You can grow crispy cucumbers at home all year round. If you plant vegetables in a greenhouse or hotbed, adhering to simple rules, the harvest will be rich, and the fruits will be large and tasty.
Terms and conditions
When choosing the time for planting cucumbers in greenhouses, gardeners usually focus on the characteristics of the local climate. Residents of the southern regions plant these vegetables in the first half of April. In the middle lane, gardeners do this at the end of this month, in the Urals and Siberia – in the second half of May. When planting cucumbers in a greenhouse, it is important to focus on the air temperature.
When planting cucumbers, many gardeners are guided by the lunar calendar. Sowing seeds or planting seedlings is recommended to be carried out on a growing moon. It is believed that in this case, plants develop much faster.
Prepare
Before planting cucumbers, you need to prepare both the planting material and the greenhouses themselves.
Greenhouse cleaning
Harvesting should begin a few weeks before planting vegetables.. First you need to carefully inspect the room and close up all the cracks. This will protect the cucumbers from the negative effects of cold air.
Next, the room must be disinfected. To do this, you can use any antifungal compounds. After this procedure, all surfaces should be thoroughly cleaned using a soapy solution. It is very important to process all hard-to-reach places.
After cleaning the room, it is important to think about the location of the beds. In greenhouses, they are usually placed along the walls. The width of one bed should be within 50-60 centimeters. It is important to leave wide aisles between rows. This is necessary in order to take care of the plants was easier.
Ground
Soil for sowing seeds can be purchased at many specialized stores. Such a substrate is disinfected. It is of high quality, nutritious and perfect for growing cucumbers. At the same time, many gardeners prefer to prepare the soil mixture at home. To do this, cleaned sand, peat and turf are mixed in the tank in equal proportions. After that, a small amount of rotted compost is added to the soil.
Before use, the soil must disinfect. This can be done in many ways. Usually the mixture is sent for 20-30 minutes in the oven, heated to 180 degrees.
Instead, the soil can also be treated with Fitosporin solution.
Planting material
Preparation of planting material begins with the selection of suitable seed varieties. The following varieties of cucumbers are suitable for planting in greenhouses.
- Adam F. This is a hybrid Dutch variety. He is precocious. The first fruits on the site appear within a month and a half after planting the seeds. At the same time, plants bear fruit for a long time. The fruits are dark in color and small in size. Their surface is covered with neat small spikes. Cucumbers are quite tasty. Therefore, they can be eaten fresh or canned.
- Zyatek F1. This is another hybrid variety. The fruits ripen quite early. Plants are resistant to most common diseases. In addition, they are not afraid of sudden changes in temperature.
- German F1. This hybrid is also resistant to various external factors. Cucumbers feel equally good both in open beds and in greenhouses. The fruits have a pleasant taste and rich aroma.
Planting material before sowing is recommended to be processed. Proper seed preparation helps improve seed germination. The seed processing technology is as follows.
- Performing the shaping. First you need to carefully examine the seeds. For planting it is worth using large grains. It is desirable that they be the same size. In this case, the sprouts will appear at about the same time. You can make sure that the planting material is of high quality by lowering it into a glass of saline. Seeds that remain on the surface of the water must be discarded. The rest should be washed under running water and dried.
- Disinfection. Selected seeds must be disinfected. Most gardeners prefer to soak them in a light solution of potassium permanganate. Seeds are usually left in a container with liquid for only 10-15 minutes. After treatment with potassium permanganate, the planting material is washed again.
- Hardening. So that plants can quickly adapt to new conditions, it is recommended to harden the seeds additionally. To do this, they are placed in a cloth bag and placed next to heating devices. After some time, the seeds are removed in the refrigerator. Such temperature drops have a positive effect on the seed material.
- Germination. To speed up the process of growing cucumbers, the seeds will need to germinate. To do this, they are placed between separate layers of gauze. Next, the seeds are gently sprayed with warm water. In this form, they are left for several days. It is very important to ensure that the fabric does not dry out during this time. Once the seeds germinate, they can be sown in a greenhouse or polycarbonate greenhouse.
Properly treated and germinated seeds are highly resistant to most diseases and do not need special care.
How to plant?
You can plant both seeds and grown seedlings in a greenhouse or in a greenhouse.
Seed sowing
It is worth planting seeds in the soil at a temperature not lower than 20 degrees. To begin with, several small holes are made in the beds. This is important so that when the plants grow, they do not interfere with each other. Do not apply fertilizer when planting. If the soil has been prepared in advance, it is already quite fertile. It is recommended to place one or two seeds in one hole. In this case, when the cucumbers grow up, the gardener will be able to choose the strongest seedlings.
It is recommended to sow cucumbers in sunny weather. After planting, they should be well watered. A couple of days after this procedure, the plants are additionally fed. Usually, urea or other fertilizers containing nitrogen are used at this stage. Such top dressing helps to speed up the process of emergence of seedlings.
Transplanting
The step-by-step process of growing seedlings consists of the following steps.
- First you need to prepare the appropriate containers. Cucumbers are recommended to be planted in special peat pots. You can buy them in most specialized stores. The peculiarity of such pots is that they can be placed in the soil. Over time, they decompose, thus feeding the soil. Therefore, when transplanting seedlings into open ground, its roots are not injured.
- Having placed the seeds at a shallow depth, the soil must be watered with warm water. Proper watering allows plants to take root faster.
- After that, the seed containers must be covered with a transparent film or glass. Pots should be moved to a sunny windowsill or balcony. It is important that the temperature in the room where the seedlings are germinated is not lower than 23 degrees.
To prevent the plants from dying, the glass must be lifted daily.
In the process, you need to check the crops, as well as spray the plants if necessary. As soon as the first shoots appear on the surface of the soil, the soil will need to be fed with complex fertilizer. From time to time, containers with seedlings need to be rotated. This is done so that it does not stretch.
A few days before planting plants in open ground, they must be hardened off. To do this, it is enough to take containers with sprouts overnight to the balcony or courtyard. It is recommended to plant seedlings in greenhouses or in a greenhouse in May. This is done so that weak roots do not freeze after planting. As a rule, plants are transplanted 29-35 days after sowing the seed material.
Seedlings are planted in rows in the greenhouse. The distance between the bushes should be in the range of 20-30 centimeters. In order for plants to develop well, it is very important to choose the right neighbors for them. Usually cucumbers are placed next to peppers, cabbage or legumes. Spinach or mustard can also be placed there. It is not recommended to water the planted seedlings in the next 1-2 days. It will only harm her.
Aftercare
In order for cucumbers to develop normally, they need to be properly looked after. The gardener needs to regularly carry out the following procedures.
Watering
Cucumbers growing in greenhouses or greenhouses need to be watered regularly. To do this, use well-settled warm water. Some gardeners for this purpose install containers in the room. It is from them that they collect water for watering plants. Do not water the plants too often. This will cause the roots of the seedlings to rot.
Loosening
After watering, it is recommended to loosen the soil further. This is done so that a dense crust does not form on the surface of the earth.. You need to loosen the soil carefully, trying do not damage plant roots. In the process, it is also important to remove all weeds. They can be sent to the compost pit, and then used to feed plants.
Feeding
Regular application of fertilizers to the soil can increase the yield of cucumbers, as well as improve the quality of the fruit. You can feed plants in a greenhouse both organic and mineral fertilizers.
Top dressing is applied to the soil 3-5 times. After planting the seedlings, it is fertilized with organic matter. Usually, chicken or mullein diluted in warm water is used for this. During flowering, a solution of potassium salt is added to the soil. During the period of fruit formation, the bushes are fed with fertilizers containing phosphorus or potassium.
You can make products both under the root and on the sheet. It is best to do this in the evening. After feeding the bushes, they are watered abundantly.
Ventilation
In order for cucumbers to get sick less often, the room in which they grow must be regularly ventilated. It is recommended to do this in dry calm weather. It is especially important to ventilate greenhouses on hot days. This allows the room temperature to be lowered to a suitable level.
Shrub formation
This procedure will help improve plant yield and fruit quality. After the appearance of five full-fledged leaves on the plant, all greenery, which is located in the lower part of the bush, must be removed. After the appearance of three more sheets, a second pinching procedure must be carried out. At this stage, each bush should consist of one main stem and several shoots.
Adult bushes are recommended to be tied to strong supports.. After carrying out such a procedure, cucumber lashes are not confused. In addition, caring for plants becomes much easier. You can tie cucumbers to both iron and wooden supports. For this, twine or wire is usually used.
Protection against pests
Cucumbers growing in greenhouses often suffer from various diseases. The following diseases are dangerous for them.
- White rot. The surface of the foliage of diseased plants is covered with a dense white coating. It’s spreading fast. Infected plants die within a couple of days. Treating the area with copper sulphate will help save the bushes.
- Gray rot. You can recognize this disease by gray spots that appear on the ovaries and foliage. To protect plants, an ash solution or copper sulfate is used. If the site is too heavily infected, the bushes can be treated with special preparations.
- Root rot. The foliage of diseased plants dries quickly, and the stems become covered with cracks. Over-watering or using too wet water to irrigate the soil can lead to infection with such a disease. Infected bushes can be sprinkled with wood ash. If this treatment does not help, the plants should be removed from the site. After that, the soil must be shed with a solution of potassium permanganate.
- MuΔnistaΓ’ rosa. This is one of the most common diseases. A white coating usually appears on the surface of the foliage. At first, it covers only the foliage, then it spreads to the stems and fruits. To combat the disease, bushes can be treated with Topaz or other similar drugs.
- Black mold. This fungal disease also often affects young plants. Dark spots appear on infected foliage, which eventually merge into one. It is impossible to fight this disease. Therefore, infected plants should be removed from your site and burned.
Pests also pose a danger to cucumbers growing in a greenhouse.
Protect plants from the following insects.
- aphid. Owners of cucumber beds should be wary of melon aphids. It damages the foliage, which immediately curls and dries. If there are not very many aphids on the site, the bushes can be treated with an infusion of dry onion peel or an ordinary ash solution. With a strong infection of the site, gardeners are recommended to use chemicals.
- Hothouse mite. This is one of those pests that usually settle in greenhouses and greenhouses. They are planted in the event that a large number of weeds grow on the beds. To prevent the appearance of these pests, they must be removed regularly. If you do not start to deal with these pests in a timely manner, they can destroy all plants. Chemicals are usually used to protect your site. The most popular of them is Fitoverm.
The remaining pests do not pose a particular danger to pests.
In general, growing cucumbers in a greenhouse or in a greenhouse is quite simple. Therefore, even a novice gardener can easily cope with this task.
