Naranjilla seeds

Naranjilla or lulo / Solanum guitoehse

This is a fruit shrub. outwardly, lulo resembles a yellow tomato, but to taste it is something in between strawberries, pineapple and tomato. Lulo is consumed raw. Lulo is added to the composition of fruit drinks, juices, desserts.

Naranjilla helps to strengthen sleep, cleanses the blood, and also restores the structure of hair and nails.

Lulo is not recommended for those who have liver disease or low blood pressure with high levels of allergens in the blood.

Benefit. Lulo fruits are distinguished by an excellent composition of nutrients with a low calorie content. A considerable content of dietary fiber in these fruits promotes satiety and improves bowel function. Vitamins A and C have a beneficial effect on skin health, improve the overall resistance of the body. It is believed that drinking naranjilla juice lowers blood cholesterol levels and blood pressure, thereby ensuring the health of the cardiovascular system.

Naranchilla propagates most often by seeds and cuttings. In the middle lane, it is necessary to sow it from the end of November to the end of December (255 days should pass from germination to the appearance of fruits). If you are going to grow naranjilla as an ornamental plant and keep it indoors over the winter until next year, you can sow until the end of February. The seeds are pre-germinated in a small plastic box with a tight-fitting lid (salads are usually sold in such boxes) on slightly damp, preferably filter or toilet paper.

Until the seeds are pecked, the box is kept closed at a temperature of 28 ° C, they do not need light at this time. After the appearance of the first sprouts, the jar is transferred under a fluorescent lamp and set at a distance of 10-15 cm from it. The optimum temperature at this stage remains the same. Every one or two days, for 5-10 seconds, the lid is removed and water is added to the dried paper. Under the lamp, with additional illumination 24 hours a day, the sprouts should be up to the stage of two cotyledons.

After shedding the seed coat and the normal development of the cotyledon leaves, the plants dive into pots with light soil. In the first week, young seedlings are illuminated with fluorescent lamps around the clock, then for four weeks at 16 hours, then for four weeks at 14 hours.

With the vegetative method of propagation of naranchilla, cuttings with a lignified base and three to five leaves are selected for rooting. Root in a humid environment under glass or film using a root stimulator, such as heteroauxin or root, for 20 days. They are kept in the brightest place at a temperature not lower than 18-19 ° C at night, 22-26 ° C during the day and fed weekly with solutions of complex mineral and organic fertilizers intended for cucumbers and pumpkins.

Form a plant in one stem. Since the stems of naranchilla are prickly, the stepchildren that form above the first inflorescence should not be pinched, but cut out.

During flowering (130-140th day from sowing), the plant needs pollinating insects, without which the fruits are almost not tied, therefore, artificial pollination is necessary for indoor cultivation. With good care from one plant, you can get 7-8 kg of fruit.

They ripen in September-October; at the time of harvest, they are slightly yellowish (or with yellowish spots), hard and not very aromatic. But after two weeks of storage in the room, they soften, turn orange and acquire a strawberry-pineapple aroma.