Rutabaga (Brassica napobrassica) is a biennial plant whose root crop is eaten or used as animal feed. The plant belongs to the Cabbage genus, Cruciferous family. Rutabaga has other names: wicket, groove, Swedish turnip. Sometimes you can hear how rutabaga is called fodder beets, but this is a mistake. The plant has been known since ancient times. It was obtained by crossing cabbage and turnips. It was first mentioned in sources in 1620. According to versions from other sources, the rutabaga comes from Siberia.
Description of the rutabaga plant
Rutabaga is not afraid of cold or drought. Its relatives are turnips, horseradish, cabbage, mustard. Since the plant is two years old, in the first year, a root crop and tops are formed, and the next year - seeds with peduncles. Rutabaga has a tall stem with lyre-shaped leaves. The aboveground part has a gray color. The flowers are yellow and the fruit is a long pod with a smooth or lumpy surface. Seeds are spherical.
There are many varieties of rutabagas. The root vegetable can be oval or round, cylindrical, or rounded but slightly flattened. The pulp is white or yellowish. The taste is very similar to turnips, but rutabaga is more nutritious.
Growing rutabagas from seeds
Sowing seeds
If you grow seedlings in advance, the plants will not be afraid of some pests. Before sowing the seeds, they must be soaked in a garlic solution for about 1 hour. To do this, you need 100 ml of water and 25 g of garlic (pre-chopped). After an hour, the swede seeds should be washed and dried. It will be helpful to germinate the seeds by wrapping them in a damp cloth.
Sowing seeds should fall on the first days of April, 1.5 months before planting. It is necessary to pour a moistened substrate into the boxes, deepen the seeds into it by 1-1.5 cm, and at a distance of 2-3 cm from each other. The distance from one row to another should be about 6-7 cm. Then the boxes must be covered with foil. It is important to keep the temperature around 17-18 degrees.
Seedling rutabaga
When the first sprouts of swede appear, you need to remove the film from the boxes, and then put them in a cooler room. The temperature here should be about 6-7 degrees, and in a week it will need to be increased by 5-7 degrees to 12-15 degrees. Seedlings should be thinned out, and the ground should be watered and loosened.
In order not to damage the roots, it is not necessary to dive the seedlings. Therefore, the box for growing seedlings must be taken deep.
Before planting turnip seedlings, they need to be hardened for about 10 days. Every day, the boxes are taken out into the street, leaving them for a while, which is slightly increased every day. The maximum time is 24 hours after that the plants will be ready for planting.
Planting swede in open ground
After a month and a half from the day of sowing the seeds, it will be possible to transplant the plants to the beds. By this time, about 4-5 leaves should already appear on them. In this case, it is also necessary to take into account the weather conditions. But, as a rule, it is mid-May.Before planting, the seedlings are well watered so that the soil is moist.
The soil should be neutral in acidity. If the earth is acidic, it will need to be calcified. The soil should be as fertile as possible. It is important that it allows moisture to pass through well. The waters must be deep. Peat or loamy soil is suitable for this culture. You can also plant it in sandy loam.
It is advisable to plant rutabagas after cucumbers, pumpkins, potatoes, eggplants. Cruciferous plants should not be among the predecessors. After them, rutabagas in these beds can be planted only after 4-5 years.
The beds should be prepared in the fall. It is necessary to dig them up, add 3-4 kg of manure, 15 g of urea, 25-30 g of potassium salt, as well as 30-40 g of superphosphate per square meter. If you need to lower the acidity, this procedure is also performed in the fall.
Every 20 cm you need to make holes. The distance between the rows is about 50 cm. Before planting the seedlings, the wells are well watered. When planting, the leaves are partially cut off, and the roots are dipped into a chatterbox with clay. It is important not to bury the rutabaga root collar in the ground. When the seedlings are planted and sprinkled, the earth is tamped and watered a little. The seedlings are shaded for several days.
Landing before winter
If you plant this crop before winter, then in spring it will grow together, and the harvest will bring earlier than usual. Rutabagas are sown late, when the ground freezes by 5 cm. The soil is dug up in advance, the necessary fertilizers are applied. The depth of the holes is about 3 cm, the distance is the same as when planting seedlings. A little sand is added to the holes, on which 2 seeds are placed. Sand is also poured on top, and then humus or a mixture of compost and peat.
Care of the turnip
It is not difficult to care for this culture. It is watered, hilled, the earth is loosened and weeded. Fertilizers are periodically applied and treated against pests and diseases. If sockets are formed, then it's time to spud. After watering, the ground is loosened, deepening by 4-8 cm. The first time this procedure is performed 2 days after planting, the second - a week later. Further, loosening is performed together with weeding. There should be 4-5 loosening per season.
Watering
This crop loves moisture, but if there is too much of it, the root crop can turn out to be watery. For the whole season, there should be about 3-5 waterings. If there is not enough water, the fruit will be tough and taste bitter. It is recommended to consume about 10 liters of water per 1 square meter.
Top dressing and fertilizers
Fertilizers need to be applied 2 weeks after planting. After watering, slurry is introduced. When the root crop begins to form, you need to add a mineral dressing containing potassium and phosphorus.
Treatment
After planting, the seedlings need to be powdered with ash. This will help avoid getting hit by the flea. It is important to keep a close eye on the plants throughout the season. If necessary, chemical treatment is carried out. But before harvesting the swede should be at least a month.
Cleaning and storage of swede
In 3-4 months after planting, you can start harvesting. As a rule, rutabagas are removed for storage after the first frosts. When you dig the rutabaga, do it carefully. The root crop should not be damaged. The tops are cut at the base. The root crop is cleaned, dried in a shaded place, and then lowered into the cellar for storage, where it is placed on shelves or in boxes.
Diseases and pests
Rutabaga can get the same diseases as other cruciferous plants such as cabbage or horseradish. Most often it is more linen, mosaic, black leg. It is also characterized by such diseases as keela, vascular bacteriosis. Among pests, the following species are dangerous: sprout swings, aphids, bugs, etc.
To protect the plant from damage by pests and the development of diseases, it is very important not to forget about the need for crop rotation. Before sowing, the seed disinfection procedure should not be neglected. It won't take long, but it will help preserve the harvest in the future. Weeds need to be removed from the beds.After harvesting, you need to remove the tops from the garden, as well as dig up the ground well.
For prevention, it is useful to plant any salad and herbs that have a strong aroma next to the beds of the turnip. This can be salvia, sage, wormwood, and also mint or chamomile. Row-spacing nasturtium will be excellent at repelling many pests.
Useful properties of swede
These vegetables are rich in sugars, fats, and fiber. They contain vegetable protein, as well as carbohydrates, which are well absorbed by the body. They contain a lot of ascorbic acid, carotene, as well as various B vitamins. Rutabaga is rich in useful essential oils. Among the trace elements, this root vegetable contains potassium, sodium and phosphorus. It is useful for those who suffer from calcium deficiency. In folk medicine, the seeds of this culture were used for rinsing with inflammation of the oral cavity.
The root vegetable is often used as a remedy for burns, diuretic, and anti-inflammatory. When we lack vitamins in winter and spring, rutabaga helps to fill this deficiency. Thanks to its fiber content, it helps with constipation. Rutabagas are recommended for atherosclerosis.
Root crops are used for hypertension, as they help to remove accumulated fluid from the body.
If someone in the family suffers from a cough, it is necessary to consume as much rutabagas as possible, so that recovery can come as quickly as possible.
But this healthy vegetable also has its own contraindications. It is not recommended for those who suffer from gastrointestinal diseases. After all, plant fibers can irritate the surfaces of organs. Sometimes there may also be an individual intolerance, that is, an allergy. In this case, the use of the product will have to be abandoned.
Types and varieties of swede
There is both fodder and dining rutabaga. Fodder is a table crop crossed with cabbage. It produces good yields and is easy to care for. Table rutabaga has a juicy tasty pulp. Here are some of the most common varieties.
- Invitation - this variety is good because it is not afraid of powdery mildew and is not affected by the keel.
- Swedish - a high-yielding variety, the roots have yellow flesh.
- Krasnoselskaya - gives a good harvest that can be stored for a long time. The growing season is 3-4 months. One root vegetable weighs 300-500 g. They have a yellow sugary pulp.
- Novgorodskaya is a mid-season variety with good resistance to shooting. Root crops weigh about 400 g. Their flesh is yellow, soft. The advantage is excellent keeping quality.
- Children's love - the roots are oval-round. This is a mid-early rutabaga. The mass of one root vegetable is 350-500 g. The pulp is quite dense and juicy.
- Acme - roots have an orange pulp, and their top is purple.
- Brora - high sugar content is characteristic of root crops, they look shiny and purple.
