The collective farmer is an old proven variety of melons, which once had All-Union glory. But even today, despite dozens of new varieties, the medium-sized and sweet "Kolkhoznitsa" continues to ripen in the beds of our gardeners. We will learn about the peculiarities of planting and growing this fragrant melon in different regions of Russia.
melon variety "Kolkhoznitsa"
melon seeds variety "Kolkhoznitsa"
already in its eighties, the Kolkhoznitsa melon is at its peak of popularity
The history of the origin of the variety
The variety was entered into the State Register in 1943. And it was bred even before the war. The authors submitted an application for registration of the variety in 1939. The place of the variety creation is the Biryuchekutskaya Experimental Station (Novocherkassk, Rostov Region).
Description of culture
The fruits of the "Kolkhoznitsa" are spherical. Description of fruits:
- Pulp. Thin, as the fruit is small. White. Juicy, crunches a little.
- Crust. Elastic but firm. Bright yellow, sometimes with an orange or green tint. Smooth, sometimes a coarse mesh appears.
The taste of Kolkhoznitsa depends on the growing conditions. The cooler the summer, the less sun, the less sugar the fruits accumulate. There are many seeds inside the Kolkhoznitsa.
Variety characteristics
The fruits of the variety are small, the growing season is short. Such features make it possible to grow the "Kolkhoz Woman" in the conditions of a short and not hot summer. The main characteristics of the variety are shown in table 1.
Table 1
Characteristics / parameters | Description / meaning |
Ripening terms | mid-season |
Fruit weight | 0.7-1.3 kg, maximum 2 kg |
Sugar content | 11–12 % |
Vegetation period | 77-95 days |
Taste | sweet, good to excellent |
Growing | outdoors or in a greenhouse |
Purpose | for fresh food, also suitable for cooking jams, making marmalade and candied fruits |
Disease resistance | the variety is resistant to bacteriosis, but is often affected by anthracnose and powdery mildew |
Marketable yield | 1.5-2.3 kg from 1 sq. m |
Transportability | good |
Drought tolerance | good |
Frost resistance | good |
Pros and cons
"Kolkhoznitsa" has remained popular for almost 80 years, remaining not only a popular favorite, but also a popular commercial variety. What is the secret of such moral longevity? Of course, in its advantages:
- She has great taste.
- She is well transported.
- She has the perfect volume. The small fruit is easy to eat - it can be eaten easily at a time.
- Growing rapidly.
- You can propagate with your own seeds.
The disadvantages of the variety are insignificant, with some gardeners are fighting, with others they are reconciled:
- If the crop is grown in greenhouses, manual pollination is required.
- May be affected by fungal diseases.
- Low fetal weight.
Regionality
Melon is an extremely thermophilic culture. It is usually grown in the southern regions - without the bright sun and hot summer, delicious melons cannot be obtained. But this variety grows in all regions, except for the North-West and North.
Growing in the Urals
The Ural summer is short and cool. Melons do not have time to ripen here. The crop is obtained only with greenhouse cultivation. If you follow agricultural techniques, apply top dressing and water the melon beds on time, the fruits grow quite sweet.
Moscow suburbs
It is not easy to grow melons in the suburbs. In order for the fruits to ripen and have time to collect sweets, you have to grow seedlings. Seeds are sown no earlier than mid-April. When the seedlings get stronger, they are transplanted into prepared beds. They do this around mid-June.
The melon area is well fertilized with organic matter and covered with dark agrofibre or plastic wrap. Holes are made in the material - seedlings are planted in them. For the night, melon seedlings are covered with spunbond - nights in the Moscow region are cold.
Melons in Siberia
In Siberia, the Kolkhoznitsa variety is grown not only under cover. This summer is enough for the fruits to ripen in the open field. Frost resistance and growing season allow to grow a good yield of melons.
In Siberia, melons are grown in "warm beds". They do them like this:
- A layer of earth is removed - 10-12 cm thick.
- Rotted manure is placed on the bottom, the layer thickness is 4-5 cm.
- Fallen leaves, small branches, sawdust, and other plant debris are poured into the pit.
- Watered with a solution of nitrogen fertilizers (20-25 g per bucket).
- Top covered with 20-25 cm of fertile soil.
Recurrent frosts are typical for Siberia. Moreover, they happen not only in spring, but also in summer. If it is known that a cold snap is coming, melon plantings are protected by smoke - they make fires around the beds. The second option is the processing of melons with Epin. It is diluted in cold water - 1 ampoule per 5 liters. The effect of such spraying is enough for a week.
How to plant a collective farmer?
The collective farmer, depending on the climate, is planted with seedlings or seeds in open ground. The latter option is completely unsuitable for regions with cool, short summers. We will learn how to grow seedlings and how to plant them.
Seedling preparation
Melon seedlings can be purchased or grown on their own. The main thing in growing seedlings is to correctly determine the sowing time. They depend on the region - the later the spring begins, the later the sowing. Growing methods also affect the timing. If melons are grown in the region not only in greenhouses, but also in the open field, then for the latter option, seedlings are sown 2-3 weeks later.
When calculating the sowing time, keep in mind that the duration of the seedling period is 30-35 days. By the time the seedlings grow up, favorable weather conditions should be created. If, for example, seeds are sown in early May, then the harvest will be ready in August. If you postpone sowing to April, the fruits will ripen a month faster.
It is not worth sowing seeds before April - in March there is still little light, you will have to highlight the plantings. If the timing is delayed, the seedlings will stretch. Saplings with long stems and a large number of leaves do not take root well, get sick, and lag behind in growth.
If the region has less than 90 sunny days, melons are grown in seedlings.
Preparing seeds for growing
The seeds must be large and free from defects. A good seed is firm and does not squeeze when pressed. Preparation procedure:
- Testing. Dummies are identified before the seeds are soaked. Planting material is poured with water, floating seeds are thrown away
- Germination. Seeds that have been tested are soaked in a growth accelerator. After 2 days, the first shoots appear.
- Hardening. The hatched seeds, wrapped in gauze, are placed in the refrigerator for 15-20 hours.
seed testing
germination of seeds
seed hardening
The seeds of the "Kolkhoznitsa" are always in the assortment of seed shops. They are easy to buy at any seed stall. Seeds are cheaper in plain white bags. The cost of a white package is 5 rubles, a color one - 10 rubles. However, if you choose 1-2 packages, the difference is small. In the future, the seeds can be harvested independently.
We start sowing
For sowing seeds, you will need peat or ordinary plastic cups. They are filled in advance with a ready-made substrate or a self-prepared mixture. The mixture for planting seedlings includes ordinary garden soil, peat, wood ash and river sand.
The volume of the glasses depends on how long the seedlings have to be grown. For 2-3 weeks, a volume of 150-200 ml is enough, for 4 weeks - 300-500 ml.
Quenched seeds are planted in cups. How to sow seeds for seedlings:
- Embed the seeds by 5-6 cm.
- After sowing, moisten the substrate with water at room temperature.
- Place 2 seeds in each glass. In the future, choose the best sprout out of the two that emerged.
- Place the glasses in a sunny place. The optimum room temperature is + 20 ° C. Seedlings will appear in about a week.
- Water the seedlings regularly. Sprinkle sand on the soil to protect the seedlings from root rot.
- Pinch the tops of the main shoots after three full leaves appear. Side shoots will begin to appear on the shoots.
A month later, the seedlings are planted in the ground or under a film. Sowing to a permanent place is done in the same way as sowing seedlings - the same depth, temperature, etc. Sowing schemes in open ground - 140 x 100 cm, in a greenhouse - 70 x 70 cm.
Seedling care
Seedling growing rules:
- Temperature range for seedlings is + 25 ... + 30 ° C.
- The glasses are placed in the brightest place.
- Watering frequency - as the top layer dries.
- Watering is abundant.
- Fertilizers are not required for seedlings, they already grow in fertile soil.
Alternative method of growing seedlings
Grow seedlings without glasses and substrate like this:
- Straighten cellophane or film 10 cm wide. The length of the strips is calculated by doubling the number of seeds.
- Toilet paper folded in half is placed on the film.
- Spray the paper with water from a conventional spray bottle.
- They step back from the edge 2-3 cm, and spread the seeds on wet paper. Step - 1-2 cm.
- The finished "landing" is folded, fastened and lowered into the water with the lower edge.
In such a roll, 1-2 dozen seeds are sown at the same time. And for everything - one glass. Shoots appear in 3-4 days. They grow beautifully without soil for 2 weeks. As soon as the 1st leaf appears, the seedlings are planted in a permanent place.
If the planting has to be postponed, the roll is unrolled and sprinkled with earth. Layer thickness - 1-2 cm. Then the roll is folded again. When transplanting, the plant is easily separated along with a piece of paper, which quickly decays in the soil.
Selection and preparation of the landing site
"Kolkhoz woman", as befits melons, is grown in the sunniest and most spacious areas. More requirements for the place of cultivation:
- Soils are light or loamy.
- The groundwater level is 2-3 m.
- Windproof.
- The best predecessors are green manure, onion, potatoes, cabbage. Precursors are excluded - cucumbers, all melons and gourds.
- Waterlogging is excluded - it is fatal for melons.
Site preparation for different types of planting:
- In the greenhouse. Features of soil preparation for the greenhouse:
- The land is recruited after frost, when most of the pests will die.
- Weeds are removed from the site and dug up by adding humus or manure.
- Ash or lime is added to the soil.
- Outdoors. A place for planting in open ground begins to be prepared in the fall. Soil preparation:
- Fall. For 1 sq. m of area contribute 1 tbsp. l superphosphate and the same amount of potash fertilizers.
- Spring. Introduce 0.5 liters of wood ash, as well as humus or compost - 1 bucket. If there is no organic matter, you can add urea or ammonium nitrate - 1 tbsp. l.
To keep the soil loose, sand is added to it. It is well replaced by leaves, hay dust, thin branches, plant residues.
Landing rules
The minimum embarkation temperature, regardless of the disembarkation site, is 11 ° C. In colder environments, melons will not develop. With a long stay in the cold, melons die.
Features and rules for planting seedlings:
- The cups in which the seedlings grew are removed when planting or at least torn apart. If this is not done, then with insufficient watering, the glasses turn into a crust, impenetrable for the roots.
- Plant the seedlings from glasses to the depth at which they grew. It is impossible for the seedling to be at a deeper depth than it is used to.
- Melons do not tolerate movement from place to place. Therefore, it is so important to carefully transplant - it is necessary to move the roots along with the ground, in no case damaging them.
- The holes are lightly sprinkled with dry sand.
- The first week the seedlings are covered with spunbond. If the planting is small, each seedling can be covered with plastic bottles.
- If the temperature is less than + 5 ° C, cover the plantings.
- Pour hot water over melons.
Melon care
The main thing for the melon is the right temperature and humidity. Everything else is simple - the beds need to be weeded, loosened, fertilized and watered. And if you cover the soil with a dark film, then maintenance will be even easier. The collective farmer loves warmth and oxygen. Humidity is unacceptable - fungi develop well in it, against which the variety has no special immunity.
Watering and feeding
Features of watering a melon Kolkhoz woman:
- During the period of fruit formation, melon is watered more often and harder.
- The frequency and volume of watering is influenced by the weather and plant age:
- Youngsters are often watered, the ground must be constantly moistened.
- Adult plants, if the weather is dry, are watered once a week.
- Watering should be stopped half a month before melons ripen. The aisles on the melon are loosened three times per season.
Top dressing is carried out every two weeks. The first is half a month after planting seedlings or emergence of seedlings. The timing, composition and dose of fertilizers are in table 2.
table 2
Top dressing | What do they feed? |
First. During the appearance of 2 true sheets. | Bird droppings diluted in water 1:15 |
Second. In 2 weeks. | Each well contains 0.5 l of solution. Take a bucket of water:
|
Third. In 3 weeks. | Repeat the previous feeding |
During the period of fruit growth, mineral fertilizers can be replaced with ash. It is scattered over the soil, which is then loosened and watered. You can also use store-bought complex mixtures for melons and gourds.
Formation of bushes
If you do not form bushes, then the harvest can not wait. Features of the formation of melon bushes:
- The main stem is the carrier of barren flowers, male flowers. Ovaries are formed only on lateral shoots. To activate their growth, pinch the main lash over 4-5 leaves.
- Shoots grow in the axils of the leaves. Their number is regulated. In the south, 3-4 escapes are left, in more severe regions - 2.
- Further, the bush is not pinched until the fruits grow the size of an egg. Often melons, growing to this size, turn yellow and fall off. The number of fruits left on the bush is determined taking into account the strength of the bush and weather conditions. On powerful bushes, and in hot weather, 5-6 fruits are left. On weakened bushes, and in a damp summer, no more than three melons are left.
- Having decided how many fruits will be left on the bush, pinch all the shoots above them. At the same time, five leaves are counted from the fruits. Stepsons who do not have ovaries are removed completely.
- You should not rush to pinch and remove the side stepsons, you should make sure that the left fruits grow.
Prevention measures
The main problem of the "Kolkhoz Woman" is fungi. The variety is sick:
- Powdery mildew. Foliage and stems turn yellow, then become covered with a grayish bloom. The affected parts wither and die. The quality of the melons suffers. Many fruits dry up. At the beginning of growth, the melon is treated with pesticides to prevent this disease.
- Fusarium. First, spots appear on the leaves. The fruits are deformed, the leaves wither, the stem dries up. Appears with high humidity and with an excess of potassium.
- Root rot. Affects adult plants. It is not amenable to treatment, the affected bushes are pulled out.
For prevention, melon plantings are treated at least twice:
- before flowering;
- at the beginning of the growth of the ovaries.
Plants are sprayed with fungicides. For example HOMom (40 g per bucket of water), Fast (2 ml per bucket of water) or others. Chemicals are used no later than 3-4 weeks before harvesting.
Of insects, one should be wary of melon aphids, spider mites, gnawing scoops and wireworms. To prevent crop losses, melons are sprayed with insecticides. Soap and tobacco dust can help fight pests - their solutions are quite effective against many insects.
Useful Tips
Important points:
- If the melons are grown in seedlings, the plants are first covered from the sun. And if the summer is cool, you have to monitor the temperature in order to cover the plantings in time.
- It is not necessary to remove arcs from the beds, on which the covering material was pulled. Suddenly the rains will charge, then you can quickly cover the melons with foil.
- Scourges are pinned to the soil during fruit setting - so that additional roots form.
- In greenhouses, melon lashes are tied to trellises.
- During flowering, all doors and windows in the greenhouse must be open for the bees to fly in.
- Nets are put on the growing fruits and, like lashes, they are tied to a trellis so that they do not break.
- On an open melon, something solid is placed under each melon - plywood, tiles, plastic, etc. This prevents the fruit from rotting.
Timing and definition of ripening
The Kolkhoznitsa variety has a short vegetation. The first melons ripen 60 days after transplanting or after germination. More accurate ripening dates, depending on the time of planting, each gardener can find out from the information on the bag - there are usually sowing-ripening schedules.
Usually the beginning of the collection falls on the month of August. The ripeness of melons is easy to determine:
- the fruits have turned yellow, they smell good;
- the stalk is dry;
- the fruit comes off easily.
Harvesting and storage of crops
Features of collecting and storing melon Kolkhoz woman:
- Plucked green melons are stored in a dark and warm place. Where they mature for 3-4 days.
- The fruits are cut, leaving a tail of 3-5 cm.
- Ripe melons are laid out on a tarp. They are kept under the sun for 10 days. The fruits are placed strictly in one layer. Every 5 days, the melons are shifted from side to side.
- Melons require neatness. They cannot be thrown, put on top of each other. Any defect - a crack or a bruise, leads to rotting of the fruit.
- Whole fruits are stored in the basement until January.
- The best way of long-term storage is hanging in a net. Each fruit is suspended separately.
- Optimal conditions for long-term storage are humidity 70-80%, temperature - from +1 to +3 ° C.
Melons must not come into contact with each other during storage.
Melons are tasty fresh, but if the harvest is large, some of the fruits are processed. They make jam, compotes, candied fruits. Melon wedges can be pickled, dried, frozen.
Which melon is sweeter and tastier - Kolkhoz Woman or Torpedo?
The collective farmer is definitely sweeter. But which variety is tastier, everyone decides for himself. The collective farmer is sweet and moderately juicy, the Torpedo is watery, with sourness. Torpedo and Kolkhoz Woman are rival melons. They constantly argue about which variety is better. The torpedo is stored longer, but it contains fewer nutrients. The rest of the comparative criteria are in Table 3.
Table 3.
Comparative parameter | Torpedo | Collective farmer |
The size | up to 5 kg (this is in Russia, in its homeland, the torpedo is gaining up to 15 kg) | up to 2 kg |
The form | elongated | rounded |
Taste | more watery | sweeter |
Pulp | white | white |
Calorie content | 35 kcal | 30-32 kcal |
Ripening terms | 95-110 days | 77-90 days |
It is difficult to say which variety is better. Some like round melons, others like elongated ones. Some people prefer large melons - for the whole family, others appreciate portioned ones. Everyone chooses their own option.
Reviews
Arseniy D., Voronezh region I have been raising a collective farmer for many years. I select my seeds from the largest melons. I plant it in open ground. The variety is early ripening, so there are no problems with ripening. We are already eating the harvest in August. The fungus was annoying at first, now I process the planting with HOM, and the problem has disappeared.
Olga Sh., Moscow region. I planted this variety for the first time. It was written that it was early ripening. She sowed seeds directly into the greenhouse. Melons have grown, but small. Some of the melons were sweet, others tasteless. One plant produced only 1-2 melons. I'm thinking of planting seedlings this year.
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The main advantage of the Kolkhoz Woman melon is its availability for most regions of Russia. Any gardener can grow it if he fulfills all the requirements of agricultural technology and correctly forms the bushes. In the open air or in a greenhouse - the collective farmer will delight you in any case with a harvest of strong yellow melons, sweet and aromatic.
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Russia. City Novosibirsk
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