At school we were told about the potato riots during the time of Peter the Great, which arose due to attempts to force peasants to plant potatoes. Peasants tried to eat berries rather than tubers, and were poisoned with the alkaloid solanine. Solanine is found in greater or lesser quantities in all nightshades, to which eggplant belongs. The literal translation of the name of eggplant from Latin is: black nightshade.
Eggplant's relationship with solanine differs from other vegetables in the family. Today, after the development of varieties without berries, you can get poisoned by potatoes only by holding the tubers in the light until they turn green and eating them raw. Under normal conditions, modern potatoes do not produce poison.
In tomatoes, the maximum amount of solanine is contained in green fruits, which are not recommended for consumption without processing. The riper the fruit, the less solanine it contains.
With eggplant it's the opposite. The maximum amount of solanine is found in ripe fruits. For this reason, they are plucked at the stage of so-called technical maturity, that is, immature, but already quite large. At this stage they are quite edible after pre-processing.
Solanine in eggplants is also unevenly distributed. Most of all it accumulates in the beautiful, shiny, black skin with a purple tint.The skin of the eggplant must be removed, regardless of its degree of hardness.
Because of solanine, it is impossible to use fresh eggplants in salads. At a minimum, chopped eggplant should be soaked in salt water for a day to remove bitterness. To be precise, solanine, which has a bitter taste. It’s long, tedious, and there’s no guarantee that you won’t get poisoned without preliminary heat treatment.
When cooked, eggplant will lose a significant portion of its vitamins. In addition, solanine cannot be completely removed and dishes with eggplant become bitter. Who, one might ask, could be satisfied with such a state of affairs in which a healthy dietary vegetable is almost impossible to use to its fullest. Certainly not the breeders who set themselves the goal of developing eggplant varieties that do not contain solanine.
Their efforts were crowned with success and Today there are many varieties of eggplant without solanine. True, along with solanine, the dark skin and colored pulp disappeared. Eggplants without solanine have white flesh (another sign of a lack of solanine) and can be pink, green, white, yellow, or even striped.
One such striped variety, bred in Russia, was named “Matrosik”. Apparently, by analogy with a vest. The “shirt” of the eggplant is striped. Pink stripes alternate with white ones, which is clearly visible in the photo.
Description
The Matrosik variety has managed to gain recognition among all categories of consumers. Breeders value colored skin. Summer residents love Matrosik for his high yields and unpretentiousness. Housewives for the excellent taste and thin skin, which does not need to be removed before cooking the fruit. Moreover, eggplant can be used raw in salads. The latter is especially important for principled raw foodists.
In the southern regions, the Matrosik variety is grown in open ground. To the north only in greenhouses. It is a mid-early variety. The bush grows up to one meter with the stated sixty to seventy centimeters. Produces many side shoots. Eggplants are large. The shape of the fruit is similar to a pear, fifteen to seventeen centimeters long. The average weight of the Matrosik fruit is from two hundred and fifty to four hundred grams. Under favorable conditions, the fruits can grow up to a kilogram. Due to the large weight of eggplants, the bush has to be tied up. The Matrosik variety produces up to eight kilograms of yield per unit area.
The flesh of the Matrosik eggplant is tender, white, and there are no voids inside the fruit.
There is no ideal; the Matrosik variety also has a minus: thorns on the calyx and stem. Because of this, the fruit is harvested with gloves or you have to use pruning shears.
The Matrosik variety is quite resistant to fungal diseases. However, growing in a greenhouse under conditions of high humidity, it can be affected by root collar rot.
Fungicides are used for treatment. As a preventive measure, you can ventilate the plantings and also spray them with fungicides.
Other enemies appear in open ground. The Matrosik variety is not resistant to the Colorado potato beetle and can be affected by spider mites. Insecticides are used to combat them.
Agricultural technology
Before planting, eggplant seeds must be disinfected in a half percent solution of potassium permanganate for half an hour.Rinse with clean water and soak in a nutrient solution for a day.
After preparation, plant the seeds in separate containers. Eggplant does not tolerate picking very well. It will also be more convenient to plant seedlings in the ground using the transshipment method.
Planting is carried out in the last days of February - early March. Matrosik's seeds germinate within a week. Matrosik is planted in the ground or greenhouse at the end of May after the air has warmed up and the night frosts have completely ended.
Water Matrosik twice a week with warm water. Watering must be done directly under the bush. The amount of water needed for one bush depends on the weather. On average, this is ten liters per bush during one watering.
Feed the eggplant during flowering and fruit formation with eggplant fertilizer. During ripening, fertilize again with organic matter and mineral fertilizer.
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