Growing cucumbers
Summer residents who love curiosities, after mastering the cultures familiar to their region, are looking for new exotic plants. Currently, there are many examples worthy of attention. Among them, the most unusual is the cucumber-melon hybrid. Ogurdynia is a vegetable that exotic lovers have grown on their plots for a long time.
Gourd care
Characteristic
Central Asia is considered the birthplace of culture. Scientists bred it by crossing the best types of cucumbers and early varieties of melons. This plant reaches over 2 m in height. The bush resembles a cucumber, it has larger leaves compared to that of a regular bush. It is grown both horizontally and on trellises.
Fruit
Shape, color and taste change throughout the entire growing process. In an unripe form, cucumber has fruits similar to cucumbers. The taste and smell are also similar. Fruits are from 8 to 12 cm in size. The color is green. Above they have a fluff, thinning as the vegetable ripens. During this period of growth, it can be eaten raw, pickled, salted, and made salads.
Ripe fruits take the shape of a melon. They reach 60-80 cm in size, their weight can be 1-2 kg (in some varieties, 5-8 kg). The peel turns yellow with stripes, the flesh is tender, with the smell of melon, banana, peach, etc. It takes on a creamy color. There is not much seed inside. The skin is soft, you can not remove it during use. Jam, compotes, candied fruits are prepared from such fruits, they are served fresh as a dessert.
How to choose a variety
To choose the right variety for taste preferences, you need to experiment, because not all gardeners are satisfied after cultivating this exotic. The most popular variety is Manduria, but ogurdina has many types, and they all differ.
There are varieties, the fruit of which, even with full ripening, does not lose the qualities of taste and smell of cucumber. For example, Tarot, Melonflechuosus.
Those who prefer the sweet taste of the fruit should pay attention to the varieties:
- Pineapple;
- Candy;
- Sweet;
- Banana Orange.
Their names speak for themselves.
Advantages and disadvantages of the variety
By crossing selected types of vegetables, breeders tried to obtain their best qualities. They succeeded. Among the advantages of this culture are noted:
- high productivity;
- duration of fruiting;
- undemanding to watering;
- rapid maturation;
- utility.
Common melon in our climate does not have time to ripen, to collect sugar, even if it is an early planting. Ogurdynia has a short growing season, so the fruits ripen quickly. With proper cultivation and care, the culture will delight with vegetables even before frost, you just have to collect them in a timely manner.
Fruits need to be picked on time
Melon-flavored cucumbers contain many vitamins (A, B, C, E, PP), trace elements (Mg, K, Ca, Fe, Na), pectins and organic acids.The pulp has antioxidant and anti-sclerotic properties, is a diuretic, choleretic, hematopoietic agent, improves metabolism, removes cholesterol from the body.
The disadvantage of the plant is its susceptibility to bacterial diseases. Fresh fruits are stored for about 1.5 months, and in a cold place.
Planting varieties
Ogurdynia loves the sun, so they choose an illuminated area without drafts. It should not be planted next to melons to prevent cross-pollination. In addition, when choosing a planting site, it is worth considering what vegetables grew on the site last year. Pumpkin seeds are bad predecessors. It is not recommended to plant them twice in one place.
Soil preparation
The soil must be fertilized, since the cucumber requires fertile land. To do this, in the fall, in dug beds of 1 sq. m, 25 g of superphosphate, 12 g of potassium sulfate, 15 g of ammonium nitrate and 0.5 buckets of humus are introduced. If the soil is not saturated with nutrients, the fruits will not grow large, and the taste will not please.
Landing method
The vegetable is planted both by seedlings and by sowing seeds. If the second method is chosen, then it is carried out at the end of May. Cucumber seeds are pre-soaked in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for 20 minutes. The size of the recess should be 1.5 cm, and the distance between the bushes should be 1 m.
The crop can be harvested earlier if the culture is planted with seedlings. To grow it, seeds are sown in pots in early May. Some gardeners do this in early April. In this case, the fruits are harvested at the beginning of summer.
Seedling
Seedlings are grown as follows:
- Take the vessels. For example, cups. Fill them 3/4 with peat and humus (you can buy a special soil mixture).
- One seed is placed in each.
- Deepen them by 2-2.5 cm.
- They put everything together in a box and cover with a film.
Sprouts germinate in 3-5 days if the environment is warm.
They are planted in a permanent place after about a month, when the temperature reaches 20 ° C. Seedlings are grown both in greenhouses and in the open field, but often the cultivation of a hybrid of cucumber and melon is carried out in greenhouse conditions, because temperature drops can have a bad effect on the growth of bushes. When grown in a heated greenhouse, the crop can be harvested for a long time, but not during the cold season.
When disembarking, you must be careful not to damage the roots, from which you should not remove the earthen lump. It is necessary to deepen as much as possible, then a powerful root system is formed. For better adaptation of plants in a new place, they are covered with non-woven material.
Gourd care
Fruits can crack from excess water
Caring for a cucumber is not much different from caring for a common variety of hybrid cucumbers.
Watering
The vegetable does not need frequent watering, like a cucumber, it even tolerates a short-term drought. It is necessary to moisten the soil with warm water when its top layer dries. During the period of fruit formation, watering is reduced, otherwise they become watery and crack.
Formation
With the correct formation of the bush, the yield increases, therefore, when there are already 5-6 leaves, pinching of the main stem is done. Thanks to this action, many female flowers appear on the lateral shoots.
Fertilizer
In the process of crop growth, it is fertilized with cow dung. For 1 bucket of water, take a shovel of manure and 1 tbsp. l. saltpeter. The infusion is applied every 2 weeks. The first feeding is done when the cucumber reaches a length of 20-30 cm.
Poultry manure is used as a fertilizer, however, due to the nitrogen content, it should not be used in large quantities, otherwise the plant will intensively increase the green mass, and the generation process will stop. This will result in a lack of fruit.
Temperature regime
The temperature in the greenhouse is kept at the level of 25-30˚С, and the indicators for the soil should not exceed 25˚С. Otherwise, the gherdon drops the fruit ovaries, and this brings damage to the crop.With a lot of shading and thickening, barren flowers form and female flowers develop poorly.
If the cucumber is grown on vertical trellises, it is worth making special supports, because ripe fruits are heavy. To prevent them from falling, you need to harvest on time. If the culture lies horizontally, in some places the lashes are sprinkled with earth. The plant will put down additional roots and receive more nutrients from the soil.
With good care, the exotic will delight with the first fruits already a month after disembarkation. When they are collected, a stalk 3-4 cm in size is left: this prolongs the shelf life.
Pest control
Despite its good resistance to diseases, the cucumber still suffers from some of them. With high soil moisture and too dense plantings, fungal diseases affect it. At the same time, the flower petals and the ovaries themselves rot.
These diseases are preventable. As a preventive measure, the bushes are sprayed with fungicides containing copper. Gardeners advise using a remedy such as Fitosporin. It is safe and highly effective in combating the most dangerous ailments of vegetable crops. This drug is used to treat root rot, late blight, downy mildew, scab, etc. You can also take 15% Bordeaux liquid, it is less effective, but also able to neutralize the disease.
If the culture was killed by bacterial rot, then first of all, the affected flowers are removed, and the sections are treated with a solution of potassium permanganate.
Conclusion
An exotic named Ogurdin attracts attention with its eccentricity. Almost ordinary cucumbers in the early stages of development and ripe fruits with melon flavor cannot leave even a gardener indifferent. If you provide the culture with ideal greenhouse conditions, you can harvest a high-quality crop already in the middle of summer.