Snake melon - features and description of the variety

Appearance

This hybrid belongs to the pumpkin family, the cucumber genus. The plant forms long curly shoots, reaching a length of 4 meters. The leaves on the branches are very similar to those that grow on melons, they have a bright green color. There is a slight pubescence on the surface of the fruit, and there are practically no air chambers inside. Armenian cucumber has a dense, juicy pulp with small seeds. Up to 10 fruits can ripen on each bush, while fruiting continues until the first frost. The hybrid is considered early maturing - about 70 days pass from germination to technical ripeness.

Beneficial features

The fruits of this cucumber contain a lot of nutrients and mineral compounds: vitamin C, easily digestible carbohydrates, starch, mineral salts, provitamin A and much more. The whole complex of compounds that make up such a melon, when consumed, has a beneficial effect on the state of the digestive system, stimulates the improvement of metabolism. Silver melon also helps with obesity, atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus or intestinal colic - experts recommend regularly drinking juice from the pulp of its fruit. Many with the help of Armenian cucumber fight gallstone disease: for this you need to pour 300 g of dried cucumber peels with 1 liter of boiling water, and boil over low heat for 30 minutes. The resulting broth is consumed in 1 glass, three times a day before meals. The course of admission is 15 days, it can be repeated after a 7-day break.

Silver melon contains a significant amount of folic acid, which plays an important role in the blood-forming process. In addition, the tasty pulp stimulates the secretion of gastric juice, improves intestinal motility. Anyway, the Armenian cucumber is an effective remedy with a pronounced diuretic, choleretic, laxative and anti-sclerotic effect.

Sowing seeds

Growing a miracle cucumber is not difficult. True, for the successful development of culture, a high temperature of both air and soil, a sufficient amount of sunlight is necessary. Seed germination is possible if the temperature does not drop below 14 degrees, while seedlings will appear about a week after sowing. The optimal time for sowing in open ground is the last decade of May, provided that the weather is warm enough. Before sowing, the seeds must be properly processed: they are soaked in warm water for 24 hours. This procedure will allow you to get friendly shoots. Experienced gardeners who are closely familiar with the culture recommend following the 1 * 1.5m sowing scheme. The seeds are placed in prepared, well-watered holes, 2-3 seeds in each, to a depth of about 5 cm.

You can also grow the Armenian miracle vegetable using seedlings. For this, seedlings are sown at the end of April. You can transfer grown seedlings to an open bed when seven true leaves have formed on them, this will happen somewhere by the end of May.

If you want to try to prepare seed material on your own (since it is quite difficult to find crop seeds on sale in our country), select fully ripe fruits for these purposes. Selected seeds are placed in a sieve and washed thoroughly under running water. After that, the seed material must be dried and sent for storage in a paper envelope. Under optimal storage conditions, germination is maintained for several years.

Crop care

As already mentioned, snake melon is absolutely not whimsical. All she needs is regular loosening of the soil, removal of weeds and rare, but quite abundant watering. To feed the crop, it is recommended to use organic fertilizers, best of all - liquid mullein. Many gardeners do without fertilizers at all: as practice shows, such a melon grows successfully on any soil. In addition, the plants do not need to be tied or pinned.

The variety is considered resistant to diseases and infections, and can be affected by common garden aphids. To combat insects, you can use an onion infusion of the following composition: add one glass of grated onion gruel to a 10-liter bucket of water, one tablespoon of black pepper (ground) and liquid soap, three tablespoons of ordinary wood ash. Thus prepared, well mixed and strained, the affected plants are sprayed with an interval of several days.

When the melons are ripe, pluck them from the bush along with the stalks, so the storage period of the fruits will be slightly longer: on average, they retain their presentation and taste well for about 30 days.

Snake melon is loved by gardeners for a long period of fruiting, resistance to temperature fluctuations and common infections, as well as for its high yield. In addition, everyone who is fortunate enough to grow a culture on their site amicably notes the unusual and pleasant taste of the fruit, which quenches thirst well. The culture is widely used in cooking and is highly valued by gourmets for its delicate, unique taste. Be sure to try growing such an unusual vegetable in your garden, and it will definitely become a regular guest in your beds.

Video "Growing"

From the video you will learn how to grow such an unusual root crop.