Rotabaga: cultivation and care in the open field, what to plant and when to sow

Rotabaga is a cruciferous food crop that has been growing for two years. In some parts of the country, the root crop is called bushma, earthen, buchva, kalivka or swedish turnip. Some even call fodder beet, because of the strong similarity of plants. Experienced gardeners know that rutabaga is a useful product, but growing and caring for it in the open field requires certain knowledge. More on that.

Features and characteristics of swede

A distinctive feature of this root crop is frost resistance and excellent drought tolerance.Radishes, horseradish, turnips, radishes and cabbages of all varieties are plants from the same family as rutabagas. As you know, the earthwort grows for 2 years, in the first 12 months the roots and leaves grow, then the plant blooms and produces seeds.

The stem base grows high, and due to the weight, the leaf plates often droop. Part of the root crop is above the ground, has a plum shade. Inflorescences are yellow. The shape of the fruit depends on the type of vegetable, usually the pod is oblong or similar to a flat oval, cylinder. Round brown seeds ripen inside the swede. The core of the fruit, depending on the species, has a white or yellowish sheen.

Lovers of this plant in its taste find similarities with turnips. However, it is good to know that rutabaga is much he althier and more nutritious.

Overview of Russian swede varieties

Specialists divide the varieties of this vegetable into fodder and table varieties.The fodder greenfinch is a hybrid. It perfectly tolerates cold and moisture deficiency, is unpretentious in care and has a rich harvest. A feature of the table varieties of the root crop is the flat-round shape of the fruit, as well as the juicy pulp of a yellowish color. Popular varieties of table swede in Russia are:

1. Krasnoselskaya - perfectly stored, differs in productivity. Ripens within three to four months, the weight of the root varies from 400 to 600 grams.
2. Novgorodskaya - ripening time of medium duration. The fruits are well stored, have a mass of 500 to 450 grams.
3. Children's love - a medium-early variety, the shape of the root crop is oval-round. Harvest has a weight of 300 to 450 grams.
4. Vereyskaya - mid-season species, reaches full maturity in 85-95 days. The fruits reach a mass of 250-300 grams.
5. Hera is also a mid-season species, fruits of a rounded shape of anthocyanin color. Root mass - no more than 400 grams.
6. Bright dream - among Russian varieties the fastest ripening, ripens in 2-2.5 months. Fruit peel with a yellow tint of elongated shape. On average, a ripe swede weighs between 300 and 400 grams.

Possible combinations with other plants

In the neighborhood of fodder beets on the same bed, you can plant varieties of lettuce, sage, wormwood bushes or mint. It will be useful to plant marigolds or marigolds - they will not only please the eye, but will also scare away pests from a vegetable plant.

Carrots, dill or celery - on the contrary, will attract insects that actively prey on pests.

It is not recommended to plant rutabaga in a garden where cabbage, radish or similar crops were grown the previous year.

Growing rutabagas from seeds

How to grow a good swede crop, every experienced gardener knows. Fans need to follow certain guidelines.

Sowing

First you need to sow seeds for seedlings. When they germinate indoors, the shoots are protected from attack by pests, in particular the cruciferous flea. Before sowing, it is necessary to disinfect the seeds, for this they are kept in a solution with garlic for 60 minutes. Then the seeds must be washed in plain water and dried.

Fodder beets are sown from the first days of April, and after 40 days the grown Swedish turnip is planted on the soil. To do this, you need deep boxes with a wet substrate. The sprouts are placed at a depth of about 1 centimeter.

The distance between seeds must be kept within 2 centimeters and 5-7 centimeters between rows. The optimum temperature for good seedlings is 17-19 degrees Celsius.

Seedling care

After the appearance of the first sprouts of the sown crop, the cover on the boxes, which created the greenhouse effect, must be removed.And move the containers where the seedlings grow to a cool place, with an average temperature of 6-9 degrees Celsius. After 7 days, the temperature should reach 15 degrees. The key to successful cultivation of swede seedlings is to moisten the soil, loosen and thin out the sprouts.

How to dive

It is not recommended to pick for fodder beets, as the fragile roots are likely to be damaged. To do this, experts advise using deep containers for germinating seeds.

To prepare seedlings for planting in open ground, 10 days before transplanting, boxes with seedlings must be taken out into the yard, gradually adding time. When young rutabagas have been outdoors for 24 hours, it will be time to land on open ground.

Planting swede in open ground

The presence of 4-5 sufficiently formed leaves on the sprouted seedlings indicates that the moment has come for planting the earthwort in open soil. It is necessary to pay attention to the weather: if a vegetable plant is grown in a country house, in a region with a temperate climate, planting is carried out after May 20. Before you start planting, the sprouts are watered abundantly.

Date of planting

Basically, fodder beet seedlings are planted 40-50 days after sowing, in the spring period - this is the middle or end of May.

The ripening period of a vegetable plant depends on the variety. For winter storage of crops, it is recommended to plant those types of rutabagas that have a long growing season.

Suitable soil

Arbutus is planted on neutral soil, the pH of which does not exceed 7.0. Rutabaga grows well in sandy, loamy or peaty fertile soil. An important point is the high moisture permeability of the soil in the garden.

The best predecessors at the future fodder beet planting site are:

1. Tomatoes and cucumbers.
2. Beans, peppers.
3. Melon and eggplant.
4. Zucchini or potatoes.

Attention! After the harvest of swede-related crops, fodder beets can only be planted after 5 years.

Plant and planting depth

Sprouts ready for planting are planted in the holes. It is necessary to observe a certain distance between the seedlings so that the ripened fruits do not interfere with each other. The distance between the holes is 0.2 meters, and between the rows is 50 centimeters.

Before planting, the holes are filled with water, and each sprout is soaked with a root in a clay mash, after which several leaves should be cut. When digging holes, pay attention to the fact that the root part of the stem of the sprout does not touch the ground.The final stage of planting on the site is not to strongly compact the soil around the plant and pour water over the seedling.

In the early days, it is recommended to protect young swede from sun exposure.

Specific care of rutabagas

Growing a Swedish turnip is easy. It is required to care for the plant in the same way as for other crops - watering, getting rid of weeds, hilling, feeding and protecting from trouble. Hilling grown bushes is recommended during the ovary of leaf plates.

The soil is loosened to a depth of 5-8 centimeters. Before the procedure, the soil must be moistened.

For the first time, bushes are loosened 48 hours after planting in the garden. The next time it happens is in a week. For the entire period of crop maturation, loosening of the soil is carried out no more than 5 times. To facilitate, the procedure is recommended to be carried out simultaneously with the removal of weeds.

Irrigation regime and maintenance of soil moisture

This vegetable plant ripens well when there is plenty of moisture, but over-watering will make the fruits watery. Experts recommend moistening swede bushes 5-6 times during the entire ripening period. Otherwise, when there is not enough water, the root crop will ripen with a hard core and a bitter taste. Early flowering is also possible.

The required amount of water for irrigation is a bucket per square meter of land. It is not recommended to pour too much water on the upper part of the vegetable, which is above the ground. This leads to greenery and negatively affects the nutritional value of the vegetable plant.

To keep moisture at a sufficient level, turnips are mulched. Suitable for mulch:

1. Cut nettle.
2. Compost.
3. Straw cutting.
4. Sawdust composting.
5. Cut leaves and tomato stepsons.

Temperature conditions

As for the temperature regime, we can say that the swede gives good shoots at an air temperature of 4 degrees Celsius. For the formation of bushes and the ripening of root crops, 15-18 degrees of heat is suitable. Hot dry weather adversely affects the yield and taste of fodder beets. Already at a temperature of more than 23 degrees, the pulp of the swede will become dry and tasteless.

Fertilization

An integral part of the care of any crop is timely fertilizer. The first dressing of young sprouts is carried out 12-16 days after planting in the ground. To do this, use a large amount of slurry.For the next top dressing, a complex of minerals is suitable, the procedure is carried out at the time of the formation of root crops. Phosphorus fertilizer will help increase the sugar content of the pulp. Turnip bushes benefit from fertilizers based on potassium, boron, copper and manganese.

Before planting a vegetable plant, it is recommended to prepare the land for growing swede in advance. To do this, during the autumn months, for digging, pour half a bucket of manure or humus fertilizer for every 100x100 centimeters of land.

Protection from diseases and pests

Those who decide to grow Swedish turnips in the garden should know that they are subject to the same sores and insect attacks as their related crops (radish, radish, cabbage varieties, horseradish bushes).

The most common diseases that affect this crop:

1. Felt disease.
2. Belle and black leg.
3. Vascular bacteriosis and mosaic.

Among pests, the following are considered dangerous: slugs, sprout and cabbage flies, cruciferous and beet bugs, rapeseed flower beetle, aphid squads.

To prevent the occurrence of disease and damage from insects, compliance with the rules of cultivation, disinfection of seeds before sowing in the ground, thorough weeding, and after harvesting - deep digging of the site helps.

Neighboring plants that do not adversely affect fruit ripening will help fight pests, for example, marigolds, nasturtium, and marigolds drive away whites, cabbage flies and aphids with their aroma.

Harvest and storage of crops

After the sprouted sprouts are planted in the garden, vegetables ripen in 60-120 days, depending on the variety of the plant.In the event that fodder beet storage is planned for a long winter period, the crop must be harvested before the first frost.

Removing ripe fruits from the soil is required carefully so as not to spoil. At the same time, the bush part of the culture (leaves) is cut close to the base.

After harvesting, the root crops must be washed from dirt and completely dried, laid out on the street, away from sunlight. Washed rutabaga is stored in a cool place, after distributing it into containers. If there is no basement or other suitable room, the plant will survive well in the garden. To do this, not deep trenches are dug, sawdust or straw is poured into them with a thin layer, then sprinkled with soil.

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