Vegetable crops of the gourd family. Order Cucurbitaceae - Cucurbitales

The pumpkin family unites quite diverse representatives - from the familiar cucumber and zucchini to the very exotic sicana and trichosanth - in total more than a hundred genera and almost a thousand species, mainly growing in tropical countries. However, some of them quite successfully acclimatized in our latitudes, and today they can be found on almost any garden plot central Russia.

Almost all species of the pumpkin family are widely used: some have edible fruits (cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, watermelons), others are suitable for making various vessels and musical instruments (lagenaria), sponges and stuffing material (luffa), hats and mats (chayote) , some species have medicinal properties or are used as ornamental plants.

The most popular cucurbits on our household plots- these are cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins and squash, melons and watermelons are less common. Some Russian amateur vegetable growers successfully grow quite exotic crops of this family, such as anguria, lagenaria, momordica, luffa, etc.

Cucumber is one of the vegetables most loved by Russians. What feast in Russia can do without a crispy cucumber! A native of distant India, known to man at least three thousand years before new era, this vegetable was loved to eat in ancient Egypt and ancient Greece. And in ancient Rome all year round grown in greenhouses. Once from Byzantium to Russia, the cucumber became a real folk favorite. Today, in our country, cucumbers are grown in the summer in the open field, in spring, winter and autumn - in a protected, and simply at home: on window sills, balconies, loggias and verandas.

The round-faced queen of the garden - pumpkin - is a wonderful vegetable crop. For many peoples of the world, this vegetable is a symbol of abundance and prosperity. It is widely cultivated in all countries of the world, on all continents of the Earth, in various climatic conditions. In Russia, three types of pumpkin are most popular - large-fruited pumpkin, hard-barked pumpkin and nutmeg pumpkin. Pumpkin is not only tasty and nutritious, but also healthy vegetable, which has medicinal properties, it is easily absorbed by the body and helps to resist a whole range of various diseases.

No less popular among gardeners are zucchini and zucchini, which are varieties of pumpkin.

Squash tastes little different from asparagus and artichoke, and in canned form resembling porcini mushrooms, are considered even more useful than zucchini. Young patisson fruits have a high nutritional value, they are good and fried, and boiled, and stewed, and pickled. In addition, patissons are very decorative, reminiscent of a plate with jagged edges, a kind of UFO in the garden.

Equipment and materials: herbarium specimens of white stepping stone, cucumber, melon, watermelon, pumpkin, mad cucumber.

Family passport

Genera – 90 (8), species – 700 (9).

Flowers - *♂Ca (5) Co (5) A (5-3) G 0; *♀Ca (5) Co (5) A 0 G (5-3) .

Pollination is by insects.

Fruits - coenocarp: thick-walled berry or pumpkin, less often a box, berry, seeds are distributed by animals.

ZhFR - annual and perennial herbs, lianas.

Distribution - tropical and subtropical regions.

There are no temperate bands in the natural flora.

Cultivated plants - citrus,Cucumis, Cucurbita, Luffa, Melo.

Exercise

Analyze one pumpkin plant - stepping stone, cucumber, melon, watermelon, pumpkin, mad cucumber. Compose description of it, guided by the general scheme.

Sketch the shoot, staminate and pistillate flowers, fruit.

As an example, consider the common pumpkin ( Cucurbita pepo) (Fig. 79), cultivated in the southern and temperate regions of Russia.

The plant is an annual cultivated herbaceous plant. The stems are angular-ribbed or sharp-edged, creeping or climbing with the help of simple spirally twisting tendrils. The stems reach a length of up to 10 m or more. The leaves are arranged alternately, with thickened petioles, simple, five-lobed with sharp lobes. The stems and leaves are covered with stiff hairs (thorns).

Flowers dioecious, actinomorphic, solitary, large. Staminate flowers are often collected in bunches, located on short peduncles in the axils of the leaves. The plant is monoecious. Perianth double. The green five-toothed calyx grows together at the base with a five-blade wheel-shaped corolla. Corolla lobes pointed, straight. Androecium in male flowers consists of 5 stamens attached to the hypanthium, 4 of them grow together in pairs with threads (Fig. 74, 6). In female flowers, the gynoecium is cenocarpous, formed by three fused carpels. Pistil with hairy three-celled lower ovary, short, fused style and three thick stigmas. The formula of the stamen flower is *♂Ca (5) Co (5) A (2)+(2)+1 G 0; pistillate - *♀Ca (5) Co (5) A 0 G (3) . The fruits are large pumpkins, 15-40 cm in diameter, various in shape and color. Seeds are light yellow, with rather large fleshy cotyledons.

Rice. 79. Pumpkin ordinary:

1 - part of a flowering shoot; 2 - diagram of a female flower; 3 - female flower; 4 - pestle; 5 - male flower in section; 6 - androecium; 7 - diagram of a male flower

Ripe, peeled from the remnants of the pulp of the pericarp and dried seeds of cultivated annual plants of pumpkin ordinary, i.e. large ( C. maxima), so nutmeg ( C. moschata) is used as a drug and medicinal raw material.

The large pumpkin has cylindrical, softly pubescent stems. Leaves are five-lobed, reniform, with obtuse rounded lobes, stiffly hairy. Corolla lobes are rounded. The fruits are flattened-spherical. Seeds are large white or yellowish.

Muscat gourd stems are obtuse-faceted, softly pubescent, leaves are 5-7-lobed, round-reniform, with sharp lobes. Corolla lobes pointed, bent. The fruits are elongated with interception in the middle, various in color. Seeds are off-white.

This family includes 130 genera and about 900 species, growing mainly in tropical and subtropical regions from tropical rainforests to deserts. Africa is especially rich in wild-growing pumpkins, as well as Asia and America. In temperate latitudes, there are relatively few representatives of this family. Pumpkin annual or perennial, climbing or creeping herbs, rarely shrubs, with alternate, palmate or pinnate (less often separate) or simple leaves. Most members of the family are equipped with antennae, which are modified shoots.

Flowers are usually unisexual, unisexual or dioecious, rarely bisexual, actinomorphic, solitary or collected in axillary inflorescences - bunches, brushes, panicles, umbrellas. The perianth, together with the base of the filaments, forms a flower tube attached to the ovary; cup is five-lobed. Corolla sympetalous, five-lobed or five-parted (up to dissected), yellow or white, rarely greenish or red. Stamens 2-3-5, very rarely 2, more often 5, of which usually 4 are fused in pairs; sometimes all filaments or anthers of all stamens grow together. The gynoecium consists of 3, rarely 5 or 4 carpels; ovary inferior (sometimes semi-inferior), often three-celled, with numerous ovules in each nest; column with thickened fleshy stigmas.

Academician N. Vavilov recalled that he saw in the desert of Jericho on the shores of the Dead Sea the original cucumbers of the prophets - "gooseberry pumpkin". Their fruits are the size of small plum, covered with thorns, are edible and taste like lightly salted cucumbers: slightly salty.

Cucurbitaceae are mostly insect pollinated plants.

Pumpkin ordinary

Large, well-developed nectaries, filled with very sweet nectar, have such a structure that they are accessible to everyone. Therefore, the flowers of gourds are visited by about 150 species of insects. The flowers of many species do not have a strong aroma and lure pollinators with either large bright yellow corollas (like pumpkin, watermelon, cucumber, etc.), or their petals have the ability to reflect invisible to our eyes ultra-violet rays. The main pollinators of gourds are bees (especially honey bees) and steppe ants, as well as wasps and bumblebees. Insects visit male flowers more often, as pollen serves as an excellent food for insects; it contains more than a hundred useful substances, including proteins, fats and many vitamins. In the vast majority of representatives of the family, the fruits are similar in structure to a berry, but very peculiar, called "pumpkin". Pumpkin, watermelon, melon and cucumber are classic examples of this type of fruit. In pumpkins, sometimes some of the most ripe and viable seeds germinate inside the fruit. As a result, when an overripe fruit cracks, not only seeds fall out of it, but also fully developed seedlings, the roots of which quickly penetrate into loose soil and take root. The most modern classification of the gourd family belongs to the English botanist C. Jeffrey (1980). According to this classification, the family is divided into two subfamilies and 8 tribes.

Pumpkin flower. Photo: Christoslilu

Pumpkin. Photo: Maja Dumat

AT pumpkin family almost no trees. Only one. Since all sorts of botanical rarities are usually found on oceanic islands, the cucumber tree also grows on the island. Socotra Island in the Indian Ocean. Dendrositsios, as the tree is called, is perhaps the furthest from its liana-like ancestors of all gourds. Its seven-meter trunk is not flexible and thin, but swollen: like a cabinet. It is soft and full of water, like a baobab. There is something elephantine in this tree, and it is juicy, like all pumpkin trees. There are absolutely no side branches. Only at the top the trunk suddenly branches into two or three branches. Those, in turn, branch many times. It looks like a lush bush. And only cucumber leaves, rough, rough, with thorns along the edges. And flowers like cucumbers, only collected in large clusters.

Adapting to the difficult conditions of the desert, gourds have developed an original defense. From Africa to India, you can find colocynth - bitter gourd or bitter watermelon, with a completely inedible pulp, tough, dry or bitter. Seeds do not germinate in the light. And not because the light is harmful to them. The reason is more subtle. If the seeds germinated openly, in the light, the rays of the sun would incinerate the tender shoots. If the seed is in the dark, it means that it has fallen into the depths of the soil. Until it breaks through to the light, it will have time to strengthen the spine. Such a shoot will not die.

Large subfamily Cucurbitaceae (Gucurbitoideae) contains 7 tribes, including 110 genera. One of the most primitive representatives of the gourd subfamily is the genus Telfairia (Telfairia), belonging to the tribe Joliffieae. The same tribe includes the genera Momordica and Tladiantha. The paleotropical genus of momordica includes about 45 species, most of which are annual climbing vines with a thin stem and long-leaved leaves, cultivated in the tropical countries of Asia. In the genus Tladianta, there are about 15 species growing in the Eastern and South- East Asia.

To another tribe (benincasae tribe - Benincaseae) include genera acanthosicyos (Acanthosicyos, 2 species), mad cucumber (Ecballium. monotypic genus), watermelon (Citrullus) and others. Akanthositsios is a typical desert plant with tendrils turned into spines and a thick, sometimes very long root. Of the other genera of the same tribe, watermelon (Citrullus) must be mentioned first of all. These are annual or perennial pubescent creeping herbs with dissected leaves. The flowers are large, solitary, unisexual or bisexual; sepals and their petals grow together at the base. Corolla yellow, stamens 5. Stigma three-lobed, ovary three-celled. The fruit is a multi-seeded juicy pumpkin with flat seeds. Watermelon is common in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The genus includes 3 species: edible watermelon, colocynth, whiskerless watermelon, the range of which is limited to the Namib Desert region in Southwest Africa. The tendrils of this plant are completely reduced. The same tribe, in addition to watermelon, includes the genera Bryonia, Lagenaria, or gourd (Lagenaria), Benincasa, and some others. The genus step includes 12 species growing in the Canary Islands, the Mediterranean, Europe, the Front and Central Asia. These climbing perennial tall plants can be found in the Caucasus and Central Asia among shrubs, on forest edges, in ravines, and also as weeds near hedges and walls. The antennae of the feet have a particularly fine sensitivity to the touch of solid objects, which causes them to grow very rapidly and bend towards the stimulus. In a relatively short period of time, the tendrils tightly wrap around the support, reliably holding the weight of the heavy mass of the plant. Small inconspicuous flowers of the step, collected in sparse inflorescences, almost do not stand out against the background of the leaves and smell very weakly, however, insects willingly visit them, attracted by the ultraviolet pattern of the corolla, invisible to our eyes. In the pumpkin family, only representatives of this genus have a fruit that is a real berry. Numerous small seeds of the footstep are covered with strong and strong armor. The embryo of the seed that has passed through the bird's digestive tract remains intact and capable of germination. Overripe berries of the footstep are crushed at the slightest touch, and the seeds are glued with mucus to the skin of the animal that touched them, thus spreading too. Some species of the genus are poisonous plants, some are used in a number of countries as medicinal. Berries and roots containing glycosides brionin and brionidine are especially poisonous.

To the gourd tribe (Cucurbiteae) includes 12 genera, including the pumpkin genus, which has about 20 species that grow wild exclusively in America. Some of them have long been introduced into culture. To date, there are a huge number of varieties of food, fodder and ornamental pumpkins. Representatives of the genus - perennial or annual herbaceous plants with a rounded or faceted stem, often prostrate, sometimes climbing. The genus Luffa occupies a somewhat isolated position in the gourd tribe, having much in common with the next cyclanther tribe. There are 5 species in the genus.

To the cyclanther tribe (Cyclanthereae) includes 12 genera, growing mainly in the tropical and subtropical zone. In all representatives of these genera, the stamen filaments are fused, the fruits are prickly, often opening. An example is the large American genus Echinocystis, which unites about 15 species, with white small monoecious flowers. Another interesting genus of the tribe is cyclantera, which includes about 15 species. All of them grow in Central and tropical South America. These are herbaceous climbing plants with pubescent stems and five-seven-lobed leaves. Yellow, green or white flowers without nectaries. therefore, plants are pollinated mainly by the wind. Ripe fruits are suddenly opened by two valves, each of which is folded back with force. As a result, the seeds are scattered over quite considerable distances. The Sicyosovye tribe (Sicyoeae) is characterized by female flowers with a single-celled, less often three-celled ovary; stamens of male flowers fused, with sinuous anthers. To the tribe belong 6 genera, of which the most interesting are Sitsios (Sicyos) and Chayote (Sechium). The genus Sitsios includes about 15 species that grow in the Hawaiian Islands, Polynesia, Australia and tropical America. Most of them are vine-like annual herbs with alternate, slightly lobed or angular thin leaves. The genus Schizopepone (Schizopepon), which forms a separate tribe of Schizopeponeae (Schizopeponae), has only 5 species, is distributed from North India to East Asia.

To the Trichosanth tribe (Trichosaiitheae) includes 10 genera. All are characterized by long tubular flowers with fringed or entire petals. The fruits are cylindrical or trihedral, often non-opening or opening into three equal parts. The most famous is the genus Trichosanpes, which includes about 15 species distributed in Southeast Asia and Australia. The morphological structure of these plants is common for most gourds - a liana-like appearance, wide lobed leaves, unisexual flowers; men's are collected in a rare brush, and women's are single. Often the petals are spirally bent inward, which is why the long-tubular flowers take on several unusual view. Unripe fruits are edible, so some of these species are introduced into the culture. In addition, mature fruits are often very showy, which, together with the abundant lush greenery of the leaves, makes the plants very decorative. Also interesting is the monotypic Indo-Malaysian genus Hodgson, close to Trichosanthes.

To the tribe Melotriae (Melothrieae) 34 genera belong, including the genus cucumber, represented by more than 25 species, distributed mainly in Africa. Only a few species are found in Asia. A number of species are cultivated as food plants for their edible fruits. Other interesting genera of the tribe include corallocarpus, melotria, and kedrostis. The genus kedrostis (about 35 species) is distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Madagascar, tropical Asia and Malesia. In the steppes of South Africa, one can often find creeping liana-like, densely pubescent, gray-green, herbaceous plants belonging to the genus Kedrostis creeping along the ground.

Subfamily Zanonievye (Zanonioideae) includes 18 genera, which are combined into one tribe. Most of the plants of this subfamily live in countries of the tropical and subtropical belt. The monotypic Iido-Malaysian genus Zanonia characterizes the entire subfamily most fully. Its flowers are dioecious with a two-three-celled ovary; fruits - hairy club-shaped boxes, when ripe, opening with a lid, scattering light winged oblate seeds that are spread by the wind over long distances. The actinostemma genus, numbering about 6 species, is distributed in East Asia and the Himalayas. All of them are perennial herbaceous vines with climbing stems. One of the species is found within Russia.

pumpkin vegetables

What are pumpkin vegetables

pumpkin vegetables- This vegetable plants belonging to the Pumpkin family, in which the fruit is used as food - pumpkin. Watermelon, melon and some types of pumpkin are melon crops (melon is a special field with sandy or loamy soils in arid steppe regions, where there is a lot of sun, high air temperature, no shade and other plants, except for the cultivated crop).

To pumpkin vegetables include the following vegetable crops:

vegetable marrow

common cucumber

watermelon

luffa (bast gourd)

common pumpkin

patisson (dumpling gourd)

chayote edible (Mexican cucumber)

wax gourd (benikaza, winter gourd)

momordica dioecious (prickly gourd, cantola)

Peruvian cucumber (edible cyclantera)

Antillean cucumber (anguria, horned cucumber, watermelon cucumber, hedgehog cucumber)

Chinese bitter gourd (momordica charantia, bitter cucumber)

kiwano (African cucumber, horned melon)

snake gourd (Trichozantus serpentine, snake cucumber)

Tladianta dubious (red cucumber)

cassabanana (scented sicana, musky cucumber, fragrant pumpkin)

gourd (common lagenaria, calabash, calabash, calabash, bottle gourd, table gourd)

melotria rough (mouse watermelon, mouse melon, Mexican sour cucumber, Mexican miniature watermelon, sour gherkin)

What is in pumpkin vegetables:

Vegetable	calorie content	Carbohydrates, proteins, fats	vitamins	Minerals	Additionally
Cucumber		Proteins - 0.8 g, fats - 0.1 g, carbohydrates - 2.5 g.	Carotene, vitamins PP, C and group B, K, choline, biotin	A wide range of macro- and microelements (magnesium, sodium, calcium, copper, selenium, phosphorus, chlorine, iodine, manganese, zinc, iron, cobalt, aluminum, chromium, molybdenum). Especially a lot of potassium.	Contains 95-97% water. There are few nutrients (up to 5%), of which half are sugars. The glycoside cucurbitacin gives cucumbers a bitter taste. Dietary fiber - 1 g.
Pumpkin		Fats - 0.1 g Proteins - 1 g Carbohydrates - 4.4 g	Vitamins C (8 mg /%), B1, B2, B5, E, PP, carotene - 5-12 mg per 100 g of wet weight (more than in carrots), nicotinic acid, folic acid,	Copper, cobalt, zinc, salts of potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron.	The fruit pulp contains sugars (from 3 to 15%), starch (15-20%), dietary fiber 2 g. From sugars - glucose, fructose, sucrose.
vegetable marrow		Fats - 0.3 g Proteins - 0.6 g Carbohydrates - 4.6 g	Vitamins (mg%): C - 15, PP - 0.6, B1 and B2 - 0.03 each, B6 - 0.11, carotene - 0.03. In terms of carotene content, yellow-fruited varieties of zucchini surpass even carrots.	Rich in potassium - 240 mg%, iron - 0.4 mg%. Contains sodium, magnesium, phosphorus, calcium.	Organic acids - 0.1 g. Dietary fiber 1 g.
Squash		Proteins - 0.6 g. Fats - 0.1 g. Carbohydrates - 4.3 g.	Vitamins PP, B1, B2, C.	Potassium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus, calcium, iron.	Dietary fiber - 1.32 g.
Watermelon		Carbohydrates 5.8 g Fats 0.1 g Proteins 0.6 g	Vitamins - thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid, carotene - 0.1-0.7 mg /%, ascorbic acid - 0.7-20 mg /%, B6, PP, C, biotin, folic acid.	Calcium - 14 mg /%, magnesium - 224 mg /%, sodium - 16 mg /%, potassium - 64 mg /%, phosphorus - 7 mg /%, iron in organic form - 1 mg /%;	The pulp contains 5.5 - 13% of easily digestible sugars (glucose, fructose and sucrose). By the time of ripening, glucose and fructose predominate, sucrose accumulates during the storage of watermelon. Acids - 0.1 g (citric, malic). Dietary fiber - 0.4 g.
Melon		Proteins - 0.6 g. Fats - 0.3 g. Carbohydrates - 7.4 g.	Vitamins C (5-29 mg%), PP, groups B, E, carotene, P, folic acid.	Iron, potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, cobalt, sulfur, copper, phosphorus, chlorine, iodine, zinc, fluorine

A bit of botany

Pumpkin vegetables belong to the flowering plant family of the same name, which is represented by annual or perennial herbs that overwinter with the help of root tubers or the lower parts of the stem; rarely shrubs and subshrubs.

Plants of the gourd family are characterized by stems creeping along the ground with tendrils clinging to a support or landscape elements, hard or hairy petiolate simple leaves, single axillary or flowers collected in an inflorescence, and pumpkin fruit.

Pumpkin - a fruit characteristic of this family of plants - a berry-like multi-seeded fruit with a usually hard outer layer, a fleshy middle and a juicy inner. The outer layer of pumpkin is not always woody, as in cucumber and melon it is fleshy.

Pumpkin is different from a berry large quantity seeds and the structure of the pericarp, this type of fruit is formed only from the lower ovary and includes three carpels. Pumpkin in some plants reaches a very impressive size.

Vegetable gourd plants belong to several botanical genera gourd family:

Genus Pumpkin.
Pumpkin ordinary - an annual herbaceous plant with large smooth oval or spherical fleshy pumpkin fruits, covered with a hard crust and containing numerous seeds. Pumpkin keeps well.
Zucchini is a bush variety of common pumpkin with cylindrical or oblong fruits of green, yellow, cream, black or white color. The surface of the fruit is smooth, warty or ribbed. The most delicious young fruits of 7-10-day ovary with uncoarse seeds. Zucchini is one of the most common varieties of zucchini.
Patisson (dish pumpkin) is a variety of common pumpkin, an annual herbaceous plant cultivated everywhere. The fruits of the plant are plate-shaped or bell-shaped with serrated edges; yellow, white, green, orange. For food, young fruits are used, 5-7-day-old ovaries with dense pulp and uncoarse seeds.

The fruits of pumpkin, zucchini and patisson are usually eaten after heat treatment: stewed, boiled, fried, baked. Pumpkin is used to make puree for baby food; from zucchini and pumpkin - caviar. Squash and zucchini canned and pickled.

Rod Cucumber.
Cucumber ordinary (cucumber sowing) has a juicy multi-seeded, green color, usually with pronounced pimples fruit. Cucumber fruits of 5-7 day old ovary with underdeveloped seeds are used for food. As it matures, the skin becomes rougher, the seeds hard, and the flesh tasteless. Cucumber is usually eaten raw, added to salads, canned, salted, pickled.
Melon is a melon culture, in our understanding it is more a fruit than a vegetable. The fruit of the melon has a spherical or elongated shape, green, yellow, brownish or white in color. The weight of the melon fruit reaches 10 kg. Ripe fruits are used for food, it takes 2-6 months for a melon to ripen. Melon contains up to 18% sugars. Melon is often eaten raw, candied fruits are also made from it, dried.
Anguria (Antillan cucumber, horned cucumber, watermelon cucumber, hedgehog cucumber) is a cultivated plant of the American Indians growing in the tropics and subtropics. It has small (up to 8 cm long, 4 cm in diameter, weight 30-50 grams) cylindrical fruits covered with fleshy soft spikes. Young green fruits are similar in taste to a regular cucumber. Ripe yellow-orange fruits are not edible.
Kiwano (African cucumber, horned melon) is a herbaceous vine cultivated in America, New Zealand, Israel. The fruits look like a small oval melon with soft sparse spikes. Fruit weight up to 200 grams. Ripe fruits are yellow, orange or red, the pulp is green jelly-like with numerous light green seeds up to 1 cm long, the peel is hard and inedible. The taste of kiwano is reminiscent of banana and cucumber. Eat fresh, add to milk and fruit cocktails, salads, canned. Rich in vitamin C and B vitamins.
pumpkin vegetables
Rod Luffa.
Usually, washcloths, filters, rugs, and insulating materials are made from the fruits of plants of this genus. As vegetables, annual creepers of Egyptian luffa and sharp-ribbed luffa are cultivated.
Egyptian luffa (cylindrical luffa), cultivated in countries with a tropical and subtropical climate, has smooth, ribless, cylindrical or club-shaped fruits up to 50-70 cm long, 6-10 cm in diameter.
Luffa sharp-ribbed (faceted luffa), growing in Pakistan and India and introduced to a number of other countries, has a club-shaped fruit with protruding longitudinal ribs, up to 30-35 cm long, 6-10 cm in diameter.

The pulp of young fruits is juicy and slightly sweet, reminiscent of cucumber in taste. As the luffa fruit ripens, its flesh becomes dry and fibrous. Young fruits are eaten raw, stewed, boiled, canned.

Rod Chayote.
Chayote edible (Mexican cucumber) is a perennial climbing plant, reaching 20 meters in length, cultivated in countries with tropical and subtropical climates. Chayote edible forms up to 10 root tubers with white pulp weighing up to 10 kg. Fruits are round or pear-shaped with a thin, strong skin; whitish, light yellow or green; 7-20 cm long and weighing up to a kilogram. Inside the fruit is one white flat-oval seed 3-5 cm in size. The pulp of the fruit is sweetish juicy, rich in starch. All parts of the plant are edible. Most often, unripe fruits are eaten (stewed, boiled, raw added to salads). The seeds are roasted. The tubers are cooked like potatoes. Since chayote edible tubers are used for food, it can also be classified as a tuber vegetable.
Rod Watermelon.
Watermelon is an annual herbaceous plant, melon culture. The fruit of the watermelon is spherical, oval; fruit color from white and yellow to dark green with a pattern in the form of stripes or spots; the flesh is very juicy, sweet, often red, pink or crimson, rarely yellow or whitish. Watermelon pulp contains up to 13% of easily digestible sugars. Watermelon is eaten raw as a fruit, rarely salted.
Rod Benicaz.
Benikaza (wax gourd, winter gourd) is a herbaceous vine cultivated in the countries of South, Southeast, East Asia. The fruits are spherical or oblong in shape, large, on average 35 cm in length, but reach 2 meters. Young fruits are velvety, as they ripen, they are covered with a wax coating, so that they can be stored for a long time. Wax gourd is eaten raw, candy and sweets are made from it, boiled. The seeds are eaten roasted, the young greens can be used in salads.
Rod Momordica.
Momordica charantia (bitter cucumber, Chinese bitter gourd) is an annual herbaceous vine grown in areas with a warm climate, mainly in South and Southeast Asia. Fruits of medium size (10 cm long, 4 cm in diameter) with a rough surface, wrinkled warty. The shape of the pumpkin is oval, spindle-shaped. Unripe green fruits with dense, juicy, crisp, pale green flesh have a bitter taste. As they ripen, the fruits become bright yellow or orange, becoming even more bitter. Unripe fruits are eaten, which are soaked for several hours in salt water before stewing or boiling to remove bitterness. Young fruits are preserved. Young shoots with flowers and leaves are stewed. The fruit contains a large number of iron, calcium, potassium and carotene.
Momordica dioecious (prickly gourd, cantola) is another edible cultivated momordica that grows in India. Its fruits are oval-round, warty, turning yellow or orange as they ripen. Fruits are eaten boiled, fried. The fruit is rich in carotene, calcium, phosphorus.
Genus Lagenaria.
Common lagenaria (gourd, calabash, calabash, calabash, bottle gourd, table gourd) is an annual liana of the subtopic and tropical zone, cultivated in Africa, China, South Asia, South America, the young fruits of which are eaten, and vessels are made from old ones, dishes, smoking pipes, musical instruments (the instrument is called "bark"). Unripe fruits with loose pulp and a bitter taste are used for food. The seeds are used to make edible oil.
Rod Cyclantera.
Edible cyclantera (Peruvian cucumber) comes from South America, cultivated in the tropics and subtropics. Small oval, narrowed at both ends, fruits (length 5-7 cm, diameter 3 cm) with thick juicy walls and 8-10 black seeds in the inner cavity are eaten young (when the skin of the fruit is green). When ripe, the pumpkin becomes cream or pale green. Salads are made from raw fruits, or the vegetable is consumed stewed. Young shoots and flowers are also used as food.
Genus Trichozant.
Trichosanth serpentine (snake gourd, snake cucumber) is a herbaceous vine cultivated in the tropics and subtropics of Australia, South and Southeast Asia. The fruit is very long, reaches up to 1.5 meters in length and up to 10 cm in diameter, in the process of growth it often acquires bizarre curves. The color of the ripe fruit is orange, the skin is thin, the flesh is red, slimy, tender. A very popular pumpkin vegetable in Asian cuisine. The greens of the plant (leaves, stems, tendrils) are used in cooking as a green vegetable for salads.
Genus Melotria.
Rough melotria (mouse melon, mouse watermelon, Mexican sour cucumber, Mexican miniature watermelon, sour gherkin) is a perennial herbaceous vine, sometimes cultivated for small (2-3 cm in length) edible fruits that taste like cucumbers. The fruits are eaten unripe. In addition to round-oval green-striped pumpkin fruits, the plant produces edible tubers comparable in size and shape to sweet potato tubers. Tuber weight reaches 400 grams. Tubers, to taste something between a radish and a cucumber) are used in salads, the fruits are eaten raw, canned, pickled.
Genus Tladianta.
Tladianta dubious (red cucumber) is a perennial herbaceous vine that grows in the Russian Far East, Primorsky Krai, Northeast China. Cultivated to a limited extent as an edible and ornamental plant. Ripe fruits are similar in size and shape to small cucumbers, only soft red with barely noticeable stripes. The pulp of the fruit is sweet, contains many small dark seeds. Ripe fruits are removed ripe at the end of September. Eat raw, make jam, jam. Green fruits can be preserved in the same way as cucumbers.
Rod Sikana.
Cassabanana (scented sicana, musky cucumber, fragrant pumpkin) is a large herbaceous vine cultivated in the tropical zone of the South and Central America. Ripe fruits are red, orange, burgundy or purple, elongated, slightly curved, large (up to 60 cm long, 11 cm in diameter and weighing up to 4 kg) with a glossy smooth peel. Flesh orange or yellow color, very sweet and juicy, has a taste of melon. In the center of the fruit is a fleshy core with many oval seeds. Young pumpkin sicana are eaten raw in salads, fried, added to soups and meat dishes. From ripe fruits, you can cook jam, make jam, but it is most delicious to eat raw. Well kept.

The use of pumpkin vegetables

Pumpkin vegetables are quite widely used in nutrition. They are stewed, baked, fried, eaten raw, added to salads, pickled and salted, and even caviar and mashed potatoes are made. Pumpkin and zucchini are widely used in children's and dietary nutrition. Some cucurbits (such as watermelon, melon, and ripe cassabanana) are eaten as fruits. Pumpkin vegetables are rich in vitamin C, carotene, contain B vitamins, trace elements.

AT medicinal purposes pumpkin vegetables are used more often to improve metabolism and digestion and activity gastrointestinal tract as diuretic and choleretic. Cucumber is actively used in cosmetology as a component of lotions and creams, it helps the skin get rid of acne and makes it velvety. Pumpkin seeds and edible cyclantera seeds have an anthelmintic effect.

Pumpkin fruits, tops and old tubers of chayote are used in animal husbandry as feed. Zucchini fruits are also used to feed poultry and some livestock.

Parts of pumpkin plants are also used for non-food purposes. So, hats and mats are woven from the stems of chayote and gourd, and washcloths are made from luffa. Bottle gourds are still used to make dishes, as well as smoking pipes, musical instruments, and souvenirs.

Many plants of the gourd family are climbing vines that can cling to a support with their tendrils. Therefore, some plants (for example, Peruvian cucumber) are used as decorative street bindweeds, to create shady arbors and decorate balconies and walls of buildings.

Additionally

Order Gourds - Cucurbitales

Cucurbitaceae family - Cucurbitaceae

The family includes mainly herbaceous plants, less often - shrubs. They are distributed mainly in the tropics of both hemispheres. Pumpkin with edible fruits: watermelons, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins - are cultivated by man very widely. Watermelon is the most drought-resistant of all pumpkins, and in our country the best varieties of it are bred in the south: in the Volga region, the southern steppe regions and in Central Asia. This is not surprising, since the closest relative of cultivated watermelons is common watermelon(Citrullus vulgaris) grows in African deserts - Kalahari, etc. In the dry regions of Iran, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, another type of watermelon lives - coloquint(Citrullus colocynthis), whose bitter fruits are of medicinal value.

We will study the structure of flowers and fruits in gourds with several examples.

Rice. 113. Pumpkin family. Cucumber seed (Cucumis sativus): 1 - part of the flowering shoot; 2 - pistillate flower (corolla cut); 3 - stamen flower in section. Pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo): 4 - cross section of the pumpkin ovary. Stepping stone (Bryonia): 5 - normal and 6 - double (fused from two) stamens. Coloquint (Cyrtullus colocynthis): 7 - double stamen; 8 - androecium and gynoecium of pumpkin; 9 - diagrams of pumpkin flowers (original five-membered flowers are shown)

Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) (Fig. 113, 1, 2, 3). For classes, herbarium specimens of a plant in flowers, flowers and young (taken immediately after flowering) fruitlets stored in alcohol are needed.

Pumpkin plants: fruit and ornamental

In addition to the usual equipment, a razor is also needed here. Examining the herbarium sample, we note the following:

1) recumbent pentahedral stems, which often give adventitious roots at the nodes and take root;

2) simple, unbranched antennae, which is a very important generic feature of cucumber and melon, in contrast to watermelon and pumpkin, which have branched antennae;

3) leaves are heart-shaped at the base, five-lobed, and, unlike melon, the lobes of cucumber leaves are sharp;

4) stems and petioles of leaves, pedicels and ovaries of flowers coarsely hairy;

5) the flowers are dioecious, the staminate ones sit in bunches, and the pistillate ones are more often solitary in the axils of the leaves.

Having laid the pistillate flower on the magnifying glass table, we will examine it and, having placed the YUHOcular, we will get acquainted with the thorns covering the surface of the ovary and cucumber fruit.

These spikes turn out to be modified hairs, at the base of which are swollen cells that look like warts. At the top of each of them there is a point - strong, even a little lignified. This is why young cucumbers are often prickly. If we look at the hairs covering the calyx, we will see that their main cells are much thinner, the hairs are multicellular and less rigid than those on the ovary.

We now turn to the analysis of the perianth. The calyx and corolla are fused together. The number of sepals and corolla lobes is five, the flowers are yellow. To consider internal structure flower, open its tube with a needle and unfold it. In the center of the female flower, we will see a short massive column with the same massive three-lobed stigma at the top. It should be noted that each lobe of the stigma is bifid, in turn, so it gives the impression of a six-blade past. Considering the blades of the stigma, we note what a huge perceiving surface it has! All six of its massive processes are covered with a thick layer of papillae. At the base of the corolla tube, we notice a white massive corrugated ring - these are nectar scales along with an underdeveloped androecium that has adhered to them.

The last stage of our work with the female flower will be the analysis of its ovary. The easiest way to understand its structure is on sections of young fruitlets. Take such a fruit and cut it across a little above the middle. Then we trim the edge of the lower half of the fruit with a razor and make a thin transverse cut as possible. The study will be carried out in a drop of water at 20 X magnifier eyepiece.

At the first glance at the cut, it will seem to us that the ovary is three-celled. However, having examined it carefully, we note that each nest is still divided in half by a very thin film(usually poorly visible on the sections of the ovary of the flower). The ovary is six-celled, although these secondary septa are often incomplete. On diagrams of cucurbit flowers, they are indicated by a dotted line. Consider seedlings. Each of them protrudes into the ovary and bifurcates at its outer wall, its ends are bent to the side, and the ovules are located on them. As a result, each placenta looks like an umbrella in section. The fruit of the cucumber is berry-like, the so-called pumpkin.

After the work just done, the analysis of the male flower of the cucumber will no longer present great difficulties. Let's open and unroll his tube. The sepals and lobes of the corolla are also among the five, and the pubescence is less rigid than the female flower. The receptacle is saucer-shaped, stamens are located on it, often fused with anthers into a common head. When the flower unfolds, the stamens separate from each other and turn out to be consisting of three groups: two large and one smaller. There are only five stamens here, four of them are fused in pairs, and one is free.

We will take a closer look at this free stamen. The staminate filament is short, wide, its anthers are long; they are w-shaped but bent and fit on a wide connection. The liaison at its top gives a large bipartite outgrowth. The anthers are two-celled and open with a longitudinal slit, and at their edges, adherent to the connective, a dense brush of hairs is visible. These hairs are sticky, their secretions, dirtying the insect, contribute to the adhesion of pollen to its body. In the center of the male flower, around an underdeveloped pistil, there are five callous thickenings, sometimes significantly merged with each other, and only three tubercles protrude on an annular swollen base - these are nectaries.

The birthplace of cucumber and melon is India.

Pumpkin(Cucurbita pepo). Huge pumpkin flowers are easy to study. It is better to harvest them in the form of buds (male and female). Pumpkin flowers are axillary, solitary. By examining them, we note the following:

1) In male flowers, the stamens are also fused into groups: 2 + 2 + 1 (free). However, this is noticeable only at the base of their massive threads, where there are small holes between them - windows leading into the flower. The upper part of the stamen filaments and all their anthers have grown together into one large column, dotted on the surface with loop-like pollen sacs.

Then we open the stamen tube with a needle and bend the stamens to the side. At the top of the receptacle, around the immature pistil, we will see a nectar roller, the passage to which for insects is possible only through the windows remaining at the base of the stamen column. The process of accretion of the stamens in the gourd, therefore, has gone further than we have seen it in the cucumber. To make sure that three groups of stamens have grown together here, we cut the stamen tube across, slightly above its base, and we will see that the tube consists, as it were, of three bundles of stamen filaments adhering to each other.

2) The structure of the pistillate flower is the same as in the previous species.

With male pumpkin flowers, it is also good to compare watermelon flowers, in which you can find stamens that are in various stages of fusion with each other: 2 + 2 + 1; 2+1+1+1; 3 + 2. In the female flowers of watermelons, the rudiments of stamens are also frequent, and in the male flowers one can see an underdeveloped and even lobed stigma. Bisexual flowers are found in melons. We can therefore conclude that in gourds dioeciousness is a secondary phenomenon. Flower formulas: male - K (5) C (5) A (2) + (2) + 1; female - K (5) C (5) G- (3).

Rice. 114. Bellflower family. Spreading bell (Campanula patula): 1 - flowering shoot; 2 — a longitudinal section of a flower (petals and a part of stamens are removed); 3 - successive stages of development of stamens and pistil; 4 - mature box. Mountain beetle (Jasione montana): 5 - inflorescence. Ostrovskaya majestic (Ostrowskya magnifica): 6 - flower and box; 7 - diagram of the flower bellflower

Having studied the herbaceous forms of gourds, we can conclude that their stems are climbing or recumbent - lashes clinging with the help of tendrils growing from the axils of the leaves (i.e., tendrils of stem origin). characteristic feature family is also the dominance of dioecious flowers, and pumpkin can be both monoecious and dioecious. The ovary is always lower with lateral parietal (parietal) placenta. The pistil is most often formed by three fused carpels.

Hello dear friends! Even people far from science are well aware of such a botanical family as Pumpkin, because representatives of this family are plants that are familiar to every person from childhood.

The history of human civilization owes a lot to vegetable pumpkin cultures: both in the Old World, and in pre-Columbian America, and on various oceanic islands, they were used as one of the most important elements of food, in addition, as a medicine, as well as for making dishes and even musical instruments, toys.

Originally from the warm tropics and subtropics, the Cucurbitaceae family gradually moved to more northern regions as horticulture developed. With the advent of capital greenhouses, it became possible to cultivate some tropical vegetables even in the Far North.

traditional cultures

Which plants belong to the botanical family Cucurbitaceae? First of all, vegetables familiar to us, widely cultivated in vegetable gardens - pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini (including zucchini), squash.

In addition, melons and melons that are allocated to a special group are melons and watermelons. Sometimes they also grow kruknek - a special kind of pumpkin, more like a zucchini (with curved, warty fruits). Original decorative pumpkins are in great fashion.

Exotics

The list of useful representatives of pumpkin will not be complete without mentioning more exotic members of the family. They can be successfully grown in our gardens and summer cottages: in warm regions - even by direct sowing in open ground, in more northern regions - through seedlings and in greenhouses.

These are the original herbaceous vines, which are usually planted for decorative purposes, although they are all edible to some extent.

Particularly interesting are

(distinguish between bottle and pole-shaped) - one of the fastest growing,

edible cyclantera (Peruvian cucumber) and exploding cyclantera,
squirting cucumber,
chayote (Mexican cucumber)
(horned cucumber, aka Antillean cucumber, watermelon cucumber),
(Indian pomegranate),
trichozant (Japanese is especially interesting),
(wax gourd).

Enthusiasts also cultivate the Armenian cucumber (serpentine melon), various varieties cucumbers, cucumber-"lemon" Crystal apple and other bizarre vegetables of the numerous gourd family.

It is impossible not to mention another original pumpkin culture- loofah. Its immature fruits are eaten, and those that have reached biological ripeness are boiled, obtaining excellent fibrous washcloths, valued for their naturalness and excellent massage properties.

Aggressor - red cucumber

In the original natural environment various plants of the gourd family are annual and perennial. In perennial species, special tubers often form in the underground part. On our land, we grow all pumpkins as annuals. But there is one unusual exception.

The Far East is the birthplace of the northernmost member of the family, (otherwise called the red cucumber), whose tubers are able to overwinter in northern latitudes.

This is a real aggressor, the underground part of which is growing rapidly and capturing large living spaces.

Bringing such a miracle into the garden is very simple, but getting rid of it is not easy. True, the tladianta is very decorative, looks great on trellises and near walls well lit by the sun.

Every year, powerful grassy vines grow from overwintered underground nodules, often 3 or even 6 meters long, densely covered with pubescent leaves in the shape of hearts.

It blooms almost all summer with small yellowish flowers. With manual pollination, quite a lot of original bright red cucumber fruits, quite edible, freshish in taste, can be tied.

They had a common ancestor

Modern sciences (molecular and evolutionary botany, paleobotany, genetics) prove that each family from the diverse kingdom of flora has its own special distant ancestor. It is from him that the descendants inherit specific General characteristics- such as the formula of a flower (its structure), the characteristics of fruits and seeds, the shape of the stem and foliage, etc.

If we talk briefly about the Pumpkin family, then its representatives are characterized by:

superficial nature of the branched root system,
stem herbaceous, often hollow, with hard fibers, liana-like, creeping or climbing, often with tendrils,
leaf simple, with petiole, usually pubescent,
flowers are most often unisexual (separately male and female), more often solitary (less often in an inflorescence), with five petals, do not differ in color diversity: mostly yellow (but there are also white, light green, reddish).

multi-seeded fruit; earlier science attributed it to berries, and modern botany introduced a specialthe term "pumpkin",
seeds are dicotyledonous.

The main features of agricultural technology

All pumpkins love:

heat, heat and again heat - both in the air and in the root zone;
abundance of sunlight;
moderately humidified air and soil (only gourds prefer drier);
loose, very nutritious, neutral (without excessive acidity) soil.

nutritional value

All pumpkins have a low calorie content, are suitable for baby and diet food (including for diabetics), rarely cause allergies (except for some orange pumpkins).

The fruits carry the most powerful charges of carotenoids - the most important vitamin compounds, as well as phytosterols, mineral elements.

Surprisingly, even sweet pumpkins are low in sugar. And in ordinary cucumbers there is a lot of a rare element of silver, which helps human body kill dangerous microbes.

Vegetables of the Pumpkin family are especially valued for the fact that it is convenient to harvest them for the future - either keep them fresh for a long time or dry them (pumpkins, zucchini), or pickle them (cucumbers, watermelons, etc.).

It is interesting!

Not all plants of the Pumpkin family are easily cross-pollinated among themselves. If you plan to get pure-grade seeds, you should not plant pumpkins (and crooknecks), zucchini (and zucchini), squash next to each other.

But melons, cucumbers and watermelons in nature do not genetically interbreed with each other. However, it is believed that next to cucumbers, which have male flowers, melon fruits can grow unsweetened.

With the help of genetic manipulations, scientists-breeders managed to bring out outlandish monsters - for example, such a super-hybrid as a kavbuz (a mixture of pumpkin and watermelon, more healing than tasty).

With all respect, Andrew

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Pumpkin plants.

The gourd family.
This group of plants includes cucumber, watermelon, melon, pumpkin, zucchini and squash. Cultivars of pumpkin belong to three botanical species: large-fruited, hard-barked and nutmeg.
Cucurbitaceae is one of the largest families of angiosperms, including over 100 genera and about 1100 species. Distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of the globe, only individual representatives of pumpkin are found in temperate latitudes. The ecological range of the family is huge. Its representatives can be found both in the tropical rainforest and in the waterless desert. The family is represented mainly by annual or perennial species, climbing or creeping herbs, shrubs or semi-shrubs are very rare.
Among the cultivated forms of cucurbits in Russia, the following are of the greatest economic importance: cucumber, melon, watermelon, pumpkin, squash, squash. Luffa, lagenaria, chayote, momordica are less known.
I myself grew almost all known crops, but now I plant only pumpkins, zucchini and cucumbers. I didn't like patissons and lagenaria because they don't have any taste of their own. There is also nothing good in pickled or canned squash and zucchini.
Watermelons and melons grow well in our climate only in greenhouses, and I consider this a luxury - to make greenhouses for melons and watermelons. True melon grows well in open ground, but only on a dunghill. Watermelon is generally a capricious culture. Now I grow pumpkins of all three types (large-fruited, hard-barked, nutmeg) and various types of zucchini in open ground. Pumpkins and squash grow well in our climate. For example, my pumpkins grew up to 35 kg!
Of the pumpkin family, pumpkin has the most useful and healing properties, so I will start with the agricultural technology of growing pumpkins.
Pumpkin.

Pumpkin is considered one of the most ancient cultures; it grew in America 3,000 years ago. After the discovery of the New World, the seeds of this plant, along with others, were brought to Europe. Now, in many southern regions of Russia, it is considered primordially Russian culture, although it was brought to Russia at the beginning of the 19th century.
Pumpkin fruits, like watermelons, are called berries by botanists. Both cultures are close "relatives" and belong to the gourd family. They are similar not only in structure and development, but also in that, in addition to medium-sized fruits, they form perhaps the largest "berries" in the world. The press reported on pumpkins weighing 284 and 287 kg, grown
farmers in Canada. And in the USA a few years ago they grew a giant fruit weighing 302 kg.
The huge size and weight of the fruit is more important for fodder pumpkin, but for the table, and they have different requirements: a small or even very small pumpkin, which can be used entirely in one or two times. The other two basic requirements for this vegetable are good taste qualities and high content of nutrients and healing substances.

Nutritional value and medicinal properties.
Pumpkin fruits are extremely useful. Their pulp is rich in sugars, carotene, vitamins B1, B2, B6, C, E, PP. Vitamin T was found in the pumpkin, which helps to speed up metabolic processes in the body - the intensive absorption of meat and other heavy foods.
The pulp of pumpkin fruits contains salts of phosphoric acid, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and in terms of the amount of iron, pumpkin is the champion among vegetables. It is especially rich in potassium and pectin, which prevent inflammation of the large intestine.
Connoisseurs claim that frequent consumption of pumpkin porridge gives a wonderful effect on hypertension, obesity and metabolic disorders. For insomnia, it has long been recommended to drink pumpkin juice or pumpkin decoction with honey at night.
Its seeds contain up to 52% oil and up to 28% protein, a lot of zinc salts and vitamin E, so they are more nutritious and healthier than sunflower seeds. On the basis of pumpkin seed oil, the drug tykveol was created, which stimulates the liver. Pumpkin seeds are a harmless anthelmintic, and the taste of the seed nucleoli rivals that of nuts.
Pumpkin improves digestion, so it is included in diets for obesity, decreased gallbladder function, edema caused by cardiovascular diseases, tuberculosis, gout, kidney disease, intestinal inflammation.
Raw pumpkin is added to salads. Soups, cereals, fillings for pies are prepared from it, and also marinated.

large-fruited pumpkin the most cold-resistant, but later ripening than hard-bark. The stem of the plant is cylindrical. The fruits are large in size, long shelf life, high taste
qualities and multi-seeded (100-300 g). The seeds are milky white, smooth, with an indistinct rim along the edges.

hardbark gourd well adapted to sudden temperature fluctuations. Her stem is sharply faceted, furrowed. The fruits are small, with a woody bark and prickly subulate pubescence. Seeds are small and medium, yellowish, with a rim of the same color.

Butternut squash the most thermophilic and late-ripening, mostly long-branched, without bush forms. The stem is rounded. The fruits are small and medium, elongated, narrowed in the middle. The flesh is orange, with a nutmeg aroma. The seeds are elongated, with a twisted or fleecy rim, the color of which is darker than the color of the seed.
In addition to the listed species, amateur vegetable growers grow
dining, fodder, gymnosperms (Cinderella variety), decorative and utensil pumpkins . Biologically, they are similar to those mentioned above.

Pumpkin is a heat and light-loving crop, its seeds begin to germinate at 13°C, and in some varieties at 10÷ 12°C. Normal plant growth proceeds at a temperature of 20÷ 30°C. Lowering the temperature to 14°C and below, especially at night, has a dramatic effect on fruit formation, since the fruits mainly grow at night. Period from germination to fruit ripening 100÷ 160 days. With thickening and shading, the plants are oppressed, the ripening of fruits is delayed, the yield and taste are reduced. Plants need the most intense light during flowering and fruit ripening.

Thanks to its powerful root system, pumpkin is more drought-resistant, but responds well to watering, especially during periods of root formation and intensive fruit growth. Especially moisture-loving and thermophilic nutmeg pumpkin.

The soil. The plot for sowing pumpkins should be well warmed up, with light fertile soils, unshaded. Any predecessor except cucumber. The soil is dug up in autumn to a depth of 25÷ 30 cm, manure or humus is added for digging at the rate of 10÷ 20kg per 1m2. Superphosphate is added in the spring - 40÷ 60g, potassium nitrate 30 ÷ 40g and ammonium nitrate 10÷ 15g per 1m2. Potash fertilizer can be replaced with double the amount of wood ash. Fertilizers can be applied before sowing in the hole: 2÷ 3 kg of humus, 6 g of superphosphate and 3 g of potassium and ammonium nitrate each.

cultivation. Sowing seeds under film shelters is carried out 10- May 15, planting seedlings - 15- May 20, in open ground - respectively 25- 30 May and 8 - 12 June. Pumpkin seeds remain viable for up to 10 years. Sowing seeds can be carried out earlier - 18-25 May, as the pumpkin is more cold-resistant than cucumbers. Sow seeds in holes 2÷ 3pcs. to a depth of 3 h 5cm The distance between the holes for the climbing pumpkin is 140*70 or 140*140, for the bush 90*90 or 100*100 cm. When the first true leaf appears, the plants are thinned out, leaving one plant in the hole. Seedlings are grown in pots. Properly prepared seedlings should be hardened and healthy, havelow stocky stem with short internodes and two to three well-developed true leaves. During the growing season, plants are fed 2 times. Particularly effective top dressing in phase 2÷ 3 leaves and before flowering. Useful top dressing solutions of slurry (1:1) and chicken manure (1:15- 20). During the growing season, side shoots are pinched at the pumpkin, and when 5- 7 fruits, then the top of the stem, leaving above the fruit 4- 5 leaves. Pumpkin watered abundantly, 1÷ 2 buckets of water under a bush, since the optimal soil moisture for it is 70- 80%. The frequency of watering depends on weather conditions.

Growing on a compost heap.
For growing pumpkins, you can build a special greenhouse-house. The base of the greenhouse is made of boards and is a box 1.5 m wide, 2.5 m long and 45 cm high. In the middle, at a height of 70 cm, a crossbar is made to throw a film on the greenhouse in the spring. Along the perimeter, bars 2 m high are placed vertically, which are like a trellis (vertical culture).
Since autumn, you need to take care of a warm bedding under the pumpkin. The basis is tops, leaves, sawdust, chopped bark, kitchen waste, etc. All this mass should fill the greenhouse by about 2/3, it should be sprinkled with lime or ash on top and left in this form for the winter.
In the spring, at the first opportunity, the greenhouse is filled almost to the top with fresh manure, sprinkling it with sawdust. Then prepare holes for pumpkin plants. In the greenhouse described above, 12 holes are made with a diameter of about 50 cm. 1.5 buckets of humus are poured into each. Now it remains to cover the entire surface with an old film and very carefullypress down with stones not only along the edges, but also in the middle. Thus, we increase the temperature in the root system of pumpkins, which is extremely important for all gourds. The soil under the film and stones warms up well and is warm enough by the time the seedlings are planted. In addition, the manure under the pumpkin ripens well, as it is constantly moistened and covered with the leaves of the pumpkin itself.

vertical culture
In small areas, pumpkin has been successfully grown on a vertical trellis along the south side of a house or fence. This method works well for small-fruited or ornamental pumpkins. To do this, dig holes at a distance of 50 cm from each other, stuff them with manure mixed with earth, and water with a solution of potassium permanganate. First option: A stake is placed near each plant and a cord is tied to it, the other end of which is fixed at the roof eaves or on top of the fence. A whip is launched along the cord. Two ovaries are left on each plant, growth points are pinched, lateral shoots without fruits are cut out, and the lower lateral ones are cut.
Another option: At the time of removing the covering material, the pumpkin lashes must be tied to the vertical crossbars, carefully distributing them at the same distance from each other. In the future, all growing lashes must be removed from the thick and brought out into the sun. As a result, pumpkins produce full-fledged flowers.
When the plants are completely wrapped around the trellises, the sight of green leaves, unusual flowers and bright yellow fruits resembling melons makes an indelible impression. It is likely that this will be the most beautiful corner of your garden.

Harvest. Pumpkin is also harvested in early September, before the onset of frost. Signs of fruit ripeness are drying and corking of the stalk (it is cut off together with the fruit), a well-marked pattern of the bark and its hardening. Well-ripened, healthy fruits are dried, heated in the sun for 8÷ 10 days and put in storage.

For long-term storage, fruits of maturing varieties containing a lot of starch are suitable. During storage, the starch is hydrolyzed, resulting in an increase in the amount of soluble sugars and the fruit becomes sweeter. Mandatory conditions for long-term storage of pumpkins are good ventilation and protection from sunlight. So its better
only store in ventilated areas at a temperature of 3...8 °C and a relative humidity of 60-75%. The fruits are placed on racks in one row with the stalk up so that they do not touch each other. The pumpkin can be placed in boxes in rows, layered with straw. The fruits of some varieties do not spoil for a long time in a dark place at room temperature.

Pumpkin varieties:
Among the zoned assortment for the Non-Chernozem zone, the following varieties are recommended:

precocious - Altaiskaya 47, XXXXryuchekutskaya 27, Gribovskaya bush 189, Ufimskaya, Medical, Smile, Freckle.

mid-early - Russian, Kroshka.

medium ripe - Donskaya, Hybrid 72, Large-fruited 1, Record, Troyanda, Hutoryanka, Almond 35, Mozoleevskaya 49.

late-ripening - Vitamin, Gribovskaya winter, Winter sweet, Muscat, Winter table 5.

amateur varieties - Pineapple, Honey and others.

Do not rely on the "southerners" Although pumpkin is less demanding on heat compared to its relative cucumber, its southern origin makes itself felt. During our short and not always hot summer, and most importantly, because ofcool nights that come after August 10, many foreign, and even southern varieties of pumpkins in the Middle lane do not have time to ripen and gain enough nutrients and healing substances.
Most pumpkin varieties that have proven themselves well somewhere in the Krasnodar Territory, in Rostov, Belgorod or Kursk regions, with rare exceptions, are very mediocre in taste. At the same time, the well-known Gribovskaya Kustovaya and Gribovskaya Zimnyaya and in the south ripen just as well as we have in the Urals. Gribovskaya Zimnyaya is especially successful: it is perfectly preserved for several months innormal room conditions, and over time it becomes tastier and sweeter, as the starch contained in the pulp is converted into sugar.

Medicinal properties of pumpkin.

The therapeutic effect when using pumpkin pulp is provided by such essential elements as potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus and vitamins A, C, B1, B2, B12, PP, as well as vitamin K, which is almost absent in other vegetables and fruits. A lack of vitamin K in the body causes bleeding from the nose, gums and, most dangerously, from internal organs including the gastrointestinal tract. In addition, pumpkin pulp contains a lot of pectins - water-soluble dietary fibers that enhance the motor functions of the intestines, remove radionuclides from the body and contribute to the rapid scarring of ulcers. The combination of biologically active substances contained in it helps to eliminate cholesterol and improves water and salt metabolism, so it is recommended in any form for diseases of cardio-vascular system, in particular with atherosclerosis and edema caused by heart failure. And with anemia and depletion of the body, it is preferable to eat raw pumpkin pulp, which is rich in iron.

A good effect is observed in the treatment of diseases of the digestive system with this vegetable. With inflammation and cirrhosis of the liver, chronic hepatitis and hepatic edema, along with raw pulp, patients are shown pumpkin porridge with rice, millet or semolina. For colitis accompanied by constipation, as well as vomiting at night, you should drink half a glass of pumpkin juice.

Pumpkin juice and pulp are used as food for the prevention of caries.

With pyelonephritis, acute and chronic cystitis, urate stones, as well as diabetes and gout, pumpkin porridge is very useful. The pumpkin itself is a good diuretic.

For kidney disease and Bladder Medicinal “milk” is prepared from pumpkin and hemp seeds: 1 cup of each seed is ground in a ceramic vessel, gradually adding 3 cups of boiling water, then filtered and squeezed out the remainder. The resulting "milk" is drunk during the day. This remedy is particularly indicated when there is blood in the urine, or when urination is delayed by spasmodic phenomena. If the “milk” gets boring, it can be taken with steep unsalted buckwheat porridge, sweetened with sugar or honey.

To strengthen the muscles of the bladder and normalize its functions, it is recommended to eat 2-3 tablespoons of peeled pumpkin seeds daily. They can also be used as an adjunct in the treatment of prostate disorders.

Due to its low calorie content, pumpkin is very useful for obesity.

Pumpkin juice or raw pulp is used for colds, coughs and tuberculosis. And pumpkin porridge helps to reduce the temperature in bronchitis.

Fresh gruel from pumpkin pulp is applied to the affected areas with eczema and burns, rashes and acne. It also accelerates the maturation of boils and abscesses. People who, due to their profession, have to stand a lot during the day, are advised to apply pumpkin gruel in the evening to relieve pain in their feet.

With insomnia at night, you can take 1/3 cup of pumpkin broth with honey.

A bowl of pumpkin seeds. Dried seeds are peeled from a hard peel, always leaving a thin green shell, ground in a mortar, adding them in small portions and slowly adding 10-15 drops of water. For 300 g of seeds - up to 50-60 ml of water. To give the porridge a pleasant taste, you can put 10-15 g of honey or jam in it. Take porridge on an empty stomach in a teaspoon for an hour. After 3 hours, you need to take a laxative (castor oil is not recommended), and then after half an hour, put an enema. Dose for adults - 300 g of seeds, for children 10-12 years old - 150 g, for children 5-7 years old - 100 g, 3-4 years old - 75 g, 2-3 years old - 30-50 g.

Decoction of pumpkin seeds. 250 g of dry unpeeled seeds are heavily crushed. 500 ml of water is added to the crushed seeds and kept for 2 hours on a light fire in a water bath, without bringing the broth to a boil. Then it is squeezed out, cooled for 10 minutes, filtered and the resulting oily film is removed. 10-15 g of honey or jam are added to the broth. Take 1 tablespoon per hour. After 2 hours, they drink a saline laxative. Adults prepare a decoction of 500 g of seeds, children under 10 years old - 300 g, 5-7 years old - 200 g, up to 5 years old - 100-150 g.

Emulsion from pumpkin seeds. 150 g of peeled seeds are ground in a mortar with the gradual addition of 20-30 drops of water, bringing the total volume to 450 ml. To the finished emulsion, you can add 10-15 g of honey or jam. Then drink 1 tablespoon for an hour. After 2 hours, take a saline laxative. Dose for adults - 400-450 ml.

All products are non-toxic, well tolerated and have no contraindications. The course of treatment can be repeated several times with breaks of 2-3 days.

In order for the treatment to be successful, it is necessary to properly prepare for it. On the day before treatment, they eat mashed and liquid food - soups, liquid cereals, vegetable purees, minced meat, jelly, yogurt, and also white stale bread. In the evening, a light dinner. At night, you should take a laxative salt: adults - 25-30 g, children - depending on age. The next day, a cleansing enema is given in the morning and any drug from pumpkin seeds is taken on an empty stomach in the above doses. After 2-3 hours, a saline laxative is given - 40-50 g for an adult. Eating is allowed after 1-2 hours.