In the Lukhovitsky district of the Moscow region, the first cucumbers ripen in May. And not in greenhouses, but in the beds!
Recently, a monument with an eloquent inscription has flaunted in the center of Lukhovitsy: βTo the cucumber-breadwinner from grateful residentsβ. Cultivation of early cucumbers is a traditional specialization of rural residents and summer residents of the entire region. This guarantees them against unemployment and provides a completely comfortable life.
And all because here they learned to get record harvests earlier than other gardeners – already in May, a month and a half ahead of the usual time, thanks to a special, albeit simple, technique.
How to grow Lukhovitsky cucumbers or against all the rules
Cucumbers are an exceptionally thermophilic crop native to India. Therefore, in the middle lane, it is usually sown in greenhouses later than others – only in mid-May, and in open ground – in late spring, or even early summer, when the soil has time to warm up well and there is no threat of late spring frosts.
Note that cucumbers cannot stand cool temperatures below +10 … + 13 Β° Π‘: the seeds rot, and the seedlings planted in the ground βrefuseβ to develop, resuming growth only at +15 Β° Π‘. The optimal temperature for these sissies is + 20 … + 25 Β° Π‘. Moreover, it should be stable, without night cooling, which in the Moscow region is achievable, as a rule, only after June 5β10, when cucumbers usually have to be planted. But then they begin to bear fruit, alas, late – only in the second half of summer … How do gardeners from Lukhovitsy manage to deceive the calendar?
How to arrange a summer for cucumbers in a separate garden
Since the middle of the last century, the inhabitants of Lukhovitch have learned to successfully cultivate heat-loving vegetables on insulated beds, using biofuel, or simply fresh manure, imported from autumn, horse or cow, which, if used skillfully, warms the soil and seedlings of cucumbers.
To do this, in the fall, a tightly packed pile of manure is covered with a thick layer of earth, and then with burlap and film. This prevents the manure from freezing in winter. In early spring, while the snow has not yet completely melted, the manure is released from shelter, shoveled and loosened for air access, which ensures its rapid (in a week) self-heating to + 50 … + 60 Β° C due to the activation of bacteria. Some gardeners speed up this process by placing bricks heated on a fire or in a stove inside heaps.
The place for a cucumber plantation in the Lukhovitsky gardens is chosen as the sunniest, well-heated and protected from the winds. As a rule, at the fence on the south side (the bed is oriented from east to west) and slightly raised. In the spring, as soon as it becomes possible to get close to the bed, the snow is carefully cleared and a black plastic film is laid directly on the surface of the frozen ground, with the help of which the soil quickly warms up on sunny days. The easiest way to care for cucumbers is to plant them in one row in a bed 80β90 cm wide.
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Feeling that the earth has thawed enough and it can be dug, without delay they dig a recess (by 40 cm) over the entire area of ββu10bu3bthe future garden bed. A 20-centimeter layer of sawdust with a small addition of urea is laid at the bottom, then to the brim – loose heated manure (its consumption is large – almost a ton per 25 sq. M). Then it remains only to lay the previously removed fertile soil on it (a layer of XNUMXβXNUMX cm) and again completely cover it with black polyethylene to further increase the temperature.
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Sowing cucumbers for the earliest harvest or harvesting your own cucumbers on May 9
After a couple of days, a warm place for cucumbers is ready. Then, right in the cloth of the black film laid on the surface of the soil, small cuts are made every 30 cm, and then two cucumber seeds are laid out in each, sprinkled a little with moist soil (the seeds are not soaked, they are sown dry). Above the sown bed, a shelter is constructed from arcs covered with transparent polyethylene.
βBurningβ of biofuel usually lasts all spring, right up to warm summer days, so the seeds germinate in a week, the plants develop rapidly and bloom in a month, and after a few days – often already by May 9 – they delight with the first cucumbers.
What to do if there is nowhere to get manure for a warmed bed
In recent years, after the collapse of the nearby livestock farms – the main suppliers of manure – Lukhovitch residents had to make adjustments to their technology.
Deficient manure is now replaced with a mixture of forest leaves (maple or linden) and vegetable tops stocked up in the fall.
All this, as it turned out, is also suitable as a biofuel, although it warms up a little weaker.
However, most of the Lukhovitchans do it even easier, growing cucumbers under a film cover in two layers with an airy heat-insulating layer: two frames are placed above the raised bed, one above the other, and both are covered with a film. In this case, the bed is not filled with biofuel (instead, it can be spilled with hot water before covering the soil with a black film), but otherwise it is prepared according to traditional technology. Sowing on a bed with a two-layer shelter can be carried out from the beginning of April.
Features of caring for the earliest Lukhovitsky cucumbers
Watering early cucumbers
Watering for early plantings of cucumbers is almost not required – they usually have enough spring moisture until July.
Feeding early cucumbers
To accelerate the development of plants, starting from the third decade of April, they are periodically fed with weak aqueous solutions of fertilizers, combining mineral (for example, Sudarushka) with organic (Bucephalus, Flumbom, Radagor) – at a concentration twice as weak as usually recommended. In cool weather, when the roots of cucumbers absorb nutrients too slowly, foliar top dressing is done. Here it is important not to make a mistake with the concentration of fertilizer and dissolve them according to the instructions on the package.
The best varieties for an early harvest of cucumbers
Lukhovitsk gardeners are very scrupulous about their choice, selecting not just the most fruitful, butΒ exceptionally early – those that begin to bear fruit 40 days after sowing. And amicably, differing in the same size, strong, beautiful and, of course, tasty fruits.
Over the past few years, two parthenocarpic Dutch hybrids have dominated local gardens: OtellΠΎΒ ΠΈ Salinas . However, three years ago, they became interested in new domestic hybrids, with the so-called beam type of fruiting, which, not inferior to the Dutch in early maturity, yield and quality of fruits, are distinguished by a massive yield of the crop already in the first month after the start of flowering.
Now hybrids are leading in Lukhovitsy Alphabet, First grade, Trump card ΠΈ Okhotny Ryad.
They were recently created by the Moscow breeders of the Manul agricultural firm, Alexander Borisov and Oleg Krylov, based on our extreme early spring conditions. The varieties are resistant to adverse temperatures and to a complex of common fungal diseases, including true and downy mildew.
High-yielding: in the simplest greenhouses they give up to 10 kg of fruits per 1 sq. m. Yes, such bubbly, dark emerald and even in size that you just lick your fingers!
