People dream about their first fresh vegetables even in winter, which is why they choose the method of growing cucumbers using seedlings. And they can be planted in the ground early, and you can get a harvest of greens at the beginning of summer. But caring for seedlings is difficult, it must be done correctly, then the seedlings will be strong and not overgrown.
How to plant cucumbers for seedlings
There are subtleties in the seedling method of growing cucumbers that every summer resident should know about.It is important to choose the right seeds, process them, and prepare the soil.
Seed selection, preparation for planting
Not all seeds collected from cucumbers can be planted the next year. Seeds are stored for ten years without losing germination. But to obtain a harvest of greens, seeds three to four years old are suitable. Pay attention to the type of vegetable. Hybrids will not produce high-quality fruits. Self-pollinating varieties are suitable for growing at home. If you buy planting material in a store, then it is not pre-treated. Seeds collected by summer residents from cucumbers undergo the following procedures:
- selection;
- disinfection;
- germination;
- bubbling.
Seeds are rejected by dipping them into a solution of table salt. Empty seeds will rise to the top, and full ones will fall to the bottom.
It is necessary to disinfect the seed material to prevent the plants from getting fungal infections. Place the bag of seeds in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for twenty to thirty minutes. Then the seeds are washed with tap water and dried.
To speed up germination, wrap the seeds in a damp cloth or a layer of toilet paper. Sprouts appear after five to seven days if the room temperature reaches 28 degrees. The emerging shoots are hardened off by placing them on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator for two days. The plant seedlings that have undergone the procedure are not afraid of the cold in the future.
They bubble and saturate the cucumber seeds with oxygen in order to speed up the germination process. There is an aquarium compressor in a container of warm water along with a bag of seeds. The procedure is carried out daily, twenty days before planting cucumbers.
Before planting cucumber seeds, prepare containers for seedlings. It is better to take peat cups for this.They are filled with two-thirds of the soil, consisting of peat, sand and humus, taken in equal quantities. For ten kilograms of soil mixture, add a glass of wood ash, a teaspoon of fertilizer in the form of urea, and nitrophoska.
The soil is disinfected by spilling it with a solution of potassium permanganate or boiling water. After disinfection, the soil should be saturated with beneficial microorganisms within seven to ten days.
How to properly plant seeds and care for seedlings
Twenty to thirty days before placing cucumber seedlings in open ground, plant the vegetable seeds in pots. Two plant seeds are placed in each container to a depth of one and a half centimeters. The soil is moistened and the containers are covered with polyethylene film. The plantings are opened slightly for ventilation every day, and after the sprouts appear, the film is removed. Maintain the room temperature at 25 degrees Celsius.
After four to five days, cucumber seedlings will appear, then the temperature in the room is reduced to 18 degrees, and at night - to fifteen.
Young shoots need light. If there is not enough natural lighting, artificial lighting is added. Fluorescent lamps are used, placing them five centimeters from the seedlings.
Cucumber seedlings are fed both fifteen days after germination and a week before transplanting into open ground or a greenhouse. The first time, take a teaspoon of urea for three liters of water. A glass of nutrient solution is poured under the bush. Fertilizers are applied a second time a week later, dissolving three grams of nitrophoska and six grams of wood ash in three liters of water.
Caring for cucumber seedlings includes moderate watering. For the procedure, use settled water at room temperature.
What to do if cucumber seedlings are overgrown
To get cucumbers on time, you need to take proper care of the seedlings.After all, seedlings can stretch out and weaken. And there are enough reasons for this:
- When there is little natural light, seedlings grown on a windowsill will be drawn to the light. Their stems will become thin and pale. Installed additional lighting lamps can cause burns on the leaves of seedlings. Suitable for extending daylight hours are phytolamps or fluorescent ones.
- The air temperature in the room is controlled to prevent seedlings from overgrowing. For cucumbers, a temperature of 16-18 degrees is suitable, not higher than twenty degrees.
- Density of plantings is another reason that seedlings will outgrow. Lack of space means plants lack nutrition, moisture and light.
- Cucumbers love moisture, but should be watered sparingly. The need for moisture is indicated by the drooping leaves of the plant.
- Nutrients for cucumbers should be normal. Excess fertilizers, as well as a lack of them, leads to the elongation of seedlings.
- Overgrown seedlings appear if the cucumber container is too small or the soil does not contain nutrients.
Eliminating the reasons for the stretching of cucumber seedlings will allow you to grow strong seedlings.
The situation can be corrected if:
- reduce the room temperature to 18-16 degrees Celsius;
- increase the distance between seedlings;
- organize artificial lighting;
- water and feed the plant according to the rules of cucumber agricultural technology;
- pinch the main shoot above the second true leaf, leaving a stump of half a centimeter.
If the cucumber seedlings have outgrown, then use the method of digging in the seedlings. A small depression is dug next to the stem. An elongated cucumber stem is placed there, sprinkled with earth and compacted. After this, the ground is watered. Soon roots will appear on the cucumber stem, and the upper part of the plant will become stronger.
How to plant cucumber seedlings in a greenhouse
To obtain early harvests, cucumber seedlings, after the appearance of the first true leaf, are transplanted into a greenhouse. Conditions are created for planted seedlings when:
- the air temperature does not fall below fifteen degrees at night and twenty during the day;
- humidity is seventy or eighty percent;
- organize additional lighting with lamps with a power of five hundred watts per square meter of the room;
- Daylight hours last twelve to fourteen hours.
Overgrown seedlings do not tolerate transplantation well and take root with difficulty. Experienced vegetable growers advise cutting off the plant's vines before planting overgrown cucumber seedlings. It will be easier to transfer cucumber seedlings into the ground - they will not break.
Cucumbers take a long time to recover from damage to the root system. We replant the cucumbers so as not to break off the roots, with a distance of twenty-five centimeters from each other.
Pinching shoots also plays an important role. It is carried out when lashes appear on the shoots of the first order. They are pinched above the first ovary. If there are no ovaries in the axils of the first three leaves, then the entire second-order shoot is removed. To better illuminate the cucumber lashes, they are directed vertically, organizing the tension of the cords. Cucumber vines are tied to them. Along a vertical wire, the shoots will curl themselves.
Cucumbers planted in a greenhouse require proper care in the form of:
- abundant watering once or twice a day;
- spraying plants with warm water;
- applying organic and mineral fertilizers every ten days;
- formation into one or two stems by pinching;
- adding a layer of soil two to three centimeters onto the exposed roots of the cucumbers.
An experienced summer resident will not be afraid to replant elongated cucumber seedlings in a greenhouse, receiving a harvest of greens in the early stages.
Is it possible to plant overgrown seedlings in open ground?
To stretched cucumber seedlings has taken root, it is necessary to carry out the procedure of placing it in open ground, following the rules:
- If the seedlings are in peat pots, then you don’t have to worry about how to plant overgrown cucumber seedlings. It is placed in the hole along with the container. When removing seedlings from containers, it is necessary to take care of the integrity of the plant roots.
- Before planting cucumbers, add humus to the holes, thoroughly mixing it with turf soil. The prepared wells are moistened. This must be done in advance.
- Seedlings are planted in the morning or evening. It is better to transplant cucumber seedlings into open ground on cloudy days.
- After the cucumbers are planted in the ground, they are watered.
- After three or four rows of cucumbers, it is recommended to sow corn and peas in two rows. These crops are needed to increase soil and air temperatures and protect cucumbers from wind and frost.
If cucumber seedlings do not take root well, you need to know what to do. The rules of care include procedures known to every summer resident:
- Water the cucumbers generously in the first week after planting. Reduce the frequency of watering before flowering begins. After the ovaries have formed, moisten more often, wetting the plants from above. On hot days, moisten the soil in the morning and evening. The water is heated to a temperature of 20-25 degrees. The top layer of soil is moistened to a depth of five to eight centimeters.
- Long-climbing types of cucumbers are pinched above the third or fourth true leaf. This leads to the appearance of side shoots and the formation of a large number of female flowers, and then fruits.
- Fertilizing is done with mullein, diluted with water in a ratio of 1:8. Among mineral fertilizers, preference is given to ammonium nitrate (30 grams), superphosphate (25 grams) and potassium salt (10 grams), diluted in ten liters of water. The second time they are fed using a solution of ammonium nitrate and potassium salt.
- On hot days, cucumbers are shaded with shields made of twigs and shingles for three to four hours.
- After exposing the lower part of the stem, the cucumbers are rejuvenated. Having rolled the lower part of the bare stem into a ring, leave it for a week and then cover it with earth. To feed cucumbers with carbon dioxide, piles of fresh manure are laid out next to the beds.
You can get a vegetable harvest from overgrown seedlings if you know what to do when pulling out the shoots.
