Fodder pumpkin

The choice of seeds is not easy, especially when choosing seeds for planting directly into open ground. In order for the expectations placed on the crop to be justified, you need to take into account many details about the garden culture and about the features of caring for it. Pumpkins are no exception.

Varieties

Pumpkin is a plant from the pumpkin family, from the herbaceous genus, has up to 30 subspecies. Vegetable fruit with a hard skin, juicy pulp, the standard color palette includes yellow, orange, cream or mixed shades of these colors, in a variety of shapes - from perfectly round to flattened. Scientists have bred a huge number of species and varieties of pumpkin, so gardeners of any region of our country can enjoy this vegetable in their plots.

The most common types of pumpkin include hard, large-fruited and nutmeg. All of them are used in a wide variety of ways and are divided into stern, decorative and dining rooms.

It is worth immediately identifying the directions of use of pumpkin, the place of its use and purpose for the above types. So, the decorative type is used as a decor for garden plots, occasionally in cooking, since most species of this type have excellent taste. The fodder type is actively used in animal husbandry for livestock feed. The table type is used in cooking.

Classification

Pumpkin varieties can be classified according to a certain principle or characteristic, it can be:

- ripening period: early ripening, mid and late ripening;

- on a territorial basis;

- by the shape of the plant: bushy, long-leaved, short-leaved;

- by weight: large, medium-sized, small;

- for use: decorative, dining rooms, feed;

- by the content of sugar or other minerals;

- by the thickness of the peel, the color of the pulp, etc.

Pumpkin nutmeg

They have quite juicy and at the same time fibrous pulp. Their peculiarity is the presence of an interesting aroma similar to a mixture of nuts and pineapple. The color gamut of the outer shell of the butternut squash is very wide, which can change as the fruit grows. The most common colors are orange and beige. The same situation is with the shape of the pumpkin, all shape features depend on the specific variety. You can find round, flattened, oval, etc.

The ancestral home of the pumpkin is Mexico. It is there that you can find champions in pumpkin weight, which can grow more than a centner. But Mexican pumpkins are famous for both their huge size and taste. Rumor has it that it is in Mexico that the most delicious pumpkins grow.

To get a mature harvest from garden plots located in the middle Russian latitudes, this plant needs to be given a lot of attention. It is advisable to plant butternut squash not with seeds, but with seedlings. Under this condition, the percentage of hearth maturation will be much higher than that of those plants that grew from seeds directly planted in the ground. The pumpkin is very fond of sunlight and water, so it is advisable to plant it in areas that are almost always under the sun's rays and do not spare water when watering. The optimal distance between two pumpkin plants is from half a meter or more, as far as the size of the garden area allows.

Varieties

Variety "Pearl"

Variety "Vitamin» even children love it, because of the attractive aroma and sweet pulp.These pumpkins have a high percentage of sugar content, juiciness, which comes not only during growth, but also during storage. Experienced gardeners know that in order to preserve the pumpkin longer, it is necessary to tear it off with a stalk. “Vitaminnaya” has such a name for a reason, as it is rich in vitamins - A, C, microelements - potassium, magnesium and manganese. The color of the fruit is orange with wide green stripes, weighing over 5 kilograms.

"Prikubanskaya" one of the most popular varieties among Russian gardeners. This variety is of a fairly early ripening period, cylindrical in shape, weighing three to five kilograms.

«Pearl» one of the largest varieties. Pumpkins ripen 8-9 kilograms, the flesh is tender, fragrant, dark orange.

grade "MiranidiKioja"

Rouge Wife de Tamp, the name is clear, French scientists worked on the creation of the variety. This variety is actively used in cooking for livestock feed. Pumpkins grow up to two dozen kilograms. Despite its huge size and red outer color, inside is a tender, sweet, juicy pulp, yellow in color.

"MiranidiKioja" was obtained in Italy, which has a corrugated skin with additional bulges. The average value of the fruit is 10-12 kilograms, with a sweet and aromatic orange pulp.

Variety "Melon", as the name suggests, has a melon-flavored flesh. The plant itself does not require additional maintenance, it loves a lot of free space where it can freely scatter foliage. Fruits are round, large, several tens of kilograms, yellow in color. It has good yields and a long storage period.

Variety "Hokkaido» was bred in Japan. In appearance it is pear-shaped, yellow-orange or reddish color with small fruits, weighing up to two kilograms. It has a sweet taste with chestnut notes.

grade "Hokkaido"

Variety "Butternut" has elongated fruits in the form of zucchini, therefore it is classified as a squash type, which is translated from English as "squash" - pumpkin, zucchini. The outer shell is smooth yellow, with fibrous orange flesh.

Fodder pumpkins

The main purpose of these pumpkins was found in animal husbandry, where they are actively used as feed for livestock. Animals are given both fresh fruits and silage with grain or its waste with the addition of pumpkin pulp. When using such feed, breeders note that the percentage of milk yield in cows increases, fat content in milk increases, and an increase in the reproductive function of animals is also noticeable. The fruits of the forage varieties lack a pronounced aroma, and they are practically unsuitable for the culinary arts.

Varieties

Variety "Volzhskaya gray-92"

Variety "Stofuntovka" high-yielding, medium ripening. It is one of the most popular varieties. The dense skin of the fruit allows the fruit not to lose its properties for almost the entire winter period and is well-transportable at any distance. Fruits of the standard round-spherical type, with a yellow-orange outer color and a slight gray tint.

Variety "Volzhskaya gray-92» it is named so for a reason, it grows well in the Volga region and has the most stable immunity to local diseases. High-yielding, large fruits - over two dozen kg. Outwardly, light gray color, with dense yellow-orange dryish flesh.

Decorative pumpkins

It is here that the widest assortment of shapes and colors of pumpkins. Due to these qualities, they are extremely popular in horticulture. Every gardener will be able to find something to their liking among all this variety. They are rarely ever used outside of decoration or decoration. They are planted along outbuildings or other structures in the garden, such as gazebos or swings, as well as hedges along the fence, where bright, variously shaped small pumpkins attract attention, both in summer and in winter.

Varieties

Variety "Orange" has small fruits, up to 300 g, and looks very similar to oranges due to its rounded shape and orange color.

grade "Orange"

Variety "Baby Boo" has rounded fruits with ribs on the skin, white interspersed or milky.

"Sweet Dumpling" has small fruits, up to 0.5 kg, and an interesting heterogeneous skin color. The main color is yellow, which is complemented by white dots and green stripes.

"Klein Bicolor" has fruits that look like a pear, with a characteristic division horizontally into two colors - yellow and green. Therefore, the variety is popular not only among gardeners, but also among florists.

grade "Dumpling"

"Chalmoid" the most interesting variety of decorative pumpkins. It is interesting for the variety of not only shapes and colors, but also subspecies that are almost impossible to classify, due to the fact that new ones appear every year. Usually they try to classify this variety according to the shape of the pumpkin fruit. Of the most common, gardeners distinguish forms similar to tangerine, pear or star.

Decorative varieties do not require special care. In order for pumpkins to delight with their presence on cold autumn days, it is advisable to plant seedlings in open ground in the first days of summer. If the summer period is short, then it is advisable to plant the pumpkin with seedlings. Ornamental pumpkins love frequent loosening of the soil and a large amount of water. This type of plant often has a bush-like form; plants with rather long shoots are also found. Such plants are used to decorate or mask garden houses and buildings - sheds, swings, fences, etc. Quite often, these branches are significant in weight and need additional support.

Turtle gourd

Now let's try to sort the numerous pumpkin varieties according to the territorial principle.

Hard varieties

grade "Smile"

They are named so because of the rather hard outer shell of the fruit. Most often they include frost-resistant varieties with an early ripening period, with small fruits. In appearance, these varieties can be recognized by their 5-sided foliage, ribbed stalk and hairy stem. The seeds of these varieties are large, most often with a border of a different color. The fruits of these varieties are not suitable for long-term storage, but very well suited for making juices.

Varieties

Variety "Smile" early ripe with good yield, up to one and a half dozen pumpkins from one small bush. Ripens within 3 months after germination and during the same time the fruits can retain all their properties. Fruits with fragrant, but not juicy pulp, orange color with brightly visible stripes.

Variety "Orange Honey F1" medium ripening with juicy and honey-tasting pulp. Possesses strong immunity to fungi and insect pests. The outer color is yellow-orange, which is complemented by green stripes. Fruits of an elongated shape, slightly flattened at the top and bottom, grow up to 5 kg, which are stored for a long time and easily tolerate transportation.

grade Acorn

Variety "Acorn" has a rather interesting fruit shape. Most often they look like an acorn, and they can be of a wide variety of colors, from white to black. Early ripe variety with yellow and savory pulp.

Variety "Bun" early ripening, stands out with orange and very sweet flesh. The yield of the variety is higher when using the seedling planting method. The skin of the fruit is often divided into several color segments, which are complemented by white stripes.

Variety "Baby" - a name that speaks for itself. It is unpretentious in care and does not take up much space on the garden plot, it has high yield rates when grown both by seedlings and seedlings. Ripens within 75-85 days.

Variety "Gribovskaya bush" has rounded fruits of orange color with green stripes, weighing up to five kilograms.The pulp is firm, sweet, orange in color.

Spaghetti variety

Variety "Mozolevskaya" has an orange fruit color with a green-brown pattern. The pulp is sweet, juicy. The average weight of pumpkins is five kilograms.

Spaghetti variety refers to the early. And the variety got its name because after cooking the pulp falls apart into separate fibers, which can be eaten as long pasta known to everyone - spaghetti.

Large-fruited varieties

variety Gribovskaya Zimnyaya

As you can easily guess, these varieties include pumpkins, which grow rather large fruits. But here it is more worth focusing not only on the weight characteristics, but rather on the ratio of the ripe fruit to the size of the adult plant. usually such varieties have an excellent predisposition to long-term storage.

Varieties

Variety "Kroshka" refers to long-leaved plants, with fruits of an average weight of three kilograms. Therefore, it is not entirely correct to call this variety a crumb, not only by its external characteristics, but also by the size of the rounded-flattened fruits. It is of medium ripening, the peel of the fruit is grayish with a bright, but not juicy pulp.

Variety "One hundred pounds" late ripening and has long been known among gardeners. A distinctive feature is the fruit, perfectly symmetrical with a glossy, segmented skin. Which can be of a wide range of colors from white to yellow and weigh up to 10 kg. The pulp is not sweet in taste, having a color in white and yellow shades. Earlier, this variety was popular in the northwestern region of the country, as it was practically the only one that yields a mature crop in late summer or early autumn. Currently, a number of varieties have been created and bred specifically for this region.

grade Kroshka

«Therapeutic» treat the early maturing. The fruits are grayish in color with a mesh pattern on the skin.

"Crumpet" love abundant sunlight and almost complete absence of wind. It has a sweet taste, because of this, it is very often eaten fresh without processing. It differs from other varieties in its prominent external color, namely turquoise. The fruit is round and ripens early enough. Seeds are planted in the second half of spring directly into open ground according to the classical planting scheme, more than half a meter between plants and more than a meter between rows of plants.

"Gribovskaya winter" has long fruits with bulges of gray color, with sweet juicy pulp.

grade Oreshek

"Nut" early and has good keeping quality when stored in a well-ventilated area. The fruit has orange pulp with a lot of seeds. The plant loves organic fertilizers.

Variety "Sweetie" frost-resistant, so it can be found even among Siberian gardeners. For full and rapid growth, the plant must be fed with organic fertilizers. Fruits are round in shape, orange in color, with division of the skin into segments.

Variety "Dawn" ripens 3-3.5 months after the first shoots appear. The external color is unusual and is orange with gray, less often black with pink dots. Fruits are of a standard rounded-flattened shape, the color of the flesh is also standard orange. It has immunity against powdery mildew, for this reason it is popular in the north-western region of Russia.

grade Sweetie

Variety "Cinderella" average ripening period. Fruits are large over 10 kg. Therefore, the plant is quite large in size. The pulp has a non-fibrous structure of a white-cream shade. The skin is smooth and slightly segmented. Seedlings are planted in mid-spring, most often in April, and seeds are planted or planted in open ground in late spring or early summer, depending on weather conditions.

Siberian and Ural region

Freckle variety

For these territories, frost-resistant and early maturing indicators in vegetables and the presence of persistent immunity are important.Recently, only forage varieties with low palatability and practically no aroma have been grown in this climatic zone. But thanks to scientific activity, a large number of varieties have already been obtained that meet all climatic requirements and have managed to prove themselves.

Varieties

Variety "Smile" Is a decorative type often used to prepare various dishes. Hardy, with a medium ripening period and high yield. The average ripening period is approximately 110-120 days. Fruits of orange color, weighing about one kilogram, differing in good keeping rates, pumpkins are perfectly preserved until mid-winter. From one plant, up to two dozen pumpkins are harvested, with soft, juicy-sweet pulp. In addition to its bright skin color, the cultivar has outstanding foliage with large leafy plates. It is for these characteristics that the variety is common among the Ural and Siberian gardeners.

"Freckle" has established itself on a good side in the gardening environment due to its resistance to rapid and significant changes in weather conditions. This variety grows as a small bush with 3-5 shoots, which have a small distance between adjacent nodes. The fruits for the decorative variety are quite large and grow up to three kilograms. The outer shell is light green with additional light spots. And inside the pumpkin has a soft orange pulp with a characteristic pear aroma.

Due to the high yields, the average of which is 330-350 tons per 1 hectare, this variety is often used not only for decorative purposes, but also the possibility of long-term storage of fruits. All these characteristics, and especially the plant's immunity to low temperatures and significant weather changes, are very attractive to gardeners. The most significant disadvantages of this plant include the high probability of the appearance of powdery mildew on the plant, to combat which it is necessary to use chemical and toxic substances.

grade Rossiyanka

"Rossiyanka" an early variety, for which we love gardeners. With the necessary care, about two dozen kilograms are collected from one plant. Fruits grow at 2.5-3.5 kg, the pulp is juicy, with a pronounced melon flavor. The variety is frost-resistant, but it is recommended to grow this variety using seedlings. Which can already be planted in the ground from mid-spring, and in the Vural and Siberian regions before the beginning of summer, under stable weather conditions. Local gardeners know that there is no need to rush to plant seedlings, it is important to wait for stable weather and make sure that young plants do not die from frost.

This variety does not require special storage conditions; it is enough to store it in a dry, often ventilated place.

Territory of Central Russia and Moscow Region

grade Healing Healing)

All types of pumpkins are grown in this region of Russia. Nevertheless, there are favorites here, which are valued both for their strong immunity and for their high yields.

Varieties

Variety "Healing" - early maturing and winter hardy. With juicy pulp and pleasant flavors. Therefore, it is often used to make pumpkin puree or juice.

It is grown both in seedling and seedless methods. To obtain seedlings, seeds are sown in April, at temperatures above +20 ° C, seedlings appear within one week. And in May it is planted in open ground. Gardeners recommend pre-hardening the seedlings a little, for this, the seedlings are left in the fresh air during the day, and brought indoors at night. forget.

In order to get an early harvest of this variety, several requirements of this plant must be fulfilled. First, you need a piece of land that is under the sun for the longest time.Secondly, do not plant other vegetables too close to the pumpkin, because it loves free space very much. Thirdly, the plant is never against additional fertilizers. Having fulfilled all these requirements, you will be able to harvest an early harvest that can be stored for up to six months.

variety Gribovskaya Kustovaya

Variety "Gribovskaya"love for the possibility of its use in baby and diet food. The variety has amazing shelf life up to 1 year, right up to fresh harvest.

Large pumpkins grow on elongated lashes, from five and over a kilogram. Fruits are round, milky outer color and standard orange pulp. The peel is thin, but it tolerates transportation perfectly, even over long distances. Experienced gardeners write that the quality of taste after several months of storage remains the same, and even improves - it becomes sweeter and more aromatic.

"Gribovskaya bush-189" - the seeds of this pumpkin are planted directly into the ground. According to the recommendations of breeders, it is advisable to do this at the end of spring. Fruits are oval-elongated, similar to a large egg, only yellow or slightly orange in color. When the ripening process begins, a green pattern appears on the skin. The pulp is sweet and aromatic, with a standard yellow-orange color.

grade Dachnaya

Variety "Dachnaya" early maturing, with oval fruits that ripen after 65-75 days. It is appreciated for its high yield and frost resistance. The plants themselves are not demanding, but will appreciate the constant soil loosening and plenty of water. Fruits are sweet, light weight, on average - three kilograms. As soon as the ground warms up to + 12-14 ° C, the seeds can be immediately planted in open ground. No preliminary preparation.

High sugar varieties (sweet varieties)

Atlant variety

Variety "Kroshka" is the earliest among the sweets, so named for a reason. A small space for yourself in the garden and regular watering, that's all this plant needs. The harvest of this variety ripens after three months from the first shoots. Small pumpkins make life easier for housewives who do not know where to put extra pulp from large fruits.

The largest of the sweet pumpkins are varieties Atlant and Big MaxThese are pumpkins of huge mass, late ripening period, with sweet pulp, pronounced aroma. Fruits grow over five dozen kilograms.

These varieties will greatly appreciate the direct rays of the sun in the garden. They are well preserved throughout the entire winter period, and the pulp becomes even sweeter by winter.