How to plant a courgette zucchini?

The brother of a white-fruited zucchini - zucchini, received its touching name in the Italian Apennines, has long won the appreciation of domestic vegetable growers, professionals and recreational dancers. Translation of this characteristic name from fervent Italian means "little pumpkin", which fully corresponds to the variety of forms of the vegetable and its belonging to the family of the same name. About the features, varieties and farming techniques of zucchini cultivation this article will tell.

Bilock squash and zucchini: difference

Let's not underestimate the merits of ordinary zucchini, but we emphasize that the popularity of the "Italian" is growing year by year. We'll figure out how the zucchini differs from zucchini. This culture has more decorative, its whips are more compact, and carved, pubescent leaves with a bright zonal coloration impress with its magnitude and brightness. But appreciate the zucchini for a rich, delicate and pleasant taste. These qualities make it possible to eat it raw with pleasure, using it in salads and light snacks. This vegetable is ahead of its counterparts and in the duration of the harvest: its shelf life is high enough, in a cool basement zucchini zucchini will last until the middle of spring, without losing its pleasant freshness and taste. Another very significant advantage that distinguishes this vegetable is productivity. In zucchini, in comparison with the usual zucchini, more female flowers and, accordingly, ovaries are formed.

Advantages of zucchini

This healthy vegetable is tasty in any form. Zucchini, as, indeed, and white-berry varieties, rich in vitamins. According to the content of carotene, they are not inferior to carrots. In addition, their pulp contains ascorbic acid and biologically active pigments, and seeds - oils, proteins and vitamins B, E. Like many pumpkin, zucchini improves metabolism and digestion, normalizes liver function and is very useful for people suffering from overweight.

Courgette zucchini: description

The color of the fruits of this vegetable varies from deep dark green to a spectacular rich-golden hue. Depending on the variety, the zucchini are colored exactly or are colored with muted or bright stripes. Different and their shape: classic oblong or unusual round. The sizes of fruits can also vary, ranging from 10-15 cm to half a meter or more in length.

Culture preferences

Zucchini zucchini, like a true southerner, loves brightly lit areas, but also takes places with short-term shading. The plant grows well on loose fertile sandy loams with a neutral reaction. Preparation of the soil for planting is carried out in the autumn, digging the bed, adding humus (10 kg), superphosphate (50 g) and wood ash (200-250 g) per 1 m ² .

The best predecessors who previously occupied the site are pulses, nightshade or cabbage, but after the pumpkin cousins planted zucchini is not recommended to avoid the development of diseases that are traditional for this family. If there is a shortage of space, when planting zucchini after a representative of the genus in spring, the soil is abundantly spilled with manganese solution.

Site preparation

As a Southerner, zucchini is more demanding of heat. And this should be taken into account, as it is noticed that the usual zucchini in temperate latitudes rise faster than their striped brothers. Gardeners recommend planting crops on so-called high beds or compost piles, topped with a layer of soil and providing an even warm-up. Depending on the weather conditions of the region, the variety is chosen so that very vulnerable shoots do not damage the recurrent spring frosts.

Landing

Plant zucchini squash can be directly into the soil with seeds or seedlings. They resort to this method only in zones of risky farming or in those cases when the gardener wants to harvest as early as possible. Before planting, the zucchini zucchini seeds are treated by soaking in warm water or a weak solution of the biostimulator for 2 days to weaken the resistance of the dense peel and help to break through the shoots. Planted in 2-3 days of May, the seeds germinate after 5-7 days.

Seeds are planted in seedlings in early May. As zucchini seedlings are extremely fragile, they are planted immediately in separate cups: this will protect plants from damage when transplanted into the open ground. The age of the seedlings, ready for planting on the bed, should be 25-30 days. Seedlings are planted in late May - early June.

The technology of planting is simple: on a prepared and well-leveled site dig holes, fill them with a fertile mixture of soil, humus and ash. For seedlings grown through seedlings, the holes are made a little more, for the seeds - very small. The roots of young plants should not come in contact with ash - it is too aggressive and can damage delicate tissues, so the nutrient soil must be thoroughly mixed. The crops are lavishly watered, compact the soil and mulch the beds with humus or wood chips. Experienced vegetable growers when planting seeds often in one hole lay 2-3 seeds, being insured against possible failure. Subsequently, excess sprouting seedlings are removed. Because courgettes zucchini require sufficient space for productive growth, the intervals between the holes should be at least 0.5-0.6 m.

Care for zucchini

Courting activities for the culture consist in loosening the soil, weeding weed grass, timely watering and removing the yellowing leaves of the lower tier. Especially strongly the plant needs high-quality moistening during flowering and fruit setting. When watering, avoid getting water on the leaves and ovaries. Necessary and fertilizing, which are carried out twice a season. For the first time the plant is fed 7-12 days after planting with a solution of the manure, the second time fertilizers will be required during the formation of the fruit. During this period, solutions of potash-phosphorus preparations are used, the concentration of which should be in accordance with the recommended in the annotation.

Harvesting

Remove the fruit 1-2 times a week, cutting off with a knife along with the peduncle. Zucchini zucchini, filmed in the stage of dairy maturity (weighing up to half a kilogram), eaten fresh, in salads and snacks. For storing, cooking or traditional preparations in the Russian kitchen, zucchini is harvested for the winter in the technical maturity phase, that is, when the fruit has matured, but the seeds have not yet ripened. During storage, these zucchini ripen.

In order to get the seeds, remove completely ripened zucchini, when the whip plants turn yellow, and the stem begins to dry up. They are stored in the light in room conditions until February-March. Seeds are chosen as the fruits become yellow. One medium zucchini contains 140-170 seeds.

Varieties and hybrids

There are many varieties of zucchini, and thanks to constant selection work, state variety tests are conducted every year, replenishing the wonderful family with new varieties of "Italians". Next, we present to your attention an incomplete list of the most popular varieties among truck farmers.

• Zucchini zucchini zucchini cultivars form a compact medium-sized bush with weak branching. Early maturing, yield a good harvest of cylindrical green in a shallow light speck over the cover color of the fruit (up to 0.7 kg), smooth or with slightly discernible ribbing. The flesh is white, crunchy.

• The early Aeronaut, which forms an almost unbranched main stalk, covered with beautiful undisturbed leaves, also rejoices with high yields. Fruits smooth, large, painted in deep dark green tones, reach 1.5 kg. Flesh yellowish, dense. The cultivar is yielding, but the fruits of the Aeronaut variety are courgettes (zucchini), the cultivation of which is productive only on fertile soils.

• Ambassador is an early-ripening variety, whose bushes are characterized by medium spreading. The fruits are large, dark green, reaching a weight of 3 kg.

• A variety that is highly productive - Zebra. When planting nearby white-fruited zucchini, Zebra is able to tie fruits without pollination by insects. A decorative feeble bush with dissected leaves gives high yields of cylindrical fruits with a slight uniform thickening at the end. Zucchini smooth or slightly ribbed, with bright green longitudinal stripes.

• Takeoff is an early ripening, high-yielding hybrid with a short main shoot, forming a medium branching bush and giving oval, at the stalk a slightly ribbed fruit of medium size. Remarkable coloring of courgettes of this variety is cream-green with an abstract pattern from the blurry interrupted dark-green stripes. Such are the characteristics of the Souvenir hybrid.

• Diamond - a grade of medium ripeness with a high sprawling bush and elongated greyish-green fruit weighing up to 0.8 kg.

• Di Piacenza is a medium-ripened squash with an extended fruiting period. Dark green round fruits have excellent taste properties.

Within the limits of one publication it is impossible to list all varieties of such a remarkable representative of pumpkin, as zucchini zucchini. The photos presented in the article demonstrate the beauty of this culture. Settled in the patch of your site "Italians", no doubt, will decorate the garden space and will bring tangible benefits.