The cucumber familiar to all of us has its own secrets of growing. Knowing them, it is easy to get good seedlings, and hence a rich harvest.
Πpreparing cucumber seeds for sowing
Rejection of cucumber seeds
Dip the cucumber seeds in a 5% common salt solution (3 g per 100 ml of water) at room temperature, stir and wait a few seconds. The empty and unusable ones will float, while the good ones will sink to the bottom.
cucumber seeds
Disinfection of cucumber seeds before planting
For half an hour, place the seeds in a solution of potassium permanganate (1 g per 100 ml of water), and then rinse with running water.
Germination of cucumber seeds
Before sowing the seeds for seedlings, hold them in a damp cloth at a temperature of 25-30 Β° C – usually 2-3 days are enough. Seeds are considered germinated when the sprouts that have appeared reach 3β5 mm.
Cucumber sprouts
Hardening cucumbers before planting in the ground
It must be carried out if you will sow cucumber seeds directly into open ground. The method is very simple: put the processed swollen seeds in the refrigerator and leave for 36 hours.
More: Preparing cucumber seeds for sowing
Preparation of seedlings of cucumbers for planting in the ground
When sowing cucumbers for seedlings, do not forget that they do not tolerate transplanting well and it is better to take a separate pot for each plant. Buy a nutrient mixture for seedlings or prepare it from equal parts of soddy soil, peat, humus and sawdust. Plant one or two seeds in each container.
Water with warm water and until shoots appear, keep at a temperature of + 25 … + 28 Β° Π‘. And to reduce moisture evaporation, cover the pots with foil or glass and remove them when the seeds sprout. If both seeds sprouted in one pot, remove the weaker sprout, and do not pull it out, but cut it off – then you will not damage the roots of the remaining plant.
Now, for two or three days, you need to lower the temperature to + 20 Β° C, otherwise the hypocotyl knee * will stretch out, and the sprouts will wilt and wither. Try to provide seedlings with additional lighting, especially on cloudy days – then it will not stretch.
Sprinkle soil once or twice during cultivation. Feed the seedlings twice with specially designed complex fertilizers. Water only with warm water (+22β¦+28Β°Π‘). And make sure that there is no wind from the windows – cucumbers do not like drafts.
Cucumbers in a greenhouse
Cucumber seedlings can be planted if it is squat, 2-3 dark green leaves have appeared on each bush, and the roots occupy the entire or almost the entire pot.
A week before planting in the ground, harden the seedlings – lower the temperature in the room to + 16β18 Β° Π‘. In good weather, it can be taken out to the balcony, but just do not put it in direct sunlight.
Transplanting seedlings of cucumbers in a greenhouse and in open ground
After 20β25 days, cucumber seedlings can be planted:
- April 15-20 – in greenhouses (both glass and film),
- May 10-15 – in the open ground under the film,
- June 2β10 – in open ground without shelter.
Prepare the holes in advance – water, add compost or rotted manure and lightly sprinkle with earth. Plant seedlings of cucumbers with a density of 3-4 tall plants or 5-6 bush-type plants per 1 square meter. Do not deepen the hypocotyl knee. Water the planted plants again, sprinkle wet places around them with dry earth – so that the water evaporates less and a crust does not form.
Cucumber dressing
As soon as it becomes warm, cucumbers need to be fed. It is better to choose foliar top dressing – spray the leaves with a solution of fertilizers. In this case, the plant will begin to use nutrients faster than when watering.
In the evening, spray cucumbers with a solution of urea or ammonium nitrate (5 g / l). You can use a solution of liquid complex fertilizer or dissolve 5β7 g of Kemira-lux in 1 liter of water.
It must be remembered that foliar top dressing should not be given in sunny weather: the solution dries very quickly, its concentration rises and the leaves can get burned.
