Planting zucchini in open ground and growing in a greenhouse

Zucchini is a vegetable of the pumpkin family with delicate pulp, which is used to prepare a variety of dishes and is harvested for the winter in the form of canned foods, pickles, by freezing. Let's talk about how to plant zucchini, what should be the care of plants and what top dressing to use during the growing season and ripening of fruits.

There are many varieties of zucchini - Zucchini, Iskander, Gribovskie and others. There are ordinary varieties, the seeds of which retain their parental qualities, and hybrid (denoted by F1), yielding bountiful yields with high palatability, but their seeds cannot repeat the parental qualities.

All about preparation

You can grow varietal zucchini, for example Zucchini, or hybrid F1, such as early maturing Iskander, by sowing seeds in open ground or planting seedlings. When using the second method, the harvest of greens, which are consumed as food, can be obtained two to three weeks earlier. But it is worth remembering that mature fruits when grown in seedlings are not stored for a long time. When sowing seeds in open ground, mature fruits of zucchini with a hard crust can be stored in a cool, dry room until March.

It is necessary to sow seeds in open ground from the first ten days of May, the main condition is to warm up the soil at a depth of 10 cm to at least 12-13 ⁰C. Seedlings can be planted only after the threat of frost has passed.

Seed preparation for seedlings and for sowing in open ground

Regardless of the method of sowing - in open ground or for seedlings - seed preparation is performed in the same way, and the main method is soaking.

First, the seeds of zucchini, varietal or F1, need to be soaked in warm water for a day. To saturate them with microelements, it is recommended to add an ash solution or a mineral composition containing potassium humate and various microelements to the water when soaking. After soaking, remove the seeds from the water and, wrapping them in a damp cloth, stand for three to four days at a temperature of 22-25 ⁰C, constantly wetting the fabric.

In addition to soaking, there is also a tricky way to prepare seeds of both the Iskander variety and the popular Zucchini for planting - hardening. To do this, the seeds must be placed in the lower drawer of the refrigerator for about 15 hours, and then held at a temperature of 22-23 ⁰From about 10 o'clock. Repeat this procedure two or three times.

After the seeds have formed barely noticeable sprouts after soaking, they can be planted.

Soil preparation

The soil for planting zucchini must be prepared in advance, preferably in the fall. It is also important to know after which vegetable you can plant zucchini, and after which you cannot. Here you must adhere to the basic rule - do not plant zucchini in the place where related crops grew.

In autumn, the site needs to be dug up and fed with mineral and organic fertilizers. You can use ordinary humus for this or compost specially prepared for the summer. Application rate - about 5-10 kg per 1 m² area. Additionally, you need to add superphosphate to the soil at the rate of 30-50 g per m² square and 20-30 g of potassium sulfate.

To reduce the acidity of the soil, a little wood ash should be added to it.

Important!

Zucchini will not grow well on acidic soil. Due to the development of diseases and a lack of trace elements, plants will give poor yields or may even die.

In the spring, the soil is loosened, ammonium nitrate is also added to it (15-20 g per 1 m² area) and align.After that, you can sow zucchini seeds or plant seedlings.

To grow early Iskander zucchini or medium-late varietal Zucchini, you should choose sunny areas protected from cold northerly winds. You cannot plant zucchini in areas where pumpkin seeds were grown in the past two or three years.

Sowing seeds in open ground

How to plant zucchini, for example Zucchini, Gribovskie, Iskander and other varieties, directly into the ground? First of all, you need to correctly determine the landing time. Landing is carried out around the end of May or the beginning of June. It all depends on the specific climatic conditions.

Advice

The timing of planting zucchini should be chosen so that after the emergence of shoots, the threat of return spring frosts has already passed - in some areas this happens only in June.

You need to plant seeds in holes located at a distance of about one meter from each other. The interval can be reduced by 20-30 cm if a bush variety of zucchini is taken for planting.

The holes should be made shallow - about 7-8 cm. Before sowing the seeds, each hole should be well shed with water.

Growing seedlings

To obtain an earlier harvest of zucchini or Iskander marrow, you must use the seedling method. Seeds for planting are prepared by soaking as described above.

It is necessary to grow seedlings in peat pots with a diameter of 8-10 cm. The soil for planting zucchini seeds should be light and nutritious, with a neutral or slightly alkaline reaction. You can prepare the mixture yourself. To do this, adhere to the following ratio of components:

• peat - 50%,
• humus - 20%,
• sod land - 20%,
• sawdust - 10%.

But you can buy a ready-made mixture with the required pH level.

In the pots with the mixture, you need to put the seeds of zucchini, lightly spill the soil with water and cover with a layer of soil about 2 cm. After that, the pots should be covered with polyethylene or put glass on top of them.

Seedling care consists in creating the correct temperature and humidity conditions. In the room where zucchini seeds germinate, the temperature should be maintained at 20-22 ⁰FROM.

When germinating, the distance between the pots can be kept to a minimum. With the emergence of shoots, you need to remove the shelter from the pots and take them to a cool room, well-lit by the sun. The temperature regime of such a room is as follows: 15-18 ⁰Happy day and not less than 13 ⁰From at night. After one week, the pots with seedlings must be transferred to a room with the same temperature - 20-23 ⁰C. With the growth of the culture, the distance between the pots will have to be increased.

Seedling care consists in constant watering and feeding. You need to water with settled water at room temperature. You should always make sure that the soil does not dry out.

You need to fertilize the soil twice.

1. A week after germination. Dissolve 2 g of urea and 6 g of superphosphate in one liter of water. Add half a glass of this mixture to each pot.
2. After another week, a second feeding is carried out. Prepare a mixture at the rate of 1 tsp. nitrophosphate for one liter of water. Each seedling requires one glass of this solution.

After about a month, the seedlings of zucchini are ready for planting on a bed prepared in advance.

Planting seedlings in open ground

Planting zucchini seedlings, including Zucchini, is produced in a soil that is well prepared since autumn using the technology already described above.

You need to plant seedlings in early June, in the southern regions - at the end of May. The main thing is to avoid returnable spring frosts.

Important!

Even with slight frosts, the seedlings of zucchini can die.

The scheme for planting zucchini Gribovskie seedlings is the same as when sowing seeds - the distance between the plants should be about one meter. But for the Zucchini variety, the distance between the plants should be slightly larger. It is necessary to plant in the evening or in cloudy weather so that the bright sunlight does not burn the still delicate leaves of the plants.

In the garden, before planting zucchini begins, you need to make holes with a strictly verified interval between them. Put humus and ash in each of them, thoroughly mixing them with the soil. Then spill the hole well with water and carefully put a peat pot with one seedling in it. After that, carefully cover the pots with earth, slightly pressing down on the soil.

Planting seedlings in a greenhouse

You can plant seedlings in a greenhouse 2-3 weeks earlier than on an open bed. It is May or the end of April - it all depends on the local climatic conditions.

The temperature in the film greenhouse during planting of zucchini seedlings should be 23-25 ⁰Happy day and not less than 14-15 ⁰From at night. It is necessary to lay seedlings in the soil when the soil warms up to 18 ⁰C. It is also important to keep the air humidity around 60-70%.

Planting zucchini seedlings is carried out in prepared soil, well-saturated with organic and mineral fertilizers. The best variety for growing in a greenhouse is Iskander, and the Zucchini variety is also often used. For planting seedlings, you need to prepare shallow holes (about 30 cm) at a distance of 70-80 cm from each other. Each hole is additionally seasoned with compost or peat - 0.5 kg; potassium sulfate - 30 g; superphosphate - 50 g and shed well with warm water. Plant seedlings in the prepared holes and sprinkle well with soil, slightly compacting it in the root zone.

Growing zucchini in a greenhouse consists in constantly maintaining the desired temperature and air humidity, loosening the soil, weeding, feeding.

Green barrel, or a tricky method of growing zucchini

If the land plot is small, you can grow zucchini in tall barrels. Such barrels with planted plants can be placed in different parts of the site, which will eliminate thickening and ensure good heating by the sun.

Before planting the seeds in the barrel, you need to properly prepare the soil for filling it. Any large barrel, for example 200 liters, will work for this growing method. Before filling the barrel, it is imperative to make holes in its bottom for the free flow of excess water. After that, you can start filling the barrel with layers of substrate.

Various branches should be laid on the bottom to create an air gap - a kind of drainage layer that does not allow moisture to accumulate. Then the compost heap will go, which should take about 5-6 cm in the height of the barrel.

The next layer of the same thickness can be any weed, hay, tops. But before laying it, you need to put some ordinary garden soil on the compost. And finally, the last pile of "waste" for filling is sawdust mixed with peat. Before laying them, the tops should also be sprinkled with a small layer of soil.

After that, a small layer of ordinary earth should be added again.

Advice

Before laying the substrate, the barrel must be installed in a stationary place, otherwise it will be impossible to transfer it later due to its heavy weight.

The prepared mixture must be well spilled with water, planted with zucchini seeds and lightly tied with dry soil so that a crust does not form on the surface.

Care and harvest

We have already looked at how to plant zucchini correctly in different ways, in open and closed ground, in a barrel, and now we will figure out how to care for plants in order to get a bountiful harvest.

Care consists in watering, weeding, feeding, loosening the soil.

Advice

It is necessary to loosen the soil near the bush carefully so as not to damage the root system.

The grown zucchini need to be fed two more times.

1. Complex fertilizer - during the flowering period.
2. Phosphorus-potassium composition - with the appearance of the first fruits.

You can harvest when the fruit reaches a size of 15-20 cm and a weight of about 200 g. It is with this size that the vegetable has a thin skin, very small grains and tender pulp.

So, in order for the zucchini to please with a bountiful harvest, it is important to properly prepare the soil, grow healthy seedlings or sow seeds at the right time, and most importantly, provide the plants with sufficient care.