In Vain Forgotten Patisson

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

How to choose a variety or hybrid of squash and grow a good harvest

Rarely in what garden you will find squash now. Everyone was carried away by zucchini and pumpkins, because they are more productive and early ripening. Their closest relative, the squash is undeservedly forgotten, despite the fact that the young (certainly young!) Fruits of the squash have high nutritional value and are incredibly tasty. They taste like artichoke and asparagus.

For us, this is something unknown, and French gourmets even call the squash the Jerusalem artichoke. Let's take the French at their word. But in canned form, we obviously appreciate the squash, because from the jars where they float in a fragrant marinade along with cucumbers, they are caught in the first place.

Their flesh is firm, crunchy and at the same time tender. The fruits contain a lot of sugars, vitamins, pectin, and also lutein, which is necessary for good vision.

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They contain a large percentage of dry matter. This means that delicious pancakes can be baked from the squash. They are also good in fried, stewed, boiled forms. Stuffed squash is a festive table decoration. Unusually beautiful. The only drawback is the intricate shape of the fruit, which makes it difficult to peel. This means that it is necessary to use it in a young form along with the peel, so as not to peel it. On the other hand, this is the shape of the fruit that decorates it.

Squash fruits are very useful for obesity, anemia, kidney disease. They have choleretic properties, and are also recommended for patients with cardiovascular diseases, because they contain a lot of potassium salts.

The fruits of the squash, I will not tire of repeating it, are very beautiful. Snow-white, cream, light green, bright orange and even lilac fruit plates with scalloped edges often decorate vegetable growers' exhibitions. There are also dark green fruits and even mottled fruits.

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Agrotechnics of patisson

The planting site is chosen warm and sunny, protected from the northern winds, because the squash is more thermophilic than the vegetable marrow. Its roots are especially fond of warmth. You can sow in beds with a distance between the bushes of at least 80-100 cm, because the bushes of the squash are very large. Since it is usually enough to have one or three bushes on the farm, you can plant them one at a time at the ends of the ridges with other vegetables.

Squash bushes are able to beautifully complete a garden with carrots or beets. Why not plant a bush in the most unexpected place to decorate your garden? It turns out very impressive. I successfully grow squash in an old barrel, I get large yields of their fruits. Leaves on long stalks hang down, covering all defects on the walls of the barrel. It turns out a beautiful bush, as if in a vase.

The soilmust be fertile, well-seasoned with organic matter. On the lean soil, small fruits grow with a tough skin and an unpalatable pulp. Patisson, like other pumpkin crops, does not tolerate acidic soils. The optimum acidity (pH) is 6.5-7.5. Grows well after carrots, tomatoes, beets, green crops. The depth of the fertile layer is on the bayonet of the shovel.

Sowing. You can sow with dry seeds under a film at the end of May, when the soil warms up, or at the beginning of June. Seeding depth is 5 cm. Seedlings must be covered from night frosts. In the afternoon, in warm weather, it is better to remove the film from seedlings. Then they will grow stronger.

If you want to get an earlier and more abundant harvest, it is better to pre-grow the seedlings. The seedlings are 25-30 days old, which means that it is necessary to sow around April 20-25. Since the squash suffers from transplants, each plant must be grown in its own vessel - a peat pot, or better - in a paper cup, because the pots are sometimes very tough, and the roots germinate through them poorly, and they easily make their way through the newspaper.

Desired pot size: height - 15 cm, and diameter - 10-15 cm. Just in case of emergency, it is better to sow 2-3 seeds in each pot. The seeds are placed flat to a depth of 2-3 cm, covered with soil, watered with warm water and covered with a film. They put it in a warm place.

When shoots loops appear from the ground (after about 5-7 days), the pots should be moved to a bright place, and at night put them in a cooler place - with a temperature of + 15 … + 18 ° C, so that the seedlings do not stretch out. When the cotyledons unfold, the film must be removed. In the phase of the 2-3rd true leaf, the extra, the weakest plants in the pot must be cut off.

In early June, you can plant seedlings in the ground along with a pot. You can grow seedlings in plastic cups. In this case, when planting in the ground, you need to try not to disturb the earthen lump with roots, because the squash is very painful for root injuries.

The seedling is planted about 1 cm deeper than it was in the pot. Before planting in the ground, the seedlings must be hardened in the open air for at least a week, otherwise it will cause an ultraviolet burn of the leaves, as well as shock from the wind and night cold. As a result, leaves can shrink, plant growth will stall, and all the effect of early sowing on seedlings is lost. After planting in the ground, the seedlings should be watered with warm water and shaded with a newspaper for a while until it takes root.

Care- this is weeding, mulching instead of loosening, taking into account the fact that the root system of the squash is shallow. Water the squash, if necessary, not often, but abundantly, with warm water. They are fed with slurry, herbal infusions, mineral fertilizers - according to the instructions for them. Mineral and organic dressings alternate. The first feeding is done when the plant, after planting in the ground, will grow, then every 7-10 days.

With a strong thickening of the bush, 2-3 leaves are cut out of it, one sheet per week to enhance ventilation. Over time, the lower aging layer of leaves is also cut out. In a cold, damp summer, you can cover the roots with a film - for warmth. It is always useful to mulch the roots with humus. You can mulch with peat or chopped grass with a layer thickness of 3-5 cm.

Patissons are cross-pollinated plants. Therefore, it is required that other pumpkin plants grow nearby. Sometimes you need to help them in pollination by working as a "bee".

Harvest. Patisson is a plant of continuous fruiting. As soon as one fruit is cut, the next one begins to grow on the bush. While the fruit is growing, it delays the formation of new ovaries and their growth. Therefore, it is not necessary to grow fruits to very large sizes, so as not to delay fruiting. For food, you need to remove young ovaries with a diameter of no more than 10-12 cm. At this time, they are tender, suitable for any dish. For canning, you need to collect fruits with a diameter of 4-5 cm. Fruits of a larger diameter will have to be cut into slices, and the result is less interesting. In addition, large fruits have a rough skin. Large fruits are grown only for exhibitions and for winter storage. Ripe fruits can be stored indoors for several months.

Squash varieties

The most famous old varieties - mid-season White 13, Orange, Solnyshko - are beautiful, moderately fruitful. More interesting are the new varieties and hybrids, which give much larger yields. So, UFO white and UFO orange varieties are not only more productive, but also more early ripening, with more juicy pulp.

Variety Disk - early maturing, forms disc-shaped smooth white fruits that are stored for a long time. Very productive. The pulp is white, not very juicy.

The Umbrella variety has been known for a long time. The fruit is cupped, the upper part is in the form of a cone. The pulp is white, firm.

Variety Cheburashka - early ripe, powerful bush, white plate-shaped fruit, white pulp, tender, juicy. The variety is fruitful, cold-resistant.

Novelties of recent years: Gosha variety. Powerful plant. Fruits of lilac color, exotic for squash. Variety Piglet - early maturing, bush plant with small leaves. Fruits are white, weighing up to 200-300 g. The flesh of both varieties is white, juicy and dense. The Chunga-changa variety is known - an early ripening variety, a bush type plant, fruits weighing 300-350 g, dark green. The pulp is creamy, tender, juicy. The Dingo-Dingo variety is the same, the fruits are of an interesting lilac-green color. Pirouette is a bush type plant, light fruits.

New hybrids should be especially noted: mid-early Chartreuse F1 - has a green, almost black, fruit with a very tender pulp; mid-early mini Solar explosion F1 - the period from sowing to the beginning of fruiting - 45-50 days. Designed for obtaining mini-squash for whole-fruit canning. Fruits are bright yellow, weighing 70-100 g. The pulp is creamy, dense with a small number of seeds. Fruits outgrow very slowly. The plant is bushy, compact.

Lyubov Bobrovskaya

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