With the onset of spring, a huge number of summer residents are thinking about what to plant in their backyard. In our country, such a vegetable as cucumber is in great demand. But, despite the fact that it has become quite widespread, it is a very capricious culture. Planting her is easy, but caring for her is difficult. And if the cucumbers start to hurt and dry out, it will be difficult to save them. Experienced summer residents know that even bright green lush thickets can literally turn into drying ugly loops in just a few days. How the seedlings of cucumbers are harvested will directly depend on what harvest you will receive during the season.
When to start planting seedlings?
This issue should be given special attention. So, when to plant cucumber seedlings? There are two extremes in this process. Some gardeners prefer not to get involved with germination and carry out planting directly in open ground. Seeds sprout very quickly and grow right before your eyes. This is especially noticeable in the early days.
Another disadvantage of growing seedlings isdifficulties when transplanting a large climbing plant into the ground. Culture is extremely difficult to tolerate such stress. Beginning summer residents often try to plant cucumbers for seedlings at the same time as other crops - peppers, tomatoes, eggplants. As a rule, this is the end of February - the beginning of March. As a result, they face the problem described above. Experts recommend planting seedlings three to four weeks before the intended transplant into open ground. In this case, the vegetables will form much faster than most.
Sowing seeds in open ground
This method has a number of disadvantages. First, in fact, you lose several weeks of time. This is important if you want to get an early harvest. In stores, vegetables can still be quite expensive, and when planting seedlings, you can get a crop of cucumbers in early summer. Plus, diseases and pests usually appear in the middle of summer, when the really dry days come. Thus, the best time to get young and sweet cucumbers is June. Secondly, when planting seedlings in the garden, you can immediately see how many full-fledged bushes you will have. In this case, you can easily distribute them at the right distance from each other. When sowing seeds, you run the risk of getting shoots that are too densely spaced to each other. They still have to be planted. The reverse problem is the gaps formed in the places where the seeds did not germinate.
Favorable conditions for growing seedlings
What is worthtake account? It is not enough to know when to plant cucumber seedlings. It is also necessary to create favorable conditions for development and growth. These conditions primarily include temperature, light, and humidity.
Let's take a closer look at this:
- Light mode. Proper seedlings of cucumbers should receive a lot of light. Think in advance where you can put boxes with seedlings to create the appropriate conditions. Strong good bushes will be formed only on the condition that they receive enough sunlight, starting from mid-April, when the daylight hours will already be long enough. Cucumbers in this regard create much less trouble than representatives of the nightshade family. During cloudy spring, when it is difficult to find a well-lit area, seedlings can be illuminated with artificial light sources. To illuminate seedlings, you need to use krypton or neon lamps. They carefully affect young leaves of seedlings, and are also relatively economical. On sale you can still find special phytolamps. Seedlings should not be constantly illuminated; the light can only be turned on during cloudy hours. How to understand that cucumber seedlings are not sufficiently lit? Plants are starting to grow. The stems are very thin and frail. Well-lit sprouts look he althy against their background.
- Humidity and temperature. Seedlings of cucumbers at home require special conditions. It is necessary to create optimal temperature conditions for plants. Cucumbers love warmth, but at too high degrees, seedlings canform weak. Of course, seedlings will appear faster in a warm room, but with regard to growing cucumbers, this is not always good. The culture is growing fast enough. Until the first cotyledon leaves appear, containers with seedlings must be kept at temperatures up to 30 degrees Celsius. When sprouts appear above the ground, the temperature can be significantly reduced. Growing cucumbers should be at 19-21 degrees during the day and 15-17 degrees above zero at night. Plants at higher temperatures will grow weak and diseased. If you are not using a greenhouse for growing, then it is best to keep the seedlings at a temperature corresponding to the lower values \u200b\u200bof this range. Plants must initially be prepared for harsh conditions.
- Humidity. One of the most important aspects, which includes planting cucumbers for seedlings. In most crops, it develops normally at a humidity of 60 to 70%. With cucumbers, things are a little more complicated. For them, the optimal level of humidity is from 70 to 80%. If the air at the same time is more damp, then the seedlings will turn out to be too tender. She can't handle dry days well. With a lack of moisture, the rate of ripening of the crop is markedly reduced. Also in this case, the seedlings may wither before planting in the soil.
Choose soil
How to plant seedlings of cucumbers? There are several varieties of soil that can be used for this purpose. The easiest way is to buy a special mixture for cucumbers.
Here are some of the options:
- "Gardener";
- Gardener;
- "Flora";
- "Special Primer 2";
- "Sturdy".
To improve the result, you can add sawdust to the soil in a ratio of 1:1 to the volume of the soil. Biohumus can also be added in the amount of half of this volume. The soil can be prepared with your own hands. But for this purpose, you will definitely need turf land. This is a real fertile soil, which is not inferior in quality to compost. It takes about three years to prepare. For this purpose, you will need an old perennial meadow with herbage. From it you need to cut about 10 cm of the top soil. It is shifted grass to grass every two layers, then it is spread with humus, sprinkled with ashes and watered with liquid manure throughout the summer. You can also additionally dig and cover with straw for the winter. A year later, the procedure should be repeated. Only after 12 months the land can be used.
To prepare the soil mixture you will need:
- peat and humus - in equal parts with the ground;
- packed sawdust;
- river sand.
In the event that you used fresh sawdust, they must first be scalded with boiling water. The resin contained in them is absolutely not needed for the soil. Some summer residents process the finished mixture with steam. However, it is undesirable to do this, because as a result, the natural microflora, which is necessary for plants in the same way as for any other living organisms, perishes. It is also recommended to add wood ash to the mixture (about 1 cup per 10 liters). Not preventalso a pinch of urea, superphosphate and nitrophoska.
Select seeds for sowing
What should I pay attention to? How to sow cucumbers for seedlings? First of all, you need to prepare planting material. Planting cucumber seeds requires knowledge of many subtleties and secrets. They can be stored for up to 10 years, subject to storage conditions (humidity 50-60%, temperature not higher than 15 degrees). This does not mean at all that from such sowing the harvest will be the same for all 10 years. The formula “fresh means best” does not always work in this case. Seeds collected last year will grow magnificently and form a large number of flowers. The only problem is that most of these buds are male. They do not form ties. They are absolutely not interesting from the point of view of the harvest. Seeds are characterized by optimal germination in the third and fourth years of storage. If the seeds were kept in a warm and dry place in winter, then tall plants will not grow from them. But they form a large number of ovaries. Seeds stored in the cold at high humidity will form long shoots. In this case, the ovaries are formed poorly.
Seed preparation
After you choose the planting material, you can begin to prepare it. To begin with, the seeds should be warmed up. There are several options. You can just leave the envelope with the seeds near the heat source. A stove or battery is good for this purpose. This procedure is especially necessary for seeds that have been stored for a long time oncold.
There is another option for seed preparation - accelerated. To do this, you need to withstand them for a couple of hours in hot water. To keep its temperature from falling, you can use a thermos. Seeds prepared in this way will show better productivity.
How to get rid of marriage
If you have decided when to plant cucumbers for seedlings, then before preparing, you must definitely sort out low-quality seed. For this purpose, the seeds will be placed in a weak saline solution or water. After that, you need to wait a while and select all that do not sink to the bottom. They won't rise.
Choosing varieties
What types of cucumbers are popular? Here are just a few of the options:
- Meringue;
- "Spring";
- "Hector F1";
- "Siberian garland";
- Crispin F1;
- Emerald Earrings;
- Taganay;
- "Real Colonel";
- "Finger";
- "Masha F1".
The material that has passed the test must be decontaminated. For this purpose, the seeds are dipped in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for half an hour. You can also use an infusion of garlic or aloe vera juice. After dressing, the seeds are washed and dried. But the processing is not limited to this. To improve the germination of seeds, you can hold them in a special growth-stimulating solution for 10-12 hours. Such a tool can be found in specialized stores. In extreme cases, an infusion of wood ash and melt water is suitable. The temperature of the liquid must be at least 28 degrees. It is better not to rush to stop soaking: wait until the seed hatches. At the end, it should form a root that looks like a small white worm. In this case, you can see which of the seeds are guaranteed to sprout.
The main thing is not to tighten the landing. Otherwise, you risk destroying the seeds of cucumbers, seedlings from which will not work. What other recommendations can be given to those who want to harvest a rich harvest? For best results, experienced gardeners advise hardening hatched seeds by placing them on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator in damp gauze. There is a more sophisticated option - to arrange contrast procedures. To do this, the seeds are alternately kept for several hours in the refrigerator during the day, then they are taken out of it. You can hold the hatched seeds for some time at low temperatures, so they can be preserved for some time in a canned form. This is especially useful if for some reason you cannot start landing right now.
Planting seedlings
How to approach this process correctly? When the seeds are ready, you can proceed. Previously prepared containers must be filled with soil mixture and poured with hot water. This further disinfects it. Wait a while for the soil to cool before planting. After the seeds have gone through all the necessary processing steps, you can carefully plant them in containers. If you did not wait for pecking, thenYou can put two seeds in a glass for seedlings. However, this option is still undesirable. The fact is that the root system of cucumbers is very delicate. In a subsequent transplant, if you try to separate one plant from another, you may damage them. It is for this reason that in the case of planting two seeds, it is better to remove the weaker one immediately after the sprout appears. Otherwise, you risk getting two weak plants. The word "remove" does not mean complete uprooting. Simply cut off the extra seedling with scissors.
Selecting containers
Growing seedlings of cucumbers - this is the topic that interests many gardeners with the beginning of the summer season. How to choose the right containers for planting? Since cucumbers have a weak root system, peat cups are ideal for them. Experienced summer residents who know how to transship without damaging the earthen ball can also use plastic utensils for this purpose. There is another interesting method: a bag of newspaper is placed in a container prepared for seedlings. After that, it is filled with soil, a seed is planted and cared for as usual. Once you decide when to plant the cucumber seedlings, all you have to do is carefully remove the bag of newspaper. It needs to be moved to the hole and simply covered with earth on top and sides. The newspaper in the process of watering will gradually decompose, and cucumbers can easily take root through soft paper. Experienced summer residents also recommend lubricating the edges of the pots with Asterisk balm. So cucumber seedlings will be protected from pests andpets.
Care
The quality of the crop directly depends on it. If you have chosen the right time to sow cucumber seedlings, then caring for it should not cause you much trouble. The main thing is to remember that it is not recommended to water the seedlings during the first weeks. It is enough just to spray the soil with a spray bottle so that it does not dry out.
Until the first shoots appear, cucumber seedlings should be covered with a film. It must be periodically removed so that the soil breathes. Seeds germinate very quickly. At a room temperature of + 25 … 28 degrees, leaves from seeds germinated on the surface will appear after three days.
Conclusion
In this review, we looked at how to grow seedlings of cucumbers, how to properly care for them, and also got acquainted with the recommendations of experienced gardeners. As it turned out, everything is not so difficult. If you follow all the recommendations above, you are guaranteed a good harvest.
