It is very difficult to imagine a garden without cucumbers. And even though there are almost no nutrients in this vegetable, it is a pleasure to gnaw a cucumber directly from the garden. Cucumbers are planted by all gardeners, since this is not difficult to implement.
For early use, they even grow seedlings, however, even when planting seed directly into the garden, the harvest is always guaranteed.. In the article, we will consider the rules and methods for growing vegetables in the open field, and also describe all further care.
Deadlines
Cucumbers belong to the family of dicotyledonous plants, they love heat very much. In this regard, planting vegetable seeds on the site should begin after the soil warms up to at least + 12 ° C. Along with this, the atmospheric temperature should already be + 14 ° C and more. Attention! Previously, seeds were not planted in open ground, because in a cold and humid environment they can simply die and not sprout.
At the same time, there is no need to delay sowing. Cucumbers are formed at a temperature of + 14– + 30 ° C and do not tolerate strong heat. As a result, the active growth phase of the plant should not coincide in time with the July heat, otherwise the cucumbers will slow down their development and may completely dry out.
Based on the region and climatic parameters
I must say that the timing of planting cucumber seeds in open ground in different stripes of the country is different. In this case, when choosing the time of planting, one should take into account the specifics of the climate of the region.
- The middle strip of the European part of Russia – from 10 to 30 May.
- Northwest of the country – the beginning of June.
- Ural and Siberia – due to the colder climate in these areas, seed sowing begins on May 15 (until the first days of June). Considering that the summer period is short in these belts, cucumbers are usually grown in seedlings.
- South – from 15 April.
There are varieties of cucumbers that ripen early, mid-ripening and late ripening. If you plant them all at once on your site, then you can eat crispy vegetables throughout the season.
According to the manufacturer’s recommendations, taking into account the variety
When purchasing cucumber seeds in a store, you should look at the recommendations on all packages. Here you can see the exact dates for planting a vegetable of the type that you bought.
According to the lunar calendar
A large number of vegetable growers use the lunar calendar to choose the time for sowing seeds in open ground. The moon has the power to influence the formation of culture. It is believed that it is preferable to plant cucumbers during the period of the young moon.
Where to plant?
soil
It is important to choose not only a favorable place for the beds, but also the soil. Land for planting plants in an open area should be light, crumbly, fertile, have a neutral pH. Since the cultivation of cucumbers will become especially productive on this soil, the harvest will be good and tasty. Recommendation! It is better to prepare the soil for the spring planting of cucumbers for the season, more precisely, since the fall. However, nothing terrible will happen if you perform these activities in the spring – 4 or at least 14 days before sowing.
In order to properly prepare the soil, you must first dig up the area under the bed on the bayonet of a shovel, while introducing humus or compost (a bucket of 1 m2). This organic matter will improve the structure of the soil, make it lighter, more crumbly, not counting the nutritional value that a crop needs for a decent harvest. By the way! You can feed the soil right before planting cucumbers. To do this, you need to make holes about 30 cm deep, and then fill them with a composition of garden soil, compost or humus (in a 1: 1 ratio).
It is equally useful to fertilize with mineral fertilizers before planting plants in open ground. You can immediately use a combined preparation, for example, “Azofoska”, which already includes the necessary components: superphosphate (phosphorus), potassium sulfate (potassium), ammonium salt of nitric acid (nitrogen). But it is also possible to feed the soil in the future garden bed with various preparations separately, for example: nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus.
It is advisable to apply only a nitrogen preparation in the spring, and potash and phosphorus – during the preparation of the beds in the fall. Any of the fertilizers should be used in accordance with the instructions on the package.
Place
When choosing a place for a garden bed on a plot, one should not forget about the rules of crop rotation (so to speak, alternation of garden crops). Ideal precursors for cucumber are: garlic, onions, cabbage, tomatoes, peppers. But planting this vegetable after pumpkin and melon crops (melon, watermelon, cucumber itself, squash, zucchini, pumpkin) is very undesirable. On a note! You can plant cucumbers near tomatoes, cabbage, turnips, corn, butterflies, radishes – these are good neighbors.
The place for planting cucumber seeds in open ground must certainly be warm and accessible to the sun’s rays. Without good lighting and sometimes with little shading, the volume and quality of the crop can be significantly reduced. Therefore, before sowing, it is necessary to select the most appropriate site.
Seed preparation
Most vegetable growers plant cucumbers with seeds directly into the soil, however, even experts do not have a common opinion on the need for pre-sowing processing of materials. For this reason, gardeners have to make their own decisions, to warm up the seeds, germinate them, just soak them or plant them dry. Each method has its adherents and antagonists, as well as positive or negative experience of application. One way or another, it is advisable to listen to important recommendations.
- Select the best (calibrate) cucumber seeds can be short-term soaked in a 3% solution of edible salt (30 grams per liter of water). After 5-10 minutes after immersion, seeds unable to germinate should float. It must be remembered that the method is suitable only for fresh seeds (not older than 2 years), despite the fact that they are able to remain viable even for the 5–6th year after harvest.
- soak seeds, intended for sowing in open ground, should only be done when it is certain that there will be warm and moderately humid weather for at least the next 7 days. This is explained by the fact that swollen seeds are much more tender than dry ones. The rudiments in them are sometimes able to die after a slight cooling or drying of the upper layer of the earth.
- Germination of seed associated with similar risks. With changes in temperature and humidity, weakened seedlings emerge from them.
- Some vegetable growers heat the seeds on the eve of sowing for 4 days (3 days at 40 ° C and a day at 80 ° C). This is a good way to increase germination. When performing such activities, it is necessary to accurately maintain the heating regimes, which can sometimes be troublesome at home.
Attention! Seeds sold “in the shell” are not processed prior to sowing.
Landing methods and rules
Cucumbers can be cultivated both seedling and seedless method. The first is practiced when the site is located in a very severe climatic zone or the vegetable grower wants to have very early vegetable production.
seedling
Seedlings are usually bought or grown independently. In any case, its optimal age by the time of planting in the soil is 25–35 days. We note only one nuance: it is necessary that at the time of transplanting to the beds, the seedlings have no more than 4-5 true leaves, in other words, they should not be “tightened”. Cucumber stalks are very fragile, they break easily, which slows down the formation of plants and often makes the whole effect of using seedling technology ineffective.
- Transplant cucumbers from pots very carefully, transshipment (with a lump of soil), without violating the integrity of the root system.
- Create wells according to the scheme for your variety or hybrid. Their size should correspond to the size of the pots and even be larger when the seedlings are stretched out.
- Fill the holes with warm rainwater.
- As soon as the water is absorbed, remove the seedlings from the pots and place in the holes.. Deepen the stretched one to the cotyledon leaves.
- Fill the holes, tamp the soil, water again and mulch or sprinkle dry soil on top, so that a crust does not form, and the roots have the opportunity to breathe.
Plant seedlings of plants in the evening, in cloudy weather. When it’s hot, shade the cucumbers for the first 2-3 days.
reckless
Planting cucumbers with seed material directly in the garden is no different from sowing any other crop, you just need to choose the right time and, when the heat lingers, prepare the covering material. On the beds prepared in advance, the angle of the chopper or any other convenient object makes grooves in accordance with the chosen scheme. As a rule, band sowing is practiced. In this case, when planting early ripe varieties, 30–50 cm are left between the rows, for others – 40–60 cm.
The grooves are thoroughly irrigated with water using a watering can without a mesh, and after soaking it, the prepared plant seeds are laid out at a distance of 15–30 cm from each other. Seeds are sprinkled with earth taken from the side of the groove, or with rotted manure 2-3 cm thick. To preserve moisture and heat, cover them with a film of polyethylene. At first, the material can be laid directly on the soil, but if you need to keep it for a long time, you need to make arcs.
Unusual ways of growing
In addition to growing cucumbers in the open field, there are other options. They reduce climate-related risks, and some make it possible to save space on the site.
- Cucumbers in bags. Soil is poured into the bag almost to the top, a peg is inserted, more than 3 plants are placed in a circle so that they have enough land and space for tillering. Nails are stuffed onto the peg, threads are tied on which the plant will curl. This saves space, the bag is placed exactly where it is more comfortable for the growth of the cucumber. In bad weather, you can cover with a film. Watering is carried out by means of bottles installed in advance upside down.
- Using black agrofabric (agrofibre). Agrofabric allows you to retain moisture and smooth out small fluctuations in temperature. Before sowing, the soil is covered with the named geotextile. On the covering material, a slot is made under each bush, through which it will grow. Care is carried out as in ordinary cultivation in the ground.
- In tires from a car (or a barrel). 3 tires are taken and stacked on top of each other in the intended place. To protect against weeds, cardboard spreads to the bottom, then drainage is poured, it is possible from dried branches, all this is covered with earth. Then, in order for the cucumbers to be warm and grow faster, food waste and dry grass go, which are covered with earth, and manure can be added beforehand. It is necessary to sow in the upper layers of the soil. Cucumbers will sprout quickly because the rotting mixture will provide them with warmth and plenty of nutrients. When cold, you can cover with a film.
- Hut of cucumbers. Landing is carried out along the edges of the hut, a crossbar with hooks is placed in the center, threads are pulled to it, seedlings are planted. The distance between plants should be no more than a meter – compact, beautiful, and the cucumbers are clean and appetizing. If it’s cool, it’s very easy to wrap it with a film that will warn against bad weather.
- On an inclined trellis. Pros – it takes up little space, since cucumbers grow on a lash inclined at about 70 °, grow beautifully, are illuminated by the sun and simultaneously shade plants that are afraid of its direct rays. They grow quickly, at once and for a long time please with a good harvest.
Further Care
If you take care of the vegetable in the garden on time and in full, you can get the greatest effect. The key rules and techniques for caring for plants after planting in open ground are listed below..
- As mentioned above, cucumber seeds require a high level of humidity and heat to germinate, so be sure to cover the bed with a film or agrofabric after sowing.. The ideal way is to install the arcs and fix the spunbond on them. Every day the greenhouse must be ventilated.
- As soon as the seeds break through, you need to remove the shelter. However, if the greenhouse is small, then it is necessary to open it systematically, every day extending the time spent by young plants in the open air.
- If cucumbers were planted with a small interval – 5–10 cm, then after a certain time after germination, it is necessary to thin out the plantings, leaving the strongest and most enduring at a distance of 20–30 cm.
- Growing a vegetable in open ground or in a greenhouse without constant and timely irrigation is unthinkable, it is an important component of care. For humidification, use only warm water. In general, under cover, the soil dries rather slowly, but it is still necessary to carefully monitor the condition of the soil until the seeds germinate, maintaining a moderate level of moisture. After the appearance of the first sprouts, it is advisable to irrigate in the morning or in the evening, while you should not get on the leaves and stem of the plant.
- It is recommended to mulch the soil around the crop, to prevent the rapid drying of the earth and the growth of weeds. In the form of mulch, you can use rotted sawdust, straw, hay.
- If you do not mulch, then after each irrigation or rain, you need to loosen the soil around the crops. The depth in this case can be no more than 5 cm, otherwise the roots of the plant can be injured. Loosening will prevent the earthen crust and improve the flow of oxygen to the roots.
- In addition, plant beds without mulch must be constantly weeded to remove weeds.
- Binding is required – it is needed so that all the bushes receive light from the sun in the right amount, as well as to reduce the risk of fungal diseases. Tying is carried out to horizontal or vertical trellises.
- It is also necessary to perform pinching (removal of leaves and ovaries).
Pinching improves the illumination of the culture, contributes to the optimal distribution of nutrients.
