Content
Zucchini is one of those crops that can be found in absolutely any area. This annual plant from the pumpkin family has become so widespread due to its dietary composition and universal use. They do a lot of things with it: add it to roasts, stuff it, not to mention processing it into squash caviar. You can plant zucchini both in a greenhouse and in open ground. In our climate, it is better to leave the greenhouse for other more heat-loving crops, and plant the zucchini directly in the ground. How to germinate seeds and planting zucchini seedlings into the ground, and our article will tell you.
Requirements for soil and planting site
Zucchini plants do not require a lot of care from the gardener, but they do need a lot of nutrients from the soil. Of course, zucchini can grow in poor soils, but the yield of such plants will be extremely low. Before adding all available fertilizers to the soil, you need to determine its composition:
- If the soil is peaty, it is recommended to add compost or humus. Two kilograms of fertilizer will be enough for one square meter. In addition, you can add one spoon of potassium sulfate and superphosphate, and a few spoons of ash.
- If the soil is predominantly sandy, you will need to add heavier soil. Turf soil, humus with sawdust and peat are suitable for this. Only after this can fertilizers such as ash and superphosphate be added.
- If there is black soil in the beds, additional fertilizer may not be applied.Experienced gardeners still recommend diluting the black soil with sawdust at least once every few seasons. 2 kilograms of sawdust will be enough for one square meter. When applying, you can add a couple of spoons of mineral fertilizer.
- It is recommended to add sawdust, peat and humus to clay soil at 3 kilograms per square meter.
All these preparations are best done in the fall, or at least in the spring, after the snow has melted on the beds. After applying fertilizers, the bed must be dug to a depth of 25 centimeters, compacted and watered. If fertilizers are applied in the spring, then it would be useful to cover the bed with any covering material. This will allow the fertilizers to decompose faster and saturate the soil. If the soil is prepared in the fall, then there is no need to cover the ground.
We have decided on the composition of the soil, but where is the best place to plant zucchini? The most optimal place for them will be a sunny and wind-free place. Those gardeners who follow the rules of crop rotation are recommended to plant zucchini after the plants:
- cabbage, both early and white;
- potatoes;
- tomatoes;
- eggplant;
- any root vegetables;
- Luke.
Planting plants of this crop after green manure gives good results.
Places after plants are not suitable for zucchini:
- cucumbers;
- pumpkins;
- squash.
Zucchini should not only not be planted after these crops, but also next to them.They are able to cross-pollinate with each other, thereby having a negative impact on the quality of the future harvest.
Many gardeners and gardeners try to plant zucchini in the same place for many years in a row. This is fundamentally wrong. Zucchini very quickly suck out all the beneficial substances from the soil, thereby making the garden bed unsuitable for itself and other crops of the pumpkin family. Without fertilizing and saturating the soil with the necessary minerals, it is impossible to plant zucchini in the same place for several years in a row.
If a completely new plot of land is chosen for zucchini, on which no crop has grown before, then the first thing you should do is dig it up and apply fertilizer. During the digging process, it is necessary to remove not only the roots of weeds, but also the larvae of pests.
Preparing and planting seedlings
The quality of the future harvest is influenced not only by the place where the plants are planted, but also by the quality of the seedlings. In order for young zucchini plants to have good immunity and increased productivity, the process of preparing seedlings must be taken seriously.
You should begin preparing zucchini seedlings 3 to 5 weeks before the expected date of planting in a permanent location. And the very first thing you need to do is prepare the zucchini seeds for planting. This preparation includes:
- Selection of substandard seeds – Only undamaged and full zucchini seeds should be planted. It is very simple to understand that the seed is not empty. To do this, all seeds are immersed in water for several minutes. The zucchini seeds that float to the surface are discarded, and those that sink to the bottom are left.
- Warming up the seeds – in order to awaken the zucchini seeds, it will be enough to place the container with them on the battery overnight.
- Soaking the seeds – Don’t just leave zucchini seeds in the water.In order for them to swell, they need to be spread evenly on a damp cloth. It is not recommended to use gauze to soak zucchini seeds. During the soaking process, seeds produce young roots that can become entangled in gauze and break.
To plant zucchini seeds, you can use either purchased soil or soil you make yourself from equal parts of turf soil, humus and sand. In both cases, before planting the seeds, the soil must be spilled with boiling water. This measure will not only disinfect it, but will also protect young plants from the insidious black leg.
As a container for zucchini seedlings, you should choose either seedling pots or cups 10–15 centimeters deep and up to 8 centimeters wide. Zucchini seedlings have a very delicate root system that does not tolerate any transplanting or picking. That is why it is recommended to plant no more than 3 seeds in one container.
Small holes up to 3 centimeters deep are made in prepared containers with soil. Seeds are placed horizontally in them, sprinkled with soil and watered.
A video that clearly shows how to plant zucchini seeds for seedlings:
At first, the cups with seeds should be placed in the warmest place in the house, as a rule, this is a place near the radiator. At this temperature, zucchini seeds will be able to sprout on the 5th day.After this, they can be moved to a well-lit windowsill and grown at temperatures from 18 to 23 degrees. Already at this stage of growing zucchini seedlings, frail and weak shoots will be visible. If you pull them out of the ground, they can form a strong sprout behind them. Therefore, they must be carefully cut at the root with scissors.
Watering zucchini seedlings is carried out every 10 days and only with warm water. It is important not to get it on the leaves, but to water only under the stem. Fertilizing young seedlings is done only twice:
- After 10 days from emergence, young zucchini plants are fertilized with a pale solution of potassium permanganate with the addition of superphosphate at the rate of 2 grams per 1 liter.
- After 1 - 1.5 weeks from the first feeding Zucchini seedlings are fertilized with any organic matter. Most often, bird droppings and manure are used for zucchini.
Very often, in apartment conditions, due to lack of lighting, zucchini seedlings become very elongated. In this case, you should not pinch the top of the plants, like tomatoes. You just need to add soil to the stems of the seedlings. This clever trick stimulates the formation of roots on the elongated stems of zucchini seedlings.
As soon as the first 2 to 4 pairs of leaves form on the zucchini plants, they should be transplanted to a permanent location. If zucchini seedlings are left too long, their root system will fill the entire pot and the plants will begin to turn yellow.
In our climate zone, zucchini seedlings are planted in unprotected beds from mid-May to the end of July. At the same time, experienced gardeners advise planting seedlings in parts.This technique will extend the fruiting period of zucchini plants.
In the selected bed, make small holes up to 5 centimeters deep. The optimal distance between adjacent holes will be 50 -70 centimeters.
As a rule, seed producers indicate the recommended planting pattern on the seed package.
If zucchini seedlings were grown in cups, then before planting the plants must be carefully removed from them. If peat pots served as containers for seedlings, then there is no need to remove the plants. In both cases, the zucchini plants are buried in the hole up to the first cotyledons.
There are two opinions regarding watering planted zucchini seedlings:
- Water the bed before planting seedlings.
- Water the bed after planting, directly under the root.
There are no particular differences between them, so each gardener uses the method that is more convenient for him.
It is recommended to mulch the soil in the garden bed near each zucchini plant. This will not only maintain the required moisture in the soil, but will also maintain the optimal temperature. After the young zucchini plants are planted and mulched, the bed is covered with covering material.
In this case, it is important to slightly drown the edges of the bottle in the ground so that it does not blow away with the wind.
Caring for young zucchini plants
As noted above, zucchini is not very demanding to care for. Despite this, the gardener will still have to give them a little attention, which includes:
- Hilling – this procedure should be carried out only in the phase of the 4th or 5th leaf. Hilling up will allow the zucchini plants to grow an additional root system.
- Watering – this is the most important thing in caring for zucchini plants. Their plants should be watered not only regularly, but also quite abundantly. Before the formation of ovaries, one plant needs up to 10 liters of water, and after that even more - about 12 liters. As soon as young zucchini appear on the ovaries, the frequency of watering should be increased. Zucchini is very sensitive to the temperature of the water used for irrigation. They like warm water between 22 and 25 degrees. But when watered with water below 15 degrees, zucchini will respond with a sharp decrease in the quantity and quality of ovaries, which will affect the harvest. When watering, it is very undesirable to get it on the leaves of zucchini plants. It is best to water the plants at the roots.
- Weeding and loosening – during the entire season they are held no more than 2–3 times. If the beds with plants are mulched, then the gardener can safely skip these procedures.
- Feeding – zucchini fertilization is carried out twice. First, zucchini plants are fed in the active flowering phase. For this purpose, mineral fertilizers containing phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen are used. Then the zucchini plants are fertilized at the beginning of fruit formation with any fertilizers that do not contain nitrogen, for example, ash. If the zucchini is not gaining weight well, then you can make additional fertilizing with nitrophoska or urea, but not more than once every 2 weeks.
You can learn more about caring for zucchini plants from the video:
Possible diseases and pests
Most often, zucchini plants are affected by the following diseases:
- Cucumber mosaic – even the most inexperienced gardener will be able to immediately identify this disease. The leaves of zucchini plants become covered with yellowish or greenish spots and bumps. The carriers of this disease are aphids and ants, so it is impossible to completely protect plants from mosaic. Today there are many drugs that will help cope with cucumber mosaic on zucchini plants, for example, Aktara and Actelikt. Of the folk methods, the most effective are infusions of onion peels and garlic. They need to be sprayed on infected zucchini plants. But it is worth remembering that any disease on plants of this crop can be stopped only in the initial stage.
- Powdery mildew - appears as a white coating on the leaves. The old leaves are affected first, and then the entire plant. Powdery mildew is easily spread by wind, so when the first symptoms appear, you must immediately begin to fight the disease. Of the chemical preparations, Nitrafen, Kefalon and Carboran have proven themselves well. You can also spray zucchini plants with a solution of ash.
- White rot - the most common and most dangerous disease of zucchini growing in open beds. It affects plants as a result of improper care and unfavorable weather conditions. Unlike other diseases, it develops not only on plants, but also on zucchini, softening them to a mushy state. If white rot occurs, all infected plants and zucchini must be removed. Then treat the foci of the disease with chemicals containing copper, for example, Kuproscat or Oksikhom. You can also sprinkle the fireplaces with lime or crushed coal.
The most common pests that attack zucchini plants are:
- melon aphid – spraying plants with infusions of tobacco and yarrow, as well as the chemical Iskra DE, will help to cope with it.
- Sprout fly – its larvae are contained in manure, so if the gardener does not incorporate it into the soil well, then in the spring they will begin to feed on zucchini plants. Adding Fufanon and Karbofos to the soil will help cope with them. You can also sprinkle the beds with zucchini plants with ash, pepper or tobacco dust.
If the growth of zucchini seedlings planted in the ground is not left to chance, but care for them is carried out in a timely manner, then the likelihood of diseases and pests occurring is minimized.
And the result of such plant care will be an excellent harvest, which, without a doubt, will pay off all the gardener’s efforts.
