Six Tips For Growing Cucumbers

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Very often, readers' responses come to the articles from our magazine posted on the website of the editorial office. Some of them may be of interest to gardeners. Therefore, we sometimes reprint them in the magazine. Such was the response to the article by L. D. Bobrovskaya, "The people have filled a trough full," published in 2004.

Maxim gives six tips for growing cucumbers:

1. Choose a good spot to plant your cucumber seeds or plant your cucumber seedlings. Cucumbers grow best in full sunlight, so choose an area in your garden that gets eight hours of direct sunlight every day. The surface of the soil must be made even, without any indentations, so that water does not stagnate on the beds from rain or hand irrigation.

2. Prepare the soil. Place a layer of compost about three centimeters on top of the soil three weeks before sowing the seeds. Then, using a heavy rake or cultivator, embed the compost into the soil to a depth of 30 centimeters.

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3. Plant the seeds (seedlings). Wait for the last spring frost to end. Frost, even the most short-lived, can cause significant damage to your seedlings. Sow the seeds into the soil in rows 2-3 cm deep and 30-40 cm apart.

4. As soon as the plants begin to grow, especially in a confined space, begin to substitute long sticks to them. You can hang them on strings. You can also install trellises or block the site with a fence and ensure that the cucumber vine grows strictly vertically, but not to the sides.

5. Keep the soil moist. Do not pour too much water, at the same time, do not let the soil dry out. Watering is advisable in the evening, when the sun is not baking so much, or during the day, if it is not very hot, so that the plants do not get burned and do not die. Water with warm water, preferably not with a hose, so as not to damage the fragile roots and branches of the plant.

6. Harvest of cucumbers. Depending on the type of cucumber, the period from the start of planting seeds (seedlings) to harvest is 50 to 65 days. Check the information on the seed bags you planted for each specific type of cucumber. Avoid overgrowing the cucumbers. From this, the cucumber plant itself suffers and the fruits themselves. They can become bitter and lose their natural taste and nutritional value.

Nadezhda writes:

“I would also like to share my experience of growing cucumbers in a small greenhouse. I buy inexpensive soil in bags, such as "Garden" or "Narodny", and lay out the bags on the ridges along the walls of the greenhouse. I usually stack 10-12 bags. I make a cross-shaped cut from above, fold the corners of the film and get a hole in a bag. There and I plant cucumbers, seeds or already seedlings, it doesn't matter. I water the soil into the hole regularly. Cucumbers grow quickly and then, when their roots fill almost the entire bag, I cut it from below. And then the roots of the already large plant penetrate into the soil of the greenhouse. Plants are strong and healthy, bear fruit earlier."