The cultivation of cucumbers in the open field has its own characteristics. Productivity largely depends on weather conditions, therefore, to protect the crops of cucumber bushes from harmful to the sun or from destructive frosts often becomes a daunting task. Caring for cucumbers in the open field is complicated by the development of numerous bacterial and infectious diseases that birds and insects carry.
Rules for growing cucumbers in the open ground
Sowing area preparation
Seat selection
Before you start sowing cucumber seeds or seedlings in open soil, you need to choose the right place, taking into account the requirements that a vegetable crop makes for cultivation.
Crop area for cucumbers should be located in a sunny place, protected from the winds, the surface of the soil layer is even.
Secondly, before developing land for planting cucumbers, it is recommended to analyze it for passage in groundwater layers and by type of acidity, since cucumber varieties do not grow well on acidified soil.
To bring the level of acidity in the soil layers to the desired indicator helps the introduction of limestone and dolomite flour.
Thirdly, with the exclusion of the consequences of risky farming, one should choose a place where predecessors that were not suitable for the type of feeding for cucumber crops had not grown before. Cucumbers grow well between planting tomatoes and beets.
Soil preparation
When a place for future plantings of cucumber culture has been selected, a number of land preparation activities are required. You can get a good crop only on non-alkaline, light and multi-fertile soils, so experienced gardeners begin to prepare a place for sowing in the spring from the fall:
- The sown area is cleaned of old vegetation, as well as garden debris, and experts in the cultivation of cucumbers on the open ground try to do this even before the onset of the autumn rains in order to prevent the appearance of rot from the remaining weed grass in damp land.
- After cleaning, the land is dug up, while fertilizing the soil with mineral compounds. The depth of digging the soil should be at least 15 cm. Many summer residents can not do without mulching.
- At the onset of spring, the soil layers loosen and remove the emerging young weeds, using a cultivator or a rake. Loosening helps preserve the moisture accumulated in the ground, necessary for future plantings. Immediately before planting cucumber seeds and seedlings, the soil is leveled. This is done so that the seeds easily sprout in the land without lumps, and seedlings take root in a short time, actively developing root shoots.
Seed material
The stage of preparation of the seed material is important, because it depends on the quality of the seeds whether the future cucumbers will take root in the open ground, how they will resist diseases and pests, and whether they can survive under changing climatic conditions.
Seeds for growing cucumbers in open soil are planted healthy, without external damage and with germination rates within 90%.
Rejection
Seeds of cucumber varieties suitable for planting in open soil are discarded and calibrated. This is easily done by soaking the material in a solution with sodium chloride, the concentration of which is 3%. The principle of this rejection method is to use seeds that have sunk to the bottom of the tank. All seed material that has surfaced on the surface of the liquid is removed as defective.
Treatment
Seeds selected as a result of rejection are recommended to be treated with preparations against infectious and bacterial diseases. As a suitable tool, gardeners often prefer to use the drug Fentyuram. It requires 0.4 g for every 5 kg of seed. After processing, the seeds are sent to the oven for approximately 1 hour for thermal hardening at a temperature of at least 70 ° C.
Outdoor landing
It is necessary to sow seeds in open ground after all frosts
You can plant cucumbers on an open garden bed both with seeds and seedlings already grown. At the same time, it is important to take into account the climate: early ripe varieties are suitable for cold zones, and late ripe f1 hybrids can be high-yielding in warm-type regions both when grown on an industrial scale and in a limited summer cottage space.
Seed way
Seeds are sown on a bed that is not protected from the effects of the environment when warm weather is finally set and the last morning frosts pass. The soil layer should warm up to a temperature of at least 15 ° C. The degree of warming of the earth depends on how likely the risk of decay of the seed material will be.
The planting start period varies depending on the region of cultivation of the vegetable crop. In areas with a cool climate, summer residents begin to plant hybrids f1 no earlier than the end of May, in some cases even at the beginning of June. Southern gardeners plant cucumber varieties already after half of April.
For every 1 square. m of cultivated area usually leaves about 50 g of dry cucumber seeds. If the seeds were germinated before planting, their number per square meter is halved.
Distance
The optimal distance between future shoots is from 12 cm to 15 cm. It is observed to prevent diseases that arise due to insufficient ventilation of young shoots. In addition, it will be easier to look after them.
Protection
At the initial stage, a vegetable crop planted by seed can be protected from the effects of the environment by mulching, which is recommended by organic matter (fermented in manure, peat, humus or compost), and also covered with polypropylene fiber.
Seedling method
Planting of grown cucumber seedlings begins only after the end of the period of morning frost. Planting seedlings that have accumulated a sufficient amount of green mass, at the same distance as the seeds are sown.
In the conditions of growing cucumbers in regions with cold weather, seedlings are often delayed for a long time in the apartment, as the ground is not warmed up to the required temperature and does not allow transplanting young plants into the street. Sometimes the first flowers begin to appear in the seedlings at this time. They are removed, because at this stage the plant requires a large amount of strength for the development of the aboveground and underground parts, and the flowering process itself prevents this.
Also, when planting seedlings in open soil, it slows down the process of plant adaptation to new conditions, flowering seedlings take root on the street much worse.
Growing seedlings
For the seedling method of planting cucumbers in open ground, you need to grow cucumber seedlings.
Fixtures
For the purpose of growing cucumber seedlings, seedling containers are used: containers filled with loose substrate enriched with nutritious mineral components.
Today, modern mobile seedlings with a heating function are gaining popularity.
Peat blocks with separate cells are also suitable for growing cucumber seedlings. Initially, they are soaked, and then cucumber seeds are planted in each compartment.
Plastic container for landing requires drainage
For planting seeds, simple plastic cups or other plastic containers are also suitable. An important condition for the use of such containers is the presence of drainage, which is laid from any absorbent material, for example, expanded clay, vermiculite. Some summer residents from the southern regions use husk from sunflower seeds as an absorbent.
Soil mix
When growing cucumber seedlings for subsequent transplantation into open soil, it is recommended to use land that is similar in characteristics to that in which a vegetable crop will subsequently be grown on the planted area. This will allow cucumber seedlings to quickly go through the process of adaptation on the street.
You can prepare homemade soil mixture by mixing turf, peat and sand in equal proportions.
Sowing
It is required to sow seeds prepared for planting to a depth of not more than 1-2 cm. The number of cucumber seeds per 1 container is 2 pieces.
Care
Subsequent care of germinating cucumber seeds involves maintaining the required temperature at a level not lower than 18-21 ° C until the first seedlings appear. With the first sprouts, containers with cucumber seedlings are transferred to a cooler place (15 ° C), which prevents unnecessary extension of young seedlings.
With sudden changes in temperature, the seedlings are often affected by the black leg and ascochitosis (black rot). Infected sprouts are immediately removed, and the remaining seedlings are treated with fungicides as a preventative measure.
Good lighting helps cucumber seedlings to form a strong root system, which is important for subsequent transplantation into open ground. Watering young seedlings is recommended with warm water. Seedlings are sprayed in the morning.
Landing care
When the first seedlings sprouted from the seeds or when the finished seedlings were transplanted into outdoor conditions, caring for cucumber plantings involves controlling the humidity, watering, providing food, protecting against pests and diseases, etc.
Humidity and watering
Humidity indicators depend on the stage of development of the plant:
- at the initial stages of the growing season, humidity is maintained at 60-70%,
- at the fruiting stage - about 80%,
- in the final stage of vegetation - 75-80%.
When growing cucumbers in open soil, the main watering of plants is reduced to rain. However, in the summer season additional moisture is required. Usually, watering is carried out no more often than once in 8-10 days, but in the warm season in dry weather, cucumber plantings need to be watered with a frequency of up to 1 time in 5 days.
Food
Mineral nutrition is introduced throughout the growing season. Initial top dressing occurs in the first 2-3 leaves and involves saturation of the soil with a nitrogen-containing component. Make it at the rate of 1.5 kg of mineral composition for every 10 square meters. m of sown area.
Some people use mullein, bread or herbal infusions to feed cucumber plantings, alternating minerals with organic matter.
Secondary dressing occurs at the stage of formation of the lateral processes and requires the addition of potassium along with nitrogen. Potash and nitrogen fertilizers are consumed at the rate of 2 kg of mineral complexes for every 8-10 square meters. m of sown area.
Pinching and pinching
The formation of cucumber bushes involves 2 main technologies:
- Topping. The formed lashes are run along the net or trellis, tying them to the support as the bush grows, then pinch the main stem as soon as it reaches the trellis base, removing the first 3 leaflets with sinuses and male empty flowers.
- Stepsoning. This procedure for removing extra lateral processes helps to get an earlier crop. However, many summer residents growing cucumbers in the open field with high fertility rates do not resort to pinching. If you want to experiment with the amount of yield, you can remove lateral shoots that do not bear fruit, growing after the first 4-5 leaves.
