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Choose cucumber seeds, grow seedlings, wait for shoots and get a rich harvest. Everything is so simple and it seems that the happiness of a gardener is very close. All this is at first glance. Indeed, picking cucumber seeds is not that difficult.
The situation is a little more complicated with obtaining a harvest of the same cucumbers - you will have to put your hands and partly your head. Proper care of mature plants requires both knowledge and considerable effort. Pickling and pinching cucumbers, watering and feeding, controlling humidity and temperature are not simple agronomic terms. Behind them lies the work of the gardener and the desire to do everything right.
Grow seedlings and wait for shoots
But these are, indeed, worries for true professionals of cucumber art. Without strong and healthy seedlings, there is no early, rich harvest. Between him and good, even imported, cucumber seeds, an insurmountable swamp can arise from failures, wrong decisions and the desire to do everything anew. This article is to help those who want to overcome this swamp without loss.
Preparing cucumber seeds for planting
The off-season allowed the enthusiast gardener enough time to decide on the variety or varieties recommended for next year, cucumbers. Whether these seeds were received by mail, bought in a retail network or got it, with an opportunity, through friends, does not matter.
It is best to use them in the first half of the time allotted to them.
The main thing is that they must be full-bodied and healthy specimens. Some of them will be used for growing seedlings, and others for planting directly into the garden bed.
The simple preparation procedure looks simple:
- sorting of cucumber seeds... It is necessary to prepare a 5% composition of the usual salt, dilute 50 g of NaCl in 100 cm3 water at 200; the seeds of the cucumbers selected for sowing should be dipped into the prepared solution for 20-30 minutes, low-quality and inferior representatives of the planting material of cucumbers will float to the surface. Some of the seeds can also be discarded in an unsoaked state;
- seed soaking: in a liter of water, dissolve 1 ordinary, a teaspoon of a simple nitrophosphate and a table spoon, without a slide, a spoonful of stove, wood ash; place cucumber seeds in a solution for at least half a day;
- disinfecting heating of cucumber seeds... Place the seeds in a warm place (at t = 500) for exactly 3 days, increase the heating temperature by 200 and keep the cucumber seeds with it for another 24 hours;
- at home, heating cucumber seeds can be carried out at central heating radiators (at t = 25 - 270) within 30 days. Seeds heated in this way acquire a number of useful qualities: more female inflorescences appear in cucumbers, they begin to bear fruit earlier than ordinary cucumbers, there is no usual spread in time for the shoots of one sort of cucumber;
- hardening of seeds before planting... After the cucumber seeds have passed all the previous procedures, they must be placed in wet wipes for germination. The process takes place within 2 days at t = 20 - 250 - until the seeds swell well. After that, the cucumber seeds are placed in the refrigerator for the same period.
In the same way, the uniformity of the harvest of cucumbers will be influenced by the differentiated period of their planting.
It's time for sowing
All cucumber seeds have been fully prepared before planting. They all look vigorous, well-nourished and with well-hatched sprouts. It's time for the first landings. The terms are calculated in accordance with the conditions of their further habitat:
- if it is supposed to plant already strengthened seedlings immediately on open beds, then cucumber seedlings will spend almost 5 weeks at home. They need to wait out the period of possible frost. The soil temperature should be close to 180;
- if the planting of cucumbers will be carried out in greenhouse conditions, then the seeds can be sown 2 to 3 weeks earlier;
- if dry seeds directly into the ground, then home care is no longer required. Before carrying out the process of sowing cucumber seeds itself, it is necessary to once again check the readiness of all garden property for it. After all, it is considerable and rather troublesome;
- free up space on the windowsill or loggia for placing all the cups with crops;
- establish additional lighting, at the rate of 1 lamp of 60 watts. for 3 shoots;
- count the number of cups ready for sowing and compare them with the number of prepared seeds. The cups must have a volume of at least 400 ml. and a height close to 120 mm;
- calculate the required amount of soil for sowing seeds, comparing it with the number of cups;
- place the cups filled with soil in their intended place. Drizzle and allow to warm up.
Good for sowing cucumber seeds, the soil is a mixture of 2 parts of good sod land, 2 parts of ordinary humus and 1 part of fine sawdust. For 10 liters (bucket) of the mixture, you need to add, in a teaspoon, urea, garden superphosphate and potassium sulfate, which is customary for gardeners. It will be nice if there is also a glass of ordinary ash in the house.
We start sowing
In each glass, you must place 1 germinated seed at a 2-centimeter depth. After that, until the appearance of cucumber sprouts, maintain the temperature close to 270... And after that, the daytime temperature is reduced to 200, and night - up to 150 for 4 full days.
A preliminary culling of crops is carried out and after that 20-day-old seedlings can be planted either in a greenhouse or in open ground. For open ground - early June. If home growing is supposed, then the process of additional lighting comes out on top.
In the open ground or greenhouse, it is required to make holes in dimensions equal to the size of a glass with cucumber seedlings. Between holes - no more than 200 mm.
After that, all the holes are spilled with a weak solution of potassium permanganate - half a gram per bucket. For each hole, you must prepare 1 liter. a similar solution. Per day before landing cucumber sprouts must be well shed. This must be done for better extraction of a clod of earth with a sprout.
If the stalk is elongated, you should sprinkle it with ordinary peat or wet sawdust.
In the middle zone of the country, cucumbers begin to be planted in open ground, without shelter, no earlier than May 25, until early June. In this case, dry cucumber seeds are used.
Swollen seeds can be planted in the first decade of the first summer month. At this time, the soil temperature should not be less than 150 at the depth of the seedling cup (120 mm).
Cucumber seeds are sown to a depth of about 3 cm, as is the case with seedlings. The distance between seeds must be kept within 100 mm. The germination time of plantings is highly dependent on the air temperature;
- in hot, sunny weather and temperatures close to 250 sprouts will be in 3 days;
- when the temperature drops to 200 sprouts will slow down their development and appear no earlier than in a week;
- if the cold snap continues, you will have to look for ready-made seedlings on the market.
Seedling care
The frosts and the planting of cucumbers have passed, they are strong and healthy, and already require additional attention. It becomes cramped and uncomfortable for them in the garden. Lack of nutrition and micronutrients. The attentive gardener will not miss any of these moments. Any delay in leaving threatens with a decrease in the yield, its quality and delay in fruiting.
First of all, a large seedling family must be reduced. Thinning should be at the rate of 5 cucumbers per 1 m2 beds. After that, sprinkle the bed with a wet mixture of peat and sawdust. In this case, the beds must be absolutely clean from weeds.
Right now, for young seedlings of cucumbers, the first feeding is so important. It is much better if it is a foliar aqueous solution of urea. A similar solution should be prepared in this way - dilute 1 teaspoon of ordinary urea in a bucket of warm water. This is enough for 5 to 6 cucumbers.
Cucumbers really like it when they are looked after, they are attentive and courteous to them. They reciprocate love and a rich harvest. Although it is so natural.
