Serpentine melon, or Armenian cucumber – a guest from the fields of Central Asia. The hybrid produces unusual fruits, reaching a length of half a meter, weighing about 1 kg each. Armenian cucumber can be greenish or white, curved or straight. The fruits are juicy, with a sweet taste, reminiscent of melon upon ripening, while the young fruit is more like a cucumber. Here is such an unusual fruit and vegetable!
Appearance
This hybrid belongs to the gourd 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, 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 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 ripe – about 70 days pass from germination to technical ripeness.
Useful Properties
The fruits of this cucumber contain a lot of useful substances 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 fruits. Many with the help of the Armenian cucumber struggle with cholelithiasis: for this you need to pour 1 liter of boiling water over 300 g of dried cucumber peels, and boil over low heat for 30 minutes. The resulting decoction is consumed 1 cup, 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 hematopoietic process. In addition, tasty pulp stimulates the secretion of gastric juice, improves intestinal motility. And in general, the Armenian cucumber is an effective remedy with a pronounced diuretic, choleretic, laxative and anti-sclerotic effect.
Seed sowing
Growing a miracle cucumber is not particularly difficult. True, for the successful development of culture, a high temperature of both air and soil, a sufficient amount of sunlight is necessary. Germination of seeds is possible if the temperature does not fall 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 a sowing pattern of 1 * 1,5 m. Seeds are placed in prepared, well-watered holes, 2-3 seeds each, to a depth of about 5 cm.
You can also grow the Armenian miracle vegetable in seedlings. For this, seedlings are sown at the end of April. It is possible to transfer grown seedlings to an open garden 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 not easy to find seeds for sale in our country), select fully ripened fruits for this purpose. Selected seeds are placed in a sieve and thoroughly washed 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.
Care of crops
As already mentioned, the serpentine melon is absolutely not whimsical. All she needs is regular loosening of the soil, removal of weeds and rare but fairly plentiful watering. To feed the culture, 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, plants do not need to be tied up with lashes or pinned.
The variety is considered resistant to diseases and infections; it 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, one tablespoon of black pepper (ground) and liquid soap, three tablespoons of ordinary wood ash to a 10-liter bucket of water. Thus prepared, well mixed and filtered, the affected plants are sprayed at intervals of several days.
When the melons are ripe, pick them off the bush along with the stalks, so the shelf life of the fruits will be somewhat longer: on average, they retain their presentation and taste well for about 30 days.
Serpentine melon is loved by gardeners for its long fruiting period, resistance to temperature fluctuations and common infections, and also for its high yield. In addition, everyone who was lucky enough to grow a crop on their site unanimously notes the unusual and pleasant taste of fruits that quench their thirst well. The culture is widely used in cooking and is highly valued by gourmets for its delicate, unique taste. Be sure to try to grow such an unusual vegetable in your garden, and he 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.
