Wishing to get a crop of cucumbers to fame, many summer residents are thinking about growing this plant in a greenhouse. With this method, fruiting is much higher than in open ground. However, in order to get a big harvest, you need to know how to choose the right varieties and what should be the care of cucumbers in a greenhouse.
Choice variety
Start the implementation of the plan for growing cucumbers in the greenhouse should be with the choice of seeds. To get a big harvest, you must carefully read the information on the package. In it, producers indicate what type the variety belongs to and whether it is suitable for growing in a greenhouse. But there is no mention of caring for cucumbers in the greenhouse, because not every summer resident will plant plants under cover.
So, cucumber varieties are divided into two groups: self-pollinated and bee-pollinated. In greenhouses, it is recommended to plant self-pollinated plants. They don't need insects to get a crop. Otherwise, bees and hornets will have to be lured into the greenhouse so that they carry out pollination, orpollinate by hand, armed with a brush and a magnifying glass.
When choosing a variety, the following parameters must be taken into account:
- Sowing dates. If you plan to get an early harvest, then you should give preference to shade-tolerant varieties. Breeders have developed varieties that can produce a good harvest in extreme conditions. For example, the April variety, which is ideal for harvesting in April-May.
- Ripening terms. Manufacturers indicate the terms of fruit ripening on the packages. Usually, all varieties ripen on the fortieth day, but there are also early-ripening ones that yield a crop on the 33rd day, and there are late cucumbers, the first harvest from which is removed on the 55th day.
- Disease resistance. In the greenhouse, plants are exposed to a wide variety of diseases, so it is important to choose resistant varieties. So you can reduce the frequency of crop treatments with various fungicides.
- Plant growth. Some varieties have no growth restrictions, but there are those that form lashes themselves and limit their growth.
After choosing the seeds, they are prepared and then sown. Varieties such as Athlete, Grenade, White Angel, Herman, Crystal, Regatta, Hercules, Garland, Emelya, Annushka, Dynamite are suitable for the greenhouse. Among these varieties there are self-pollinated and bee-pollinated plants.
Seed preparation and sowing
Caring for cucumbers in a greenhouse begins with proper seed preparation. First, they need to be processed. Each summer resident has his own secret of processing plant seeds: someone does it using a solutionpotassium permanganate, and someone uses boric acid. In any of the solutions, the seeds are soaked for a couple of hours, after which they are thoroughly washed under running water. Then they are sown for seedlings in a container or immediately sown in the ground.
Soil preparation
While the seedlings grow, you should take care of the soil. It must be of high quality and have the following properties:
- Have a medium pH.
- Have excellent bandwidth.
- Excellent moisture absorption.
- Be highly fertile.
Experts say that the best mixture is fresh humus and soddy soil, to which peat and fertilizers are added. On farms, when growing cucumbers, sawdust of coniferous trees is added to the soil. They reduce production costs while increasing yields.
Seedlings
To get a high yield in a greenhouse, you must first grow seedlings. Experienced gardeners recommend growing a plant in seedlings in order to get a harvest earlier.
Cucumber seedlings are placed in two rows. This method simplifies the care of cucumbers in the greenhouse. To get a large harvest, it is necessary to prepare the holes in advance. They must be at least fifteen centimeters deep. Fertilizer is placed in each hole, five grams of superphosphate and potassium, nitrogen. Be sure to add 500 grams of compost, peat. Everything is mixed inside the hole.
To care for seedlings of cucumbers in the greenhouse was correct, it is necessaryinstall trellises or think about how you will tie them up. The twine is fixed immediately when planting seedlings. So how to grow cucumbers in a greenhouse, what should be their care?
Ready thirty-day seedlings are planted in a greenhouse at a distance of at least half a meter between rows, and between plants - twenty centimeters. During planting, it will be convenient to make small holes around crops: this way you can reduce water consumption when watering with a watering can.
After planting, the beds are mulched. This helps prevent crusting of the soil and reduce moisture evaporation.
Important rules
Proper care of cucumbers in a polycarbonate greenhouse will allow you to get a high yield of greens. You should start by avoiding sudden temperature fluctuations day and night, and also try to maintain the same level of humidity. Do not water cucumbers with cold water and allow an excess of moisture.
Feeding
Plants are fed only three weeks after planting. To do this, use a nutrient mixture of nitrogenous and phosphorus-potassium fertilizers, taken in equal parts. Plants are watered with this composition once a month and once a month they are fed with complex fertilizer. It is best to use liquid biohumus. It contains all the nutrients and trace elements necessary for the plant.
Loosening and microclimate
If the plants are not mulched, then the earth must be loosened. This is an important rule for caring for seedlings of cucumbers in a greenhouse. While the plants are small, watering and loosening alternate: once watered, the next day they loosened the soil.
Humid conditions are created in the polycarbonate greenhouse. So that the plant does not rot and other diseases do not appear, the greenhouse must be ventilated, but without drafts. To do this, open either one window, or the entire door.
Irrigation
When growing cucumbers, care involves not only loosening and creating the right microclimate, but also ensuring proper watering. According to the results of the analysis of the composition of the greenery itself, it contains almost 97% of water, therefore, the plant must be watered regularly.
The first watering of seedlings is carried out three days after planting the seedlings. Water is poured a little, and only on the root zone. This helps stimulate root growth. If the plant is flooded, the roots will rot.
Then, during growth and flowering, the crop is watered once a week. If suddenly the soil dries out faster, then watering becomes more frequent. During the period of pouring cucumbers, the culture is watered daily until the entire crop is harvested.
Care for growing cucumbers involves observing the following watering rules:
- You can not pour water from a watering can on the leaves of the plant. In closed ground there is no good ventilation, and the plant simply begins to die. In the greenhouse, watering is carried out under the root, using warm settled water.
- Do not water during the day. During watering, water droplets may form on the leaves. Even if watering is done at the root, there will still be moisture on the leaves. It happensdue to its increased release with vapors: rising up, the vapors settle as dew drops on the leaves of the plant. When watering during the day, the plant gets sunburn.
- Irrigation is done with warm water only. Cucumbers are very thermophilic plants. When watered with cold water, they begin to shed their ovaries. The ideal option would be to collect water in containers, and after the water has infused and becomes the same temperature as the environment, it is used for its intended purpose.
- Cucumbers love high levels of moisture. If there is dry air in the greenhouse or a lack of moisture, then they put a bucket of water in it.
Tie plants
Cucumber care involves constant tying up of lashes. This procedure is performed as follows: a free loop is made around the plant. It should not crush the stem, as it will increase in thickness. Then several times the whip is twisted around the twine.
The method of tying the twine to the trellis depends on how the plant will be formed. If you plan to lead one whip, then one twine is lowered. If two lashes are left on the culture, then the rope is tied in the shape of the letter “V”. Some gardeners use trellis mesh. With this option, the plant is not tied up: it itself will cling to the cells with its antennae, climbing higher and higher. Although some bushes will have to be helped: they are tied to the net, so that later the plant itself can grow up. When deviating to the side, the whip is redirected.
Shaping a bush
Proper care and formation of cucumber are two inseparable concepts. Beginning vegetable growers can see a picture of the jungle in the greenhouse, where cucumbers crawl along the walls, along the ground. This is the result of untimely formation.
Cucumber is one of the simplest tropical vines, from where it was once brought to us. Density is detrimental to a plant: it receives less light, it lacks air, humidity rises, and various diseases develop. To avoid all this, you need to learn how to properly form a bush.
During care, cucumber bushes should be formed as follows:
- All shoots and buds are removed from the axils of the first three true leaves. Thus, the plant is stimulated for further development. It begins to actively grow, develop, lay many ovaries. If, however, the ovary and shoots are left, then the culture will stop growing, and will begin to put all its strength into the development of this crop.
- All side shoots are removed from the ground to a height of half a meter. Then, at a height of half a meter to one and a half meters, only one leaf is left on the side shoots.
- As the lash grows, pinch all side shoots onto one leaf.
During the formation of a cucumber in a polycarbonate greenhouse during care, it is important to remove yellowed, diseased leaves. All shaping procedures are carried out in the morning so that the wounds can dry out and heal by evening.
There are varieties of cucumbers in which the formation is carried out to a minimum, and there are those that do not need pinching at all.
Pollination
If you buy self-pollinated seeds, then such plants will set greens themselves. But for those pollinated in the greenhouse, you will have to lure insects that will pollinate them. To lure bees into the greenhouse is simple: for this you need sweetness, but not just what kind. Honey or jam is ideal for luring. Sweetness is placed in a container and diluted with water. The finished mixture is placed in a greenhouse, a window or door is opened.
If the bees do not fly into the greenhouse, you will have to work as a pollinator yourself. To do this, a brush is taken and pollen is collected from male plants and transferred to female plants. It is easy to distinguish these flowers: the male ones do not have greenery, while the female ones have a thickening at the base of the flower. Pollination is carried out in the early morning, as soon as the flowers open.
Problems of growing cucumbers
When growing a crop indoors, you can encounter a variety of problems. In hot weather, with a lack of air, the lower leaves dry up at the lashes. In this situation, it is necessary to remove all damaged leaves, but not in a day. The whip itself is removed from the trellis and laid in a ring on the ground, lightly pressed. New roots will begin to form on it, and new shoots will begin to grow from the top.
In some cases, the plant may not set fruit. This happens for various reasons: due to lack of pollination, too hot climate. The absence of an ovary may indicate a lack of nutrition for cucumbers in a greenhouse. Care and feeding help fix this.
Cucumbers can be bitter. Usually thisseen in the absence of moisture. To get rid of bitterness, plants begin to water abundantly. Bitterness can also be influenced by the variety and harvest period. Summer residents recommend collecting greens in 1-2 days. If you overexpose the vegetable on the whip, then it begins to gain bitterness.
Diseases of cucumbers
Plants can get sick. Most often, cucumbers are infected with peronosporosis, powdery mildew. Aphids love this culture. To fight diseases and pests, it is necessary to carry out periodic treatments of plantings with the use of fungicides. After processing the plants, the greenhouse is ventilated.
For pest control, drugs such as Sherpa, Mitak, BI-25, Zolon, Aktara, Fufonon and others are used. Each summer resident has his own remedy. Some use only folk remedies for pest control. These can be herbal tinctures, ashes and other remedies.
Gardeners will benefit from watching the video below.
Cucumbers are among the most unpretentious garden plants. To get stable large yields, it is necessary to water the bushes in a timely manner and apply fertilizers. Drip irrigation can be installed in the greenhouse: it is ideal for growing cucumbers and can prevent the soil from drying out. This method of watering helps to keep the humidity level inside the greenhouse at the same level, without sudden fluctuations.
