Lagenaria - A Pumpkin With A Swan Neck

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

An amazingly beautiful lagenaria will decorate your garden plot, and its fruits

Lagenaria (Lagenaria siceraria) is one of the most ancient vegetable plants, domesticated, according to some sources, at least 15 thousand years ago. Until now, scientists have not precisely established the areas of origin of these famous pumpkins: Asia, America, New Zealand and Africa - equally may be the first places of their growth.

Nature has come up with many forms of Lagenarii - these are Lagenarii round as balls and long as snakes, Lagenarii in the form of vessels: bottles, flasks, jugs and club-shaped ones, and, finally, the most exotic form - in the form of geese-swans and even speckled ones: with patterned white spots on a green background. In this extravagant form of lagenaria, the fruit grows downward-curving necks that turn into an elegant head. They really look like geese-swans from a fairy tale, familiar to us from childhood. As one eastern legend says: the evil sorcerer imprisoned the little prince and the little princess at the very top of the old castle, but the swan geese saved the children and brought them back home. For this, the sorcerer turned them into pumpkins with goose necks.

When growing such "geese-swans" it is as if you are in contact with a fairy tale, such a neighborhood is especially pleasant for preschool children who believe in miracles so much. I grow such pumpkins in seedlings and plant them in open ground after the end of the frost. They love well-fertilized soil and abundant watering - in our conditions (in the Central Region) it is better to water with warm water. "Geese-swans" tied by the stalk grow with elongated necks, and those left in a free state with curved necks. After ripening, the resulting fruits dry up and can be painted and varnished. Fruits ripen at normal room temperature, are stored on the floor, and yellowing of the fruit is a sign of ripening. Usually, before the New Year, the entire harvest of the lagenaria ripens.

It is not necessary to soak the seeds before planting; it is enough to plant them in damp ground. In this case, the temperature of the earth should be at least 25 ° C, otherwise the seeds will be blown out from the inside. Seedlings will soon appear if you keep the pots of planted Lagenaria seeds in a greenhouse on solar heating, under a lamp or next to a steam heater. In addition to decorative properties, speckled "goose" lagenarii are also suitable for food: they are edible in milk age, they are cooked like ordinary zucchini. Slight bitterness of the pulp disappears after hot processing.

These vigorous plants up to 15 m long with rounded velvety leaves, grown without forming in any shape and carrying "swan geese", will create a lyrical atmosphere on your site. I will send the seeds for this. I send gardeners seeds of butternut pumpkin - portioned, nutmeg - the world leader among pumpkins in taste, as well as seeds of Lagenaria Speckled goose with a swan neck, Little Leaf cucumber - varieties of the XXI century with a small leaf, cowpea beans with a pod length of up to 1 m and other rare crops and varieties; seedlings of grapes, apple trees, pears of frost-resistant varieties.

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