Cucumbers on the windowsill. Photo: Gavrish
What to consider when arranging a home garden
To grow vegetables on windowsills, you need wooden boxes or plastic bags with soil. You can, of course, use both flower pots and plastic seedling boxes. Main condition – the presence of drainage, holes for water runoff and a good soil mixture, harvested since autumn.
Approximate soil composition for indoor use the following:
- 60-70% peat
- 20-30% manure
- 6-10% soddy soil
- 2-3% phosphate fertilizers
- 1% fluffy lime
This composition, of course, can be different or replaced with purchased soil for seedlings.
Techniques for preparing seeds for sowing at room conditions are the most common, and when using good hybrid seeds with inlay, they may not be carried out at all.
Preparation, sowing seeds and caring for cucumbers on the windowsill
- Treated seeds (colored) do not need to be soaked. They must first be sown, and then shed well with water.
- After sowing, it is desirable to keep the containers at a temperature of + 18 … + 25 Β° C, in most apartments this is not difficult.
- When shoots appear, it is desirable to reduce the temperature to + 10 … + 16 Β° Π‘ (move the boxes closer to the glass) and provide maximum illumination crops.
- Cucumber seedlings are grown in cups or pots to do not injure plants during transplantation to a permanent place.
- Cucumbers are transplanted in the phase of 4-5 true leaves.
- When growing plants on windowsills, cold air from the window cools the pot or box from below, thereby the root system of plants also cools and absorbs moisture poorly. On the other hand, warm air from the heating system dries out the aerial part of the cucumber lash, creating a favorable microclimate for pests. Cucumbers should be watered only warm water ΠΈ spray plants to increase air humidity.
- Care for plants is reduced to periodic watering, top dressing with complex mineral fertilizers (better soluble), as well as to the device of a support and tying a whip to it with twine.
- Above 5-7 leaf cucumbers pinchby removing the apical bud. This causes the formation of new fruit-bearing lateral shoots.
The scheme for the formation of self-pollinated hybrids with a bouquet type of fruiting in protected ground is shown in the figure below. Growing plants on the windowsill, you can stick to it.
On the left: the scheme of formation of self-pollinated hybrids with a bouquet type of fruiting in protected ground. Right: Vigorous powerful hybrids will please the harvest for a long time. Photo: Gavrish
The culture of vegetables on the window largely depends on the choice of a suitable variety. Of course, we cannot create ideal conditions for growing cucumbers on a windowsill or balcony. That is why it is better to choose unpretentious resistant varieties, and even better – hybridssuitable for protected ground and film shelters. Such hybrids are usually:
- self-pollinating, they do not need pollinators,
- shade-tolerant,
- productive,
- well resist most diseases.
In addition, vigorous, powerful hybrids have a long fruiting period and will delight the gardener with a long harvest.
Of course, you should not compare the yield of cucumbers on the windowsill with the yield of greenhouse or ground plants – it will be much less. However, the opportunity to get a few fragrant cucumbers right at home out of season is worth the effort. So, we choose:
Varieties and hybrids of cucumbers for the home garden
1. Long cucumbers
These cucumbers are popular in China and Japan. In various parts of the world, certain national ideas about the aesthetics of the appearance of the cucumber fruit have been formed. Varieties and hybrids are called long-fruited, the fruits of which are 60-80 cm long. Large tubercles and strong furrows are located on their surface. Such a cucumber is more like a small “crocodile”.
‘F1 Green Crocodile’. Photo: Gavrish
Long-fruited cucumbers are famous for their unsurpassed taste and aroma. The fruits, as a rule, are thin-skinned, with small seed chambers, for salad purposes.
Self-pollinated and bee-pollinated hybrids and varieties of mixed flowering type from the company “Gavrish” – ‘F1 Green snake’, ‘F1 Green crocodile’, ‘Chinese snake’ – very powerful plants with a long fruiting period, have a unique shade tolerance and high fruit set. Serpentine greens reach a length of 50-60 cm.
‘F1 Green Serpent’ and ‘Chinese Serpent’. Photo: Gavrish
To grow such giant cucumbers, you will need good fertile soil and regular top dressing.
- At the end of April, it is already time to prepare seedlings, or you can sow the seeds directly into the ground in May-June.
- Landing pattern: 50×100 cm.
- To get a good harvest, the main shoot can be pinched after 7-8 leaves.
The yield of long-fruited varieties and hybrids with good agricultural technology reaches 30 kg per mΒ². Such cucumbers are indispensable in summer salads and okroshka. Many housewives preserve and pickle them in pieces.
2. Short-fruited salad cucumbers
No less popular are short-fruited self-pollinated hybrids from the Gavrish company – the new items ‘F1 Monsieur Olivier Salad’ and ‘F1 Moscow Salad’.
Cucumber ‘F1 Monsieur Olivier salad’. Photo: Gavrish
Delicate, smooth-fruited cucumbers are deservedly considered the best for salads and fresh cuts. Many summer residents, especially the elderly, prefer just such hybrids for summer consumption. Fragrant, with a thin skin and small seed chambers, greens ripen in 40-43 days. 2-4 cucumbers are stably tied in each knot.
Cucumber ‘F1 Moscow salad’. Photo: Gavrish
The fruits are not as long as those of the previous group of varieties – about 15-18 cm, cylindrical. smooth, glossy, dark green in color, weighing 130-160 g. They work well not only in open ground under film shelters, but also on the windowsill, on the balcony, in room culture.
3. Self-pollinated gherkins for universal use
‘F1 Zyatek’ is the best option for lovers of salted and marinated pickles and gherkins. Parthenocarpic hybrid, with a bouquet type of fruiting. Smooth cucumbers fit perfectly into the jar, never bitter. The hybrid is early, female type of flowering, in one sinus forms from 2 to 8 ovaries. Reliable, endures adverse conditions.
‘F1 Mother-in-law’ is an early maturing parthenocarpic hybrid. The fruits have a great taste, are not bitter, crispy and elastic. Hybrid ‘F1 Mother-in-Law’ is suitable for greenhouses, and for open ground, and for temporary shelters. Every day, 5-8 fruits can be harvested from a plant. Resistant to true and downy mildew and root rot, which allows it to be grown until autumn.
‘F1 Liliput’ is an early maturing parthenocarpic hybrid for growing in open and protected ground. The hybrid is productive, with thin-skinned crisp greens 7-9 cm long and weighing 80-90 g. 7-10 ovaries are formed in each leaf axil. You will find a more detailed description of ‘Lilliput’ in our previous article – The very best: the best hybrids of cucumbers from the Gavrish agricultural company.
The list of universal self-pollinated hybrids can be continued, but it is better to leave the choice to the gardeners themselves. Good luck!
Irina Vladimirovna Lipilina, candidate of agricultural sciences, agronomist,
group of companies “Gavrish”
