Good afternoon, my reader. Zucchini is a very popular vegetable that is famous for its beneficial properties and pleasant, delicate taste. Originally, only the seeds of this plant were eaten, which are rich in saturated fat and vitamin E. But at the end of the 18th century, Italian chefs began to use the pulp of the plant - since then, many different recipes have been created, the main ingredient of which is zucchini.
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It is quite simple to grow a zucchini in the garden: you can plant the seeds of the plant or ready-made seedlings. The advantage of planting zucchini seedlings is that the plants quickly adapt in the open and in the ground, and this way you can get a bountiful harvest much faster.
How to prepare seeds for planting
To ensure quick shoots, the seeds of any plants of the pumpkin family (which include squash) should be slightly warmed up. It will be enough to put a bag of seeds in a sunny warm place, for example on a windowsill or near a battery, and let them warm up for about 7 days. This will promote the awakening of the seed embryo and activate the growth mechanisms.
The prepared seeds are soaked in water and after 2-3 days they should hatch. After that, you can plant them in a prepared container. Try not to delay planting, otherwise the roots of the zucchini will intertwine and it will be quite difficult to disconnect them without damaging the plant.
Choosing the right container for disembarkation
Zucchini have a fairly developed and powerful root system, so you need to try to choose a spacious container and plant each plant separately. You can use half-liter plastic cups or durable cardboard boxes.
Ideal soil composition
To obtain the optimal soil for the plant, you will need:
- leafy ground (deciduous humus);
- humus;
- peat;
- sawdust
For 1 kg of leafy land, you need to take 1 kg of humus, 0.5 kg of peat and 0.5 kg of sawdust (1: 1: 0.5: 0.5). It is not necessary to clog the landing container too tightly.
How to care for seedlings
Seedlings should be sown in mid-April, then in a month and a half the plants can already be planted in a heated open ground. The seeds that have hatched are buried to a depth of 2-3 cm, while it is advisable to gently straighten the root. After planting the seeds, the soil must be watered. The first shoots should appear in about 4-5 days.
The optimum temperature for seedlings will be 20-23˚С. If this value is exceeded, the seedlings will begin to "stretch". Try to think over a place for seedlings, zucchini love sunlight, the more it gets on the plant, the better.
Watering the seedlings should be quite abundant and prevent the soil from drying out. Don't forget about plant nutrition. You need to start it a week after the seeds have given their first shoots. You need to feed zucchini once a week with complex fertilizer. In the first week, you can give a solution of urea with superphosphate (0.5 tsp. l. of each fertilizer per 1 liter of water), and in the second - fertilizer "Nitrofoska" (1 tsp. l per 1 l of water).
When to plant seedlings in the ground
Plants are ready for planting if they have already acquired two or three good large leaves. A week before disembarkation, seedlings can be taken out into the open air. When the air temperature becomes stable, you can plant seedlings in the garden. To protect the beds from frost or cold lingering rains, they are covered with foil or spunbond.
Do you grow zucchini in the open field?
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