Every year there are all new cultures for cultivation on personal plots. Plants of southern countries, through the efforts of biologists, acquire a new homeland. Vigna vegetable is a nice novelty for gardeners in Russia. With proper care, cultivation in the open field is possible in the Urals and in the Moscow region.
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Description of cowpea vegetable
It resembles asparagus beans, but does not apply to this species.With the beans do not interbreed. Herbaceous annual plant, can be a bush, short or tall, or climbing. Very beautiful during flowering.
The creepers grow stems up to 3-4 metersThe brushes have paddles, about a meter long, as thick as a pencil. Yield up to 3 kg of beans from the bush.
This liana, while achieving maximum yield, is quite heavy. Requires solid support. Beautiful, overgrown with plants, terrace, balcony, gazebo.
The main characteristics of culture
There are several types of cowpea. These are Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese. The Chinese have made the culture popular in their country; they have bred asparagus varieties with long shoulder blades, tender without hard veins. Then it spread throughout the world.
Vigna vegetable was cultivated in the southern regions; thermophilic. Thanks to the work of breeders, the growing area has expanded. In the central and western regions of Russia, early varieties are grown in seedlings or in greenhouses in the vicinity of cucumbers.
By eating beans, we enrich the body with essential trace elements, as well as vitamins B, C, D. Arginine contained in the fruit, normalizes hemoglobin in the blood, treats diabetes and high blood pressure. The presence of potassium and sodium helps to eliminate excess fluid, reduces swelling. The pods can be dried and cooked from them healthy tea.
Popular varieties
Most interesting for gardeners asparagus varieties, beans do not have hard fiber, with a delicate flavor.
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- Macaretti
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- Countess
- Macaretti - variety of medium ripening. Already 80 days after germination begin a massive collection of beans. Scourge up to three meters. The pods are curved, 30 cm long, green, tender. The seeds are brown. Productivity to 2 kg from a bush.
- Countess - early productive grade. The first fruits can be collected 65 days after the start of mass shoots. Liana winds up to 3 m, the beans are 50 cm long. Delicate pods do not contain fibers. Seeds are black. Up to 2.5 kg of grain is collected from a square meter of bed.
- Korean - early bush variety. Beans 10-12 cm long. Compact bush, does not require a lot of space for growing.
Planting and cultivation in open ground
Planting includes the preparation of beds and seed material.
Preparation of beds
The origin of cowpea determines its growing conditions. Plant requires bright, sheltered from the wind places. Does not tolerate acidic and wet soils.
In the fall, dig a bed, add humus and compost, add superphosphate. In the spring, they perform re-loosening, add complex fertilizer. The plant impoverishes the soil, is planted in the same place after 3 years.
Seed preparation and sowing
Seeds soaked in potassium permanganate solution for 20 minutes, then washed. You can pre-heat the grains in warm water. Good result gives soaking in the solution "Fitocid", "Fitosporin".
Put in a pot in the wet heated earth three seeds. The seeding depth is 1 cm. For the first time, I cover the pot with glass to preserve moisture and place it on the south window. Seeds germinate at a temperature not lower than 15 degrees.
Land regularly before the appearance of the first four leaflets. Then cut. In the first month of growth, plants do not feed. Planting is carried out 35 days before planting the seedlings into the ground. Usually planting seedlings produced in the end of April.
Transplanting
Garden bed good moisturize. Plants are planted in rows at a distance 65 cm. Interrow distance do 80 cm.
The bed is mulched and covered with a film on the installed arc. After reaching an average temperature of 15 degrees, the shelter is removed.
You can plant cowl immediately to the ground. From May 20 seeds are sown in wells to a depth of 5 cm, three seeds each. When receiving shoots leave one plant. At an early stage, culture is harbor.
Plant care during the growing season
As usual, it is watering, feeding, loosening, weeding. Vigna - plant drought resistant. Sure to water with the appearance of buds, loosen after the seedlings reach a height of 7 cm.
Feedings combined with watering. In a bucket of water, add 5 g of potassium chloride, 15 g of superphosphate, instead of potassium, 100 g of ash will do. They make a furrow 5 cm deep along a row, shed fertilizer with a solution, then mulch it with earth and loosen it.
For climbing grades, cowpeas establish supports. For this purpose, you can apply a cucumber grid, stretched over a frame. When the vine grows to 2.5 m, you need to pinch it. This will accelerate the ripening of the fruit.
Harvesting and storage of the crop
Harvesting cowpea beans on a spatula begin 10 days after their formation. They reach milky ripeness, become juicy and fleshy. Collecting fruits helps build new ones. During mass growth, the crop is removed every three days.
If you grow a plant for grain, the beans must ripen, the pods dry. Grains are husked, dried and stored in a cool dry place.
Seed germination remains up to 5 years.
Vigna in cooking
The seeds of cowpea well boiled soft, they are used in salads, soups and sauces. Delicate garnishes are obtained from delicate shoulder blades after defrosting. Product contains more protein than fish and meat. Like all vegetables, low-calorie, contains a lot of fiber. Germinated grains are used for dietary nutrition.
Vigna is a relatively new vegetable crop for Russia.But its popularity is growing. The development of zoned varieties made it not so exotic and problematic culture for our climate. Given the beneficial properties, it is worth trying to grow this vegetable in your garden.