At the end of the summer I was a guest and treated me to a very strange pickled swamp green vegetable, slightly painted yellow-brown on one side. And they said it was a red cucumber. They showed a garden bed in the garden and I even took a photo. And then I saw a bowl of red cucumbers. It was the same color in the jars, and in the bowl lay red cucumbers small, pot-bellied, slightly pubescent. The people dubbed red cucumber culture, and its real name is the tladiant. It turns out that in the green phase, this cucumber can be pickled, and in the red - eat fresh or cook jam. I liked the taste of pickled red cucumber.
Unusual, a cross between a cucumber and a zucchini, only slightly sweet and seed seeds were something like watermelon, though small, black.
And I didn’t really like the taste of fresh red cucumber. Well, somehow sweet cucumber is nonsense for me. Although all guests trying a ripe red cucumber on their teeth clicked their tongues and shared enthusiastic taste impressions. Some claimed that the taste is very similar to kiwi, only softer and sweeter. Others tasted notes of mango. Still others have come to resemble pineapple. Perhaps all of us have different tastes ...
I was even given a few seeds, but, leaving, alas, I forgot this bag, did not take it with me.
But, nevertheless, I wanted to learn more about this culture. Is it possible to grow a thladiant with us, and if so, how to care for it?
Red cucumber, photo and description, what kind of culture
Tladianta (red cucumber) is a perennial vine growing 5-6 meters in length. It blooms with beautiful large yellow flowers, similar to bells. There are a lot of flowers on the liana, so the tladiant is often planted to decorate the site.
The plant belongs to the pumpkin family, and its fruits are edible. Green, not yet ripened cucumbers can be pickled and canned, and ripe, orange or red, eat fresh.
Fruits fully ripen in September-October. But, as it seems to me, this exotic is not for everybody. Therefore, planting a tladiant in large quantities is not worth it, it still does not replace all your favorite and familiar cucumbers.
In addition, in the search for information about the tladiant or red cucumber, I stumbled upon the questions of those who planted this culture on their site in the forums. 2-3 years after planting, they asked each other how to get rid of the tladiant. This means that those who want to grow it need to be more responsible in choosing a place to plant in order to prevent uncontrolled distribution throughout the site.
In Russia, the perennial dreadful tladiant (Thladiantha dubia) has spread. As I understand it, its tubers and seeds can be found on sale.
Growing Red Cucumber or Tladiant
Tubers should be planted in the spring to a depth of 6-7 cm, and the seeds will have to be sown for seedlings in March, and in May transplanted into open ground. You can choose a landing place both in the open sun and in partial shade.
The plant is dioecious, that is, male and female type flowers are formed on it. For the plant to bear fruit, you need a pollinator. In the homeland, in Southeast Asia, a small bee pollinates the vine only there, and other insects fly around the plant. And in our country, the tladiant, supposedly, must be pollinated on its own, manually. But I read the reviews of Kuban gardeners, who assure us that we also have insects that can pollinate the tladiant - black bumblebees.
By the way, interesting information - the tladiant is easily pollinated by the pollen of zucchini, cucumber or pumpkin. In this case, a fruit without seeds is formed, but its taste after ripening will be much higher than when polluted with its own pollen.
The plant requires support, on which it will tend upward, after all, it is a vine. The radiant is not against top dressing, on poor soil it will readily respond to organic matter, for example, mullein.
In one place, the tladiant can grow for a long time, just the upper part will die off in the winter, and with the onset of heat, around May, it will grow back. The plant does not need shelter.
The ripened fruits should be removed absolutely everything, otherwise the fallen will leave seeds in the ground, and the plant will capture a good territory. It should also be every few years in the fall, when the green part of the plant disappears, dig up the nodules of tladiant and remove the extra kids. If this is not done, the plant will grow and thicken greatly.
Tladianta quickly wraps around any support. Therefore, it is often used as a hedge or green screen. Tladianta will grow well both in the garden in an open sunny place, and under a tree in partial shade. It can be planted to shade a balcony or loggia.
It is said that the tladiant is a fugitive plant. It multiplies very quickly in the soil in all directions. And it may even suddenly appear in that place of the site where it was not planted. It is even advised to dig a slate to the depth of at least 50 cm along the perimeter of the plot to limit the propagation of red cucumber.
In one of the reviews I read:
“It is difficult, sometimes impossible, to get rid of tladiant. For a long time, the tubers were planted in a rack in the courtyard. Every spring I throw it away, but it still grows under the stairs and beautifully hides various trash, a shelter stand for conifers, old rabbit cages, etc. ”
The plant has wide, heart-shaped light green leaves and bright yellow flowers, abundantly covering the vine. They bloom throughout the summer; they look like gramophone finishes. That is why the liana is very decorative. It blooms until late autumn.
Unripe fruits have longitudinal strips, the surface is covered with small hairs that thin or disappear by the time of ripening. In ripe form, the fruits are colored red, become soft.
Pickles are made from green cucumbers, pickled, sweets such as jam and jam are made from ripe red cucumbers.
Where does the red cucumber grow
As I already mentioned, the homeland of the tladiant is Southeast Asia, Northeast China, and the Philippines. But here, in Russia there are places where this vegetable grows in the wild: in the Far East. On the Internet, I met a photo, the author of which asks: we walked and met such a miracle on the shore, what kind of plant it is. The author lives in the Primorsky Territory. Photo taken at the end of October:
Tladianta, medicinal properties
It turns out in the homeland of the tladiant or red cucumber is successfully used by oriental medicine. It helps with colds and flu. Infusion of the flowers of ladia dilutes sputum and facilitates expectoration. Relieves headache, migraine. A decoction of seeds and tubers is a good diuretic and choleretic. With the help of compresses from the gruel of the fruit, the tladiants can significantly reduce or completely get rid of pain with radiculitis and osteochondrosis. Widely used for the prevention and treatment of a large number of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
Regular consumption of ripe sweet fruits reduces blood pressure, prevents aging of the optic nerves, improves eyesight, increases the tone of the body, without increasing appetite. Calorie content of the vegetable is not high - 14 Kcal per 100 g of product.
Red cucumber contains fiber, pectins, nutrients, sugar. Not a small list of vitamins present in the fruits: A, B, E, C, beta-carotene; ascorbic, folic, pantothenic acid; riboflavin; retinol; biotin; choline and others. The tladiant is rich in minerals: potassium, calcium, phosphorus, iron, sulfur, manganese, chlorine. The healing properties are possessed not only by the fruits, but also by seeds, tubers, shoots.
Like any plant used not only for food, but also for medicinal purposes, it has contraindications.
Due to the high sugar content, ripe fruits are not recommended for diabetics.
Allergy sufferers should be careful; people with individual intolerance to the tladiant are contraindicated.
Overuse can cause a sharp decrease in blood pressure and an increase in blood sugar.
And yet, if the listed contraindications do not seem to concern you, before you experience the medicinal qualities of tladiants, consult your doctor. Still, this is an exotic vegetable for us, and it’s better not to risk it.
In a word, a tladiant or a red cucumber, the photo of which was presented above, is an unusual plant. I think it deserves the attention of gardeners.