Drip irrigation of cucumbers in a greenhouse is easy to organize without the involvement of specialists and the purchase of ready-made systems. You just need to decide in advance on the plans for future plantings and evaluate your own control over the process - how much time you are willing to devote to caring for the cucumbers during watering and how often you can fill the watering containers.
How to water cucumbers in a greenhouse and in open ground
Since excess moisture in the soil after heavy watering leads to rotting of the root system of seedlings and the formation of voids in ripening fruits, there is a certain norm for watering the crop, which differs depending on the method of growing cucumbers:
- when grown in open ground, the watering rate is 4.5-5 liters of water per 1 m22 before the start of the growing season and 11 liters per 1 m2 when cucumbers ripen;
- watering cucumbers in a greenhouse made of polycarbonate requires less water consumption - 3.5-4 liters per 1 m2 before flowering and 7.5-9 liters during fruit growth.
Fertigation, that is, diluting nutrient fertilizers in irrigation water and supplying them directly to cucumbers, is of great importance for the healthy development and increase in plant productivity. For these purposes, only highly soluble feeding compositions are used, otherwise there will be a threat of blockage in poorly accessible areas of the structural system. Experienced gardeners advise using the following ready-made mixtures when irrigating cucumbers:
- "Nutriflex";
- "Teraflex";
- "Speedfall";
- "Novofert".
In order to save expensive compounds, you can water cucumbers with drip irrigation by combining ready-made products with magnesium sulfate or nitrate, ammonium nitrate, available and familiar to every summer resident; If necessary, phosphorus fertilizers are added to irrigation.
It is not necessary to add a nutrient solution to water for irrigation in greenhouse conditions immediately, but 10 minutes after the start of irrigation, when the soil under the cucumbers is already sufficiently moistened. When the solution runs out, the irrigation system tanks are refilled with clean water so that all drainage elements are properly washed. How much time it takes to clean an irrigation structure depends on the branching and total length of the system, but on average it is 15-20 minutes.
Artificial irrigation systems
How to make drip irrigation for cucumbers yourself? For the convenience of organizing irrigation using the drip method, seedlings are planted in even rows, with installation of a trellis for tall varieties of cucumbers or without it - for bush varieties of crops. When trellising seedlings, the top layer of soil is covered with mulch. This helps retain moisture and reduces water consumption.
Water supply by gravity
To ensure a continuous supply of water to the cucumbers and at the same time not to damage the tender stems of the seedlings with the installed watering system, the hoses must be laid on the ground in advance, even before transferring the seedlings to a permanent place. Then, when the hose irrigation system is already distributed in the garden bed and a supply line is drawn from it through which water will be supplied, you can install the reservoir.
The container for draining the irrigation system is an ordinary barrel with a water tap embedded at a distance of 7-12 cm from the bottom. To be able to regulate the pressure and water supply during drip irrigation, the barrel is placed on a movable platform with several height levels.
The last step in organizing watering is to attach the hose to the tap using a clamp and fill the barrel with water. It should be noted that per plant there should be only one hole made in the hose, which means that perforation is carried out taking into account the density of cucumber plantings. On average, this is 35-40 cm between punctures.
How to properly organize bottle watering
Bottle automatic watering is considered the most economical option, which does not require preliminary preparation and certain schemes for planting cucumber seedlings. Gardeners use three methods of drip irrigation of cucumbers using plastic kegs:
- For the first option of watering cucumbers, you will need a 1.5-liter bottle and a thin cocktail tube, one of the ends of which is tightly closed. You need to make a hole 0.5 cm from the plug, the diameter of a match. The bottom of the bottle is cut off evenly, and a puncture equal to the width of the tube is made 1-2 cm from the level of the shoulders. The free end of the tube is inserted 2-3 cm into the puncture hole and fixed in this position. The bottle is turned over, water is poured into it and placed near a bush of cucumber seedlings.
- Watering cucumbers in open ground should completely replenish the loss of moisture from evaporation, and therefore provides an abundant supply of water. In a 2-liter bottle, starting from a 4-centimeter height, make 5-6 small holes, distributing them to the keg hangers at an equal distance from each other. The bottle is dug in about a third near the seedling bush. Warm water is poured through the neck.
- The third method of watering cucumbers in a greenhouse or in open ground is used in the presence of trellises. Bottles already filled with water are tied to them with their necks down. Irrigation water penetrates through holes made in the keg lids. To avoid damaging the leaves of the seedlings themselves cucumbers, bottles tied at a distance of 5-7 cm above the ground, in close proximity to the plant stem.
Summer residents do not always have the opportunity to visit the greenhouse with the necessary frequency required to fill the containers with water in a timely manner. In this case, it is advisable to use 5-liter bottles installed in accordance with the general principles of the methods.
System of medical droppers
The drip system can be a branched structure using several types of materials or a simple one, having an individual reservoir with a supply for each seedling bush.
The most labor-intensive design involves purchasing the following components for the system:
- PVC water pipes:
- medical droppers.
The distribution pipeline is used directly as a source of water supply.
Algorithm for creating a system for watering cucumbers with your own hands:
- punctures are made in PVC pipes cut into equal lengths corresponding to the distance between future plantings;
- using plastic elbows and clamps from pieces of pipes, a distribution irrigation system is made, which is assembled directly in the greenhouse or in an open garden bed;
- the medical dropper is cut into 10-15 cm pieces, and each piece is tightly inserted into the hole in the pipe so that the free end of the dropper is near the future seedling hole.
If the system is used seasonally, then between water starts the installation must be flushed and drained. This method of supplying water to cucumbers is a capital one and involves financial costs for pipes. You can reduce the cost of watering by using the same droppers and ordinary plastic bottles. This option is also good because when watering it is possible to simultaneously apply fertilizing.
Algorithm for assembling a mobile irrigation system:
- the bottom of plastic 1.5-liter bottles is cut off and a puncture is made in the lid;
- each bottle is hung from a trellis directly above the plant, neck down;
- cut a piece from the dropper equal in length to the distance from the bottle cap to the ground plus 2 cm;
- the regulating structure with a wheel is moved closer to the bottleneck.
When moving a cucumber bed from place to place every year, such compact drip irrigation for cucumbers has a clear advantage over capital irrigation. And all maintenance of the system consists of adding water to the bottle and periodically cleaning the outlet holes of the dropper from earthen plugs. In addition to periodic cleaning, once a year after harvesting the cucumbers, it is necessary to disassemble the entire system and rinse the dripper in several stages. Nitric or phosphoric acid is used to wash away organic fertilizer residues.
