Nod plant. Kiwano - African cucumber

Kiwano is an exotic fruit native to Africa. The plant belongs to the herbaceous vines of the Pumpkin family and the species of the Cucumber genus. Outwardly, a plant with flowers and fruits really look like this vegetable. Liana grows up to 3 meters in length, the leaves are large green, slightly dissected. Flowering kiwano begins in the summer, the flowers are yellow, open in the morning until noon. The fruits are oval, similar to a melon or an overripe cucumber, only with soft spines. Inside is a jelly-like green pulp with numerous pale green seeds. Kiwano tastes like a mixture of cucumber and banana. The peel is leathery and sinewy, with soft spines, green in unripe fruits, gradually becoming yellow, reddish or orange in the process of ripening. Fruits grow up to 15 cm in length and weigh from 60 to 350 g.

Other names for kiwano: milano, false anguria, Antillean or African cucumber, jelly or horned melon. Today, this plant is widely grown in Central America, Israel, the United States and New Zealand.

Kiwano successfully grows in countries with a tropical climate and does not tolerate sub-zero temperatures at all. Russian breeders have bred the Green Dragon variety, which is well adapted to the Russian climate and quickly begins to bear fruit. Already 75 days after the emergence of sprouts, you can harvest the first crop.

Benefit and harm

Kiwano has a lot of vitamins, A, C, groups P and B, ascorbic acid, beta-carotene, contains carbohydrates, proteins and fats, iron, manganese, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, salts and organic acids. In one fruit, 89% of water, 100 g of kiwano contain 45 kcal.

Health Benefits of Kiwano:

• lowers arterial pressure needed for hypertension. Regular use eating fruit protects against myocardial infarction and rheumatism;
• reduces the amount of sugar in the blood, which is especially important for people with diabetes;
• thins the blood a large number water in the pulp;
• removes radionuclides, slags and toxins from the body;
• restores the balance of water and salt, saturating the cells of the body with essential substances, oxygen and moisture;
• prevents aging and formation cancerous tumors;
• stimulates digestion thanks to dietary fiber, which are part of the fruit and envelop the walls of the stomach and intestines, contributing to their regeneration;
• useful for weight loss, saturates the body with important elements for it and promotes the breakdown of fats;
• strengthens the immune system and joints;
• increases hemoglobin in the blood, increasing the number of red blood cells;
• helps with insomnia, for this juice is mixed with honey and drunk at night.

The fruits have the following properties:

• soothing
• antiseptic
• anti-inflammatory
• cleansing
• immunomodulatory
• healing

In cosmetology, fruit is used to make masks that tighten and tone the skin of the face and body, make scrubs and peels.

There are no contraindications to the use of the fetus, except for an allergic reaction of the body. It should be remembered that for us it is an exotic fruit and for the body it is new food, which you need to try a little and monitor the reaction.

Mask for the face

Remove the pulp from 1 Kiwano fruit and mix with honey. You can use yogurt or sour cream. ready mix apply on face for a few minutes, then rinse warm water.

Application in medicine

Fruit juice is used as a sedative, it is very useful to drink it for people suffering from insomnia. The fruit has a positive effect on intestinal motility, is used externally in the treatment of burns and open wounds, and helps stop bleeding. Kiwano renders therapeutic effect with anemia, tuberculosis, atherosclerosis, bronchitis and gout. During chemotherapy, fruit juice is very useful, which helps to some extent protect the body from a side effect of this procedure - hair loss.

Application in cooking

Kiwano is eaten raw, salads are prepared from it, which are seasoned with lemon juice, pepper and salt. Fruits are added to ice cream, sherbet, cottage cheese desserts. Young fruits are salted and canned like cucumbers. Kiwano is suitable for making cereals, soups and side dishes.

The fruit goes well with yoghurts, creams, milkshakes, berries, vegetables, fish and meat dishes. Very tasty sauces, jams, compotes and desserts are obtained from Kiwano. You can expose the fruits heat treatment and pickle. Fruit juice is mixed with orange and lemon, whipped in a mixer and served in a glass of fruit skin. In the homeland of this fruit, the most popular dish- seafood appetizer with cheese and kiwano.

Interesting appearance fruits are used to decorate dishes and holiday tables. When serving, the fruit can be cut into slices or circles, put the pulp in a glass of the skin, decorating with berries.

Sherbet with kiwano

Ingredients:

• 3 oranges;
• 2 tbsp. l. cherry liqueur;
• 150 g pineapple yogurt;
• 180 g of condensed milk or cream;
• 3 nod fruit.

Cooking:

1. Squeeze the juice from oranges and strain, add liquor, yogurt and condensed milk.
2. Put the mass overnight in cool place, covering with gauze folded in 3 layers.
3. Add the pulp of kiwano, mix and put in the freezer for a day.
4. For the first 2-3 hours, beat the mass with a mixer or a whisk so that lumps do not form in the sherbet.
5. Ready dessert put in glasses, decorate with cream, berries or fruits.

Kiwano sauce

Ingredients:

• 2 limes;
• 1 nod;
• 1 lemon;
• a clove of garlic;
• salt pepper;
• 1 tsp mustard;
• 1.5 st. l. olive oils.

Cooking:

1. Peel the limes, kiwanos and lemons.
2. Grind the fruits in a meat grinder and squeeze the mass through gauze.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste, crushed garlic, oil and mustard to the juice, mix well.
4. Bring the mass to a boil and put in the freezer for a while.

The sauce gives dishes an exotic taste and aroma, use it as a marinade or serve with meat and fish.

How to choose and eat kiwano

When choosing exotic fruits you must be very careful not to buy spoiled or unripe. When choosing a kiwano, you need to remember the following recommendations:

• buy medium-sized fruits;
• ripe fruit saturated orange color with marble splashes;
• the peel should not have dark brown spots and damage;
• the fruit should be elastic to the touch;
• mature fruit has yellow spikes.

If the kiwano did not have time to ripen and you purchased green fruit Don't worry, it will ripen on its own in a few days.

If you are trying these fruits for the first time, you will have a question, how to eat them? The peel of the kiwano is inedible, often used as a plate on which the pulp is laid out. The pulp of the fruit is very tender and cannot be separated from the peel like, for example, an orange. Usually the fruit is cut into two parts and the contents are eaten with a spoon. You can add sugar or salt to taste.

Growing at home

If you have in your hands ripe fruit kiwano, you can save the seeds and plant them in late April or early May. A plant can take root well in an apartment and in a garden, if it is planted and created correctly the necessary conditions. It is necessary to remove the bones only from a well-ripened fruit. Choose large and whole seeds.

Planting kiwano seeds consists of several stages:

• soak the seeds in a solution of sodium humate, you can use the fertilizer "Epin-extra";
• when the seeds swell, put them in a warm place for 3 days until they hatch, this will increase the chance of germination;
• plant the seeds to a depth of 3.5 cm in loose, nutritious soil, which can be purchased at a flower shop. Capacity for planting should be no more than 10 cm in diameter;
• cover the pot with foil, when the seeds sprout, it must be removed. Water the seedlings regularly.

Care and transplantation in open ground

During cultivation, it is necessary to follow some rules for caring for the plant:

• keep the temperature at 25 degrees;
• provide the plant with a long daylight hours using fluorescent lamps;
• protect the nod from direct sunlight to avoid burns;
• keep the soil moist and loosen regularly.

After 4 weeks, you can transplant the kiwano into open ground. To protect a young plant from the cold, you can create a greenhouse for it. The plant needs a lot of space because it grows and spreads quickly. It is preferable to plant it along fences or walls on a flat surface, in a calm, warm place. No more than 2 bushes should be planted per 1 m2. The planting hole should be 40 x 35 cm in size. The nodule root system is poorly developed and located superficially, does not withstand drought and stagnant water. A big advantage is the good resistance of the plant to pests and diseases.

Watering the plant is carried out 2-3 times a week, if the weather is not very hot. If it is very hot, you need to water every day. It is advisable to do this before sunrise or after sunset. In the area where the kiwano grows, there should be no weeds, weed the soil regularly. When the ground is covered with a crust, loosen, in the early morning or evening.

If the soil is very overheated or supercooled during the day, carry out hilling. This will protect the roots from hypothermia and overheating, and help retain moisture in the ground. For a good harvest, be sure to pinch, removing side shoots. Bushes are formed in the shape of a circle or allowed to stretch in one continuous line.

Be sure to fertilize the soil, apply mineral and organic fertilizers so that the kiwano grows faster and gains right amount green mass. From organic, an infusion of chicken manure, mullein or grass is suitable. From mineral it is better to use complex fertilizers. It is necessary to carry out top dressing every 10 days, alternating mineral and organic fertilizers so that the plant does not starve.

If the kiwano has a support, tie the main stem vertically so that the main mass grows upwards, this will help save space around. You can use cucumber mesh. When growing in a greenhouse, you can’t do without a garter, otherwise the plant will spread very much. Kiwano makes a very beautiful hedge, decorated with bright fruits.

Harvesting and storage

Kiwano is harvested in August, when the fruits acquire yellow. Such fruits are well stored, but the taste leaves much to be desired. If you want to receive delicious harvest, start harvesting when the kiwanos are a bright orange hue. After harvesting, the plant produces more fruits. With a proper harvest from one kiwano growing in a greenhouse, you can collect up to 200 fruits per season. To be good harvest, it is necessary to remove the grown greens in time and immediately pinch the vine to limit the growth of shoots with male flowers.

The crop is stored up to 6 months, while it does not need to be frozen or placed in the refrigerator. If you want to stock up on fruits for the winter, they can be preserved with salt or sugar. Such preparations will benefit the body in the cold, saturate with useful substances and decorate the table for the holidays.

Today, it is increasingly found on supermarket shelves. exotic vegetables and fruits. One of them is the nod. It is a vegetable from the gourd family. Although it looks more like a fruit, many people refer it to this class. Kiwano is grown mainly in Africa. However, today this crop is also successfully bred in Israel, South America, Italy, New Zealand.

The Kiwano plant is thermophilic, annual. It winds like a liana, so it is often planted in the backyard as a winding decorative element along a fence or hedge. The plant has a thin but strong stem, reaching 6 m.

According to its internal consistency, the kiwano fruit resembles a cucumber, which is why this vegetable was nicknamed the “African kiwano cucumber”. It has a translucent flesh of a greenish tint, large edible seeds and it consists mainly of water, which is 86% of total weight vegetables.

At unusual fruit yellow peel with spines, it has an oblong oval shape, which gives reason to call this fruit a horned melon. Kiwano fruit tastes like a combination of banana, cucumber and lemon. It may seem like one. Others will say that the taste of kiwano resembles something between a melon and a cucumber. Someone will note the similarity of kiwano with kiwi and banana. Kiwano melon is definitely a tasty and very healthy product. It contains:

This low-calorie product, which can be used by people who are losing weight. It will do them good.

Gallery: Kiwano (25 photos)

Methods of use

You need to eat the pulp of the fruit in its raw form. Mature, green fruit cut in half and scoop out the flesh with a spoon. Kiwano makes excellent fresh juices, compotes, jelly, jam. The fruit is suitable for making creams for cakes from it due to its bright taste. You can use the fruit with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Sauces for salads and meat are made from the pulp of the fruit. small fruits pickled and consumed as a delicacy. You can cook with African cucumber unusual snack, additionally using soft cheese and seafood.

To prepare the salad you will need the following ingredients: tomatoes, Bell pepper, radish, onion greens, parsley and Kiwano pulp. Everything is finely chopped, poured with oil and mixed.

It turns out delicious dessert if use: finished biscuit, 2 pcs. kivano, 6 tbsp. spoons of cream, 300 g. soft cheese, liqueur and sugar to taste. The biscuit is soaked with a mixture of the rest of the ingredients and it turns out very tasty.

Fruits are stored up to 6 months. Their peel is used as decorative plates.

Growing at home

Everyone can grow an exotic fruit in their garden, on a balcony or on a windowsill, observing the conditions for its full growth. These include:

The leaves of the horned melon are similar to cucumber ones. But they are smaller in size. The flowers of the plant are yellow and are divided into male and female, like the rest of the pumpkin. Throughout the growing season, the vine bears abundant fruit. If you properly care for the kiwano plant, then up to 200 fruits can be harvested from a bush. To do this, do not forget to cut off the greens. If the vine is planted in a closed space, then its flowers must be pollinated in the morning with a brush.

Growing kiwanos from seeds at home is real. It is necessary to buy seeds in the seed store or extract them from a ripe fruit.

Taking advantage last option, the seeds should be well dried, dipped in a nutrient solution and sown as seedlings. It might be early May.

The subsequent cultivation of seedlings consists in frequent watering, weekly feeding, pinching lateral shoots. In pots, the plant is grown for two weeks.

Increasingly, on the shelves of supermarkets you can see outlandish fruits and vegetables that are imported from various countries peace. Despite the fact that such delicacies are prohibitively expensive, they are sometimes in greater demand than familiar vegetables and fruits. Today we will discuss african fruit, find out what it is, how it is used, how it is grown from seeds, how difficult it is to grow in your garden.

Introduction to exotic fruit

It is for this reason that many people believe that most of the product after cleaning will go into the bin, respectively, only a small part of the pulp will remain, which will not cover the costs.

However, it is worth noting that the African cucumber has good fruiting, so if the fruit is grown for personal use, then you should not think that resources and land will be spent to end up with a kilogram of an edible product.

An important question is what tastes like horned melon. Kiwano has a specific taste that cannot be identified with any familiar fruit in the same way as if you first tried a banana and tried to compare it with what can grow in the garden.
Generally speaking, the fruits are enough moisture and sweet and sour taste which quenches thirst well. When you try it for the first time, you will feel similarities with cucumber, melon, banana and lime, but each person has his own analogy, so in this case it all comes down to subjective opinion.

Did you know? The plant is used not only to produce fruits, but also as an ornamental plant, planting it in personal plots.

Seed preparation before planting

Before sowing, the seeds must be soaked for a day in a pre-prepared solution. To do this, we buy in a specialized store that has an identical name (do not confuse it with potassium humanate).

You can also use the fertilizer "Epina-extra", which gives the same effect.

Sowing seeds for seedlings

It should be said right away that it is impossible to sow directly into open ground even if you live in southern latitudes. Recall that in the spring there can be serious temperature drops, respectively, there is a risk of losing all the seedlings at once.

Location selection

Kiwano requires a large amount of space, as it has accelerated growth and "spreads" quickly enough. However, like ordinary cucumber, it will not interfere with the support to make it easier to assemble the products.

Important! In no case should you plant under the dense crowns of trees, since you will not get a harvest before frost.

Therefore, it is worth planting on flat surface near a mesh fence or wall. You need to leave a fairly large area for planting. In this case, the priority will be precisely a warm, calm place, and not the presence of a support.

Landing pattern

The optimal landing is considered as such, if per 1 sq. m. there are no more than two bushes. The standard picking pattern is 40x35 cm.

How to care for an African cucumber

Now let's talk about the care of the African cucumber in open ground. Let's discuss the main points on which the productivity of the bushes depends.

Watering, weeding, loosening

Watering. You should not think that if a plant is from Africa, then for it you need to “arrange” the Sahara in the garden. Under such conditions, the nod will quickly die, and you will waste your energy in vain. You need to water at least 2-3 times a week, if it is not very hot outside.

If the sun bakes so that the earth cracks, then we water daily, checking the soil near the bushes for moisture with a stick or special electronic devices.
Please note that watering is carried out before sunrise or after sunset, otherwise the plant will suffer greatly from such irrigation.

Weeding. Be sure to remove all weeds in the area where the crop grows. Do not forget that the formation of the green mass of kivano requires a large amount of mineral and nutrients that are pulled out of the ground.

Loosening. Loosening allows you to give the roots access to oxygen. It should be carried out when the earth is covered with a crust. This is best done in the early morning or evening. You can’t do this during the day, otherwise your actions will lead to the evaporation of a huge amount of moisture from the soil.

Did you know? The fruit contains a large amount ascorbic acid, as well as a complex of other vitamins and minerals. Calorie content of 100 g of products - 44 kcal. This determines the usefulness of the fruit for people suffering from cardiovascular diseases and obesity.

Escape pinch

If you are not growing horned melon, then pinching is a must.
Be sure to pinch the side shoots, otherwise the volume of green mass will affect fruiting. We form the bushes so that they look like a circle or, if so intended, stretch into one continuous line.

Hilling

It is not an important part of the care, however, if the soil overheats during the day, or just as strongly supercools during the night, then it does not hurt to hill up to protect the roots from overheating or hypothermia.

Hilling also helps retain moisture in the soil, which is especially important for southern latitudes, where summers are very hot.

top dressing

Top dressing is carried out without fail, while it is necessary to introduce not only organic matter, but also “mineral water” in order to ensure rapid growth and a set of green mass.
From organic matter, you can make an infusion, or chicken manure. From it is better to give preference to complex ones, which include the NPK complex.

Top dressing is carried out every 10 days, alternating organic matter with "mineral water" so that the culture does not experience starvation.

Garter

If you use a support, then you can vertically tie the main stem like a bee pollinated cucumber. So you can put the bulk up, while saving space. You can also use cucumber mesh, which is great for kiwanos.

You can do without a garter, but in this case, the vine will take up a lot of space, and when growing in a greenhouse, you certainly cannot do without a garter.

Harvesting

The fruits begin to be harvested in August, when they turn yellow. At this stage, they are perfectly stored, however taste qualities leave much to be desired, because they taste like an overripe cucumber.
To get the most delicious fruits, you need to cut them off at the moment when they turn bright orange. There is no need to wait to collect a large number of fruits at once, as this will slow down the formation of new ones.

After harvesting, "horned cucumbers" are stored for no more than six months without freezing or refrigeration.

How to eat kiwano fruits

Having talked about how to grow kiwano, it is worth mentioning how to eat this fruit.

As you might guess, the peel is not used for food, so it must be removed. However, the edible part is so tender that it will not work to separate it from the skin like orange slices. Therefore, the fruit is cut into two parts, and the jelly-like "filling" is selected with a spoon.
Then it can be salted or sweetened, added to various dishes. If you like the taste of fruit, then you can use it without mixing with anything.

101 times already
helped

South Africa is considered the birthplace of the Kiwano. Up to the twentieth century. on other continents, except Australia, practically nothing was known about the Kiwano. Today, he settled in our gardens, and many summer residents appreciated his merits.

Why grow kiwano?

How to grow kiwano?

Landing. Since this culture is subtropical, it is better to sow it for seedlings in mid-April - early May. Even if you start messing with seedlings in winter or early spring, you still won’t be able to achieve early flowering.

Kiwano is a short daylight plant. It blooms only when the summer day is waning, usually in the second half of July.

For growing seedlings, it is desirable to use a greenhouse, but you can place containers with seedlings on a bright, warm windowsill. Seeds hatch very quickly, on the 3-5th day cotyledon leaves already appear. Each plant is grown in a separate cup. The temperature and light conditions for kivano need the same as for cucumbers. In late May - early June, when warm nights set in and the threat of return frosts has passed, young plants are carefully planted, without disturbing the root system, in a permanent place. Between seedlings in a row leave a distance of 5 m.

Our advice:

Kiwano will feel good under indeterminate tomatoes, near young fruit trees, which serve as a living support for him.
You can also place a kiwano in tree trunks by planting plants in 10-15-liter pots or buckets without a bottom filled with nutrient soil.

requirements and care. Compared to cucumber, kiwano is less demanding on soil moisture, however, a long absence of watering negatively affects the quantity and quality of its fruits. Water the plant throughout the growing season.

The nutrient layer of the soil in the garden bed can be small - only 15-20 cm, but should include mature compost or humus. And if you also cover it with organic mulch, you won’t have to fertilize the nod during the growing season at all.

The root system of this exotic is located close to the soil surface, so it is impossible to loosen around the plants.

With regular care, Kiwano fruits grow up to 250-300 g and cover the stems in clusters.

It is desirable to provide the plant with openwork penumbra at noon. So its leaves will be protected from sunburn and it will bear fruit better. But morning and evening rays are necessary for nodding.

The central stem can grow up to 10 m, pinch it over the 5-7th leaf. Lateral shoots reach a length of 3–5 m and are overgrown with numerous stepchildren. They do not need to be removed, as they shade the fruit from the scorching sun.

It is not necessary to grow a kiwano on a flat trellis with a cucumber net and spread it in an open sunny place.

The fruits on the plant are tied mainly in the lowest part of the numerous lateral shoots covered with hard leaves.

You can often hear that the taste of the fruits of this plant resembles a banana, mango and others. Exotic fruits. Actually it is not. Kiwano fruits have a mild sweet and sour taste without a pronounced aroma. But on the other hand, they differ in a number of useful properties, for which kivano is cultivated in South Africa, the USA and Australia. Topping this list is the powerful antioxidant alpha-tocopherol, which strengthens the nerves and blood vessels. This antioxidant, in combination with other trace elements that are part of the pulp and seeds of Kiwano, slows down aging and eliminates negative impact free radicals that cause various diseases. Kiwano fruits contain B vitamins, as well as linoleic acid, which improves heart function.

Kiwano fruits are eaten only in fresh scooping out their contents with a spoon. They can be used both sweet and salty. For example, add to yogurt, vegetable or fruit salad.

Kiwano juice has an amazing effect on the skin, and also accelerates the healing of burns and eczema. It is enough to eat just one fruit of this plant with a spoonful of honey before going to bed to get rid of anxiety, heaviness in the heart and fatigue.

In online stores healthy eating Kiwano fruits are actively sold at a price of more than 200 UAH per piece. Cheaper, of course, to grow these " rejuvenating apples» in your garden. In addition, in this case, you can be sure of their quality and environmental friendliness.

Svetlana VNUKOVA, With. Russian Tishki, Kharkiv region

© Magazine "Ogorodnik"

Good afternoon friends!

Before talking about kiwano cultivation and about its application, I will tell you briefly about this exotic plant.

Kiwano is a member of the pumpkin family. Subspecies - cucumber. Originally grown in Africa. Today it is actively grown on plantations in New Zealand, Israel, and Italy.

Often, kiwano is popularly called the African cucumber, most likely due to the similarity of the pulp and seeds in it. And they are also compared with horned melon - they both have a yellow peel with soft pimples on it. The skin of the fruit has light fragrance cucumber, and the pulp has collected the tastes of kiwi, melon, banana and lemon.

Kiwano grows into a climbing vine, reaching three to five meters in length. The length of the fetus can reach fifteen centimeters.

How to grow Kiwano?

Seedlings of seeds should germinate within a month at home. 24 hours before planting seeds in pots, they must be soaked in a solution of Sodium Humate or Epina-Extra. As soon as the seeds swell, they are immediately planted in a pot with a diameter of approximately 10 centimeters. Planting depth is approximately 3 cm. The pot should contain fertilized soil. The most favorable temperature for germination is 25 degrees.

Around the end of spring, a pot of sprouts can already be placed in a greenhouse. And already directly into the garden only when the frosts end. Kiwano does not tolerate cold weather. It is advisable to plant them at a sufficient distance - about 1 plant per 1 square meter, because. it is characterized by active growth of leaves and branches.

Because kiwano is a climbing plant, then it needs some kind of support for plant growth. The best option is to land next to the fence.

Kiwano is quite resistant to many diseases that are characteristic of the pumpkin family and is not particularly susceptible to attack by pests.

This plant begins to bloom very late, sometimes just before the frost, so a special variety was bred for our strip - “ green Dragon"- which bears fruit regardless of the length of daylight hours.

If the weather is rather dry outside, the plant should be watered about 2-3 times a week. It is necessary to regularly fertilize the soil with various fertilizers.

To stimulate the growth of new fruits, you need to regularly harvest fruits that are already ripe.

Kiwano application

Kiwano contains a huge amount of vitamins needed by the human body.

For people who care about their skin, the pulp will useful ingredient for adding to the compositions of natural homemade masks. Due to the water content of the fruit and a large amount of vitamins, such a mask will perfectly moisturize and nourish the skin.

No side or negative effects from this fruit have been identified, but, of course, like any other fruit, especially exotic, you first need to try a small amount of to avoid unexpected allergic reactions.

Kiwano can be eaten raw or cooked from it. various jams, jam and juices. Marinades are also made from kiwano. This fruit has huge amount useful substances that enhance immunity.

Since ancient times, the peoples of Africa have used the astringent property of the Kiwano pulp as a healing agent.

Exists interesting option use of the nodule peel. Because it is quite solid, it is perfect as a decorative vessel for decorating various dishes.

Conduct kiwano cultivation not difficult at all. In this case, you will get a plant whose fruits have pleasant taste and aroma, as well as many pleasant and useful properties. Kiwano will fit perfectly into any garden. See you, friends!