How and when to properly plant cucumber seedlings in open ground

Planting cucumber seedlings in open ground is the most difficult stage in growing cucumbers. Not all novice vegetable growers are familiar with the peculiarities of planting this vegetable. Therefore, it is recommended to familiarize yourself in advance with how to properly plant seedlings.

How to plant seeds correctly

Before transplanting cucumbers into the garden, you need to familiarize yourself with the peculiarities of planting seeds for growing young seedlings. It is recommended to do this in early spring, so that you can transplant cucumber seedlings into open ground in June or May.

Seed preparation

To grow healthy seedlings, you need to prepare the seed in advance. The preparatory work consists of several successive steps that you should familiarize yourself with.

Calibration

Calibration is carried out to select seeds that will germinate better. To select the highest quality seeds, a special saline solution is prepared, consisting of a liter of warm water and 100 grams of salt. To get rid of low-quality seeds, you need to pour all the seeds into the prepared solution and soak them in it for about 15 minutes. During this time, seeds will float to the surface, which are better not to plant, as they will not sprout anyway.

Disinfection

After selecting seeds that can be planted to grow seedlings, it is necessary to disinfect them.

To disinfect cucumbers, you can use a solution made from manganese. During disinfection, all grains are placed in a container with a weak 1% manganese solution. They should be soaked in it for at least half an hour, after which they are dried and placed in an ash solution for a day.

Heat treatment of seed material is also often used for disinfection. However, it is worth considering that when processing seeds at high temperatures, you can not only destroy all pathogens, but also damage the grains. Therefore, heat treatment must be done very carefully.To heat treat cucumbers, you need to soak them in water, the temperature of which should be at least 45 degrees. Processing time is approximately 45 minutes. If heat treatment is carried out longer, the seeds may deteriorate.

Use of biostimulants

To speed up the time of planting seedlings and speed up the germination of seeds, you can use special biostimulants. They contain special components, with the help of which the development of the root system is accelerated several times and the immunity of cucumbers is improved. Many vegetable growers use preparations such as “Sodium Humate” or “Epin”.

Soil preparation

Before planting cucumbers to grow seedlings, you need to prepare the soil. The soil mixture for cucumbers should be prepared from the following components:

• Peat. It is recommended to plant cucumbers in soil with a sufficient amount of peat. With the help of this component, the soil is made more loose, making it better permeable to moisture. If there is little peat in the ground, the plant's roots will not receive enough moisture.
• Humus. Cucumbers grow much better in soil with humus, with which almost any soil can be made fertile and nutritious. If you do not add humus to the soil mixture before planting, then in the future the seedlings may wither due to a lack of nutritional components.
• Leaf soil. It is better to grow cucumber seedlings in soil mixed with leaf soil. It is recommended to collect such soil in forests with deciduous trees. Land collected near chestnuts and oaks should not be used, as it contains too many tannins.

Selection of capacity

Before planting, it is recommended to select containers for cucumbers that can be used during planting.You can use peat pots for this. The main advantage of such a cup can be considered the guaranteed survival rate of seedlings during transplantation. The fact is that the seedlings can be transplanted together with the cup and therefore it is impossible to damage the roots of the bushes during transplantation.

When choosing such a container, you need to carefully study its composition. Some manufacturers add cardboard to them, which negatively affects the growth of seedlings.

Also, planted seedlings can be grown in plastic containers. You can grow 5-10 bushes in them at once. Some vegetable growers refuse to use plastic containers, since it is quite difficult to get grown seedlings out of them.

How to plant seeds

To plant seeds in peat glasses, you need to add the previously prepared soil mixture. It should fill the containers to two-thirds of the total height. After this, the soil in the cups is watered with warm water and compacted.

Holes are made in each pot for planting seeds. Many people are interested in whether it is possible to bury cucumber grains. Seeds with buried holes germinate much more slowly. Therefore, the depth of the holes should not be more than 1-2 cm.

When all the cucumbers are planted in cups, they should be covered with plastic wrap and transferred to rooms with temperatures above 20-25 degrees. The pots are opened only after the first shoots appear.

How to plant cucumbers in open ground with seedlings

Transplanting cucumber seedlings into the ground is a rather complex process for which you should prepare in advance.

When to plant cucumber seedlings in open ground

Not everyone knows when to transplant cucumber seedlings into the ground. It is recommended to do this a month after planting the seeds in pots.If cucumbers are grown in greenhouses, then the germinated seedlings can be planted in mid-spring. When planting in the garden, it is better to wait for warm weather so that night frosts do not damage the planted seedlings.

Site selection

Having decided when you can transplant cucumber seedlings, you should start choosing the most suitable site for growing the vegetable. It is recommended to plant seedlings only in those parts of the garden that are well lit throughout the day and protected from strong north winds.

During selection places to plant cucumbers You need to pay attention to the ground. The best choice would be a site dominated by loamy soil with a lot of humus. You can also reap a good harvest if you grow seedlings in black soil mixed with peat.

In addition, you need to pay attention to what kind of vegetable was grown on the site before planting the cucumbers. It is better to plant cucumber seedlings in areas where tomatoes, cabbage or perennial herbs were previously grown.

Site preparation

Before planting cucumber seedlings, you need to prepare your garden. This needs to be done in the fall, before the cold weather sets in. First, all remnants of plants that were previously grown here are removed from the entire area. If they are not removed in time, then in the spring they will become the main source of diseases that can infect seedlings.

After getting rid of plant residues, you need to start fertilizing the soil. To do this, about 20 kg of rotted manure is added to each square meter. Repeated fertilization is carried out in the spring 2-3 weeks before planting the seedlings. In this case, hot manure is added to the ground to warm the soil at least a little after winter.In just a week, the soil should warm up by 10-20 degrees.

How to plant cucumber seedlings

To figure out how to properly plant cucumber seedlings, you should study in more detail the features of planting seedlings.

Planting cucumber seedlings in open ground begins with preparing holes for planting. The distance between transplanted seedlings depends on their variety. When planting low-growing cucumbers, there should be no more than five plants per square meter of land. Tall varieties are planted at a greater distance and therefore about 3-4 bushes should grow on one square meter of garden.

After preparing the holes, you should start removing each seedling from the pots. Seedlings should be removed from the containers along with the soil to protect the roots from damage. When growing seedlings in plastic disposable cups, you can simply cut out the bottom and pull out the seedling.

Planting cucumber seedlings in the ground should be done very carefully. They must be planted in such a way that the hypocotyledon knee is not accidentally covered with soil. When all the cucumbers are planted, the holes should be filled with dry soil and moistened with heated water.

Care

Immediately after transplanting cucumbers, you should think about proper care for them. It is proper care that contributes to the formation of good and large fruits on the bushes.

Watering

For the full growth of planted seedlings, it is necessary to regularly water the cucumbers. Also, soil moisture affects the taste of the fruit. If you water the bushes regularly, the cucumbers will not be bitter.

In normal weather, the soil should be moistened at least once a week.However, in summer, the amount of watering should be doubled, since on hot days the soil dries out faster. At least 10 liters of water should be consumed per square meter of land.

Feeding

The soil must be regularly fed with nutrients. If you completely refuse to fertilize, the cucumbers will be small and bitter. Three or four feedings are carried out per season. In this case, fertilizers should be added for the first time two weeks after transplanting the seedlings. Chicken droppings, ash and mullein are added to the soil. If necessary, mineral fertilizers such as potassium sulfate, superphosphate and urea are added to the soil. During fruit formation, the amount of fertilizer applied doubles.

Conclusion

Transplanting cucumbers is of interest to many vegetable growers who plan to grow them. In order to properly transplant seedlings, you need to familiarize yourself with the peculiarities of planting cucumbers in advance.