Which variety to choose: zucchini, spaghetti, cylindrical or round? This article will help you understand these issues, as well as how to grow, pollinate and care for zucchini. The content of the article:
- Zucchini varieties and their description
- Zucchini: growing seedlings
- Preparing the beds, planting zucchini seedlings
- Zucchini: sowing seeds
- Zucchini: plant care
- How to feed zucchini
- Prevention of zucchini diseases
- Zucchini: harvesting and storage
Zucchini are good because, even with minimal care, they give high yields. The main thing is to choose the optimal place and soil for them. There are other conditions that will help you get a lot of fruits, canning them or store them in the winter and use them as needed.
Zucchini varieties and their description
To date, many varieties of zucchini have been bred that are resistant to diseases, temperature extremes, which give a high yield. They can be used for cooking various dishes, canning.
Zucchini are divided into climbing and bush. The best varieties and hybrids are:
- Long-fruited;
- Gribovsky 37;
- Belogor F1;
- White;
- Spaghetti;
- The ball.
Long-fruited variety
has a compact bush. Early maturing, fruiting occurs 45-55 days after germination. The fruits are great for culinary purposes, in particular, for cooking caviar, canning. They have a cylindrical shape, smooth surface, corrugated base. The flesh of the fruit is white with a green tint, and the skin is pale green.
Variety Gribovsky 37
unique in that it tolerates prolonged cold snaps well. Therefore, it is recommended for various growing regions. The variety begins to bear fruit 40-50 days after germination. The fruits are cylindrical, pale green outside, white inside.
Belogor has F1
the main shoot is short, the bush is rather compact. The hybrid is very early maturing, the first fruits may appear as early as 34 days after germination. A very productive hybrid has a cylindrical shape, greenish-white flesh.
Variety White ultra-early ripening
Productivity occurs 35 days after germination. As the name implies, the fruits are white, the flesh is firm, very juicy. Perfectly stored, suitable for canning and preparing a variety of culinary dishes, as well as dietary and baby food.
Spaghetti
- a very interesting type of zucchini. Ripe fruits are boiled, after which the pulp turns into long thin pasta. When growing, it must be borne in mind that spaghetti does not like waterlogging of the soil, shade, in such conditions its ovaries can fall off.
Ball grade
lives up to its name. Its fruits are rounded. You can harvest the first crop 50 days after germination, perfect for stuffing. The fruits are green in color, slightly ribbed at the base.
In the photo, the cultivation of zucchini Among the wide variety of varieties, zucchini are distinguished, there are also a great many of them. Here are some representatives of this class:
- Negro child;
- Ronda;
- Peppy;
- Tsukesha.
Zucchini Zucchini Negritok
high-yielding, early maturing. The first fruits appear 38 days after germination. They are black-green in color, elongated cylindrical in shape, the pulp is juicy, green, and has excellent taste. The variety is resistant to powdery mildew.
Ronda
- mid-early, fruits of the original rounded shape. Perfect for pickling. Collect them when they reach 8-10 centimeters in diameter. The fruits are very decorative, they resemble small pumpkins.
Peppy
it has a long fruiting period. The fruits are long, thin, smooth, bright yellow in color. The type of growth is bushy.
Tsukesha
also applies to zucchini. Fruits are cylindrical, dark green in color. The pulp is juicy, white. From the moment of germination to harvest, 51 days will pass.
Zucchini: growing seedlings
If you are looking for an early harvest, plant some seeds for seedlings. Seeds are prepared in the same way as cucumber seeds, at the same time. They must be planted in separate peat pots with a diameter of 8-10 cm, covered with foil.
When shoots appear, place the containers closer to the light, where the temperature is +15 - + 17 °. Do not over-water the sprouts. If you have a glazed balcony, it is best to grow your seedlings there. They put it in a permanent place after the end of late spring frosts.
Preparing the beds, planting zucchini seedlings
It is very important to plant the squash in organic-rich soil
If you have compost in a barrel, you will take it to the garden in the spring. There will be a place under the barrel where the zucchini will grow well. Loosen the soil a little, add semi-rotten compost or manure, mix with the soil with a fork or shovel. Plant 2-3 climbing plants in this area.
You can prepare the garden in a different way. It is better if in the afternoon there is a slight partial shade on it. Then, in the heat, the leaves will not wither. You can start preparing the site from the beginning of autumn.
Dig a trench 40 cm wide and 35 cm deep in the middle of the ridge. As the harvest progresses, lay there lashes of legumes, beet tops, carrots, leaves from trees. Keep them free of pests and prints of fungal and viral diseases. You can also lay fresh manure here, but do this not earlier than the end of October. Otherwise, bears can settle there and damage the seedlings in the spring. When the hole is full to the brim, sprinkle it with soil about 7 cm.
In the spring, you just have to loosen a warm nutritious bed and plant seedlings on it in one row at a distance of 40-45 cm from each other. First dip the peat pot in a container of water, tear off its bottom, place the pot in the hole, sprinkle the stem up to the first true leaf. Throw a non-woven material on top, so the seedlings will take root better.
Zucchini: sowing seeds
The main part of the harvest is obtained by planting seeds directly in open ground. After pickling in potassium permanganate, they are soaked for 8 hours in a growth stimulator or in an ash solution (1 tsp per glass of water). After that, they are placed in a damp cloth and put away in a warm place. After 2-3 days, small roots will appear, then you can plant zucchini seeds in a prepared place. They are placed in the same way as seedlings.
Zucchini: plant care
Zucchini love frequent watering. Their root system is shallow, so plants suffer from a lack of moisture in the heat. Water them in the evenings, always warmed up in the sun with water. Until the zucchini leaves close, in the heat they are watered daily or at least every other day.
When the leaves grow up, cover the soil, you can water on cool cloudy days once every 5-6 days, on hot days - once every 2-3 days. If the leaves are wilted, water them with a fine-nozzle watering can.
Sometimes it happens that the flowering of the squash has begun, but there are no bees that help pollination in the area yet. Then tying may not happen. It is in your power to remedy this situation. Pick the male flower (there will be no ovary on the back of the flower like a female flower). Tear off the petals. Dip the pistil into the opened female flower, move it over the stamen so that pollen gets on it. One male can pollinate 2-3 female flowers, the main thing is that there is pollen on it.
When the fruit is tied, if the flower at its end is completely wilted, becomes slippery, remove it. Otherwise, the fruit may rot. Place a dry plank under it, because if the ground is wet, when it comes into contact with it, the zucchini can also rot, but from the bottom.
How to feed zucchini
The plant responds well to organic feeding. When weeding or mowing grass, do not put all of it in the compost. Put a part in a barrel, filling it almost to the top, fill it with water and let it stand for a week. Stir the herb every day for better decomposition and infusion of the solution. After 7 days, strain the infusion, dilute it with water in a ratio of 1: 8 and pour the zucchini around the root, 2 weeks after emergence or seedling. Repeat feeding after 7 days.
You can alternate grass irrigation with manure. The manure is diluted with water in a ratio of 1:10, insisted for 3 days in the sun, watered on damp earth around the root, avoiding contact with the leaves. When the fruits begin to set, make a third organic feeding by adding a glass of sifted wood ash and 1 tablespoon to the herbal or manure infusion (10 liters). double superphosphate.
Prevention of zucchini diseases
To prevent plant diseases, observe the crop rotation. You can not plant zucchini where cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, watermelons grew before. After all, pumpkin seeds have common diseases. In no case do not put their tops in the compost, it is dried and burned, and the ash is used as fertilizer.
To avoid root rot and other diseases, do not water the zucchini with cold water and try not to get on the plants themselves when fertilizing with a solution.
Zucchini: harvesting and storage
For summer consumption, greens are harvested when they grow up to 20-30 cm. Then other fruits will be provided with free conditions for growth. If you want to keep the zucchini until spring, let it ripen well, the skin should be firm. Cut off the fruit with a knife, leaving a “tail” 4-5 cm long. When the cut is dry, put them in storage. It is important to avoid temperature extremes. If the fruit is going to be stored in a room, immediately place it there. If in the basement, place them there.
Healthy, well-ripened fruits are well stored until the beginning of spring, and there it is not far before the next harvest.
Video about a special way of growing zucchini, zucchini and squash:
