Patisson belongs to the pumpkin family. The taste and external texture of this vegetable are similar to those of zucchini, it is created through a natural process of hybridization. Squash, which is not difficult to grow and care for in open ground, is adapted and bears fruit well in various climatic conditions. These healthy vegetables are superior in properties to zucchini; young fruits are saturated with carbohydrates, sugars (glucose), pectin substances, mineral salts and fats.
Varieties of squash
In order for growing squash in open ground to produce a good harvest, you need to choose the right variety suitable 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 its external shape, the color of its bark, and its denser flesh.
Depending on the timing of fruit ripening, squash is divided into types:
- early - fruit ripening occurs 37-50 days after the appearance of the first shoots;
- medium - ready to eat in 55-60 days;
- late - the fruits fully ripen 60-70 days after planting.
If you want squash to delight you with its fruits throughout the summer, you should buy seeds with different ripening periods.
White squash
Among the white squash there are early, medium and late ripening ones. They have a white skin and flesh. But there are varieties that are off-white or greenish inside. All white varieties are universal, suitable for pickling, canning and cooking.
Polo F1 is an early hybrid with compact bushes and flat, round fruits. Their weight can reach 300-400 g. The light green color of the skin turns white as it ripens. The pulp is tasty, dense, suitable for canning and preparing various dishes. The productivity of Polo F1 is consistently high, the variety is resistant to downy mildew.
UFO White is a mid-season squash with fruits resembling bells with rounded-toothed 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 becomes white. The fruit, up to 8 mm in diameter, has tender, tasty pulp in which the seeds are not felt.
The most common is the late variety White 13. It is unpretentious, resistant to cold, and has good yield. It has a plate shape, the edges are framed by faint teeth. The peel is hard, the flesh 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. Compared to other varieties, White 13 squash is considered one of the best for growing in open ground, and is well preserved after harvest.
Yellow and orange squash
To breed this species, white squash was taken as a basis. They have excellent taste and are useful for people suffering from eye and skin diseases. Yellow and orange fruits are rich in vitamin A and lutein, which neutralizes free radicals and is used to prevent vascular pathologies.
The mid-early variety Fuete is popular among farmers - a bush variety with a well-aligned dish-shaped shape and scalloped edges. The average weight of a mature fruit is 270-300 g. Its peel is hard and has a bright yellow-orange color. The bushes grow compactly and produce high yields.
The Solnyshko variety is distinguished by high yield, small fruits, and compact bushiness. 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 beige flesh is soft and delicate in taste. Used for pickling, cooking, storage. The variety is resistant to powdery mildew.
The UFO variety, an early bush squash, has good yield. From one bush you can harvest up to 5 kg of vegetables per season. The weight of the disc-like fruit is 400-450 g. Its peel has a rich yellow-orange color. The dense pulp is low-juicy, has a pleasant taste, and a yellowish tint. Grow UFO squash both in open ground and indoors.
Green squash
Among this variety, it is worth highlighting the dark green hybrid Chartreuse F1, an early variety with glossy fruits. It is easy to care for these plants, planted in open ground, since they form compact bushes as they grow. When ripe, Chartreuse F1 may have yellow or white stripes on the skin. The flesh of the young fruit is pale green, turning white as it ripens. This is a tasty hybrid intended for canning.
Another green early-ripening hybrid is Gosha squash. 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, and becomes black. The pulp is crispy, dense, with good taste, and has a milky cream color. The bushes of this hybrid bear fruit for a long time and produce good yields.
Site selection
The same place for squash in crop rotation can be used 4-5 years after the last planting of this plant in this area. If a gardener strives to get a good harvest, it is advisable to plant green manure (predecessors) that are useful for squash - cabbage of various types, nightshades, including potatoes, onions, carrots, parsley.
It is not recommended to sow seeds or plant seedlings of this crop in soil in which related vegetables (zucchini, cucumbers) were previously grown, since cross-pollination is possible. For good germination, optimal air temperature parameters must be observed: up to +25 °C during the day, about +18 °C at night.
Fertilizing the soil
Preparing the site for planting this plant should begin in the fall. You will need to dig the soil deeply and fill it with fertilizer - fertilizing squash in open ground is 50 g of superphosphate per 1 sq. m. m of land. You will also need to add your choice of manure, compost or peat - 5-7 kg per 1 square meter. m. With the arrival of spring, you need to scatter the mixture around the garden and dig it up again.
The peculiarities of preparing the soil for planting squash are that this crop needs neutral soil with pH = 6-7. If an area with acidified soils, fertilized exclusively with minerals for a long time, will be used, the soil in this place must be deoxidized. For this, insulation is used - adding wood ash at the rate of 0.2-0.3 kg per 1 sq. m. m area. When using deoxidized peat ash, its amount should be increased by approximately 1.5-2 times.
To prevent ash from being added to the soil into forms that are inaccessible to plants, autumn deoxidation of the soil using ash must be carried out without mixing with fertilizers, since they enter into a chemical reaction with them. If isolation is used, it is better to apply fertilizers in the spring when planting squash.
It is advisable to apply mineral fertilizers in the spring in addition to spring-summer fertilizing.
Seed preparation
The germination of squash seeds depends on proper treatment before planting in the ground.They must be prepared for sowing, disinfected for 20 minutes in a solution of potassium permanganate. For washing, use water at room temperature. 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 hatch. If you don’t have time to soak, you can sow dry ones.
Preparing seedlings
In order for squash to adapt faster in open ground and begin to bear fruit, they can be transferred to the garden as seedlings; planting and care do not cause any difficulties.
You need to 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. To do this, you need turf soil mixed with garden soil, river sand, and humus. Mineral fertilizers are added according to the diagram printed on the packaging.
A couple of seeds are planted in each hole to a depth of about 4 cm and covered with soil and covered with film to create a greenhouse effect. When both sprouts appear, the weaker one is removed. The optimal temperature for growing squash in this way is + 25 °C during the day and within +18 °C at night.
After emergence, the squash seedlings are opened to reduce the temperature. In the morning the temperature should be up to +18 °C, at night - about +16 °C. This will slow down the growth rate and prevent the seedlings from stretching out.Watering should be rare and insignificant. A week after germination, the temperature should be raised to +22...+25 °C. Seedlings also need ventilation, but you should not put them outside in windy weather.
During this period, plants also need periodic feeding. For these purposes, mullein is suitable, diluted with water in a ratio of 1:10, infused for 24 hours. You need to water this mixture 10 days after the shoots appear.
Before planting, you can feed the plants with nitrophoska, a complex mineral fertilizer. It is diluted in accordance with the recommendations indicated on the packaging.
At the beginning of June, strong seedlings with 2-3 well-developed leaves are planted in the garden. This is done in the morning or evening (20-25 days after germination). The holes are watered with a little warm water and planted with a lump of soil in which the seedling grew. The soil around the seedling is compacted and shaded.
Caring for squash
The growing season for squash is short, so they need feeding 2 times during the season. If the site was well filled with nutrients during the autumn-spring soil preparation, fertilizing may not be necessary.
Caring for squash consists of applying fertilizing (organic matter) before the start of mass flowering. Manure and bird droppings are filled with water, infused and applied under the plants. Avoid getting the mixture on the leaves. After water is absorbed, the soil is mulched. In the absence of such fertilizers, nitroammophoska is used, nitrophoska at the rate of 50-70 g per 1 sq. m.
The second fertilizing 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 squash in open ground. This must be done as the soil dries so that it remains slightly moist at all times. These plants do not tolerate cold water well; only warm water is used. It should not get on the leaves. After watering, the soil must be mulched to retain moisture.
If fertilizers are applied incorrectly, the leaf part of the squash may grow greatly, which will have a bad effect on the formation and development of the fruit. In this case, you need to remove the oldest leaves 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 female flowers are well pollinated. You can help the plants by carrying out this procedure artificially. To do this in the morning you will need to pick several male flowers (they have longer legs than female ones). It is important that there is no dew or water on the flowers from watering. The more female flowers are dusted in this way, the more seeds will be formed.
Diseases and pests
To avoid having to remove entire bushes in case of squash diseases, you need to use biofungicides to treat the soil and plants:
- Alirin.
- Gamair.
- Trichodermin.
- Fitosporin-M.
To obtain a bountiful and healthy harvest, it is not recommended to treat your garden and plants with chemicals. In this case, biofungicides are used 2-3 times a month. These substances do not harm people, birds, or plants, so they can be used throughout the entire growing season, including the beginning of harvesting.
