalem, Cuban or simply - nightshade. Belongs to the category of ornamental plants that can not stand loneliness. Feeling a loving heart nearby that cares and helps is the main thing for a nightshade.

Give him a small piece of your kindness and attention, and he will delight you all year round with his lush greenery and unusual bright fruits.

And for those who like to know more, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the video on caring for a nightshade houseplant.

Genus nightshade(Solanum)- the largest in the nightshade family (Solanaceae) and one of the largest among the angiosperms, with about 1,700 plant species. Known, first of all, for such important agricultural crops as potatoes (Solanum tuberosum), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), eggplant, according to the botanical classification - dark-fruited nightshade (Solanum melongena).

Recently, lovers have begun to grow such exotic vegetable crops as soft prickly nightshade, or pepino, melon pear. (Solanum muricatum), naranjilla (Solanum guitoense), cocoon, or nightshade (Solanum sisymbriifolium), large-fruited nightshade, or African eggplant (Solanum macrocarpon)- a close relative of the eggplant, having small white rounded fruits and edible leaves, tamarillo, or tomato tree (Solanum betaceum), still recently related to the genus Cyphomandra (Cyphomandra), with fruits resembling long-fruited tomatoes.

And among the inhabitants of southern Russia, the word nightshade is associated, of course, with an annual weed plant - black nightshade (Solanum nigrum). Its grass and unripe fruits are poisonous, but ripe ones are sweet, edible not only raw, but also suitable for filling pies and dumplings, for jam and jelly.

A hybrid large-fruited Burbank nightshade close to black nightshade is much more productive. (Solanum x burbankii), obtained by the American breeder Luther Burbank in 1905 by crossing African Guinean nightshade (Solanum quineense) with a European look Solanum villosum. It is called sunberry (Sunberry) and is grown as an annual berry crop. Its cherry-sized berries look and taste a bit like blueberries, they are used, like black nightshade, for jams, preserves, winemaking (see Cold apple jelly with sunberry berries, Carrot caviar with sunberry berries, Sunberry salad with avocado and spinach , Sunberry muffins , Ginger sunberry jam , Sunberry jam , Sunberry liqueur, Apple and sunberry wine)

There are not so many decorative species among nightshades. And in the open ground of the middle lane, only one can winter at all, our local species is bittersweet nightshade. Most of the representatives of the genus come from the tropics and subtropics of South and Central America, some from South Asia (India, Sri Lanka), although some species are widely settled throughout the planet.

For garden

(Solanum dulcamara) distributed in Europe and North Africa, in central Russia grows in meadows and floodplains. It is a deciduous climbing shrub up to 2.5-3 m tall, with stems woody at the base, glabrous or drooping with sparse appressed hairs. Leaves mostly tripartite, 4-10 cm long and 2.5-6 cm wide, rarely pubescent or glabrous, petioles 1-3 cm long. The flowers are purple, rarely pink or white, similar to potato flowers, five-membered, 12-18 mm in diameter, with narrow lobes bent back less than 1 cm long, at the base with green white-edged spots, collected in drooping panicles of 6-25 or more flowers. Fruits - bright red, less often - greenish-yellow ovoid, with a pointed tip, berries up to 1.5 cm long, with numerous seeds, poisonous. Flowering in June-July, fruiting in July-October. There is a variegated form Variegata, which has leaves with an uneven white border.

Until recently, it was not very common in culture - few found beauty in "potato" leaves and flowers. The French Marquise de Pompadour, who loved to pin a boutonniere made of potato flowers to her dress, and who contributed a lot to how the fate of this culture eventually developed, would definitely not agree with this opinion.

A moisture-loving plant, bittersweet nightshade has become more widely used in culture with the spread of fashion for ornamental ponds. In nature, most often small, on fertile garden soil, the plant reaches a height of 1.5 m or more. It grows well on the slopes of the banks and near the fences, twisting the petioles of the leaves around the support. It blooms for a long time, and from July to autumn, both flowers and fruits can be seen on the plant at the same time. It looks most spectacular, covered with many ripe, shiny red berries. For the winter, the aerial part dies off, leaving a woody rhizome in the ground, from which new stems grow in spring.

Propagated very simply - shoots, layering. If you need a lot of planting material - by sowing seeds washed from the pulp. Seeds are at rest and require stratification. Natural stratification is possible during winter sowing, or artificial at +1 + 5 ° C for a month - before sowing in March. Temperature fluctuations in the range from +10 to +25 + 30 ° C have a positive effect on germination.

For window sills and greenhouses

Young plants overgrown over the summer are also placed in coolness in the fall, and flower-bearing shoots that appear in winter are removed. Plants bloom the next spring.

However, you can save the mother plants. To do this, in February, the plant is cut by a third, transplanted, provided with additional illumination and feeding begins. Drying and shriveled, but quite decorative fruits in some nightshades persist until a new flowering.

For transplantation, a rich land mixture of soddy land, peat, humus or compost, sand (2: 2: 2: 1) is used. Transplantation is carried out annually.

Seed propagation is acceptable only for species plants, but does not preserve the decorative characteristics of varieties. The seeds of these nightshade species do not have a dormant period and germinate without prior preparation. They are grown, like tomatoes or eggplants, through seedlings. Presowing treatment with gibberellin at a concentration of 300 mg/l increases the germination of seeds and the energy of their germination.

Of the nightshade pests, the most likely are aphids, whiteflies, mites.

About pest control - in the article Indoor plant pests and their control.

Photo: Rita Brilliantova, Maxim Minin, Elena Malankina

Indoor flowers are a great decoration for any home. This is the best option for a variety of interiors. The presence of indoor plants ennobles the house and makes it cozy. Solanum, better known by the name of indoor nightshade, indoor cherry, Chinese cherry, coral bush. This is a bright berry-leafy composition with red berries that look like a ball.

Solanum (room nightshade) is small evergreen shrub from the Solanaceae family, densely strewn with leaves and bright orange berries. In our latitudes appeared relatively recently. Most common in South America, Australia, Peru, on the island of Madeira.

The attraction lies mainly in its bright berries, which really look like cherries, but are very poisonous.

Unfortunately, this plant does not live long. But on the other hand, throughout his life, he pleases the eye with colorful fruits. It blooms regardless of the time of year, while the berries last for a very long time, up to several months. And they do not lose their brightness and attractiveness.

Is a decorative flower dangerous for life

As the proverb says, "All that glitters is not gold." And with regard to nightshade: "not every appetizing berry is beneficial."

Solanum is very poisonous. It is strictly forbidden to taste the berry.

Therefore, you should not keep a flower in a house where there are children. Because, even one small berry can cause poisoning. Even the juice from the leaves of the plant, getting on the skin, causes irritation. Such intoxication is especially dangerous for fragile children's immunity.

Popular plant species

For decorative use and growing at home, there are only a few types of solanum. The most common:

• . A low shrub densely dotted with small oblong leaves. This species grows up to 40-50 cm. It reaches the peak of its beauty at the end of autumn, when the bush is densely dotted with fruits. It is he who can often be seen on the shelves of flower shops, on New Year's Eve. In such a bright and attractive form, the flower will last all winter.
• . The species is slightly different from its relative. He is a little smaller in stature, and not so densely dotted with fruits. But on the other hand, its shoots are decorated with an attractive velvety cover, of a bluish hue. Unlike its relative, the flower is not poisonous at all, but on the contrary, it has medicinal properties. The dried fruits of this nightshade are used to treat throat diseases. Therefore, in the people it is also called "antianginic".
• . It has clear differences from its two previous relatives. It is very similar to a liana. Its main aesthetic value is delicate white or light blue flowers. Inflorescences consist of 5 oblong petals. The leaves are also oblong. In length, this flower reaches 1.5 m.

Reproduction and planting nightshade at home

Nightshade breeds equally well, both by seeds and cuttings while taking proper care of it.

Seeds are sown in a wide pot in early March. For this they just sprinkle on the surface of the soil, and sprinkle a little sand. Then put in a warm place, and cover with a film. And they wait until cuttings with 2-4 leaves appear. And they are planted in a prepared mixture of sand and peat.

When the plants grow up to 10 cm, they pinch the top, remove the side shoots, and cut them to give the desired decorative ball shape.

nightshade seeds

How to care

decorative nightshade quite thermophilic plant. He simply loves sunlight (but not direct sunlight), but cannot stand intense heat and dry air.

Room temperature

Will feel comfortable in temperature 15-20 degrees heat during the summer. In winter, the room should be cooler: 12-15 degrees heat.

If the nightshade is too hot, then its fruits will quickly dry out and crumble.

Air humidity

The humidity level in the room should not fall below 60%, and rise above 80%. The higher the humidity the more often you need to spray nightshade with purified water, room temperature.

Watering

During the period of growth and formation of fruits, frequent plentiful watering is necessary. In winter, the frequency of watering is reduced.

Feeding during care

In additional plant nutrition needs a warm season. The more nutrients it receives during this period, the more and longer it will bloom and bear fruit. As a top dressing, use the usual for flowering plants, 2 times a month.

With proper care, comfortable humidity, timely watering, optimal temperature conditions, all three indoor types of Solanum will delight others with beautiful flowers and bright fruits for a long time.

Nightshade is a very beautiful, but poisonous plant. And pepper-shaped nightshade is a less attractive, but very useful flower.