A considerable number of vegetable growers are engaged in growing cucumbers. After all, it’s quite difficult to find a person who doesn’t like this culture. Owners of small garden plots face certain difficulties during planting, since it is difficult to get a good harvest in a small area. This is why some people grow cucumbers in a barrel.
Growing and caring for cucumbers planted using barrel technology is not an easy job. Therefore, it is necessary to familiarize yourself in advance with how to grow cucumbers in a barrel.
Pros and cons of the method
Growing cucumbers in barrels has positive and negative sides, which you should familiarize yourself with before planting cucumbers.
This technology has the following advantages:
- Planting cucumbers in a barrel is done not in ordinary soil, but in humus. Thanks to this, the bushes will always have a sufficient amount of nutritional components.
- Growing cucumbers in a barrel is quite simple and therefore you do not have to spend a lot of time on care.
- The soil temperature in barrels is always higher than in open ground. The soil in the containers is warmer due to the fact that rotting plants are placed in each barrel to plant cucumbers. It also protects young bushes from frost and some diseases.
- Cucumbers grown in this way are harvested much earlier than when growing vegetables in gardens.
Planting and caring for cucumbers in barrels does not have many disadvantages. The main disadvantages are related to the fact that the soil in barrels dries out quite quickly. Therefore, you need to know how to care for cucumbers in a barrel.
Preparing containers
Before planting cucumbers in your dacha, you should familiarize yourself with the features of preliminary preparation of barrels. First you need to decide which containers are suitable, how many of them you will need and where it is best to put them. Cucumbers grow best in barrels made of metal. It is recommended to use containers with holes that will not be needed in the future for storing water. Some even use barrels without a bottom, since it is not needed for growing cucumbers.
All barrels must be taken outside and placed in a well-lit area. Then each of them should be thoroughly cleaned of debris. This can be done with a broom or small broom.When the barrels are cleared of debris, you will need to make holes in them along the walls. With their help, a natural microclimate is created and air exchange is improved several times. Also, drilled holes provide access to the barrel for worms, which are needed to loosen the soil.
Soil preparation
Before growing cucumbers, you need to prepare the soil for planting them. The soil must be prepared in the fall and therefore this should be done in October. Many vegetable growers are interested in how many layers of soil are laid out in barrels. They should be filled in three layers, the height of each of which should be a third of the container:
- The first layer is formed from the waste of various plants. This layer is created to remove excess moisture from the soil and improve drainage. To create it, at least five stalks of cabbage and corn are placed at the bottom of the container. You can also put some food scraps with fallen leaves on top. Over time, all these components will rot and feed the young seedlings. To speed up composting, the first layer can be treated with special preparations.
- The formation of the next layer begins with the addition of fresh manure to the container. It is necessary to maintain soil temperature. Most often, this layer is added during the cultivation of early cucumbers, since they are more heat-loving.
- The topmost layer consists of several components. Peat with compost and turf soil is added to it. If you don’t have peat on hand, you can use regular sawdust or small straw instead. Fans of fertilizing add a little nitrophoska to improve the growth of cucumbers.
Planting
Before planting, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with how to properly plant cucumbers in metal barrels.It is recommended to plant cucumbers in barrels when the outside temperature does not fall below 15 degrees. A few days before this, the soil in each container must be watered with heated water. Then you should prepare the tools that may be needed for planting. These include:
- scissors;
- rubber;
- humus;
- film.
During planting, four small holes are created in each cucumber barrel. In this case, the distance between them should be at least 5-8 cm. One seed should be placed in each hole and sprinkled with soil. It is not recommended to immediately water the planted cucumbers.
When all the seeds are planted, the containers are covered with polyethylene film and tied with tight twine. In some cases, regular elastic bands are used instead. It is necessary to cover the barrels with film, since it creates a greenhouse effect, which is necessary for the rapid germination of seeds.
Features of care
It is recommended to familiarize yourself with the intricacies of care after planting cucumbers in a barrel.
Tying up
It is imperative to tie cucumbers in barrels so that young bushes grow better. Also, tying planted cucumbers helps protect plants from most diseases transmitted through open ground.
There are several ways to attach bushes to supports. However, the most common is to place a meter peg in the middle of the barrel. It is to this that the cucumber seedlings will be tied. First, the lashes will curl along the rope all the way to the top of the peg. When they reach the crosspiece, they form a small umbrella there.
It is not recommended to install the support too high, as this may complicate the harvesting process.
Watering
Cucumbers need to be watered regularly so that they can harvest a good harvest in the future. It is water that is responsible for delivering useful elements to the roots of the plant. If it is not too hot outside, you should water no more than once a week. In summer it is necessary to do this a little more often, since due to the high temperature the earth dries out several times faster.
Many vegetable growers are faced with the problem of rapid evaporation of liquid. To keep moisture in the soil longer, you should mulch it in advance. Quite often, dried grass is used as mulch.
Formation
The formation of cucumber bushes is a rather important procedure, since the amount of harvest largely depends on it. First you need to decide how many main stems to leave for the plant. Many form them into one stem. Every vegetable grower who shapes cucumbers using this method claims that this method is the best. In order for the plant to grow into one stem, you will have to get rid of all the stepsons and flowers that are located in the first five nodes.
There is another method of formation - bush. In this case, you will have to get rid of the top, which is located after the fifth leaf. This has a positive effect on the formation of new stepsons, which in the future will also have to be pinched under the fifth leaf. The result should be a bush that will have about ten fruiting vines.
Conclusion
If there is not enough space and there are a lot of cucumbers, you need to plant cucumbers in a barrel. It is quite difficult for people without some experience to do this on their own. Therefore, it is recommended to read reviews in advance with planting recommendations or watch a video that shows how to grow cucumbers in a barrel step by step.
