Cultivated vegetable plants: species and features

Vegetable plants - a fairly capacious concept, which has very fuzzy boundaries. They are so firmly embedded in our lives that we do not even think about what exactly they can be attributed to and where they came from. In gardening the main purpose of their cultivation is to get vegetables in the end.

Classification of vegetable plants

Signs on which you can classify vegetable plants, a great many. They can be distinguished not only by morphological features, but also by the length of the life cycle, as well as the conditions of growth, the timing of harvesting, and many other signs. However, all of the above is more meaningful for farmers, but an ordinary consumer is more interested in the classification of the part that can be used for food.

Despite the fact that vegetable plants seem completely different at first glance, they have a number of common features that make it possible to identify them in groups. Classification of vegetables is important not only for farmers, but also for culinary experts, commodity scientists, botanists.

Botanical classification

Cultural plants (vegetable), examples of which many of us can bring in abundance from daily practice, can be classified depending on belonging to a particular family or botanical class. In our country, vegetables are grown mainly related to the family of nightshade, pumpkin and legumes. Also you can meet representatives of cruciferous, amaryllis, celery and mare.

The advantage of botanical classification is that it allows the cultural plants (vegetable) in all their diversity to be related to related crops, which is important in their cultivation. However, for consumers this distribution is very inconvenient, as for ordinary gardeners.

Classification by life expectancy

This classification is most convenient for ordinary amateur gardeners who do not have in-depth knowledge of botany. According to this division, the type of vegetable plant is defined as one-year, two-year and many-year-old.

Annuals differ in that they have a life cycle beginning with sowing and ending with the formation of seeds, takes place within one year. They include: melons, eggplants, watermelons, cucumbers, zucchini, radish, etc. Most of them are familiar to us from childhood and are present on our table almost every day.

In biennial plants in the first year only a rosette of leaves can be formed, as well as productive organs in which a certain supply of nutrients can accumulate. Then, when the external climatic conditions become unfavorable, they enter the so-called rest period. But in the second year of life the plant is already beginning to form the stem and blossom, after which the fruits are formed and ripen. These include: beets, onions, cabbage, carrots, parsley and other familiar and familiar vegetables.

Perennials are not so common in our country and are grown mostly in small quantities. Plants of vegetable culture of this species in the first year of life form only the root system, leaves and kidneys. But their productive organs they form mainly in the second-third year of life. Many of them are ways to live for three to five years. Perennials are similar to biennials in that by winter they enter a period of rest and begin to redistribute nutrients.

To perennials are: garlic, Jerusalem artichoke, horseradish, asparagus, sorrel, onion-batoon and many others. It is interesting that many annuals can also be grown as perennials. For example, if you use growing in greenhouses. Reverse movement is also possible. For example, in the long and cold spring, carrots and beets can begin to bear fruit in the first year.

Classification according to the duration of the growing season and the method of growing

Vegetable plants, examples of which are given in this article, can also be classified according to the duration of their growing season. In this regard, we can distinguish early, middle and late varieties. But according to the way of growth, there are two main types: soil and greenhouse-greenhouse.

Ground vegetable plants are intended for cultivation in the open ground, but greenhouse-greenhouse - exclusively for growing in greenhouses or in greenhouses. In this case, you can grow only small vegetables in the greenhouse. However, at present, soil is growing less used for growing plants in greenhouses. Most often, the roots of the plant are placed in a special solution, which consists of a mixture of essential nutrients. But there is an opinion that vegetables grown in this way are not only not useful, but even vice versa - they can damage the human body. The most valuable are still ground vegetables.

Classification of the shelf life and food used in food

Leaving determines the ability of the vegetable to be stored. In connection with this, it is possible to identify vegetable plants that have the property of passing into a state of rest, and those that do not have such properties.

By what part of the plant can be eaten, two large groups can be distinguished: fruit, or generative vegetables, and vegetative. The first group includes vegetable cereals, pumpkin and nightshade plants. But to the second, the root crops, tubers, bulbous, deciduous and runaway cultures that are habitual for all of us are ranked.

This classification is most convenient for ordinary consumers, as well as for vegetable sellers.

Fruit vegetable plants

A distinctive characteristic of these vegetables is the factor that their fruit is the fruit. Some of them can give it in the phase of botanical ripeness, others - in the phase of technical ripeness. Here you can include favorite watermelons, tomatoes, melons, squash, and many others. These plants need to create such conditions that they begin to bloom as soon as possible and form fruits. In doing so, it should be done regardless of the extent to which ripeness is found in their fruits.

Features of growing vegetable plants

Cultural plants (vegetable), examples of which can be found in this article, also have some peculiarities of cultivation. First of all, it is worth noting that not the last place here is planning the site. Before it is implemented, you need to try to study the farming techniques of those vegetables that you plan to cultivate on your site.

Biological features of these or those plants also contribute to the fact that it is necessary to select the natural and climatic conditions for a particular vegetable. Vegetable plants have one general requirement for their cultivation: one can not plant the same or related plant for several years in the same place. Other requirements for cultivation are selected strictly individually, as well as the composition of the soil and the amount of fertilizer needed.

Classification of VI Edelstein

Soviet scientist Edelstein developed a special classification, which makes it possible to divide vegetable plants not only according to biological, but also agrotechnical conditions. According to this classification it is possible to divide our vegetables into: cabbage, root crops, tuber, bulbous, fruit, leaf, perennial and mushrooms.

In each of these classes, families are also distinguished.

General classification

In general, this classification is difficult to call scientific, more it is designed specifically for consumers. In it, vegetables are not grouped by any sign, nevertheless, such species are distinguished: tubers, root crops, rhizome plants, cabbage, leaf, spicy, bulbous, tomato, pumpkin, legumes, cereals, dessert. But pineapple, to everyone's surprise, scientists have not yet determined to either vegetables or fruit.