Squash: cultivation and care in the open field with photos and videos

Patisson belongs to the gourd family. The taste and texture of this vegetable are similar to those of zucchini and are created through a natural hybridization process. Patissons, which are not difficult to grow and care for in the open field, are adapted and bear fruit well in various climatic conditions. These he althy vegetables are superior in properties to zucchini, young fruits are saturated with carbohydrates, sugars (glucose), pectin, mineral s alts and fats.

Squash varieties

In order for the cultivation of squash in the open field to bring a good harvest, you need to choose the right variety for each climatic zone.There are many varieties of this vegetable, so before buying seeds, you need to familiarize yourself with the most common breeding species, choose those that suit your taste, yield, ripening time, and size.

Squash differs from zucchini in external shape, bark color, denser pulp.

Depending on the timing of fruit ripening, squash is divided into types:

early - fruit ripening occurs 37-50 days after the first sprouts appear;
medium - ready to eat in 55-60 days;
late - fruits fully ripen 60-70 days after planting.

If you want the squash to please with its fruits throughout the summer, you should buy seeds with different ripening dates.

White squash

Among the white patissons there are early, middle and late ripening. They have white skin and flesh. But there are varieties that are off-white or greenish inside. All white varieties are versatile, suitable for pickling, canning and cooking.

Polo F1 - early hybrid with compact bushes, flat round fruits. Their weight can reach 300-400 g. The light green color of the skin turns white as it matures. The pulp is tasty, dense, suitable for canning and cooking various dishes. The yield of Polo F1 is consistently high, the variety is resistant to downy mildew.

UFO White - mid-season squash with fruits resembling bells with rounded jagged edges. The weight of a mature vegetable reaches 400-500 g. In the ovary, it has a light green color, during the period of biological maturity, the skin hardens and turns white.The fruit with a diameter of up to 8 mm has a tender, tasty pulp, in which the seeds are not felt.

The most common late variety is White 13. It is unpretentious, resistant to cold, and has a good yield. It has a plate shape, the edges are framed by mild teeth. The peel is firm, the pulp is medium in density with a neutral taste.

Squash of this species can grow quickly: some specimens grew up to 6-7 cm in diameter and weighing from 85 g to 500 g. preserved after harvest.

Yellow and orange squash

White patissons were taken as a basis for breeding this species. They have excellent taste qualities, are useful for people suffering from eye and skin diseases. Yellow and orange fruits are rich in vitamin A, lutein, which neutralizes free radicals and is used to prevent vascular pathologies.

Popular among farmers is the mid-early Fuete variety - a bush variety with a well-aligned plate shape and scalloped edges. The average weight of a mature fruit is 270-300 g. Its peel is hard, has a bright yellow-orange color. Bushes grow compactly, give a high yield.

Variety Sunshine is characterized by high yield, small fruits, compact tillering. Refers to mid-season. The fruit is cup-shaped with ribbed edges. The average weight is 250-300 g. Young fruits are yellow, mature ones acquire a rich orange hue. The pulp of a beige shade is soft, delicate in taste. Used for pickling, cooking, storage. The variety is resistant to powdery mildew.

The variety UFO has a good yield - an early bush squash. From one bush you can collect up to 5 kg of vegetables per season. The weight of the disk-like fruit is 400-450 g. Its peel has a rich yellow-orange color.The dense pulp is low-juicy, has a pleasant taste, a yellowish tint. UFO squash grows both outdoors and indoors.

Green patissons

Among this variety, it is worth highlighting the dark green hybrid Chartreuse F1 - an early variety with glossy fruits. Caring for these outdoor plants is easy, as they form compact bushes as they grow. When ripe, Chartreuse F1 may have yellow or white streaks on the skin. The flesh of the young fruit has a pale green color, turning white as it ripens. This is a tasty hybrid meant for canning.

Another green early-ripening hybrid is patisson Gosha. As it develops, it grows on a small plot of land into tall, lush bushes. As a result of flowering, disc-shaped fruits weighing 300-400 g appear. The skin is dark green, darkens as it ripens, turns black.The pulp is crispy, dense, with good taste, has a milky-cream color. The bushes of this hybrid bear fruit for a long time, give good yields.

Select site

The same place for squash in the crop rotation can be used 4-5 years after the last planting on this site of this plant. If the gardener seeks to get a good harvest, it is advisable to plant green manure (predecessors) useful for patisson - various types of cabbage, nightshade, including potatoes, onions, carrots, parsley.

It is not recommended to sow seeds or plant seedlings of this crop in the soil on which related vegetables (zucchini, cucumbers) were previously grown, as cross-pollination is possible. For good germination, the optimal air temperature parameters must be observed: during the day up to +25 °С, about +18 °С at night.

Soil fertilization

Preparation of the site for planting this plant should begin in the fall. You will need to dig deep into the soil, fill it with fertilizer - top dressing of squash in the open field is 50 g of superphosphate per 1 sq. m of land. You will also need to make a choice of manure, compost or peat - 5-7 kg per 1 sq. m. With the advent of spring, you need to scatter the mixture around the garden and dig it up again.

Features of preparing the soil for planting squash are that this crop needs neutral land with pH=6-7. If a site with acidified soils is involved, fertilized exclusively with mineral substances for a long time, the soil in this place must be deoxidized. For this, zoning is used - the introduction of wood ash at the rate of 0.2-0.3 kg per 1 sq. m area. When using deoxidized peat ash, its amount should be increased by about 1.5-2 times.

So that the ash, when applied to the soil, does not turn into forms inaccessible to plants, the autumn deoxidation of the soil with the help of ash must be carried out without mixing with fertilizers, as they enter into a chemical reaction with them. If zoning is used, it is better to apply fertilizer in the spring when planting squash.

It is advisable to apply mineral fertilizers in spring in addition to spring-summer top dressing.

Seed preparation

The germination of squash seeds depends on proper processing before planting in the ground. They must be prepared for sowing, disinfected for 20 minutes in a solution of potassium permanganate. For washing, water at room temperature is used. To increase the germination of seeds, they are kept for 2-3 days in a solution of boric acid, prepared at the rate of 20 mg per 1 liter of water, after which the seed is washed and dried.

Immediately before planting in the ground, the seeds are soaked in water to swell or peck. If there is no time for soaking, you can sow dry.

Preparing seedlings

In order for squash in the open field to adapt faster and begin to bear fruit, they can be transferred to the garden already in the form of seedlings, planting and care does not cause difficulties.

Sow squash seeds for seedlings in the last ten days of April or early May.

Specially prepared soil is poured into specially prepared plastic cups or other dishes, which you can buy at a gardening store or make yourself. This requires turf land mixed with garden, river sand, humus. Mineral fertilizers are added according to the scheme printed on the package.

A couple of seeds are planted in each hole to a depth of about 4 cm and sprinkled with earth, covered with a film to create the effect of a greenhouse.When both sprouts appear, the weaker one is removed. The optimum temperature for growing squash in this way is + 25 ° C during the day and within + 18 ° C at night.

After germination, squash seedlings are opened to lower the temperature. In the morning, the temperature should be up to +18 ° C, at night - about +16 ° C. This will slow down growth and prevent seedlings from stretching. Watering should be rare and insignificant. A week after germination, the temperature should be raised to + 22 … + 25 ° С. Seedlings also need airing, but do not expose them to the street in windy weather.

Plants need periodic feeding during this period. For these purposes, mullein, diluted with water in a ratio of 1:10, infused for a day, is suitable. Water with this mixture 10 days after shoots appear.

Before planting, you can feed the plants with nitrophoska - a complex mineral fertilizer. She is bred according to the recommendations on the package.

In early June, the seedlings, which have 2-3 well-developed leaves, are planted in the garden. Do this in the morning or evening (20-25 days after germination). The wells are watered with a little warm water, planted with a clod of soil in which the seedling grew. The earth around the seedling is compacted and shaded.

Caring for squash

The growing season for patissons is short, so they need to be fed 2 times during the season. If the site was well filled with nutrients during the autumn-spring soil preparation, top dressing can be omitted.

Care for squash is to apply top dressing (organic matter) before the start of mass flowering.Manure, bird droppings are poured with water, infused and applied under the plants. Avoid getting the mixture on the leaves. After soaking up water, the soil is mulched. In the absence of such fertilizers, nitroammofoska is used, nitrophoska at the rate of 50-70 g per 1 sq. m.

The second top dressing with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers (50-60 g per 1 sq. m) is carried out at the beginning of the mass appearance of fruits.

To get a good harvest, you need to know how often to water the squash in the open field. This should be done as the soil dries out so that it constantly remains slightly moist. These plants do not tolerate cold water, only warm water is used. It should not fall on the leaves. After watering, the soil must be mulched to retain moisture.

If fertilizers were applied incorrectly, the leaf part of the squash can grow strongly, which will adversely affect the formation and development of fruits.In this case, you need to remove the oldest sheets that have grown from below. Up to 2 leaves are removed at a time, the procedure can be repeated after 2-3 days.

It is important that the female flowers are well pollinated. You can help the plants - to carry out this procedure artificially. To do this, in the morning you will need to pick a few male flowers (they have longer legs than the female ones). It is important that there is no dew or water from watering on the flowers. The more female flowers dusted in this way, the more seeds will be formed.

Diseases and pests

To prevent whole bushes from being removed in case of squash diseases, biofungicides should be used for tillage and plants:

Alirin.
Gamair.
Trichodermin.
Fitosporin-M.

To obtain a plentiful and he althy harvest, the garden and plants are not recommended to be treated with chemicals.In this case, biofungicides are used 2-3 times a month. These substances do not harm people, birds, plants, so they can be used throughout the growing season, including the beginning of harvest.