Ogurdynia Is A "hybrid" Of Cucumber And Melon. Growing And Varieties. Photo

Botanichka's readers are well aware of the great variety of plants in nature, including vegetable crops. But the enthusiasm of amateur gardeners in the search and development of agricultural technology for new, little-known cultivated plants never ceases to amaze. Some of them write this way: "I can't wait for spring, burning with impatience to experience another curiosity on the beds." Something similar happens to me. Recently, I did not have time to find out about such a vegetable as ogurdin, as on the Internet I immediately found many rave reviews about this culture and tips for growing it.

Content:

• Attractive qualities and varieties of ogurdin
• Growing cucumbers

Attractive qualities and varieties of ogurdin

And the reviews are as follows: first of all, ogurdyn pampers vegetable growers with a variety of shapes, colors and flavors. Its fruits have a rare ability, depending on the stage of maturity, to change their shape, color, taste and aroma. At an early stage, they are no different from cucumbers, they have a pleasant cucumber smell. At this time, you can eat them fresh, prepare delicious salads, salt, pickle, use for all types of processing, during which they do not lose their original color and aroma.

When ripe, these fruits undergo a wonderful transformation: they become like a melon, acquire a unique taste and melon aroma. Orange-yellow, juicy, sweet gourd flesh with orange-honey or banana flavor is a real treat for children. Excellent jams, the sweetest candied fruits, amazing jams, marmalades and compotes are prepared from it, and the amazing taste of dried slices of this fruit, as vegetable growers who have already mastered it, say, cannot be conveyed in words.

And one more thing: the cucumber has a high yield, sufficient early maturity (from planting to harvesting 1.5-2 months), cold resistance (although some advise, in order to ensure a guaranteed harvest, to grow the cucumber in a greenhouse or greenhouse) and disease resistance. Many consider this vegetable to be the culture of the future and directly call on enthusiastic experimentalists not to stay away from growing cucumbers: “You will fall in love with this plant from the very first days. It is simply a must for growing in Russia. Try it and you will like it."

It would be surprising if there weren't some pretty negative responses. Something reminiscent of a replica from the famous comedy film - "Well, this jellied fish is disgusting!" Presumably, this is because the real (desired) cucumber was obtained by crossing the best yielding varieties of cucumbers and ultra-early, sweet varieties of melons, which have proven themselves well when grown in any climatic conditions.

When breeding this plant, only the best representatives of these two beautiful and most popular cultures were carefully selected for their useful properties and qualities. If this principle of crossing is violated, then naturally the quality of the vegetable is completely different. The conclusion suggests itself this: mastering this type of plant, you should select the best varieties of cucumbers.

It is possible that you will have to experiment with several varieties and choose the ones you like. But I would like to think that this will not stop our enthusiastic vegetable growers. Currently, the following varieties are cultivated in Russia: Alexandria, Banana, Caramel, Candy, Novinka, Fizano, Manguria, Pineapple, Improved, Special, Green, White. Plants of these varieties are vigorous, with great fruiting potential. Fruits are 30 to 50 cm long, wide, torpedo-like, very tasty, crunchy, almost seedless, they can be eaten right with the skin.

Ogurdynya Orenburgskaya is also recommended for cultivation. The plant is strongly plaited, resembles a cucumber, but the whips are stronger, with large melon leaves. Its unripe fruits (greens) up to 12 cm long can be picked in late June - early July. Fruits are dark green, densely pubescent, adherent to the lashes. As it grows, the fluff thinns and almost disappears. Can Zelentsy be eaten fresh and processed? - salt, pickle, preserve. By August, they fully ripen, become juicy, fragrant, two-kilogram melons of an elongated oval shape, turn yellow, sometimes become reticulate. One bush grows up to 10-12 melons.

Growing cucumbers

All cucumbers love sunlight, in partial shade of fruits you can not wait. So that they do not talk about their unpretentiousness, like all plants of the pumpkin family, it is advisable for cucumbers to provide fertile soil. Some believe that they produce the best fruits when grown on a compost heap. It is better to start preparing the soil for the cucumbers in the fall. After digging, humus (15-20 kg per sq. M.), Ammonium nitrate, potassium sulfate, superphosphate are added to it. Many people prefer organic fertilizers, mainly mullein. With the arrival of spring, the soil should be loosened and kept clean.

At the initial stage of growth, the cucumber should be grown in moist soil with periodic mulching (hay, straw, compost), because at this time the plant consumes a lot of water. The root system of the cucumber is superficial, so it needs to be watered often, but in small portions. An automatic drip irrigation system can give excellent results. With the onset of ripening of the first fruits, the watering rate should be reduced, since excess water leads to a watery taste of the fruits and a decrease in their sugar content.

When sown directly into open ground, the seeds of the gourd are processed in the usual way in potassium permanganate and sown in a sufficiently moist soil as soon as it becomes warm. The distance between plants is about a meter. The first shoots appear within a week. Many advise in the middle latitudes of our country to grow cucumber still by seedlings, then the fruits ripen earlier. In this case, the seeds can be planted in peat pots with a humus-earthy mixture, which is regularly watered with water. It is recommended to plant seeds for seedlings at the rate of one month before its transplantation to the garden bed (in the middle lane, seedlings are transplanted approximately in mid-May).

When warm weather sets in outside and late frosts are not expected, the seedlings are transplanted into a greenhouse or greenhouse, with a distance of about a meter between the plants. They must be kept under the covering material until the outside air warms up beyond 20 ° C. To get more fruits, the plant should be properly formed: the main stem is pinched over the fifth leaf, and the side shoots - behind the seventh to eighth.

There are other recommendations for pinching, namely, after the appearance of 3 or 4 fruits. Pinching the main stem stimulates the formation of lateral shoots with ovaries. But even here, gardeners usually leave 2-3 ovaries on the shoot, so that their excess amount does not take away too much energy from the mother's stem to ripen excess fruits.

You can grow cucumber, like cucumbers, both on the ground and on a trellis. It is advisable to protect the crop from birds, they are very fond of sweet thin-cored fruits. It should also be noted that ripe fruits are easily separated from the whip, i.e. when grown on a trellis, they will often fall from a height and be damaged, becoming suitable only for obtaining seeds for a future harvest. And one more thing: ogurdin does not tolerate heat well; in greenhouses at high temperatures, these plants can shed ovaries. It has been noticed that the fruits set well and grow at a temperature of 25-30 ° C. They can be stored relatively well (up to 50 days) if they are kept at 0 ° C in the cellar (basement) and well ventilated.