The largest berry. The biggest berry - a delicious home - step by step recipes with photos

Big berry - watermelon

Worldwide, it is believed that the largest berry is the watermelon (Citrullus lanatus). The average weight of a watermelon is about 20 kilograms, however, the world record was set in the United States, where a family raised a 120 kilogram watermelon. The first watermelons appeared in South Africa and the Kalahari, but there grow wild varieties of watermelons, which are called colocynths. In taste and appearance, they differ significantly from the current watermelon. They grew up in the vastness of the deserts and were indispensable assistants to travelers during the investigation in the desert.

Berry from Central Asia

This largest berry was brought to Russia from the cities of Central Asia, the name comes from the Turkish word - karpuz, as well as the Iranian word - harbuz, which in Russian means "a cucumber with an elephant the size". Currently, two types of watermelons are grown - a woolly and a citron species.

Watermelon is 90 percent water, which immediately leads to an increase in daily urine volume. But the diuretic property is not the most important, there is also an anti-inflammatory property, and also when watermelon is consumed, toxins, urates, purines, oxalates are excreted from the body. These properties will be useful for diseases such as cystitis, pyelonephritis, kidney stones, gout and arthrosis.

An interesting fact is that medicinal properties can be obtained not only from eating watermelon pulp, but even from the rind of a watermelon, this is important for a continuous diet for gout, because you can be treated in winter, you just need to stock up on watermelon crusts.

Useful components of watermelon

This berry contains trace elements, vitamins, antioxidants (carotene, thiamine, vitamin C, riboflavin, niacin). Such a rich arsenal of useful components improves vision, slows down the aging process, and also has anti-cancer properties. Well, and the most valuable vitamins that are part of watermelon is vitamin B9, the so-called folacin, it is responsible for building DNA and RNA chains, which is especially important during pregnancy.

Magnesium replenishes the body's daily need when consuming 200 grams of watermelon pulp. It has a positive effect on the nervous and cardiovascular system, removes excess cholesterol, and is also a choleretic agent (recommended for diseases of the liver and gallbladder - cholecystitis, biliary dyskinesia, hepatitis).

Patients with diabetes mellitus can also eat watermelon, since its sweetness is due to fructose (1 kilogram of this berry contains 30-40 grams of fructose). In terms of calorie content, watermelon is a low-calorie product, since 100 grams contains 38 kilocalories. As we can see, the largest berry in the world is not only tasty, but also healthy!

Choosing a pumpkin variety

Pumpkin is unique in many ways. It is almost the only crop in which domestic varieties (along with Russian and Uzbek ones) compete with Dutch ones.

Why carry out its intensive selection, foreign breeders ask themselves, if it already, with elementary agricultural technology, gives the greatest yield of all vegetable ?! Unless it is worth tweaking the taste and reducing the length of the lashes in order to mechanize the care. It is not surprising, therefore, that the assortment mainly consists of domestic varieties.

Pumpkin types

As you know, three types of pumpkins are mainly grown:

Firm ambulance
Advantages: The earliest ripening. It takes the first place in seed yield.

Large-fruited
Pluses: The largest fruits and seeds. The most productive.
Disadvantages: A significant part of the fruit is the pulp with seeds. Large fruit is not easy not only to deliver, but also to cut

Muscat.
Pluses: The most delicious and aromatic fruits. Small seed nest.
Disadvantages: The peel of the seeds is very strong, so it is not easy to peel them later maturing and thermophilic, but there are also very early varieties. Bush forms were not observed, therefore, cultivation is impossible in the second half of the growing season. Keeping quality compared to hard bark and large-fruited. the smallest.

In large-fruited - respectively. the largest fruits and seeds, the nutmeg - the most delicious. Hard-barked takes an intermediate position, and comes out on top in terms of seed yield. She is also the fastest ripening. Zucchini and squash are considered to be varieties of hard bark, but we will not talk about them for now.

Under natural conditions, pumpkin species do not interbreed with each other.

Large-fruited... Most pumpkin varieties are of this type. They are the most productive, medium or late ripening, with flattened or elongated fruits, smooth or segmented, of various colors, with a thick bark and an enlarged pulp cavity. If the mass of the fruit in most varieties is only 4-10 kg, then in large-fruited, especially in new varieties, it is 40-50.

Humanity has long had a weakness for everything huge: mammoths, dinosaurs. Large pumpkin fruits are no exception. In ancient China, pumpkin was considered the queen of vegetables, was specially grown at the imperial court, and the emperor, as a sign of special mercy, presented it to those close to him. More than once in the press there have been reports of amazing fruits with a record weight (for example, Wayne Hockney (Nyo-Milford. USA) has grown a 250-kg pumpkin). It is no coincidence that breeders work most intensively with this particular group. Only in recent years have appeared such masterpieces as Volzhskaya gray 92 weighing up to 25 kg (Bykovskaya OS), Giant - yellow, weighing 15-20 kg (Denmark), Parisian Red, Kherson and others, surpassing in many parameters the once best varieties - Slavuta and Ukrainian multiple.

There is an opinion among the people that especially large-fruited varieties belong to fodder varieties. All of the aforementioned varieties have increased taste qualities, so that they can be considered universal.

Hard-faced... Its varieties are long-leafy (with the exception of zucchini and squash), early ripening. Fruits are medium in size and firm bark. woody. Coloring from straw yellow to green, with a striped or spotted pattern. The pulp is yellow-orange, and the seeds are small and medium.This species has a huge number of subspecies bush (squash and squash), small-fruited (with mandarin-shaped fruits, pear-shaped and warty) and climbing (climbing squash, citruline, vegetable pumpkins, etc.) etc.).

Muscat... The varieties of this species are mainly mid- and late-ripening, but there are also early ones. Fruits are usually narrowed in the central part, cylindrical, oval, ribbed to varying degrees. The bark of ripe fruits is thin, straw-yellow. brown, variably covered with a waxy coating, mostly without a pattern. The seed nest is very small. There were one or two varieties of it until recently, and Vitaminnaya (1952) and Arabatskaya were missing. Today the choice has expanded. Only from domestic ones - these are Gilea and Danae. And how many others: Augustine (you can even eat raw pulp), Prikubanskaya, Jubilee-70. All of them deserve the closest attention, surpassing the former two.

Universal requirements

Whichever type of pumpkin belongs, there are a number of general requirements.

Cold hardiness and drought resistance.
... early maturity;
... yield;
... increased sugar content and carotene content
... keeping quality;
... shortness

Cold hardiness and drought tolerance are needed so that the pumpkin can be promoted to more northern regions and an earlier harvest can be obtained. After all, the annual consumption rate of melons is 70 kg per capita. It is difficult to fulfill this requirement with watermelons and melons alone for 2-3 months a year. Drought tolerance is very important in the south. Gribovskaya winter and Ukrainian polycarpous are relatively resistant to low temperatures.

Early maturity is needed not only for the fruits to ripen, but also for re-planting.
(crops). Let's say we removed early cabbage or perennial grasses - and let pumpkin into the second crop. In the southern regions, early ripening varieties have enough time to give a crop. According to this indicator, varieties are distinguished:

Early ripening (up to 100 days);
... mid-season (100-120 days).
... late (more than 120 days).

Productivity depends not only on the weight of the fruit, but also on the size of the seed chamber. Therefore, it is better to give preference to novelties of selection. (Plus, heavy fruits are much more difficult to steal.)

Keeping quality... Pumpkins are stored for up to 5 months if they are protected from impacts during harvesting and transportation. In some fruits, this figure was improved due to less juicy pulp (reduced water content) and thick bark. Usually the most lying are hard and large-fruited.

Shortness... The length of the lash is important for mechanized plantation maintenance: the tops should not interfere with the harvesting of late spring weeds. Long-leaved pumpkin varieties have a total length of the main whip and side branches in several dozen methods. Selection is especially important for the nutmeg species, in which wild forms of the bush type are not noted, in addition, the long-leafing makes us to increase the feeding area.

Danae variety. Somewhere in the 50s, a bare-air variety was once discovered near a hard-bore pumpkin, which was somewhat in the shade of a more productive large-fruited and more tasty nutmeg pumpkin. The seeds had no peels at all and were covered only with a thin film, which falls on the toasted seeds. They began to be used to make kozinaks and oriental sweets. And although such forms were previously among other species not included in the "economic troika", the appearance of such a variety type contributed to the growth of its popularity - and the firm-mouthed has leveled its positions. In Russia, the variety Golosemyannaya 14 is known (before it there were Golosemyannaya and Golosemyannaya improved), in our country - Dznaya (apparently, the breeders were inspired by the famous painting by Titian). The disadvantage of gymnospermous pumpkins is low yield, but this is not the main thing, because it was already mentioned above that large-fruited in terms of seed yield is in first place. So its main value is in them - they are rich in vitamin E, trace elements (especially zinc), protein (even equated to a nut), but they do not need to be husked! It seems that the peak of its popularity is still ahead. It remains to add. that it cannot tolerate even short-term droughts, which significantly impair the quality of the seeds. And further. In spring, under unfavorable conditions, its seeds, devoid of a shell, can rot or be more affected by diseases than other species.

So it is better to grow it in seedlings under a film, in more sterile conditions. It is stored for only 2-3 months, then the seeds germinate right inside the fruit, the pulp of which becomes bitter. It is up to the breeders to eliminate these shortcomings.

Exotic Café... A conversation about pumpkins would be incomplete without this find - by far one of the most high-profile in the last 20 years. The name itself speaks of the Ukrainian origin of kavbuz - a hybrid of pumpkin ("harbuza") and watermelon ("kavuna"). It was created at the Research Institute of Genetics and Molecular Biology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kiev) by Professor A. Potopalsky. This hybrid surpasses the parents both in yield and in the content of vitamins. There is even more carotene in its pulp than in carrots of sugars - as in super-sweet varieties of watermelon (up to 15%, mainly in the form of fructose), there are many vitamins (C, B, PP, E). It also contains essential amino acids, potassium salts, calcium, magnesium, copper, iron, phosphorus. True, unlike watermelon, the cut pulp (it is cut easier than pumpkin) has a mediocre taste, but having prepared dishes from it, you will fully experience its unique taste. So far, it is not easy to find a kavbuz even at exhibitions, and varieties have not yet been created. Here, too, it is a matter of selection. But back to the pumpkin.

Assortment

There are no ideal varieties in the entire assortment. There are very few of them in the nutmeg group. The new Atlant variety has the largest fruits.

Agrotechnology. Long-leafed varieties are sown according to the scheme 140x100, bush - 80x60 cm.After tying several fruits, pinch the main stem. On large plots, this, of course, is unrealistic, but even giving them to ceba themselves, you can get a high yield without any problems. For better formation of adventitious roots, slightly spud the plants with moist soil. In small areas, it is better to use the seedling method by planting plants in the soil, of course, with a clod of earth, so as not to disturb the roots. The plantation is surrounded by curtains mostly made of corn. Top dressing should be carried out at the beginning of the formation of lashes. On large areas, this is done by cultivators-plant feeders KRN-4,2. Pumpkin is light-requiring and does not tolerate shading.

Culture is a good honey plant, therefore, an apiary is always placed near the melons. It is affected only by omnivorous pests - wireworms and false wireworms, beetles, winter scoop, meadow moth, nightshade miner, aphids, slugs, rodents. Wireworms are especially numerous in dusty areas. The introduction of ammonia in early May is effective against the May beetle. Proteus is applied against the winter scoop. The most harmful is aphid, in place of the sugary secretions of which fungi settle, a black bloom appears on the leaves. The biological product Verticillin is effective against it.

Slugs do not like onions and garlic, radishes, spinach, parsley, basil, cloves, peonies planted next to each other. You can sprinkle the aisles with chalk with sawdust, spread out the nettle leaves.

Compared to watermelon and melon, pumpkin is less demanding on heat, while it is heat-resistant, so it succeeds anywhere in the world. Even a green pumpkin that does not have time to ripen can be removed, it ripens during storage. At the same time, its taste improves. This is especially true for nutmeg and large-fruited. We recommend growing all three species, giving preference to new varieties, testing new ones. Pumpkin breeding is on the rise today.

It is interesting:

■ Pumpkin seeds contain up to 50% fatty oil and 28% protein, so their value is very high.
■ Young pumpkin lashes (up to 10 cm long), peeled and boiled (3 ~ 5 minutes in salted water) taste like asparagus. In China, such a dish was highly appreciated.
■ Pumpkin fruit is often used as a trap for monkeys by making a hole in it and sprinkling it with rice or a treat.
■ For acne, rub the skin with a piece of pumpkin.
■ Bottle gourds with very dense flesh and bark were previously widely used as: water flasks, for storing cereals and grains. Today, such species are difficult to find.
■ The pumpkin is associated with multi-national traditions (for example, giving a pumpkin to a demoted groom, Halloween is also impossible to imagine without this fruit).

The answer to the question, which berry is the largest, will not cause any difficulties for anyone. As they say, adults and children know: the biggest berry is everyone's favorite WATERBUZ. Although, to be honest, somehow it does not look like a berry ... the size is alarming. Botany, however, claims that a berry is a juicy fruit with many seeds. So the watermelon is 100% berry, since it has all its characteristics. And the size is not taken into account.

If we talk about the size, then it is worth remembering the ancestor of our favorite berry - the wild watermelon. Its size was rather modest - about the size of a 250-gram ball. Well, after the selection work, in the process of cultivation, 15-20 kg berries have already appeared. But this is not the limit! There are more fruits, and much, much more.

Record holders from America

The Giant Berry was raised by Bright farmers from Arkansas (USA) in 2005. She weighed 122 kilograms - it's hard to imagine! 122 kg berry! The family of farmers went to such a record for a long time - since 1979. They already managed to grow huge watermelons, but this one surpassed all the previous ones. After all, he has the weight of two adults!
The variety that the berry giant belongs to is called Carolina Cross. It was he who allowed the Bright to be noted in the Guinness Book of Records as having grown a record huge fruit.
There are still farmers in America who specialize in growing giant watermelons. In the state of Louisiana, the Sistrank family became famous for their watermelon, which weighed 114.5 kg. It was also distinguished by its almost one meter length - 95 cm! The Sistrank family, rival with the Bright, intends to surpass the record of 122 kilograms and get a bigger berry. They know how to achieve this: to correctly determine the variety, leave only one fruit, turn it over more often for even ripening. These are the tricks for those who want to participate in the competition for growing the largest watermelon.

European giant

But what about Europe? What is her success in growing this giant berry? The success of the Europeans is much more modest. But they are still impressive. Igor Likhosenko from Russia in 2009 managed to grow a 61-kg watermelon. The variety that gave such a glorious berry is also called very nicely - "Russian size".
A year earlier, a Russian farmer had grown 3 kg less watermelon, which was a record at that time. But in 2009, he himself beat him with a berry of a new melon crop. Igor is not going to give up positions either. He plans to continue growing watermelon giants. He strives not only for larger size, but also for excellent taste: after all, this is more important for the berry.
Maybe they don't argue about tastes, but still, there are no people who would not enjoy the juicy watermelon pulp and the incomparable watermelon aroma. Watermelon is truly a miracle berry, and it's not just about size.

Photo of the largest berry

Biggest berry video

The largest berry on the planet is by far the watermelon. His homeland is South Africa. However, today watermelons are grown in 96 countries. In Russia, they were originally considered an overseas delicacy and were prepared in a special way. First of all, they were cleaned, cut into slices and soaked for a long time. Then they were cooked with spices and peppers. Thus, its original taste and most of the nutrients were lost.

The largest berry can weigh up to 120 kilograms. Such a record was set by watermelons of the Carolina Cross variety.

In addition to the fact that these huge berries are delicious, they are also healthy. They contain pectins, carbohydrates, vitamins, phosphorus, iron and zinc salts. Doctors recommend using them for diseases of the kidneys, gallbladder, liver, anemia. The fiber contained in watermelon in large quantities normalizes bowel function and significantly improves digestion.

The pulp of watermelon contains a lot of easily digestible and delicate sugars. It helps to remove cholesterol from the body. The largest berry is 92 percent water. Regular consumption of this liquid helps to get rid of hypertension, atherosclerosis, gout, rheumatism, arthritis.

Watermelon pulp is loaded with antioxidants and lycopene. These substances protect a person from heart and prostate diseases. In addition, they have a beneficial effect on the skin.

This miracle berry has unique properties. Its juice is an excellent remedy for headaches and migraines. In this case, it must be drunk in small sips. The pain recedes quickly and for a long time. Watermelon pulp is used for facial skin care. To do this, the gauze folded several times is impregnated with pulp and applied to the face.

As a rule, any varieties are well stored, practically without losing their taste and usefulness. However, it is not recommended to store watermelon in this way. If you want to taste this juicy berry for the New Year, then proceed as follows. In the fall, buy a fruit (about 4 kilograms). Wash and pat dry. Place it in a net and hang it in a dark, cool place. It is very important that the watermelon does not come into contact with anything.

The biggest berry can be a mystery to the inexperienced buyer. When buying a whole watermelon, you can get a low-quality or unripe product. Here are some rules to help you figure out the quality and buy what you need:

• try to choose a medium-sized fruit. It should not be too large or, conversely, small;
• the spot on the side on which the fruit was lying should be yellow;
• a ripe watermelon has a shiny and hard rind. Try to pierce it with your fingernail. If you can do it easily, then the watermelon is unripe;
• rub the crust and then sniff. If it smells like freshly cut grass, the watermelon is not yet ripe;
• If possible, toss the watermelon into the water. If it comes up - you can safely buy - the watermelon is ripe.

Today there are about 1200 varieties of watermelons in the world. In Israel, seedless fruits are grown. They are very popular in Canada and the USA.

A berry isn't just blueberries, cranberries or lingonberries. There are interesting species that cannot be immediately associated with a specific group.

Scientists have identified the characteristics by which the berry is determined - it is a dense rind, juicy inside and the presence of seeds. It is known from the school curriculum that the largest berry is watermelon. This is the first fruit in the ranking.

So, let's take a look at the 10 largest berries. The top is drawn down.

Watermelon belongs to the pumpkin family. South Africa is considered the homeland. The fruit contains many seeds and is juicy. The shape, color and size depend on the variety.

The largest watermelon is grown in America. The weight was 90 kilograms. This is a world record. A farmer from Russia in 2009 introduced a 61 kg watermelon of the "Russian size" variety. Such a mass is a record in Europe.

The following countries are leading in the cultivation of watermelons:

• China;
• Turkey;
• Iran;
• Egypt;
• Russia;
• Uzbekistan.

Watermelons are used in cooking and medicine. The berry supplies the human body with iron, removes excess fluid, speeds up metabolism and reduces weight.

The pumpkin ranks second in size after the watermelon. The largest berry is grown in Belgium by Matthias Willemans. The mass of the pumpkin was 1190.5 kg. But this is an exception and the result of efforts made to create an enabling environment. The standard parameters for large fruits are 50-70 kg.

The pumpkin is used in the food industry and as livestock feed. It can be stored for up to 1 year. In medicine, seeds are used, which are slightly dried before use.

Melon is a melon culture belonging to the genus of cucumber. Homeland - Asia Minor and Central. From the moment of planting to ripening, it takes 2-6 months. The fruit looks like a pumpkin (spherical or cylindrical). The color, depending on the variety, is yellow, green, brown or white.

The average fruit size is 1.5-4 kg. Raw melon is used in food. It can also be dried, dried and processed into jam, honey or candied fruit.

The largest melon ripened in the United States in 1985. The weight was 118 kg and 75 cm in length.

Zucchini also belongs to the berry, a kind of common pumpkin. The fruits are elongated. The pulp is tender with the presence of seeds. Due to the calorie content of 20 kcal and fiber, it is used in dietetics to adjust weight.

The world record for size was broken by a 65 kg zucchini from the UK in 2008.

Pineapple is a perennial plant 1 meter high. Discovered the fruit by Columbus in 1493 in Central America. Pineapple does not contain seeds, but is an inflorescence of small berries. Weight reaches 15 kg.

Leading countries in pineapple cultivation:

• Thailand;
• Philippines.

Pineapple is prized as a nutritious food. Normalizes digestion, accelerates fat burning and saturates the body with vitamins B, A and PP. At the same time, 86% of water is in the composition, the rest is sucrose.

The tomato belongs to the Solanaceae family. It is popularly recognized as a vegetable. And from the point of view of botanists - a berry that meets all 3 characteristics. Fruits are juicy, round to cylindrical in shape. Homeland - South America. In cooking, it is used raw, baked, dried and canned.

Tomatoes are distinguished by weight:

• small, up to 50 grams;
• medium, from 51 to 100 grams;
• large, over 100 grams.

The largest tomato was grown by Gordon Graham in 1986. The weight was 3.51 kg, and the bush itself reached a height of 16 meters.

Eggplant is a herbaceous plant of the Nightshade genus. In culinary terms, it sounds like a vegetable, and in scientific terms, like a berry. India, South Asia and the Middle East are considered the homeland. For growing plants, temperature fluctuations are excluded and constant humidity is maintained.

Due to the presence of potassium, eggplants are useful for people with cardiovascular diseases. Heat treatment is required before use.

A resident of the Kuban has grown the largest fruit in the world. Weight 1.690 kg. Prior to that, the position was occupied by eggplant grown in China with a mass of 1.5 kg.

The cucumber belongs to the Pumpkin family. The fruit contains many seeds, juicy with a dense shell. Due to these characteristics, it belongs to the berry. It is 97% water. An average cucumber weighs 100 grams. The first mention of the berry appeared 6 thousand years ago in India, where it grew in natural conditions.

It is used as a food product, as well as for medicinal and cosmetic purposes. It is valued as a diuretic and choleretic agent.

The largest cucumber was grown by a British gardener. The length was 91.7 cm.

Pomegranate is a perennial plant of the Derbennikov family. Not picky about leaving. In Transcaucasia, it is distributed as a wild species. The diameter of a standard fruit is up to 18 cm and the number of seeds is up to 700 pieces. China has grown the largest pomegranate, which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records, with a diameter of 48.7 cm.

The berry juice is used for anemia and digestive disorders. Rich in amino acids and vitamins A, C, PP, etc. Caloric content is 70 kcal per 100 grams.

The plant is a tree-like vines. Kiwi is native to China. In common people, the second name is "Chinese gooseberry". Average fruit weight 75 grams, large -100 grams and more. Differs in juicy green pulp with black seeds. The fetus is plucked unripe, stored for up to 1 year. Kiwi is the record holder for vitamin C. It also contains iodine. It is used in cosmetology as a peeling and skin moisturizer.

The subtropical climate is favorable for growing berries. Distributed in Italy, Chile, Greece and New Zealand. In Crimea, agronomists grow kiwi the size of a faceted glass and weighing up to 200 grams.

If to compile the rating further, then the following positions would be occupied by figs and feijoa. Unexpected products have taken on the status of a berry, despite the fact that mankind considers them to be a fruit or a vegetable. But there is one similarity between them - a high biological value for the functioning of the human body.