By planting cucumbers in his area, every gardener wants to achieve a high yield of the plant. But sometimes it happens that the seeds do not germinate. At this point, it is important to understand what is the reason for the lack of young shoots, and try to correct the situation.
Influencing factors
First you need to understand what factors affect the germination of seeds.
- Drop off time. Cucumbers should be planted in the soil only after it warms up well. Its temperature should be within 15 degrees. If the soil temperature is below 8-10 degrees, planting cucumbers should be delayed.
- Climate. In the northern regions, where the weather is changeable, and there are often frosts in spring, it is not recommended to plant cucumber seeds in open ground. It is best to use a greenhouse or greenhouse.
- Soil quality. Cucumber seeds do not tolerate heavy soil. They do not grow well in too dry soil. It is best to choose areas with light, loose soils for planting. The acidity of the soil before sowing is recommended to be normalized using lime mortar.
- Crop rotation. Cucumbers are not recommended to be planted in one place for several years in a row. In addition, you should not place a cucumber bed in the area where pumpkin crops grew before.
In good conditions, cucumbers germinate within a few days after sowing. If sprouts do not appear on the site after one and a half to two weeks, you should not hope for a miracle. The seeds will have to be resown. But this time everything will need to be done, clearly following all the rules.
Causes and solutions
There are several main reasons why cucumbers do not appear in the garden immediately after planting.
Incorrect preparation of planting material
Improper seed preparation can lead to loss of germination. Most often, gardeners harm them in the process of soaking. Using too saturated a solution causes the seeds to get burned. Another mistake that many people make is planting wet seeds in the ground. This is not worth doing. Plants need time to dry.. Otherwise, the plants will not sprout, or sprouts will appear only after 10-15 days.
Store seeds before planting in a dry and well-ventilated place. If the material is stored in a room with high humidity, it may deteriorate quickly. Self-collected seeds must be thoroughly dried and stored in tightly closed paper bags.
It is not recommended to use too old seeds for planting on the site. If the planting material was collected 8-10 years ago, it is worth getting rid of it. Such seeds usually do not germinate.
Wrong fit
When planting seeds both in open ground and in a greenhouse or greenhouse, it is important not to place them too deep in the ground. The depth of the landing holes should be no more than 2 centimeters. Otherwise, it will be very difficult for cucumbers to germinate. In addition, they can completely rot in the ground.
In order for cucumbers to sprout quickly, it is important to loosen the soil well before planting them. The holes in which the seeds were placed should not be trampled down. They only need to be sprinkled with a thin layer of fertile soil. It is important to ensure that the seeds do not remain on the surface.
Lack of watering
In some cases, cucumbers do not germinate due to being in too dry soil. To prevent this from happening, the site must be well watered before planting the seeds. Use warm water for this. Cold can lower the temperature of the soil too much and lead to the death of planting material.
Hurts cucumbers and too high soil moisture. Excess moisture leads to the fact that mold appears on the seeds.
Use of polyethylene film
Some gardeners, after planting seeds in the soil, cover future seedlings with plastic wrap. They do this in order to protect her from the cold. But this only harms the cucumbers. If the beds are hermetically sealed, the seed material will begin to rot. Over time, he may die.
To prevent this from happening, it is better to cover the plants with newspaper. It will protect the seeds from temperature extremes and from direct sunlight. If it was decided to use a plastic film, several small holes must be made in it. If you do everything right, the seeds will develop quickly, getting enough air.
Pest activity
There are many pests that want to eat young seeds. Most often they do it ants or bears. To prevent this from happening, the site needs to be dug up in the fall. In the spring, just before sowing, the soil is treated with insecticides.
Ignorance of the characteristics of the selected variety
Now there are a large number of varieties of cucumbers. All of them have their own characteristics. Seeds of some cucumber varieties germinate more slowly than others and require special care. If it is not provided, they will either not germinate at all, or they will be too weak and quickly die. To prevent this from happening, when planting cucumbers, you need to study in advance all the information about the selected plants.
Germination promotion
To increase the germination of cucumbers, it is necessary to properly process the seeds before planting. This process consists of several main steps.
- Calibration. First you need to choose healthy seeds that are ideal for planting. To do this, dissolve a teaspoon of ordinary salt in a glass of water. Next, you need to place the seeds there. Those that float to the surface must be thrown away immediately. If more than half of the seeds are empty, the gardener should get rid of the rest of the planting material. Most likely, they also will not be able to germinate or will be too weak. After this treatment, the seed material must be washed in clean warm water.
- Warming up. After calibration, the seeds need to be warmed up by placing them on the battery. This will help disinfect the seed and also make it more drought tolerant. The seeds need to be warmed up for several days. In order not to wait so long, they can also be poured with hot water and left in this form for a couple of hours. This must be done immediately before landing.
- Hardening. After that, the seeds must be carefully wrapped in a piece of damp cloth and placed in the refrigerator overnight. Then they must be taken out of it and left in a warm place for the whole day. This procedure must be repeated three times. Hardening seeds makes them more resistant to temperature changes.
- Zamachivanie. The prepared seed should be placed in a container with a growth stimulator. Some gardeners prefer to do things differently. They spread the seeds between two layers of well-moistened gauze. In this case, they have to be constantly additionally moistened. Germinated seeds can be immediately planted in the soil.
Another great way to increase the germination of cucumbers is to place 4-5 seeds in one hole at once. If they all germinate, some of the young sprouts can be transplanted to another place. This is usually done a week after planting cucumbers. At the same time, too weak shoots are removed. In one hole it is worth leaving no more than three strong sprouts.
When buying seeds in a store, you should pay attention to the fact that some of them do not need pre-sowing preparation. They are processed even before being placed in bags.
If you are attentive to the choice of seeds and properly care for the beds in the first weeks after they are planted, cucumbers will develop well and bear fruit.
