The sibling of the white-fruited zucchini - zucchini, which received its touching name in the Italian Apennines, has long won the appreciation of domestic professional vegetable growers and amateur gardeners.
The translation of this characteristic name from ardent Italian means "little pumpkin", which is consistent with the variety of forms of the vegetable and its belonging to the family of the same name. This article will tell about the features, varieties and agricultural practices of growing zucchini.
White squash and zucchini: the difference
We will not underestimate the merits of ordinary zucchini, but we emphasize that the popularity of the "Italian" is growing year by year. Let's figure out the difference between zucchini and zucchini. This culture is more decorative, its lashes are more compact, and carved, pubescent leaves with bright zonal coloring are impressive in size and brightness. But zucchini is appreciated for its 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 in the duration of storage of the crop: itthe keeping quality is quite high; in a cool basement, the zucchini squash will last until mid-spring, without losing its pleasant freshness and taste. Another very significant advantage that distinguishes this vegetable is productivity.
Zucchini has more female flowers and more ovaries than regular squash.
The virtues of zucchini
This he althy vegetable is delicious in any form. Zucchini, as well as white-fruited varieties, are 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 their seeds contain oils, proteins and vitamins B, E. Like many pumpkins, zucchini improves metabolism and digestion, normalizes liver function and is very useful for overweight people.
Zucchini squash: description
The color of the fruits of this vegetable varies from deep dark green to a spectacular rich golden hue. Depending on the variety, zucchini are colored evenly or colored with muted or bright stripes. Their shape is also different: classic oblong or unusual round ones. Fruit sizes can be just as different, ranging from 10-15 cm to half a meter or more in length.
Culture preferences
Zucchini squash, like a true southerner, loves brightly lit areas, but also tolerates places with short-term shading.
The plant grows well on loose fertile sandy loam with a neutral reaction. Soil preparation forplanting is carried out in the fall, digging up the bed, adding humus (10 kg), superphosphate (50 g) and wood ash (200-250 g) per 1 m22.
The best predecessors that previously occupied the site are legumes, nightshade or cabbage crops, but it is not recommended to plant zucchini after fellow pumpkins in order to avoid the development of diseases traditional for this family. If there is a shortage of space, when planting zucchini after any representative of the genus in spring, the soil is abundantly shed with a solution of manganese.
Site preparation
Being southern, zucchini is more demanding of heat. And this should be taken into account, since it has been noticed that ordinary zucchini in temperate latitudes sprout faster than their striped brothers. Gardeners recommend planting a crop on the so-called high beds or compost heaps, covered with a layer of soil on top and providing uniform heating. Depending on the weather conditions of the region, the variety is chosen so that the highly vulnerable shoots will not be damaged by a return spring frost.
Landing
Zucchini squash can be planted directly in the ground with seeds or seedlings.
They resort to this method only in areas of risky farming or in cases where the gardener wants to get a crop as soon as possible. Before planting, zucchini zucchini seeds are treated by soaking in warm water or a weak biostimulant solution for 2 days to weaken the resistance of the dense peel and help the sprouts break through. Planted in the 2nd-3rd decade of May,seeds germinate after 5-7 days.
Seeds are sown for seedlings in early May. Since zucchini seedlings are extremely fragile, they are planted immediately in separate cups: this will protect the plants from damage when transplanted into open ground. The age of seedlings ready for planting in the garden should be 25-30 days. Seedlings are planted in late May - early June.
The planting technology is simple: they dig holes in a prepared and well-leveled area, fill them with a fertile mixture of soil, humus and ash. For seedlings grown through seedlings, the holes are made a little larger, for seeds - very small. The roots of young plants should not come into contact with ash - it is too aggressive and can damage delicate tissues, so the nutrient soil must be thoroughly mixed.
The planted crops are generously watered, compact the soil and mulch the beds with humus or wood chips. Experienced vegetable growers, when planting seeds, often put 2-3 seeds in one hole, insuring themselves against possible failure. Subsequently, excess germinated shoots are removed. Since zucchini squash needs enough space to grow productively, the intervals between holes should be at least 0.5-0.6 m.
Zucchini care
Cultural care activities include loosening the soil, weeding weeds, timely watering and removing yellowing leaves of the lower tier. Especially strongly the plant needs high-quality moisture during flowering and fruit set. When watering, avoid water ingresson leaves and ovaries. Feeding is also necessary, which is carried out twice a season. For the first time, the plant is fed 7-12 days after planting with a solution of rotted manure, the second time fertilizers will be required during the formation of fruits. During this period, solutions of potassium-phosphorus preparations are used, the concentration of which should correspond to that recommended in the annotation.
Harvesting
Remove fruits 1-2 times a week, cutting with a knife along with the stalk. Zucchini squash, harvested at the stage of milk maturity (weighing up to half a kilogram), is eaten fresh, in salads and snacks.
For storage, cooking or preparations traditional in Russian cuisine for the winter, zucchini is harvested in the phase of technical maturity, that is, when the fruit is ripe, but the seeds have not yet matured. During storage, such zucchini ripen.
In order to get seeds, a fully ripe zucchini is removed when the lashes of the plant turn yellow and the stem begins to dry out. Store them in the light at room conditions until February-March. Seeds are selected as the fruits turn yellow. One medium squash contains 140-170 seeds.
Varieties and hybrids
There are many varieties of zucchini, and thanks to constant selection work, state variety tests are carried out annually, replenishing the wonderful family with new varieties of "Italians". Next, we present to your attention an incomplete list of the most popular varieties among gardeners.
• Zucchini Zucchini variety Zukesha forms a compact, medium-sized bush with a weakbranching. Early maturing, give a good harvest of cylindrical greens in small light specks on the integumentary color of fruits (up to 0.7 kg), smooth or with slightly noticeable ribbing. The pulp is white, crispy.
• Pleases with high yields and precocious Aeronaut, forming an almost unbranched main stem, covered with beautiful hairless leaves. The fruits are smooth, large, painted in deep dark green tones, reach 1.5 kg. The pulp is yellowish, dense. The variety is productive, but the fruits of the Aeronaut variety are zucchini (zucchini), the cultivation of which is productive only on fertile soils.
• Ambassador is an early maturing variety with medium sprawling bushes. The fruits are large, dark green, reaching a weight of 3 kg.
• A variety with high productivity - Zebra. When planting white-fruited zucchini nearby, Zebra is able to set fruits without pollination by insects. An ornamental low-growing bush with dissected leaves gives high yields of cylindrical fruits with a slight uniform thickening at the end. Zucchini are smooth or slightly ribbed, with bright green longitudinal stripes.
• Run-up is an early maturing, high-yielding hybrid with a short main shoot that forms a medium-sized non-branching bush and produces oval, medium-sized fruits slightly ribbed at the stalk. The color of this variety of zucchini is remarkable - creamy green with an abstract pattern of blurry intermittent dark green stripes. These are the characteristics of the Souvenir hybrid.
• Diamond is a medium ripe variety with highsprawling bush and elongated grayish-green fruits weighing up to 0.8 kg.
• Di Piacenzo is a mid-season squash with an extended fruiting period. Dark green, round fruit with excellent flavor.
Within one publication it is impossible to list all varieties of such a wonderful representative of pumpkin as zucchini zucchini. The photos presented in the article demonstrate the beauty of this culture. The “Italians” who settled in the garden of your plot will undoubtedly decorate the garden space and bring tangible benefits.
