The article will answer the pressing questions of gardeners: how to get an early harvest of cucumbers, what to do to make it excellent with minimal labor and financial costs.
Deciding on the varieties of cucumbers
First of all, you need to decide what varieties of cucumbers you want to plant. Usually priority is given to those that can be salted and pickled. These are small greens with pimples. You can also plant several bushes of salad varieties. Such fruits cannot be canned, but they have delicate flesh, thin skin, so they are good both for fresh consumption and for salads.
Read about growing indoor cucumbers
Here are the most popular cucumber varieties and canning hybrids:
- Parisian gherkin;
- Funny boys;
- Zozulya;
- Snowstorm;
- Courage;
- Salting;
- Nightingale;
- Benefit;
- Goosebump;
- Barrel pickling.
Of course, there are many hybrids and varieties. Every year, breeders delight with successful new products. In any case, it is better to plant several varieties, and subsequently give preference to those that you like the most.
Here are the most popular salad cucumbers:
- April;
- Phoenix;
- A real man;
- Elegant;
- Altai early.
You also need to decide where you will grow cucumbers. There are varieties bred specifically for open and closed ground. For the first group, those that are pollinated by bees are suitable. In greenhouses, parthenocarpic ones are grown, that is, such greens that do not require pollination. In the axils of the leaves, flowers are formed with a cucumber embryo. Gradually, even without pollination, it turns into a full-fledged fruit.
Sowing cucumber seeds for seedlings
If you want an early harvest, plant some seeds for seedlings. Sowing a lot is not worth it, because if hot days come after planting, the seedlings will take root for a long time. During this time, plants that sprout from the seeds in the garden will catch up with her. But under good conditions, the survival rate will be excellent, and you can feast on greens already in late May - early June.
Prepare your seeds. This should be done 30–27 days before planting the plants in their permanent place. First, place the seeds in a sparse cotton cloth to allow oxygen to pass through. Then soak them in potassium permanganate (1% solution) for 15 minutes, then rinse and place in a solution of trace elements for 10 hours. If not, dilute a teaspoon of sifted wood ash in a glass of hot water, let the mixture sit for 24 hours, and then soak the seeds for 8 hours.
Now you need to lightly rinse them and place them in the refrigerator for a day for hardening. There should be a slight positive temperature +3 - + 4 ° С. Then place them in a warm place until germination. Remember to keep the seeds moist. As soon as the white dots of the roots appear, plant each seed in a separate container.
Since pumpkin seeds (which include cucumbers) do not like transplants, and even more so picks, immediately provide each seed with a separate living space in the form of a peat pot with a diameter of 8 cm. The earth should be light, fertile. You can plant 2 seeds in each pot, and then leave the strongest shoot. Make a hole in the center of the container 2 cm deep, lower the seed into it with the root down, cover it with soil. Cover the pots with transparent plastic, put in a warm, bright place. As soon as the shoots appear, lower the temperature to +20 - +22 ° С during the day and +15 - + 17 ° С at night.
Do not overdo it with watering, as excess moisture also helps to pull out the seedlings. When she turns 20-26 days, plant in a permanent place. Here are the approximate dates for planting cucumber seedlings:
- in a polycarbonate greenhouse on May 1-9;
- under lutrasil, film cover on May 15-25;
- in open ground on May 20-27.
Planting cucumbers by seeds
At about the same time, you can plant cucumber seeds directly in the open ground. Plants in a polycarbonate greenhouse are not afraid of small spring frosts, so seeds can be sown in early May.
Prepare them in the same way as for sowing seedlings, and then plant them in the garden. Pumpkin plants are very fond of organic matter, so it is necessary to prepare a garden for cucumbers in an appropriate way, so that later to collect rich harvests. It should be 50 cm wide to keep warm.
In the fall, add fresh manure, then by spring it will ferment a little, and you can plant cucumbers on such a ridge, having dug it up. It is important not to forget that in such conditions the dangerous enemy of cucumbers and some other plants, the bear, likes to spend the winter. Therefore, it is better to put manure on the ridges when the autumn frosts begin, and the bear will go deep into the soil before that. In any case, before planting, add granules of preparations that will help save the plants from this pest. If you have not applied manure since the fall, dig a 20 cm deep trench in the middle of the garden bed, add semi-rotted compost or manure into it, sprinkle it with 5 cm of soil on top. Make grooves at a distance of 30 cm in one row or two, in a checkerboard pattern. Plant the hatched cucumber seeds in the holes spilled with water, to a depth of 2 cm. If seedlings sprout often, remove the weakest ones.
If you are planting outdoors, cover the garden bed with plastic wrap until the entrances appear. Non-woven fabric can be used:
- lutrasil;
- spunbond;
- agrotextile, etc.
In the open field, cucumbers are comfortable under such a shelter. It perfectly permeates moisture, retaining it, retains heat. When flowering begins, open the plants for the day for pollination, covering them overnight.
Cucumber care
When the cucumber creepers grow 15 × 20 cm, tie them to the trellis. This is done in a greenhouse or greenhouse, in the open field they are not tied up. Plants love evening watering with warm water, do not deprive them of this pleasure. At first, you can water after 2-3 days. When fruiting begins, it is better to do this every night, since the lack of moisture on hot days can cause the fruits to become bitter.
Sprinkle peat under the bushes, which will be an excellent mulching material. Then you will not even need to sometimes loosen the soil around the cucumbers, because their roots do not like to be injured, like the leaves. Therefore, when harvesting, try to treat the vines with care - do not turn the whips and leaves. The collection is carried out in the morning, then the greens are the strongest.
As the roots become exposed, sprinkle peat or light fertile soil under them, then you can do without feeding or minimize them. If you want to use the first option, when you make a trench in the garden, add semi-matured compost or manure to it, pour 0.5 tsp for each plant. fertilizer "Cucumber". It will gradually dissolve, and the plants will be content with root nutrition.
In this regard, it is necessary to mention foliar feeding
If at the beginning of fruiting the greens do not grow - they turn yellow and fall off, spray the vines on the leaf with the "Ovary" solution. Cold nights can be another reason for low yields. Therefore, try to keep the temperature in the garden at least +22 ° C at this time of day.
Cucumbers respond well to organic root feeding. You can give 2-3 of these by dissolving manure in water in a ratio of 1:10. If there is no this garden "gold", when weeding, mowing, do not throw away the grass, put it in the barrel almost to the top, fill it with water. Let this ragweed ferment for 5–7 days. After that, dilute the herbal infusion with water in a ratio of 1: 8 and water over wet soil. Such feeding of a weakened plant with pale green foliage helps especially well. Its only drawback is the smell, but you do not need to use "chemistry", this is a natural folk remedy, rich in nitrogen.
Diseases of cucumbers
You can use folk methods for the prevention of diseases. To do this, take:
- 1 liter of milk;
- 20 g of laundry soap;
- 30 drops of iodine.
Grate the soap on a fine grater, mix everything well. Spray the plants every 10 days and you will save them from many diseases.
The following "natural" remedy will help with powdery mildew. For him you will need:
- 1 liter of milk whey;
- 3 liters of water.
Serum and water should be at room temperature. Stir both components and spray not only diseased but also healthy vines growing nearby.
To cope with some diseases, as well as pests - aphids, ants that spread it, an infusion made from:
- 2 liters of boiling water;
- 1 cup wood ash;
- 10 g of laundry soap.
Dip the ashes in boiling water, mix, stand for two days. Then strain. Add finely grated laundry soap. Mix well and spray the vines. This solution is not only not harmful to plants, but even useful, since it contains ash, which is a top dressing. It contains potassium and many trace elements.
Biologically active preparations, for example, "Fitosporin", can be used to combat pests and diseases. An important role is played by the prevention of cucumber diseases. After the season is over, remove and burn or discard plant residues, they must not be composted. Remove the top layer of earth by 7 cm, if this is not possible, disinfect it by spraying with a solution prepared from 10 liters of species and 50 g of copper sulfate. Then dig up the soil.
Video tips for growing cucumbers:
