Dill is a useful herb, best known as a pickling spice such as in dill pickles, but it also serves well as a seasoning primarily for fish and poultry and in soups and stews. In the garden it has some companion planting vocations.
Dill is dill – right ? Well maybe all dill isn’t alike. There aren’t all that many varieties of dill but there are several types with subtle enough differences to distinguish them from one another.
Delikat produces thick dense foliage, good for harvesting the leaves for cooking. Grown for high yields, not advisable if you don’t use a tremendous amount of dill. It has reasonable quality so far as its culinary attributes are concerned, but there are others with higher quality and other characteristics that make them more suitable to backyard gardeners.
Fernleaf is a dwarf dill variety reaching about 1.5 ft in height. It has all the qualities of its full sized cousins so far as culinary attributes and is popular as a potted herb as well as in floral arrangements.
Dukat is a compact dill plant which makes it ideal for container growing, it is also more vibrantly green than other types which makes it an attractive patio plant. The taste is distinct but not over powering which makes popular in salads and as a fresh herb garnish. Germinates at temperatures between 60-75 F. Produces more foliage prior to forming seed than most dills.
Superdukat was bred for intense dill flavor it has a higher concentration of essential oils than its parent cultivar dukat. It is slightly longer lived than most other varieties and has a longer growing season taking 40-50 days till maturity. It produces flowers later in the season and lasts slightly longer. Superdukat is best grown by those gardeners who use the leaves, not so good for seeds though. Plants are fairly uniform in height which makes for easier bunch harvesting.
Bouquet is the most popular dill variety. Both its leaves and seed are used in the culinary arts. Early flowering and large seed heads. Used primarily in pickling but is also useful in any recipe calling for dill seed or leaves.
Long Island Mammoth Dill is popular. Not suitable for all gardens as it takes up alot of space. Under ideal conditions they resemble a small shrub reaching in the ballpark of 5 ft tall. Also excellent for pickling.
Vierling is a dill variety that takes much longer to bolt than others, good if you plan on harvesting the leaves all summer and the seeds at seasons end.
Hercules also takes a long time to flower. It produces coarse leaves which I found to be of lower quality than most other varieties unless it is harvested when young. Seeds can be harvested just like any other type of dill.