Physalis is still not very common at our dachas, but those who cultivated it still plant at least a few bushes.
This plant is very beautiful and many delicious dishes can be prepared from it.
They make good jam from it, prepare candied fruits and caviar, make pickled fruits, and salt.
Vegetable physalis is the most cold-resistant plant among all nightshade crops.
Physalis seedlings do not withstand sub-zero temperatures, seedlings withstand up to 2 degrees of frost.
Resistant to drought, photophilous culture, grows well on light soil with lots of organic matter. This plant is practically not sick, it is not afraid of late blight and similar fungal diseases, and the Colorado potato beetle bypasses the physalis.
Types and varieties of physalis
Vegetable Physalis. It is better to start growing physalis with a Mexican look. Its fruits are often used in cooking in various restaurants; it is appreciated by gourmets. From one plant you can collect up to 200 full-fledged fruits, they are used for food, physalis is not only fresh, caviar is prepared from it, it is salted, pickled, it is part of fruit candies, candied fruits, jam, marmalade are prepared from it.
The best varieties:
• Lichtarik;
• Large-fruited;
• Moscow early;
• Gribovsky soil;
• Korolek.
All these varieties are suitable both for fresh use and for preservation.
Physalis Strawberry. In another way, it is called pubescent or Florida physalis, its fruits are smaller in size, but with a stronger aroma and sweeter. Its composition is twice as much as fruit sugars than in raspberries or strawberries. This culture is advised to grow people in whose family there are patients with diabetes. From a good bush, get up to 3 kg of aromatic fruits, they are easy to dry, after drying, the fruits become outwardly similar to raisins. The disadvantage is that the berries have a slight aftertaste, which not everyone likes, but this can be easily eliminated if the berries are boiled with boiling water before use.
Raisin Physalis. A kind of strawberry shape, but it has a pineapple note and a small sourness, marmalade made from such physalis and the juice resembles tangerine. In the "caps" covering the fruits, in a cool room, this type of physalis can be stored for up to six months.
Peruvian physalis. The species is popular all over the world, the fruits are large, flattened, with an intense strawberry-orange aroma, sweet and sour, pleasant taste. The dried fruits of this variety of physalis are very similar to dried apricots.
Decorative physalis. Over the summer, the bush grows up to 60 cm tall, with nondescript white flowers, but with the onset of autumn it transforms, forming bright orange lanterns with a red fruit in it. After a certain period of time, the flashlight becomes transparent - only the veins and a beautiful berry become visible. Twigs with lanterns look great in dry bouquets.
Physalis sowing seeds
They say that this plant is a great option for the lazy - the plant is ripe and resistant to low temperatures, in addition, physalis gives a good harvest. And there is no need to mess around with seedlings, it can be sown directly on the garden bed. And what is characteristic of this culture, it reproduces itself spontaneously. But if you want to get tasty fruits early, then it is advisable to grow it in seedlings. There is no need to use any agrotechnical tricks and create unusual conditions for it - physalis brings a good crop and floor with the rays of the hot sun and partial shade, grows well in sand and on heavy soil. The only thing he does not like is the high acidity of the soil and stagnation of water. Filling the soil with organic fertilizers is better for previous crops.
Growing physalis in seedling
Sowing the seeds of this culture can begin immediately after the New Year holidays. It is advisable to sow in separate containers (glasses with a capacity of 0.5 liters are best suited). In mid-March, the seeds can be sown in seedling boxes, and during planting on the bed, carefully separate the seedlings. When the air in the street warms up to 8 degrees, you can begin hardening seedlings - to take it out in the afternoon to the sun.
Using the seedling method for growing physalis will allow not only to get an early crop, but also significantly increase it, since the productive period of plants (flowering and fruiting time) will increase.
Physalis - sowing in soil
In the southern and central regions of the country, any variety of this culture can be grown on its site in a reckless way. In the last decade of April or in the first decade of May, sowing of seeds is carried out directly on the beds, leaving row spacings of 30 cm and between plants in the row of 15-20 cm. After breaking seedlings, they must be left after 25 cm in the row. Thrown seedlings should not be thrown away, they can be planted in any place you like, they will take root in a short time and with a delay of 1-2 weeks will give a normal fruit yield.
Soil mixture for physalis seedlings
For sowing physalis seeds, you can use mixtures designed for pepper and tomatoes or cook it at home. To do this, mix 0.5 parts of coarse sand, 1 part of garden soil, 1 part of good humus and 2 parts of peat. If you have acid peat, then add 0.5 cups of wood ash or 2 tbsp. To half a bucket of the mixture. l dolomite flour. Mix the components well and sift the mixture, after which it is advisable to steam the soil, which will destroy the seeds of weeds and protect seedlings from fungal diseases.
Sowing seeds
Fill the container with soil mixture and slightly compact it, physalis seeds evenly distribute on the surface of the soil.
Fill the seeds with a soil mixture of about 1 cm and compact slightly again, so that during watering the soil will not erode, and the seeds will not be on the surface. Moisture will not evaporate quickly if you cover the container with cellophane. In a room with a temperature of 15-20 degrees, seedlings will appear in a week.
Picking seedlings
After 2-3 real leaves are formed on the seedlings, it is necessary to dive them. Soil for seedlings use the same as when sowing seeds, only it is necessary to reduce the amount of sand in the soil mixture by half. For half a bucket of finished soil, you need to add 20 g. Full mineral fertilizer (for example, nitroammophoska is suitable). Cassettes or pots are filled with prepared soil, make small indentations in the container, such a size that it turns out to lay the roots of the plants. Seedlings need to be deepened to cotyledon leaves. Like all nightshade crops, physalis grows additional roots well. Be sure to press the soil around the seedling.
After a pick, water the seedlings carefully, if the soil in the tank sags, you need to pour it so that its top is 1 cm below the top of the box.
Landing
A couple of weeks before the seedlings are transplanted into the open ground, it is necessary to begin their hardening. Set seedlings in the warm daylight in the sun. Physalis is planted on a bed without shelters after the threat of frost has passed. For seedlings, pre-prepare the garden, although the Colorado potato beetle does not like this crop, and late blight is not afraid of physalis, it is undesirable that solanaceous plants grow on the site the previous year. Feed the soil with nitroammophos (on 1 m2 matchbox fertilizer). If your dacha has acidic soil, then scatter 200-300 g of wood ash on the surface of the garden bed for every 1 m2. Dig a bed to the depth of the bayonet of a shovel.
For planting physalis seedlings, rows should be placed after 0.7 m, between the plants in the row, the gap for berry physalis is 50 cm, and for vegetable 0.6-0.7 m, physalis does not impose special requirements on soil nutrition, but it will respond positively if you add 1-2 handfuls of humus.
Carefully remove the plant from the pot, without destroying the lump of soil on the roots, place the seedling in the prepared hole and fill it with soil, slightly compacting the soil. Well water the planted seedlings and mulch the bed so that the soil crust does not appear on its surface.
Physalis Care
Maintain the surface of the bed constantly in a loose state or just cover it with a layer of mulch, do not let weeds grow. After the seedlings begin to grow actively, they need to be tied up, for example, many varieties of this culture of the Mexican variety can grow over 1 meter high. After 14-15 days pass, carry out the first top dressing, water and spud plants. Every two weeks, feed the plants, alternating mineral (20 g of full mineral fertilizer per 10 liters of water) and organic fertilizer (infusion of fresh cow manure at a concentration of 1: 8). Stepsons to tear off the physalis is not necessary. Only before the cold weather, you need to pinch it so that it stops growing and soon the crop has begun to ripen. This culture forms fruits even when the temperature drops to 0 degrees and in the late autumn can withstand cooling to minus 2 degrees.
Harvesting
Crop of physalis is formed on the shoots of the first and second order. The fruits grow before the onset of frost, physalis must be removed in sunny weather. If frost has come, and there are still many unripe fruits on the bushes, then the plant must be torn out with roots and suspended in a dry place with a plus temperature. Ripe fruits gradually crumble, for this reason soft material, for example, rags, should be spread under suspended bushes.
Attention! After removing the ripe fruits from them, you must immediately remove the "caps", they contain glycoside, which gives the fruits a bitter taste!
