An unusual plant - Antilles cucumber or Anguria in natural conditions grows in tropical and subtropical climatic zones. Why it is so loved in many countries of the world and whether it is possible to grow a plant in a midland, you will learn by reading this article.
Anguria (Watermelon Cucumber)
Ripening fruits of Anguria
Angurian fruit in the context
Botanical Description
Cucumis anguria - Anguria is a liana plant, an annual, belongs to the Pumpkin family, the genus of Cucumbers. The stems are long, thin and fragile, green, their surface is covered with antennae. The leaves are carved, reminiscent of watermelon. Blossoms yellow, dioecious flowers, small.
The fruits are not large, elongated, oval in shape, completely covered with soft spines or pubescence, tasting like a cucumber. By the time of seed maturation acquire a yellow-orange color.
One variety may have different fruit colors when grown in different climatic regions. Fruiting begins in July and ends at the first frost. Anguria gives a consistently high yield.
Harvest ripens in 60-70 days after germination, later the fruits become not edible.
Historical information
The plant is native to the Antilles. Cultivated by the Indians. Spread by seeds carried by birds and animals. After the colonization of America, it was practically crowded out by an ordinary cucumber.
Why do varieties have different names?
The name "Anguria", according to some sources, in Sanskrit means the homonym of one of the rulers of India, who had several tens of thousands of children, alluding to a large number of seeds from the plant. The Slavs pronounced this word as "cucumber", from which the name "cucumber" came.
Today you can find such plant names:
- Antilles cucumber - comes from the name of the birthplace of the plant;
- Horned cucumber or hedgehog cucumber - due to appearance;
- Mache (maxixe) - this is the name of this plant in Brazil.
You can often hear that Anguria is called a watermelon cucumber, hinting at the similarity of the leaves of these plants. But in fact, it is so correct to call another type of plant - rough melotria (Melotria shcabra or Cucamelon, or Mexican cucumber / Mexican watermelon). Melotria fruits look like small cucumbers with watermelon colors (unlike anguria, there are no thorns in melotria fruits). Their taste is also similar to cucumber.
Spread
Today, Anguria is grown in many countries of South and Central America, Europe, India, the Far East, New Zealand. Distribution areas are the tropics and subtropics. And with us - this is a rare species.
Antillean cucumber is grown as a vegetable crop and ornamental plant.
Specifications
Table of the main characteristics of the Antilles cucumber:
Creeper length, m | Fruit length, cm | The width of the fetus, cm | The weight of the fetus, g | Productivity, Fruits / Plants | Growing season, days | Temperature for growing, ° С |
4-6 | 8-10 | 4-6 | 30-50 | up to 200 | 60-70 | 20-27 |
Fruits have good keeping quality, while maintaining useful elements.
Use Anguria:
- in fresh form;
- salted;
- pickled.
Advantages and disadvantages
The advantages of Antilles cucumbers include:
- decorative plants;
- excellent taste;
- rich vitamin composition;
- care is no different from care for other gourds;
- low exposure to diseases and pests.
By cons include:
- thermophilic;
- exacting to soil moisture;
- requires constant feeding;
- rarely used in food by residents of the CIS countries.
Varieties of Anguria
Only one variety is registered in the state register - Anguria diet. Recommended for growing in greenhouses and greenhouses. Early ripening, ripens in 47-52 days. The plant has high rates of shoot formation, is well weaved. The stems are thin, fragile. Fruits are light green in color, with white stripes and soft spikes, oval, dyna up to 6 cm. The flesh is yellow-green, medium-dense, juicy, has high flavoring characteristics.
Lovers of this plant mainly cultivate overseas varieties.
Also often grown:
- Variety of Anguria "Gourmet". Grown as a vegetable and ornamental crop. Creepers grow about 3 m long. The fruits are oval, light green, with large, juicy spines. Young fruits are eaten, overripe when they change color, can be dried and used in floral arrangements.
- Grade Anguria Syrian. The variety is characterized by early ripening, the size of vines up to 4 m, a large number of shoots. Fruits up to 7-8 cm in size, weighing up to 50 g, are covered with small thorns. Young fruits have high decorative properties, look beautiful on the plant and as a decoration for dishes, sweet to the taste, light green in color. Fruits in July to frost. Grown on trellises.
Kiwano (Cucumis metulifer or horned melon, or African cucumber) is considered a related plant, very similar to anguria. Its fruits have a dark green color and large fleshy spikes. Weight is up to 300 g. Cucumber taste with notes of either a banana or something else.
Anguria "Gourmet"
Syria Anguria
Kiwano
Agrotechnical features
Anguria is a thermophilic plant. When the temperature drops to +10 ° C, it stops growth. With increasing temperatures - growth resumes, with a decrease below 5-6 ° C - the liana dies.
The place where the Antilles cucumber will grow should be well warmed up by the sun, and protected from the wind. The plant does not like shade and thickened plantings. Ideally, the bed should be located on a hill where rainwater does not stagnate.
The soil must be fertile and well-drained. Suitable chernozem or sandy loam soil with neutral acidity.
Acidic soils and the proximity of groundwater can destroy the plant.
If the necessary soil is not available in your region, it can be adjusted by adding sand and peat soil mixtures to the site. To reduce acidity, lime must be added.
Legumes, root crops, greens, and early cabbage can grow in a selected area in front of Anguria.
The horned cucumber will grow poorly in the garden, where any pumpkin crops were the forerunners.
Planting Anguria seedlings
The best time for sowing seeds for seedlings is the beginning of April.
Procedure:
- Seed selection. Go through the seeds, select only large ones.
- Disinfection. Disinfect planting material in a solution of potassium permanganate.
- Using a rooting agent. Soak the seeds in a rooting agent solution, such as Epine, the day before germination.
- Germination. Lay the seeds on a gauze folded in several layers and cover with the same gauze on top. Put in a warm place and make sure that the fabric does not dry out. When the seeds hatch, you can transplant them.
- Transfer. Use peat tablets, this will save the root system when transplanting into the ground. Rules:
- pour a peat tablet with water for 5 minutes;
- after it increases in height, drain excess water;
- increase the depression in the middle to 1 cm;
- put a seed in it and close it up.
- Mini greenhouse. Create greenhouse conditions by covering the tablet with a plastic cup.
You can use peat or paper cups 8-10 cm deep, filled with a soil mixture for seedlings.
- The first shoots. Wait a week later.
- Bedding. When 2-4 true leaves appear on the stems, seedlings can be transferred to the garden.
To prevent the stems of Anguria from stretching out due to lack of light, install fluorescent lamps above the seedlings.
Landing in a ground or in a greenhouse
Seedlings are planted in the soil about 20-25 days after sowing seeds.
A good crop, in our latitudes, can be obtained by growing Anguria only in a greenhouse.
Planting Rules:
- Scheme. Plant the Antilles cucumber following the pattern - 50x40 cm. If you need to plant plants along the fence, mark seedlings at a distance of 80 cm from each other.
- Neighbors in the garden. Withdraw about 50 cm from neighboring plants so that they do not obscure the cucumbers.
On the windward side, you can plant corn as a living protection from the wind.
Umbrellas such as coriander, dill, parsley, planted in the neighborhood, will contribute to cross-pollination and increase productivity. - Wells. Dig holes deep enough for the seedling to fully enter.
- Fertilizer. Add 2 L of humus to each well. In humus, you can add ash in the amount of 1 handful.
- Disinfection. You can prevent the development of diseases by watering the wells with a weak solution of potassium permanganate.
- Watering. Moisten the soil by pouring enough water into each well. This item can be skipped if disinfection was performed with potassium permanganate.
- Landing. Cover the plants with earth until the cotyledons.
- Supports. Install trellis along the rows. When the seedlings grow to 20 cm and she has a mustache, they should be sent to the trellis.
Seedlings can be planted in open ground after it has warmed up well, at least up to 10 ° C.
Anguria can be grown in tubs for landscaping balconies. Planting and care, as in open ground. You should take care of the vertical supports in a timely manner, and by pulling the mesh over the top, you can create a canopy.
Further care
Caring for a plant is not very different from caring for ordinary cucumbers.
After the appearance of the first ovary of the creeper, pinch the cucumber of Antilles so that the second-order shoots begin to develop rapidly.
Watering
Although Anguria tolerates drought better than ordinary cucumbers, it should be regularly watered, especially during fruiting. At the same time, do not allow waterlogging of the soil. Otherwise, fungal diseases may develop.
Features of watering:
- carry out watering when the soil dries, but does not dry out before the formation of cracks;
- prepare the water in advance, it should be settled and warm;
- the earth around the trunk should not be swamped;
- water the plants under the bush;
- in dry and hot weather, water Anguria every day in the evening;
- in the rainy season - refuse watering.
Top dressing
In order for the plant to develop well and bear fruit, it is necessary to feed it every 10 days.
To do this, prepare one of the solutions:
- Mullein. Humus in the amount of 1/4 bucket is mixed with a bucket of water. The solution is left in a warm place for several days to ferment. 1 bucket of the solution is diluted in 3-4 buckets of water and the plants are watered in the amount of 10 l per 1 sq. m
- Chicken droppings. To prepare, fill half a bucket with droppings and add to the top with water. Leave the fermentation solution in a warm place. Dissolve 1 liter of litter in 10 liters of water before application. Feeding is better after rain, in dry weather, 2 hours before application, spill the garden well with water.
The concentrated solution can be stored all summer and used if necessary.
- Nitrofoska. Complex mineral fertilizer, as top dressing, is used after dissolving 3 tbsp. l in 10 liters of water. Under each bush pour 0.3-0.5 liters.
- "Mortar". To provide the plant with phosphorus, sodium and potassium, it is introduced after the appearance of 5-6 sheets. A solution is prepared from 10 liters of water and 10-15 g of fertilizer.
Experienced gardeners are advised to alternate the application of mineral and organic fertilizers.
Diseases and Pests
Antilles cucumber is rarely affected by common fungal diseases or pests.
Table of possible diseases:
Types of diseases | Disease names | Reasons for defeat | Solution to the problem |
Fungal | powdery mildew | Most often develop with:
| Treatment involves:
|
anthracnose | |||
root rot | |||
white rot | |||
Pests | spider mite | Violation of humidity, both upward and downward | Apply insecticides:
|
gourd aphids |
When processing preparations of the chemical industry, consider the periods of their decay. Harvesting at this time is prohibited.
Reproduction of the Antilles cucumber
Being an annual plant, the Antilles cucumber does not make sense to grow cuttings or shoots, it is grown only from seeds. In the climate of Russia, Anguria is preferable to grow using the method of potted seedlings.
Sometimes, if the seed germination is small, some gardeners advise:
- pinch off the shoot up to 15 cm in size;
- remove 2 sheets from the bottom;
- put it in a growth stimulator for 24 hours;
- plant on the garden bed covering the top with a jar.
After 2 weeks, live bait should take root and grow.
Beneficial features
The composition of Anguria includes many useful substances:
- vitamins: P, C, B1, B2, B6, B9;
- trace elements: potassium, iron, sodium, manganese, zinc, copper.
This contributes to a beneficial effect on the body:
- relieves insomnia, has a sedative effect;
- eliminates the problems of the digestive tract;
- useful for heart disease;
- as the prevention of tuberculosis, gout, bronchitis;
- when losing weight, cleans of toxins, has a low calorie content (44 kcal per 100 g);
- cleanses the kidneys and liver;
- helps to cleanse and remove inflammation of the skin.
The fruits of Antilles cucumbers do not accumulate nitrates and are not bitter.
There are also precautions:
- the use of Antilles cucumbers can be dangerous to health with urolithiasis, they can provoke severe pain;
- with caution, they should be used by people prone to allergies;
- not recommended for use by pregnant, lactating mothers and children under 18 years of age.
Looks like the Antilles cucumber, the features of its cultivation, use in traditional medicine and what can be prepared from the fruits, see the video clip:
Is it profitable to grow in Russia? Is there any demand?
Such "cucumbers" in Russia are not often found as table decorations and as ornamental plants. Therefore, their cultivation on an industrial scale will not be profitable.
Exotic lovers should independently decide whether it makes sense to grow Anguria on their personal plot, after weighing all the pros and cons.
Reviews
Galina, 42 years old. If you want double pleasure, plant the Antilles cucumber in a flowerbed near the fence. The plant will delight the eye with beautiful leaves and yellow flowers, and then delicious fruits. Although in greenhouse conditions the yield is greater. We really like the taste of Anguria. I pick the fruits in the early morning, until they are warmed up by the sun, so they remain solid for a long time and are well stored.
Valentine, 56 years old. From my own experience I can say that Anguria can be grown in Western Siberia. It is preferable to grow a plant in a greenhouse, so it gives a larger crop, but in the open ground it is also possible. Seeds are first planted on seedlings. Care is no more difficult than for other cultures. Fruits are eaten fresh in salads, pickled and pickled. Our guests liked the pickled Antilles cucumbers most of all.
Victoria, 34 years old. A husband from China brought several fruits of this unusual plant, very beautiful in appearance: yellow, almost orange peels and fleshy spikes. Looking at this miracle, I expected the same unusual taste, but no - a cucumber, like a cucumber, plus a bunch of grains. They don’t argue about taste, but I wouldn’t grow one like that.
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Anguria is an exotic plant, very much appreciated all over the world, but practically unknown in Russia and the CIS countries. It has high decorative and flavoring properties, does not require care more than other cultures of the pumpkin family, is resistant to diseases and pests, but loves heat, therefore, to get a good crop, you need to grow it in a greenhouse.