Is it necessary to soak treated cucumber seeds before planting and is it possible?

When pre-treating cucumber seeds before planting, you can use various solutions. The procedure is effective and in some cases necessary. Processing ensures the production of good, strong shoots and a rich, tasty harvest, even when exposed to unfavorable factors.

Choosing the seeds correctly

To reap a good harvest of cucumbers, you need to choose the right seeds:

• First of all, it is necessary to consider where the crop is supposed to be grown, in open ground or in a greenhouse. For the greenhouse, it is better to choose parthenocarpic varieties (they do not require pollination). For open beds, bee-pollinated varieties are chosen.
• It is necessary to decide whether hybrid or varietal cucumbers will be grown.
• Be sure to get acquainted with the characteristics of the selected variety. At what time does it ripen, yield, shade tolerance, drought resistance, level of resistance to diseases and pests, taste.

On the packaging of seeds, you need to pay attention not only to the picture, but also to the description. Basic information about the variety, planting dates, and purpose should be posted. You cannot buy seedlings that have expired.

Seed storage

When choosing seeds, you need to look at how old they are. If you plant fresh grains, a lot of barren flowers will appear. For planting, select seeds that are 2–3 years old. Moreover, storage conditions play a big role in the quality of the future harvest.

Dried seedlings are best stored in paper bags or fabric bags. A label with the name of the variety and the date of collection must be affixed to the packaging. The package with the possessed person is placed in a dry, dark place.It should be stored at a temperature of 15–20 degrees.

The seeds are glued onto paper tapes using a special adhesive at some distance from each other. The grains are glued on a couple of months before sowing, after which the tape is rolled up and left in a cool, dark place.

Preparing the seeds

Before sowing, cucumber seeds must be sorted by hand. The selected seed material is disinfected, treated with growth-stimulating drugs, hardened and germinated.

Selection of the best specimens

Only dense, evenly colored, undamaged seeds are suitable for sowing. If there are a lot of them, then you can sort them using a salt solution (50 g of salt is dissolved in a liter of water). Planting material is immersed in water with salt for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Only those seeds that remain at the bottom are left for planting. Empty, damaged seedlings remain on the surface. They need to be thrown away. The remaining grains are washed and dried.

Do seeds need to be treated before planting?

If the product is purchased from a well-known company, then the cucumber seeds may not be treated before sowing. But most experienced agronomists do not bypass this preparatory stage.

• Soaking ensures the germination of most planted seeds and speeds up germination. But this procedure will be useless if the weather outside is good, the grains will germinate on their own.
• When roots appear during soaking, the risk of damage increases; in addition, seedlings become susceptible to cold and high humidity.
• It is necessary to disinfect planting material, since pathogenic microorganisms may be present on the surface of the peel.
• There is no need to treat hybrid seeds, as they are already treated with fungicides and other drugs.

Pre-sowing treatment may include several points, so you can decide for yourself which of them are worth performing and which will not be needed.

Hybrid seeds

Hybrid seeds are obtained by crossing plants of different varieties to obtain better characteristics. Hybrid cucumbers are easier to care for and are more resistant to adverse factors and diseases. But their grains are not recommended for planting next year, since the bushes grow weak, the yield is reduced, and the fruits are formed with low taste.

Varietal seeds

Varietal seeds are obtained by crossing plants of the same species. Such cucumbers require careful care; they are less resistant to disease, heat, and cold, but their grains can be used as planting material next year.

Encrusted Seeds

The encrusted seeds are covered with a special shell that easily dissolves in water. The color of the outer shell may vary. The shell contains components that protect against various infections and pests, stimulate plant growth, and also contains a large number of microelements.

The size of the seeds does not change during processing. They must be sown in well-moistened soil. And in the future, frequent and abundant watering is required. It is impossible to soak such grains before sowing, otherwise the protective shell will immediately dissolve and there will be no benefit.

Dried seeds

Pelleted planting material differs from ordinary seeds in that the surface is covered with a protective, nutritious film.It contains components that stimulate plant growth, as well as fertilizers.

Dried grains are large, so they are easier to plant. A distinctive feature of care is frequent and abundant watering. Moisture is necessary for the protective shell to become wet and dissolve. If the soil is dry, the seeds will not germinate.

The shoots appear together, the growth of cucumber vines is active, and at the end of the growing season, juicy, sweet fruits ripen.

Preheating

When preparing planting material, heating is carried out. The procedure significantly accelerates germination, activates plant growth, reduces the appearance of barren flowers and accelerates the ripening period of fruits.

Warming is carried out for a month at a temperature of +24 degrees. You can place the seedlings in a fabric bag and hang them near heating appliances. You can carry out wet heating when the seeds are poured with hot water (+48 degrees) for 25 minutes.

Disinfection and disinfection

During seed calibration, not only empty but also diseased seeds are selected. To prevent diseases and pests, the remaining grains must be disinfected. A large number of harmful microorganisms remain on the surface of the grains, which will damage young shoots.

Treatment of planting material against diseases can be carried out in two ways. A simple option is to warm the seedlings for a week in direct sunlight. The sun stimulates development and destroys pathogenic microorganisms. You can use an ultraviolet lamp indoors. For wet processing, solutions based on potassium permanganate, hydrogen peroxide, acetic or boric acid, and copper sulfate are used.

Thermal methods

Before planting in open ground, it is recommended to warm cucumber seedlings at a temperature of +58 degrees for 2.5 hours. You can warm it up on the stove, in the oven, near heating devices. If the air temperature is below +52 degrees, then the warming up time increases.

Warming up at high air temperatures before planting in a greenhouse allows you to destroy the causative agents of the virus, which may persist inside.

Chemical methods, etching

There is another way to treat cucumber seeds before planting - simple dressing. The protective film covers the entire surface of the grains and increases the weight by 2%.

To treat planting material, fungicides such as Premix, Vincit, Dividend, and Raxil are used. The active components of the drugs, produced in the form of liquid and powder, are capable of killing the causative agents of many diseases.

Cucumbers have small seeds and vegetable growers recommend choosing less toxic preparations. During the pickling process, it is important not so much to destroy pathogenic microorganisms on the surface of the grains, but to form stable immunity.

How to soak seeds?

Whether the seeds need to be soaked depends on the pre-treatment they have undergone. If during the preparation process a nutritious, protective film is created, then soaking is not carried out.

To carry out the procedure, you will need cucumber seeds, water (melt water or water from a source would be ideal), gauze cloth and a plate. Selected seedlings are distributed on a damp fabric surface and covered with another layer of damp gauze, then filled with hot water (+33 degrees).

If the water becomes dark during soaking, it must be changed periodically until the color becomes clear.The container is moved to a dark place where the air temperature is +23 degrees.

Harm or benefit?

When preparing seeds for planting, many vegetable growers have a question: do they need to be soaked?

If the cucumber grains are of good quality, then there is no need for soaking. In good, warm weather, they begin to germinate within three days. In this case, soaking will only harm the processed grains, since the protective film is washed off from the surface.

If soaked planting material produces sprouts larger than 5 mm, this will greatly reduce resistance to unfavorable environmental conditions. Cold weather or heavy rains can lead to death.

Soaking is useful for seeds with insufficient moisture inside due to non-compliance with storage rules or for grains that are intended to be sown as seedlings. In these cases, soaking will be useful: the growth and development of the vegetable crop will accelerate, and disease resistance will increase.

Is it possible to soak treated cucumber seeds before planting?

Experienced gardeners do not recommend treating cucumber seeds that have been treated before planting. When soaking, water washes away the protective film from the grains.

It is recommended to soak only those seeds that have been disinfected in potassium permanganate or hydrogen peroxide. Before soaking, it is recommended to soak the seedlings in growth stimulants.

Soaking time

The soaking time depends on how the cucumber seeds are treated before planting. In some solutions it is necessary to keep it for 24 hours, in others it is enough to keep it for 4–5 hours.

On average, the soaking procedure lasts three days.

If you plan to grow cucumbers in a greenhouse, then soaking is carried out in early May.Planting grains in open ground should be postponed until the end of May, when the threat of frost has decreased and the soil has warmed up well enough. Soaking is carried out three days before sowing.

Saline solution

Liquid with salt allows you to determine seeds suitable for planting. There is nothing difficult about how to properly prepare the liquid. Dissolve 8 g of table salt in a glass of warm water. The prepared solution is poured into the planting material.

After 8–10 minutes, the seedlings that have surfaced are removed, and the remaining seed material is washed and dried at a temperature of +21 degrees.

Soda solutions

Before sowing, it is useful to treat the grains with soda solution. Soda-based solutions can have an antimicrobial effect and prolong the fruiting period. To prepare the composition, you will need to dissolve 5 g of baking soda in a liter of water. Seeds are poured with this mixture for a day. In addition, thanks to the soda composition, the top layer of grains softens, and moisture penetrates inside without obstacles.

Biologically active drugs

It is useful and effective to soak the seed material in biological products, such as Zircon, Epin, Ivin, Potassium or sodium humate.

All drugs are aimed at stimulating growth, increasing resistance to infections and adverse external conditions.

Zircon stimulates the germination of seedlings and strengthens the immune system. A working solution based on Zircon is prepared at the rate of 3 drops of the drug per 320 ml of water. The grains are kept in the solution for up to 17 hours. During this time, the first shoots hatch.

In the ash

At home, you can prepare an ash solution to soak seedlings. Ash contains many micronutrients that promote better plant growth.

To soak the seeds in the solution, first make an infusion. 60 g of wood ash are infused in a liter of boiled water for two days. Then the grains are kept in the finished crust for 6–7 hours.

Aloe juice

Aloe juice can not only activate plant growth, but also strengthen the immune system. Young sprouts treated with juice rarely get sick and are not attacked by pests.

The solution is prepared from the juice of the lower, fleshy leaves of aloe. Pre-cut leaves are wrapped in paper and placed in the refrigerator for 12–14 days. During this time, the maximum amount of useful components will accumulate in the juice.

After two weeks, the juice is squeezed out of the leaves of the plant and diluted with water. The seed material is immersed in the prepared solution for a day.

Manganese solution

To disinfect the surface of seeds, a solution of potassium permanganate is often used. To prepare a 1% solution, you will need to dissolve 3 g of potassium permanganate in 250 ml of water. The water should turn bright purple. A weak solution does not cope with the infection.

Prepared seedlings are immersed in the solution for 25 minutes, after which they are washed with water. Manganese solution protects against infections that are located on the surface of the grains. The effectiveness of the procedure decreases if the seeds stick to each other.

Extracts from young seedlings

Soaking cucumber grains in extracts of young sprouts of any grain crops is effective. The seeds of the selected grain crop are ground to a powder, poured with water and left to infuse for a day. The prepared solution is filtered and poured into the seedlings prepared for planting.

Epin

The active components of the drug Epin promote rapid seed germination, increase resistance to diseases and pests, and allow you to withstand a humid environment due to rain or flooding of the area.

To prepare an effective composition, you need to dissolve two drops of the drug in 90 ml of water. The seedlings are kept in the biostimulator for 19 hours. The room temperature should be +22 degrees.

Process Features

For soaking, it is ideal to prepare melt water; the water temperature should be +26 degrees. The fabric in which the seeds are located should not dry out. Before soaking, it is recommended to carry out a disinfection procedure.

Germination

If there are doubts about the germination of seeds, it is better to germinate them first. The disadvantage of the procedure is that such seedlings need to be looked after especially carefully. They are watered more often and protected from the cold. In addition, if the seeds are planted too deeply or their shell dries out, the sprouts will not be able to get rid of the seed coat on their own.

The most popular method of germinating seedlings for planting in open ground is using toilet paper. Toilet paper is folded in several layers, placed on strips of polyethylene and moistened with water using a spray bottle. Cucumber seeds are placed on damp paper at a distance of 4 cm from each other. Then they are rolled up and placed in a glass of water.

There are other ways to germinate seeds at home for planting in open ground. The grains can be placed in a damp cotton strip of cloth and wrapped in a plastic bag.

You can germinate seeds in sawdust. A small container is filled with sawdust and poured with hot water.After cooling, the seedlings are laid out, lightly sprinkled with sawdust on top and compacted. The container is covered with a plastic bag. Sprouted grains can be easily pulled out, or you can leave them to grow cucumber seedlings.

Increasing plant immunity

There are many ways to increase the resistance of cucumber bushes to viral, bacterial and fungal infections.

Treatment with growth stimulants

Treatment of seeds with growth stimulants is carried out not only to enhance plant development, but also to improve immunity and increase the resistance of planting material to adverse environmental factors. The grains are soaked for an hour in preparations such as Epin, Zircon, Prorostok, Amulet. These products are safe for humans and plants, but the dosage must be observed when preparing the solution.

Hardening or stratification

Hardening helps plants better tolerate temperature changes and develop resistance to other adverse environmental factors. Seeds that have undergone the hardening procedure feel better in cold soil and rarely suffer from rot.

The grains are wrapped in a damp cloth and placed in the refrigerator for two days. The best storage place is the refrigerator door, where the temperature is +3 degrees. After hardening, the grains can be treated in nutrient formulations and planting can begin.

Sparging - oxygen treatment

Bubbling is carried out to saturate the planting material with oxygen. It is advisable to carry out the procedure with cucumber grains that are more than 5 years old. Bubbling activates energy and promotes better growth.

The seeds are placed in a fabric bag and placed in a jar of warm water. After this, air is supplied using an aquarium compressor.The compressor tube is placed close to the bag so that air bubbles evenly surround its contents. The procedure lasts throughout the day.

Planting seedlings

In order for young seedling bushes to feel good in a new place, they need to be transplanted correctly. If the planting material was processed correctly, and the seedlings were watered on time and correctly, fertilizers were applied and other important care items were carried out, then adaptation will be quick and easy.

To the greenhouse

The seedlings are ready to be transplanted into the greenhouse when two pairs of true leaves unfurl on the stem and two tendrils appear. If the greenhouse is not heated, then you need to wait for the air temperature to be +23 degrees during the day and at least +16 at night. The soil should warm up to +15 degrees. This time approximately coincides with the first days of May; seedlings are planted a month before transplantation.

In open ground

Cucumber seedlings can be planted in open ground when the soil warms up to +13 degrees. The area intended for planting is first dug up, loosened and fertilized. Cucumbers love light, loose soil.

When acidity is high, wood ash is added to the soil. Two weeks before transplanting, ammonium nitrate, superphosphate and potassium sulfate are added to the soil.

The distance between the sprouts in the bed should be 13 cm. Humus or compost is placed at the bottom of the hole. After this, the sprout is planted together with a lump of earth. It is good if the seedlings were grown in separate peat pots. In this case, the sprout along with the glass is placed in the hole. Then water generously and sprinkle with earth.