Every year, gardeners plant cucumbers on their plots. This is understandable: growing these plants is not a difficult task, but very rewarding. After all, at the end you can get several kilograms of excellent fruits.
To be a seedling or not to be?
To grow cucumbers, you can choose seedlings or non-seedlings. It is important to remember that this culture is very heat-loving. So, in regions where spring comes late, it is better to give preference to the first planting option.
Important: pre-growing seedlings significantly speeds up fruiting. You can get the harvest about two weeks earlier than with the seedless method.
Selection of planting material
To grow cucumbers, you can use seeds you prepared yourself or purchased in a store.The first option is quite risky, since independent preparation requires certain skills. Their absence may result in the planting material not being viable.
When purchasing in a store, you should follow the advice of experienced gardeners, as well as the instructions given on the back of the seed package. It is necessary to pay attention to the timing of planting, the possibility of growing a given variety in a specific climatic zone and, of course, the shelf life.
Seed preparation
For planting, only strong, full-bodied seeds should be selected.
1. About a month before planting, they should be placed closer to heating devices in order to warm them up.
2. Heated seeds must be disinfected. This can be done using an infusion of 100 ml of cold water and 30 g of garlic pulp. The seeds should be left in the infusion for an hour, then rinsed with cold water.
3. To improve germination, seeds should be placed in fabric bags and left for 12 hours in a solution of 1 liter of water, 1 tsp. wood ash and 1 tsp. nitrophoska. At the end of the procedure, rinse.
4. Wrap the seeds in gauze and place them on a saucer with water and place them on the radiator for about 2 days. During this time they should swell and peck. It is important to ensure that the gauze does not dry out, so periodically moisten it.
These preparation measures are not mandatory, but they help improve the germination of planting material, as well as increase the immunity of future plants.
We grow seedlings
Cucumbers love warmth, so they should be planted outside only when the soil warms up to +15 degrees. And, given that the average period for growing seedlings is 30 days, seeds should be sown at the end of April.
For seedlings, you must first prepare containers and soil.As containers, you can take deep boxes (up to 25 cm deep) or peat cups. You can buy soil or prepare it yourself by mixing sand, compost, soil and high-moor peat. The mixture, prepared with your own hands, must be disinfected by calcination or freezing.
Fill the prepared containers 2/3 with soil and water. When the water is absorbed, make small holes and place 2 seeds in them. Then sprinkle with sand or soil and slightly moisten. If sowing is done in one large container, a distance of about 10 cm should be left between the seeds.
Cover containers with crops with film and leave in a warm, bright place. When shoots appear (usually on the 3-5th day), the film should be removed and the container should be moved to the most illuminated place.
Landing area
When choosing a place for planting cucumbers, you should avoid open areas blown by the wind, as well as closed lowlands in which cold air stagnates. They will feel best in areas open to sunlight.
The preferred soil is sandy loam, light loamy and black soil.
Legumes are ideal as precursors for cucumbers.
Transplanting seedlings into open ground
If it’s warmer outside, the ground has warmed up to +15 degrees, and the seedlings have grown significantly and become stronger, it’s time to transplant them to the site.
1. A bed should be formed for cucumbers, fertilizing the soil with rotted cow manure, diluted with water in a ratio of 1:5, or with complex fertilizer.
2. Clear the beds of weeds and make holes 15*15*15 cm at a distance of about 40 cm from each other.
3. Place one plant in each hole, carefully remove it from the container along with the soil.There is no need to remove the sprouts from the peat cups; they should be planted as is.
4. Sprinkle the plants with soil and water with warm water.
How to care for cucumbers
- Weeding. The beds should be regularly cleared of weeds so that they do not take away nutrients from the plants.
- Loosening. You need to loosen the soil about once a week. Moreover, in the first 2-3 weeks, the loosening depth should be no more than 3 cm.
- Watering. It is advisable to water the cucumbers with warm water, being careful not to get it on the leaves. In this case, you should not use a hose; it is better to take a watering can. The frequency of watering before flowering is once a week, during the fruiting period - once every 3 days, and you should not flood or overdry the soil.
- Feeding. At the beginning of flowering, plants can be fed with a solution of 10 liters of water, 1 tsp. urea, 1 tsp. potassium sulfate and 1 tsp. superphosphate. When the fruits begin to form, you should introduce fertilizing with a solution of water (10 l), 1 tbsp. l. Nitrophoska and a glass of crushed chicken manure.
- Harvesting. To prevent cucumbers from overgrowing and producing more new fruits, you should harvest them regularly.
Even a novice gardener can harvest a rich harvest of delicious cucumbers from his plot. Just a little effort, and in a couple of months you will be able to enjoy delicious fruits.
