Ready to plant cucumber seedlings at a permanent place, must have at least two true leaves, a strong stalk, saturated green leaves and developed roots.
In our climate, getting such seedlings is not easy, you need to start sowing seeds in mid-April. By the time of transplant, the plants should be about a month old.
But the sowing period for each region of the country is individual, when calculating it, you need to take into account such factors:
1. Real weather conditions in the region where the cucumbers will grow;
2. Consider the desired age of seedlings by the time of planting in a permanent place;
3. The time required for pre-sowing preparation of planting material and the period of germination of seeds;
4. Where will seedlings grow in the future - in the facilities of protected ground or in the open.
The middle lane of our country can surprise with spring surprises; return frosts can do harm to plants in late May or even in early June. Therefore, you can take these dates as a reference point. It is best to transplant seedlings of cucumbers aged 25-30 days.
Such seedlings are the strongest and hardiest with good roots, they can best withstand a transplant. With a sufficient amount of light, the plant stem will not stretch, which is the main disadvantage of seedlings obtained in the simplest conditions (without artificial lighting and industrial devices for seedling control).
Seed preparation will take a little time, the main operations before sowing are the destruction of the embryos of diseases, hardening and germination. After the necessary treatment, the germinated seeds will quickly produce strong and healthy seedlings, all operations will require a maximum of 5-7 days.
Seeds purchased from large producers are usually already treated with the necessary substances and have been pre-trained. Seed farms even warn that it is impossible to use water preparatory procedures for their products, which can flush nutrients from the surface of the seeds and reduce the protective properties of special impregnations.
If seedlings of cucumbers will grow in the greenhouse in the future, then they will plant seeds correctly two weeks earlier, this time will allow you to get plants that will give an early harvest.
After all the calculations, it is possible to determine the sowing time for cucumber seeds at the end of April. But to prepare seed (when sowing with your seeds) you need to start before April 23.
With seedlings in the greenhouse, seed preparation can be done a little earlier by about 15 days, as a result, the first work can begin in the first decade of April. These dates are great for planting cucumbers for seedlings in the suburbs.
Although this culture loves warmly, a normal crop can be obtained in regions with a cold climate. To do this, you need to choose a variety whose fruits ripen in July and August, at which time in the Urals and Siberia the most suitable weather for ripening vegetables.
When growing early varieties of cucumber in a household plot, do not forget that you will collect most of the cucumbers in a month, then the number of fruits will decrease sharply.
Cucumber Seed Selection
Cucumbers are a vegetable whose seeds, when properly stored, improve their quality over time. Using three-year-old seeds, the gardener can grow a bush with many female inflorescences, allowing you to get more full-fledged ovaries, plants with predominantly male flowering develop from freshly picked planting material. For a good harvest, the high pollination of the variety and the ripening time are still important.
Early parthenocarpic hybridsbegin to bear fruit after 45 days, this is a good option for areas with a short summer. In addition, such varieties of cucumber give a good harvest, even in a rainy year.
Varieties of medium ripeningbegin to produce crops at the age of 45-55 days. This is the most popular group of cucumber seeds, where each gardener will be able to choose an option suitable in his conditions. You can call such varieties as - "F1 Boy with a Finger", "F1 Saltan", "F1 Lord", "F1 Farmer".
If you have chosen for your beds bee pollinated variety, then it is necessary to sow around 10% of the seeds of parthenocarpic varieties, which will allow better pollination of the main plants.
How to grow cucumber seedlings
Seed preparation
Preparation of cucumber seeds begins, a week before sowing. It is necessary to carry out such work:
1. Sorting. Suspicious seeds must be removed - covered with mold and various spots, damaged, with noticeable defects. Strong seedlings will not grow from seeds of irregular shape;
2. Flotation (calibration). After sorting, the seeds must be placed in a solution of sodium chloride (dissolved in 1 liter of water 20 g of salt) and hold in it for 2-3 minutes. It is advisable to mix the solution well at this time, this will accelerate the hydration of the seeds. The seeds that remain on the surface of the solution must be discarded, the seeds that have sunk to the bottom are washed from the salt and further prepared for sowing;
3. Disinfection. The easiest way to destroy the infection on the seeds, dropping them for 30 minutes in a solution of potassium permanganate;
4. Quenching. Seeds are kept for 1-2 days on the lower shelf of the refrigerator (at a temperature of 2 degrees Celsius), if the time has not come for germination, then you can keep the seeds up to 5 days;
5. Germination. Some gardeners do not germinate the seeds of cucumbers, as they are afraid of injuring tender seedlings when planting, others are in a hurry to get the first shoots and germinate them, despite the risk.
While the seeds undergo pre-sowing preparation, you need to prepare a soil mixture for them.
How to properly prepare the soil for growing cucumber seedlings?
Demanding, cucumber and to the soil presents its whims. Mix the soil for this crop on the basis of organic components.
If there is little organics, the seedlings will delay their development. Horse peat should occupy half of the mixture, the remaining half should be divided with good humus 20% and overripe compost 30%. The introduction of components that structure the soil will provide the root system with the necessary air.
For this, you can use rotted sawdust, in which wood ash has been added, supplying the substrate with potassium and phosphorus. It will be useful to have a handful of dolomite flour, which reduces the acidity of the soil.
If you do not have the components of the soil mixture prepared since the fall, you can use the purchased soil, for example, "Rodnichok".
How to choose the right container for growing seedlings of cucumbers
For a cucumber, transplanting to a permanent place is a critical moment, this culture does not tolerate a careless attitude to its roots. And this must be taken into account when choosing a container in which seedlings will grow. It’s good to use peat pots for this.
They will allow you to plant seedlings on the bed without touching the roots. But during use it is advisable to wrap them with plastic wrap, this will protect the soil in the pots from a lack of moisture. The material from which peat cups are made absorbs water, taking it from the soil. This precaution will also not be superfluous if you have to leave seedlings without control for a couple of days.
The use of peat tablets for growing seedlings will require transplantation of grown plants, as they will not have enough nutrition area. But the transplant will go painlessly for cucumbers, as the seedlings will be transplanted along with peat tablets.
When and how to plant cucumber seeds for seedlings
If your site has a greenhouse, then you can sow the seeds of cucumbers from February to March. If you plan to grow cucumbers in the open ground, then you need to sow them for seedlings a month before transplanting to the garden. For example, transplanting seedlings is possible in mid-May, which means that the seeds of cucumbers must be sown no later than the second decade of May.
Tanks for seedlings are filled with soil at 2/3 of the height, after laying drainage on the bottom, the pots are placed on a pallet and watered. The containers are left for a short time for the maturation of the soil (the soil should only be moist, should crumble and not stick).
In the center of the pot in the soil, make a hole 0.5-1.0 cm deep, 2 seeds are laid in it, sprinkled with soil mixture. Compact a little and moisturize with a spray bottle and cover with a film. Every day it is necessary to open the film to let fresh air to the seeds. The temperature before seed germination should be kept at 26-28 degrees. After 2-3 days, seedlings appear, of which one is the most developed and strong. Others are removed by pinching at soil level.
Care for seedlings of cucumbers
The lack of light for young plants in spring should be compensated for by additional illumination. Young bushes of cucumber are unusually sensitive to a lack of light, and too active an increase in the length of the submuscular knee will delay full development. Daylight lamps or phytolamps are able to replace seedlings with deficient sunlight. They must be installed directly above the seedlings, at first they need to be highlighted 14-16 hours a day. The mirrors fixed on the sides of the drawers with seedlings will help in this, they will reflect street light onto the plants.
It is necessary to constantly monitor the state of the soil mixture in pots. You need to water the seedlings after the top layer of the soil has dried, only the settled water is used for watering. You need to carefully water the seedlings, first you can use a tablespoon for this. A small stream of water will not be able to wash the weak root system, but if such a nuisance happens, you need to immediately sprinkle bare roots on the soil.
Cucumber seedlings must be regularly fed, seedlings quickly develop and in a short time will use up fertilizers applied to the soil before planting. It is best not to experiment, but to use store mixes for top dressing. It must be watered in advance; fertilizers cannot be applied on dry soil.
Top dressing is performed twice a month, the first time it is necessary to do this when the seedlings form a second real leaf. The second time they feed in 12-14 days after the first feeding almost before transplanting seedlings to a permanent place.
General tips for growing and caring for seedlings
1. The soil for seedlings should be neutral acidity and fertile;
2. It is necessary to prepare the soil in advance, not less than 2 days before sowing;
3. Tanks for seedlings a day before sowing seeds are filled with soil and treated with a solution of potassium permanganate;
4. Do not sow fresh seeds, the best result can be obtained if you use seed 2-3 years ago;
5. Sowing is carried out to a depth of 1-1.5 cm;
6. For germination, the best indoor temperature is 25 degrees Celsius;
7. Seeds germinate in 2-5 days;
8. Drafts are very harmful to cucumber seedlings;
9. Water the plants, it is necessary to prevent stagnation of water;
10. With a short daylight, seedlings need to be highlighted 12-16 hours a day;
11. To grow strong seedlings, you need to feed her.
A seedling ready for transplanting to a permanent place should have 5-7 true leaves, small internodes and powerful roots. Such seedlings can quickly bear the stress received during transplantation and begin to develop rapidly.
How to grow cucumber seedlings in a greenhouse
Before planting cucumbers in a greenhouse, you need to think about the soil. Soil for protected structures must necessarily possess the following basic properties:
• The soil must have high absorption and throughput;
• The soil in the greenhouse must be fertile.
For planting cucumbers, a mixture of turf soil and fresh humus is best suited. You can use the substrate in the composition, which includes soddy soil 20%. Horse peat 50%, fresh humus 30%. It is good to introduce a small amount of sawdust into the soil.
Soil preparation for the greenhouse:
First, plant debris is removed in the greenhouse and soil is disinfected. To grow cucumbers, like other vegetables, it is necessary to prepare an even base and break the beds.
Planting seedlings begins when the seedlings are 25-30 days old, plants are placed in a checkerboard pattern with a distance between the bushes of at least 50 cm. If you have weak cucumber seedlings, then before transplanting it must be fed with mineral fertilizer. For this, 10 g of potassium chloride, 12 g of ammonium nitrate and 40 g of superphosphate are diluted in 10 l of water.
When using greenhouses with lighting and heating, seedlings of cucumbers can be planted in the greenhouse earlier:
1. In winter greenhouses with heating, seedlings can be planted in February;
2. In seasonal greenhouses with heating, seedlings can be planted in the first decade of April;
3. In seasonal greenhouses without heating, seedlings can be planted in late April or early May.
Subsequent care of the seedlings comes down to the formation of plants, top dressing at the right time, and regular watering. Greenhouse varieties, cucumbers form the same. When the stem of the plant reaches the trellis and becomes about 30 cm higher than it, you need to pinch (pinch) the growth point, 2-3 lower shoots also blind (remove the growth point), preventing the formation of ovaries. Five shoots growing above, pincer over the first leaf, shoots forming above can be shortened over 2 and 3 leaves.
How to sow cucumbers in the ground
You can grow bushes of cucumbers by sowing seeds or you can prepare seedlings in advance. In any case, planting seeds or planting seedlings is necessary after the soil has warmed up. For example, in the middle zone of our country, this period begins in the last decade of May or in early June.
Seed preparation
Seeds for sowing need to be selected large and full, for this they are calibrated or selected using flotation (they are filled with clean water and held for 20 minutes, low-quality seeds will float to the surface, and good ones will sink to the bottom). Selected planting material is sown on a bed without germination or previously kept in wet peat or sawdust for two days.
Landing pattern
Cucumber is a plant that loves heat very much, the seeds germinate quickly when the soil is heated to 12-13 degrees. They are sown to a depth of 2 cm, when sowing, it must be borne in mind that under favorable conditions bushes can grow long lashes, for this reason, growing them without trellis, you can not plant bushes densely. With ordinary sowing, plants are placed at intervals in a row of 15 cm, between the individual rows leave a free space of 60 cm.
You can get a good crop of cucumbers on almost any fertilized, breathable soil, but humus rich, light soil is best suited for them. Ideally, a plot is selected on which pumpkin pumpkins (squash, squash, squash, cucumbers) did not grow for 2-3 years. This will help protect plants from diseases, you can return the cucumbers to their original place after 5 years. Cucumbers respond well to organics added both during pre-sowing application and in top dressing.
The beds for sowing must be prepared in advance, in the autumn, the plot for the beds is dug up onto the bayonet shovels, after scattering humus or manure 1 bucket per m2 in the area. Before digging to the site you need to make mineral fertilizers - 1 cup of wood ash or dolomite flour and 2 tbsp.superphosphate per 1 m2. In the spring, two weeks before planting, the beds additionally fertilize 1 glass of ash, a bucket of peat, rotted sawdust and dung humus per 1 m2, after which they dig everything up on a bayonet shovel.
Sowing cucumbers should be done so that plants avoid damage by the last frost. Dry seeds can be sown a little earlier, since previously germinated seeds in cold soil can begin to rot.
Cucumber care: what, when and how
The main operations to care for this crop consist in regular watering (cucumbers love moisture), cultivating and timely weed removal. You need to feed the plants every 10 days - in a bucket of water, 20 g of ammonium nitrate and urea are diluted, and 1 liter of mullein is added. After flowering begins, the bushes are fed with the same solution, adding 40 g of potassium salt and superphosphate (when the cucumbers begin to grow, the dose is increased to 50-60 g). When feeding on 4 plants spend 1 liter of solution.
It is best to feed the plants in the evening, you can not allow the fertilizer solution to get on the green mass in sunny time, this can cause leaf burns. Watering plants only needs to be preheated with water, it is convenient to do this if you keep a container near the cucumber beds in a sunny place that you can fill with water in the evening. But do not overdo it with watering, otherwise instead of a rich harvest on plants new lashes will begin to grow.
In extreme heat, watering plants alone is not enough, and the leaves on the bushes wither. In this situation, it is necessary to pour cucumbers several times with water from the hose. You need to spray it at 17-18 hours, very quickly, so the water will wash dust off the leaves, lower the temperature, increase air humidity, activate photosynthesis.
Withered leaves on the bushes of cucumber, signal a lack of moisture. If the soil on the bed is very dry, it must be moistened in 2-3 steps - immediately moisten it slightly (0.5 buckets of water per 1 m2), and a little later pour another 1 bucket of water per 1 m2 of the area of the bed.
