Growing Swede: Care For Seedlings And Plants, Pests And Diseases, Cleaning And Storage

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Read the previous part of the article: Growing turnip: soil preparation, fertilization, sowing seeds

• Care of turnip seedlings

• Plant care

  • Top dressing
  • Watering
• Pests and diseases of the swede
• Harvesting and storage of the swede crop

Care of turnip seedlings

It consists in the timely implementation of measures to combat pests and diseases, in loosening the soil between rows and in rows, in removing weeds, thinning at a distance of 3-4 cm in places where plants are thickened, in watering as needed and in 1-2 additional fertilizing (the first - 6-7 days after germination, the second - 10-15 days after the first).

During the first feeding, 20 g of ammonium nitrate, 20 g of superphosphate and 10 g of potassium salt are taken for 10 liters of water, in the second - 20 g of each fertilizer. You can not get carried away with an excessive amount of nitrogen in top dressing, since in the case of a cold spring it will contribute to the appearance of flowering plants. In addition, in this case, it is possible to obtain seedlings with elongated internodes, especially in the lower part, which causes a greater overgrowth of the head and obtaining root crops with an elongated shape uncharacteristic of the variety.

× Gardener's handbook Plant nurseries Stores of goods for summer cottages Landscape design studios

Seedlings are planted when the 4-5th true leaf begins to appear, and the main root in the upper part will have a thickness of 3-4 mm. The date for planting swede coincides with the planting of seedlings of medium-late varieties of cabbage - at the end of May. When planting seedlings, a gap between pre-planting soil treatment and planting plants in a permanent place should not be allowed. Planting should be carried out in cloudy weather if possible. In the case of dry sunny weather, rutabagas should be planted in the afternoon, or better in the evening. Seedlings are thoroughly watered on the eve of planting or early in the morning.

Plants are selected by digging in with a scoop or spatula, so that the root system is better preserved. Before sampling seedlings, it is necessary to check if there are cabbage fly larvae on the roots of the turnip. If they are found, the roots of the seedlings are washed (washing off the larvae) in water. Severely damaged plants are discarded, and the rest are dipped in a mullein solution with clay. When planting in dry hot weather, the day before selecting seedlings, large leaves are partially cut off. This reduces water evaporation and promotes better rooting of the seedlings. In the garden bed, the plants should be planted to the same depth as they grew in the nursery. When planting, you cannot bend the tap root, cut it off high and deepen the heart of the seedlings. Too deeply planted seedlings can die from swimming and death of the heart (central leaves). A strong break and other damage to the main root promotes the growth of thick lateral roots, and large accumulations of coarse tissues are formed in the pulp of the root crop.

Seedlings are planted with row spacing on a flat surface of 45 cm, less often - 60 cm, on ridges - 60 cm, on ridges - in two or three rows with a distance of 35 cm or 45 cm between them. In a row, plants are placed, regardless of the surface shape, on distance 20-30 cm.

When manually planting in a garden plot, you can place plants in a nesting method with a distance between the centers of the nests 40x60 cm or 50x60 cm, planting 2-3 plants in the nest. Planting must be combined with watering, pouring 0.5 liters of water under each plant, and then lowering the seedlings into the resulting gruel and covering it with wet at first, and dry soil on top.

In dry weather, 1-2 days after planting, the rutabagas are watered, and then, when the topsoil dries, it is loosened. A week after planting, the survival rate of the seedlings is checked and, if necessary, replanting is made in the places of dead plants, after loosening and watering the wells.

Plant care

Caring for rutabagas crops includes loosening the soil between rows, killing weeds, thinning seedlings, fertilizing, watering, and controlling pests and diseases.

The soil must be kept loose (especially in the upper layer), moist and free from weeds. The soil crust that forms after showers is very dangerous for germinating seeds. When it appears before sprouting, the crops are immediately loosened with light rakes, scratches (cats) or hoes. The first loosening of the row spacing is carried out to a depth of 4-6 cm immediately after the emergence of seedlings or on the second day after planting the seedlings; the second - 7-10 days after the first. Row spacings are treated 2-4 times more at intervals of 10-15 days until the leaves close in rows. It is necessary to loosen not only the surface of the beds, but also additionally need to process the bottom of the furrow between the ridges 1-2 times. This helps to retain moisture and kills weeds.

Light soils, as well as dry ones, are loosened less often and finer than heavy and damp ones, which form a soil crust. Deep loosening (7-10 cm) near the plants is unacceptable, as lateral roots are damaged. It should only be done in the middle of the furrows to improve air access and control weeds. For inter-row processing of swede in a personal plot, ordinary hoes, various flat cutters are used. Weeds should be weeded out and destroyed by repeated loosening at the very beginning of their development.

Timely and careful thinning of the swede is one of the must-haves to get a good quality harvest. The thickened standing of rutabaga plants for the first 15-20 days causes excessive stretching of the seedlings - people say: rutabaga has flowed. In the future, this leads to greater growth of the head and coarsening of the pulp. The first thinning of crops is done no later than the beginning of the appearance of the third true leaf. You can make a bouquet. To do this, using an ordinary sharp hoe, directing it across the row, cut down excess plants, leaving bouquets at a distance of 12-15 cm from one another.

The second final thinning of swede crops with weeding in rows is done 10-20 days after the first, when 5-6 leaves begin to appear in the plants. Thin with a narrow hoe or by hand after rain or watering. In a row, one best plant from a bunch is left at a distance of 15-18 cm. In rutabagas, it is preferable to leave large plants (but not tall due to the large hypocotal knee) with a dense rosette of leaves in order to grow root crops without overgrowing the head. Plants removed during thinning can be used as seedlings.

In fertile areas with stable, sufficiently high soil moisture, the area of food for plants should be left smaller than under the worst conditions of cultivation of rutabagas. If you want to grow roots in a shorter period, the distance between the plants should be left large, as this favors their growth and accelerates the formation of roots.

Top dressing

They increase the productivity of the swede. During the growing period, it is fed 1-2 times: after the second thinning and before closing the rows. The best effect is provided by liquid fertilizing with organic and mineral fertilizers. Feces cannot be used for feeding. Slurry, or even better fermented grass (live manure), is diluted with water 4-5 times and used for the first feeding. You can add a mixture of mineral fertilizers at the rate of: ammonium nitrate 5-7 g, double superphosphate 5 g and potassium chloride 5 g per 10 liters and pour on 1 m². Crystallin can be diluted in the amount of 10-15 g per bucket. The second feeding is done, as a rule, with mineral fertilizers: a mixture of ammonium nitrate - 5-10 g, superphosphate - 5 g, potassium chloride - 5-8 g per bucket and 1 m². The second dressing can be done dry before rain or watering,embedding fertilizer into the soil with a hoe. Boron deficiency, if it was not introduced into the soil, is replenished with foliar dressing, spraying the plants with a 0.1% boric acid solution twice at intervals of 10-20 days (when root crops with a diameter of 3-5 cm are formed and before the rows are closed).

Watering

Irrigation of rutabagas is very effective in dry years and during dry growing seasons. Withering and premature death of leaves is an indicator of the need for soil moisture. It is better to water the rutabagas less often, but thoroughly. The most efficient way to irrigate is by sprinkling or from a spray can. When watering, the pressure of the jet should be small so as not to erode the soil and not greatly expose the root crops, which in this case turn very green and lose their taste.

One watering can is poured in the first month on 30-40 plants, later on 10-20 plants. When watering by hand, well-wetted soil is covered with a layer of dry soil to retain moisture or loosening is done after the moisture has been absorbed. In a rainy autumn, 2-3 weeks before harvesting the swede, it is useful to huddle root crops.

× Notice board Kittens for sale Puppies for sale Horses for sale

Pests and diseases of the swede

In swede, the entire supply of nutrients is concentrated in the cotyledons. If, after their appearance above the soil and in the next first days of life, the cotyledon plants are destroyed, the seedlings may die or the yield of root crops will be sharply reduced. Therefore, in order to obtain a good harvest of swede, it is necessary to protect the seedlings from damage by the flea. To do this, on the 3-4th day after sowing, the soil is dusted with wood ash, tobacco dust or very finely ground lime.

The cabbage fly is a dangerous pest of swede. Mass emergence of spring flies in the Northwest region is observed in late May - early June. This is the time when the cherry blossoms begin, as well as the lilac blossoms. The summer cabbage fly begins its years in the Non-Black Earth Region from the third decade of June. Females lay eggs near plants one by one in spring, less often - several eggs, and in summer - in packs of 30-50 eggs. The larvae develop, go into the soil and harm the underground parts of plants. In spring, this often leads to the death of damaged plants, and in summer, their yield and quality decrease. In addition, by damaging the peel of root crops, summer fly larvae contribute to the defeat of bacterial diseases. An effective method of protecting plants from flies should be considered the selection of sowing dates in such a way that the plants receive the least damage from the defeat of its larvae.

To prevent egg laying in swede crops, it is recommended to add a mixture of naphthalene with sand (1:10) to the seedlings or planted seedlings during the summer period of these insects, this operation should be repeated after 10 days. You can also use shoveling the soil from the plants to remove the eggs laid by the fly. This technique is repeated 1-2 times.

Rutabaga is often damaged by cabbage aphids. In individual gardens, small initial foci of aphids can be destroyed by spraying: a solution of laundry soap (100-200 g per 10 L of water), lye (200 g of wood ash and 50 g of soap per 10 L of water).

Great attention should be paid to the destruction of harmful insects living in the soil. Against beetles and larvae of the nutcracker (wireworm), in addition to agrotechnical methods, including the correct system of soil cultivation, the destruction of weeds, especially creeping wheatgrass, liming of acidic soils, food baits are used (pieces of potatoes, beets, etc.). The baits are laid out in rows at a distance of no more than 1 meter, until the soil is dry, and the beetles stay in its upper layer, and drop them in. After 3-4 days, bait with gnawed larvae is dug up and destroyed.

Of diseasesrutabagas affect keela, black leg, phomosis, downy mildew (peronospora). The greatest danger to rutabaga in the Non-Black Earth Region is the keel. It affects the roots of all plants of the cabbage family, including weeds. Growths of various shapes and sizes form on the roots, plants grow weakened or completely die. Root crops are formed with poor quality pulp. High soil moisture (80-90%), high temperature (+ 18 … + 24 ° C), acidic and slightly acidic soil reaction contribute to the germination of keel spores and more plant infection. At later sowing dates, after repeated tillage, turnip plants usually suffer less from keel than earlier ones. Although small swelling on horses can be caused by other reasons: damage to plants by the smallest parasites - nematodes or disturbances in normal growth,which are caused by non-observance of the rules of agricultural technology in the seed production of turnip.

In addition to general measures to combat diseases of root crops, including adherence to the rules of crop rotation, deep tillage of the soil in the fall, destruction of weeds and pests, maintaining the soil in a loose state, applying fertilizers in the correct ratio, careful harvesting of crop residues, it is necessary to monitor soil acidity indicators (against keels and black leg) and carry out liming, sow disinfected seeds, do timely loosening of the soil and thinning of plants, moderately water the seedlings.

Harvesting and storage of the swede crop

For summer use, plants are harvested selectively, as the root crops form, reaching a diameter of 5-7 cm, which occurs approximately 40-50 days after transplanting. In this phase, they already have good taste, are nutritious enough, contain more vitamin C. Root crops intended for use in autumn and winter are harvested at one time, at the end of the growing season, in such a way as to prevent freezing.

Harvesting should be done in sunny, dry weather. Table rutabaga is easily pulled out of the soil. In healthy plants, the leaves are immediately cut short (to a height of about 1 cm). Through them there is a significant evaporation of moisture, and uncut root crops quickly lose weight and juiciness. At the same time, the axial root is cut at a distance of about 1 cm from the bottom of the root crop. At the same time, root crops are sorted into economically suitable and rejected. Plants with a thick, overgrown head and a large number of thick lateral roots are classified as non-marketable ones, since they have coarser flesh, worse taste than standard ones.

During harvesting, cleaning root crops from the ground, storing them, you should handle the turnip carefully, do not hit them against each other and on solid objects to shake off the ground, do not throw, do not damage - all this will negatively affect the safety of root crops in winter …

Root crops from individual gardens are stored in basements, caissons at a temperature of 0 … + 1 ° C (the temperature can be lowered to -0.5 … -1 ° C) and humidity within 90-95%. You can well preserve the rutabagas in pits with a narrowed bottom, which can be dug out on the site, provided that the ground is high and there is no flood water. Rutabagas are loaded into them when the ground in the upper layer cools down to + 5 … + 7 ° С.

Read the end of the article: The use of rutabagas in medicine and cooking →