Cucumbers are one of the most common crops that many vegetable growers grow in their gardens. Before growing this vegetable, you need to decide on the most suitable variety of cucumbers. Currently, German f1 cucumbers are popular. This variety stands out among the rest with its excellent taste and good yield.
Description
Before planting seeds, it is recommended to familiarize yourself with the characteristics of such cucumbers. The characteristic with a description of the Herman f1 cucumber will help you find out the basic information.
Such cucumbers were bred relatively recently - at the beginning of 2001. During their existence, they have attracted the attention of not only experienced gardeners, but also beginners who have recently started growing cucumbers. The Herman f1 cucumber variety can be classified as a universal cucumber species, as they grow without problems in greenhouses and outdoors. The main advantages of the variety include its resistance to mosaic, cladosporiosis and powdery mildew.
However, to protect against other common diseases, you will have to carry out preventive work.
During cultivation, small dark green leaves appear on the bushes. They densely cover the bushes, so it is recommended to break them out periodically so that the cucumbers are not constantly in the shade. The fruits of the variety are cylindrical in shape and are also dark green. On their skin you can notice small light stripes and slight spotting. The sizes of Herman cucumbers are not very large - they grow up to 7-8 cm in length. However, in greenhouses you can also find larger fruits more than 10 cm long.
Cucumber Herman f1 has good taste. There is absolutely no bitterness in its pulp. This feature allows them to be used when preparing winter pickles or fresh vegetable salads. The advantages of fruits include the duration of their storage. When stored for several months, the skin of German cucumbers does not turn yellow. This allows the harvested crop to be transported over fairly long distances.
Sowing seeds
After reading the description of the German cucumber variety, you can start planting them. Before planting cucumbers in open ground, it is necessary to start growing seedlings for further transplantation.Planting of seeds should be carried out in the first half of the month, so that by the end of spring, strong seedlings can be planted on the site.
Preparing seeds
Planting German cucumber seeds without prior preparation is quite dangerous, since untreated planting material can be a carrier of various infections. To prevent seedlings from suffering from various diseases in the future, it is recommended to disinfect the seeds in advance. Often, a weak manganese solution is used for this, prepared from 3-5 grams of potassium permanganate and one liter of water. All this is thoroughly stirred and infused for 5 minutes. Then all the seeds are placed in the prepared solution for half an hour.
Soil preparation
To plant German cucumber seeds, it is recommended to use porous soil, as it allows oxygen and moisture to pass through quite well. Before using soil for planting cucumbers, you should check its acidity. The acidity level should not be higher than 6-7 pH. The soil must contain a sufficient amount of nutrients. If there are too few of them, then you will have to add wood ash with humus and peat to the ground yourself.
Landing
Prepared seeds can be planted in small peat or plastic pots. To do this, each container is filled in advance with prepared soil. After this, small holes 2-3 mm deep are made in the pots. When all the seeds are planted, all pots with cucumbers are covered with polyethylene and transferred to a room with a temperature of 20-25 degrees.
The first shoots should appear a week after planting the seeds.
Planting seedlings
When the German cucumber seeds germinate well and the seedlings become stronger, you can start replanting them.
Site preparation
Before planting cucumbers and starting to grow them in a greenhouse or outside, you should prepare the site. It is recommended to carry out preparatory work in mid-autumn. It is during this period that all necessary mineral fertilizers must be added to the soil. In autumn, the area is sprinkled with cement dust, ash, chalk or slaked lime.
The second stage of preparation takes place in the spring, when the soil is already sufficiently warmed up. At the beginning of March, the entire area is dug up to a depth of about 30 cm. After this, humus and compost are added to the top layer of soil. You can also add some sawdust, fallen leaves and dried grass to the soil.
Transfer
The planting scheme for German cucumbers is quite simple and even people without experience can transplant seedlings on their own. First you should do the preliminary preparation of the beds. To do this, a trench is created on the site, into which compost with humus should be added. Fertilizers are thoroughly mixed with the soil, after which you can begin creating the next bed.
When all the beds on the site are prepared, you need to remove the seedlings from the containers for replanting. This is done very carefully so as not to accidentally damage the young seedlings. All seedlings are taken out of the pots along with the soil. They need to be planted at such a distance that in the future they will not greatly shade each other. It is possible to grow a good harvest only if the bushes are planted at a distance of 60-70 cm. After planting all the seedlings, the beds must be moistened with warm water and the soil compacted slightly with your hands.
Care
When growing German cucumbers, it is necessary to properly care for them. After all, the quality of the harvested cucumbers largely depends on care.
How to form a bush
Every vegetable grower forms cucumber bushes during their cultivation, since proper formation of cucumbers will allow in the future to obtain very large and juicy fruits.
To form cucumbers, you should remove all side shoots and female flowers in the axils of the first three leaves. If you do not monitor the development of new shoots, they will begin to actively grow and consume too many nutrients. During pinching, you can leave several shoots located in the axils of the upper leaves.
Watering
However, not only the formation of a cucumber bush affects the amount of harvest. One of the conditions for improving productivity is proper watering. It is necessary to pour water into the holes between the rows. This will keep the soil moist at all times. It is recommended to water in the evening or early morning, before the sun rises. For this, only warm liquid is used.
Therefore, before watering, it should be warmed up a little on a gas stove or heated in the sun during the day.
It is not recommended to overfill cucumber bushes with water, as due to the large amount of moisture, cucumbers may develop various diseases. One liter of water is consumed per bush.
Top dressing
Growing German cucumbers should be accompanied by regular fertilizing of the soil with fertilizers. You should start doing this when 2-4 true leaves have formed on each cucumber bush. For the bushes to fully develop, potassium, phosphorus and a little nitrogen must be regularly added to the soil. Some vegetable growers enrich the soil with mullein solution, bird droppings and ammophos.
Conclusion
German cucumbers are an excellent variety that anyone can grow.To do this, just study the reviews and videos, which will describe in detail the process of planting and caring for cucumbers.
