The Parisian gherkin cucumber is a hybrid type with a short growing season (within forty days). Since the plant produces predominantly female flowers, growing the Parisian Gherkin variety in a greenhouse must provide access to bees. The yield of this variety of cucumbers, given their small size, is very high if agrotechnical standards are observed - within 3.5 kg per 1 m2 landing area.
Description of the variety
In all sources, the description of the “Parisian Gherkin” variety emphasizes the high taste qualities of gherkins, which benefit significantly when preserved as a whole.
In a ripe state, cucumbers have a neutral taste, do not taste bitter, and, according to reviews, even when harvested late, they do not form empty cavities in the pulp. Other advantages of the “Gherkins of Paris” cucumber variety include:
- small size of cucumbers (up to 10 cm with a weight of about 80 g);
- variety resistance to lack of moisture;
- immunity of the cucumber variety to certain diseases, for example, cladosporiosis, mosaic virus;
- excellent “keeping quality” of the harvested cucumbers, which allows even long-distance transportation of the fruit;
- a small amount of seeds inside the gherkins;
- simultaneous germination of cucumbers;
- the possibility of pollinating cucumbers artificially, which significantly increases the yield of the variety.
For people who do not have their own land, the lack of a vegetable garden is not an obstacle to agronomic experiments with short cucumbers, because growing gherkins is possible even on the balcony.
As in a greenhouse, the microclimate of a glazed balcony allows you to collect cucumbers until October, and the description of this technology will hardly differ from the standard one. There are even reviews calling the main advantage of such communicative cultivation the very small, neat gherkins that dot the stem in abundance.
Agricultural technology for growing gherkins
When purchasing gherkin seeds, you need to pay attention to the degree of their readiness for immediate germination, that is, the presence or absence of factory processing of the seeds.
Information about this must be on the bag of planting material in the “seed characteristics” section.
Planting with seeds
Cucumber seeds that have been glazed in special disinfectants and growth activators have the highest germination and fruiting capacity.Such cucumber seeds can be sown directly into the ground, but the timing of planting the seeds will depend on the technical equipment of the garden:
- if there are permanent greenhouses, gherkin seeds are introduced into the soil in early May;
- if you plan to attach cellophane protection over the plantings, then the planting dates for cucumbers of this variety are shifted to mid-May;
- the absence of any shelter implies late sowing of gherkins, in the last days of May.
French cucumbers of this variety are not very spreading, so at 1 m2 The formation of three bushes is allowed. Gherkin seeds are planted to a depth of no more than 2 cm, and the location of each seed is marked.
It is better to germinate untreated cucumber seeds at home, after keeping them in saline solution or a pale pink solution of manganese crystals. A characteristic of healthy gherkin seeds will be their sinkability - floating seeds must be collected from the surface of the water and discarded.
Seedling cultivation
After selecting healthy, full-bodied cucumber seeds, they need to be disinfected for an hour with an infusion of crushed garlic shoots (pulp), at the rate of 30 g of pulp per 0.5 glass of tap water.
Then the seeds are washed well and laid out on a moistened gauze pad for 48 hours. In this case, cucumber seeds do not require germination - they only need to swell and be activated for further growth. At the end of the preparation, it is necessary to harden the planting material a little, for which a saucer with gherkin seeds laid out in one layer is placed on the top shelf of the refrigerator for 16-20 hours.
According to the recommendations of those experienced gardeners who have planted gherkins more than once, the period for planting cucumber seeds for seedlings should be determined in accordance with the geographic latitude of residence. In central Russia, this is approximately mid-April, and accordingly, it will be possible to grow cucumber seedlings only in mid-May.
To germinate gherkin seeds, a mixture of old sawdust, humus and peat (1:2:2) and a container 8-11 cm high with a drainage hole in the bottom is prepared in advance. One prepared cucumber seed is dropped into one container, crushed with soil mixture and watered.
After a month, gherkin seedlings with 2-3 true leaves should emerge in each pot, ready to continue developing in open ground. At this stage, a single feeding of the plant with nitrophoska, added in the amount of 1 tbsp, is required. spoons into a 3-liter jar of heated water.
Proper care of gherkins
It is necessary to form a planting area for the beds 24 hours before planting cucumbers of this variety. Immediately follow with watering with a solution of copper sulfate (0.5 tablespoon of substance per bucket of hot water) with a liquid flow rate per 1 m2 – 3-3.5 l, and just before deepening the holes – light loosening.
Holes of the required size can be easily obtained by lightly pressing the handle of a shovel into the soil - the depth of each hole should be 3-4 cm, with a distance between seedlings of 50-55 cm. If planting is done with seedlings, then it is necessary to ensure that the cucumber bushes do not lie on the ground and are not at an angle.
Despite the fact that there are reviews about the futility of loosening in the first two weeks after planting gherkins, the rules of agricultural technology call for performing the procedure at least once every 3 days in the first month of establishment of seedlings or seeds, and subsequently, fluffing the soil at least once every 7 days. 8 days. You also need to be careful about watering, since their regularity will certainly affect the grown cucumbers. Before the flowers appear, the beds are watered once a week and twice as often during the period of ovary formation. It should be remembered that the “Parisian Gherkin” cucumber variety does not tolerate dampness - only the soil around the bushes is moistened.
As a feeding base, gherkin cucumbers tolerate both ready-made mixtures, for example: “Ideal” or “Breadwinner,” and homemade humic compositions.
Growing “Parisian gherkins” cucumbers can be a worthy replacement for the usual varieties of corking and salad fruits, especially since the procedure for forming a bush does not require special skills and consists only of pinching the top of the plant once and tying the cucumber stem in a timely manner. Even a novice gardener can master the process, and the result in the form of a bountiful harvest of cucumbers will pay off all the troubles associated with obtaining the first agricultural experience.
