Most vegetable growers grow cucumbers on their plots. Growing cucumbers in open ground on your own is not so easy, therefore, it is recommended to prepare for planting. It is necessary to decide in advance when to plant cucumbers in open ground and become familiar with the peculiarities of planting this vegetable.
Growing seedlings
Before planting cucumbers in open ground, you need to start growing its seedlings. After all, most vegetable growers do not planting cucumbers in open ground seeds and are planted as seedlings.
Landing time
First you need to decide when you can plant the seeds. The timing of sowing cucumbers directly depends on climatic conditions. Residents of the southern regions are recommended to plant at the end of winter or early March, so that the time for planting cucumbers in open ground would be in mid-May. Residents of the northern regions need to plant them a little later, so that the timing of planting cucumbers in open ground falls in June, when the temperature at night will be above zero.
When planting cucumbers with seeds in open ground, the sowing time is completely different. In this case, they will have to be planted only when the night temperature outside does not drop below 10-15 degrees Celsius.
Preparing seeds
Before sowing cucumbers in open ground, you should pre-prepare the seeds for planting. First, you will have to start calibrating the planting material so that you can select the most suitable seeds. During calibration, you need to select only large seeds with a perfectly smooth surface. After this, they are placed in a saline solution and soaked in it for about 5-10 minutes.
During this time, all rejected seeds will float to the surface. You should get rid of them immediately, as they will not germinate.
Quite often, cucumbers die from various diseases. In order to somehow protect them from this, you should start disinfecting them. To do this, all planting material is placed for half an hour in a weak solution prepared from manganese. The next day the procedure is repeated again.
Soil preparation
When the time comes for sowing seeds, it is recommended to start preparing the soil.To plant cucumbers, you need to use a specially prepared soil mixture, which should contain a considerable amount of nutrients. To prepare it, you need to mix humus with turf soil in equal quantities. If there is no turf soil, then you can use compost soil instead. Some gardeners add a little stove ash to the soil.
Also, do not forget that the soil has optimal temperature for growing cucumbers. Before planting, heat treatment of the soil must be carried out. Especially if he was outside for a long time or in a room with low temperature. Seeds can be planted in soil whose temperature is not lower than 15 degrees.
Preparing containers
Planting cucumbers should be done in special containers where the cucumbers can grow as comfortably as possible.
The best type of container for growing young seedlings is peat pots. Their main advantage is that they are very easy to use. To do this, just fill them with a small amount of soil mixture and place them on pallets. Also, the advantages of peat pots include the material from which they are made. After all, thanks to it, the containers have an optimal water-air regime, which has a very beneficial effect on the planted seeds.
Landing
It is recommended to plant the seeds before the cucumber planting deadline. During sowing, all containers are filled with prepared soil and special holes are made in them for planting. Sow no more than one seed in each pot. If you plant too many seeds in one container, they will grow much slower.
The next day after planting, all containers with cucumbers are transferred to a warm room.The minimum temperature for cucumbers should not be less than 15 degrees and therefore, you should choose a room in which such a temperature regime could be maintained.
Planting seedlings
When all the seeds that were planted germinate well, you can plant the cucumbers in open ground. However, before this, it is recommended to decide up to what date you can plant them and how to do it correctly.
Site selection and cleaning
To sow cucumbers in open ground, you need to select the most suitable site. It is recommended to look for cucumbers only in the most illuminated places with good protection from strong gusts of wind. However, it is not always possible to choose a windless area. In order to somehow protect cucumber bushes from wind gusts, tall crops should be planted near them.
It is recommended to start preparing the area for cucumbers in mid-autumn. At this time, the area is completely cleared of plant remains. It is recommended to burn them or bury them in the ground. If you do not clear the area of plant debris, then over time they will become a source of diseases that can infect cucumbers.
Soil preparation
It is recommended to do preparatory work in the fall or spring. During this period, 10-15 kg of manure is added to the soil, which will then have to be dug up with the ground. In spring, it is advisable to use fresh hot manure to warm the soil. To do this, several beds 40 cm deep are made on the site, into which fresh manure mixed with soil is added. The top of the area is sprinkled with a special garden mixture or ash. Thanks to this, the soil can warm up to the optimal temperature within 2-3 days.
Soil preparation also includes mulching the area. Most often, ordinary film is used for this. In the fall, it must be removed from the site, washed thoroughly and transferred to the basement for further storage.
Basic recommendations for choosing the sowing date
To determine the optimal or last date for planting cucumbers in open ground, many vegetable growers rely on the lunar calendar. It is worth noting that it is not always possible to determine the best day for planting cucumbers in the ground. Therefore, the following recommendations should be taken into account:
- The average daily temperature for the growth of cucumbers should not be below 15 degrees. If there is a possibility of a serious drop in night temperature, then it is better to postpone transplanting seedlings. When growing cucumbers in a greenhouse, you don’t have to monitor the outside temperature, since in a greenhouse you can control the climate yourself.
- The soil temperature should also be more than 15 degrees. This is the most favorable temperature for growing this vegetable.
- It is better to plant cucumbers in the last month of spring, when most of the time the western and southern winds prevail outside. In this weather, the likelihood of frost is extremely low.
Types of sowing dates
To plant cucumbers, it is recommended to familiarize yourself with the varieties of sowing dates:
- Early. Early planting of cucumbers should be done in early May. Early sowing is most often used by residents of the southern regions, since at this time they no longer experience nighttime temperature changes. However, residents of the northern regions can plant cucumbers later. Only they will have to plant cucumbers in a greenhouse to create optimal conditions for greenhouse cucumbers.
- Average.Many people do not like early sowing and therefore decide to plant cucumbers later. In this case, cucumbers are planted in mid-June. Almost all varieties of cucumbers are suitable for this. If you grow bushes in June, the harvest will need to be harvested in early August. However, the collection of ripened fruits depends not only on the planting period, but also on the varieties planted.
- Late. The latest date for planting cucumbers is recommended to be used only when planting early ripening cucumbers, which can ripen 40 days after planting. Thus, the planted vegetable will ripen along with the tomatoes. The latest sowing date has its advantages. For example, if you plant seedlings at the end of summer, you will be able to collect fresh fruits before the first frost. However, you should not plant cucumbers too late, as frosts can begin in the fall and because of this the plant dies even before fruiting. Therefore, the last planting should be carried out at the end of July or at the beginning of August.
Landing
It is recommended to plant only good seedlings in the garden. It should be hardened and have a good stem with several developed leaves. To harden off young bushes, it is recommended to take them outside during the day. At the same time, it is necessary to monitor the temperature outside. If it is more than 15-17 degrees, then the seedlings can be taken out for the whole day. The duration of hardening should gradually increase. Therefore, several days before replanting, the plants should be outside not only during the day, but also at night.
Before planting cucumbers, you should start creating planting beds. To prevent the plants from shading each other, the distance between the holes should be at least 50 cm. The gap between the rows should be a little larger - 60-70 cm.When all the holes are prepared, you can begin replanting.
Carefully remove all seedlings from the peat pots and plant them in a vertical position on the beds. Then they should be sprinkled with soil, watered and compacted a little. The day after planting, all bushes should be watered with warm water.
Conclusion
Growing cucumbers is not as easy as it might seem. After all, to do this, you need to figure out at what temperature cucumbers grow and when cucumbers are planted.
