Two Sowing Of Cucumbers Per Season

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

In this way, you can grow "bouquet" hybrids of cucumbers

At the request of gardeners, I wrote an article last year for Flora Price magazine about cucumbers, which should be tied in bunches at each knot. But instead of such "bouquets" of fruits on plants, for some reason "bouquets" of crackers are obtained.

I think that breeders should study and disclose this problem in detail, but they are still silent. And the gardeners again try "by typing", sorting out all the seeds that are on sale. I used mainly hybrids that bear fruit for a long time, they have strong branching. But I looked closely at hybrids that branch poorly.

For several years she studied how such plants behave, what their yield is. These are hybrids Grasshopper F1 and Cheetah F1. I liked them in all respects, but at the beginning of August their fruiting ended, I cut them out, i.e. made room for a neighboring plant, which branches strongly and bears fruit until October.

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Last year, I set myself the task of planting the entire cucumber ridge in the greenhouse with gherkin-type hybrids with weak branching. These were hybrids Bid Zdorov F1, Green Wave F1, Kozyrnaya Karta F1, Maryina Roshcha F1, Grasshopper F1 - planted two plants of each variety of the Manul firm. I tried to grow seedlings according to all the requirements of agricultural technology, so that there were no violations in fruiting. But by the time the seedlings were planted in the greenhouse, the soil there could not warm up - there was water below (our site is in the lowland).

She sowed seeds on April 13, planned to plant seedlings in the greenhouse, as usual, in early May, and was able to plant only on May 20. The seeds were sown in cassettes, where there is enough nutrition in the ground for 11-12 days. Then you need to plant the seedlings either in the garden or in a large container. I transplanted in a 0.5 liter container.

The seed bags of my hybrids do not indicate how many days from the day of germination fruiting begins, but I know that such sprinters should begin to produce crops in 38-40 days. My plants had a delay in fruiting, because after planting the seedlings, water rose again, bringing cold to the roots of the cucumbers. As a result, the Green Wave F1 hybrid produced the first cucumbers on June 13, and on June 27, a massive harvest began. Its fruits are even, beautiful, taste good, but not great.

The hybrid Kozyrnaya Karta F1 gave the first cucumbers four days later - beautiful, tasty, but also not of excellent taste. Mass harvesting began at the same time as the first hybrid.

About hybrid Maryina Roshcha F1 in my journal it is written as follows: on June 5, one plant grows poorly, i.e. low, another plant nearby is very tall, both without fruit - they bloom, the fruits are tied, but then dry up, the branching is strong. Barely figured out with them. The first cucumbers were set on June 20, but by June 27 there was a large harvest, moreover, higher from the plant that was weak. The fruits are also beautiful, the taste is good, but not great.

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Hybrid Be Healthy F1 immediately started branching. On the side shoots, 3-7 cucumbers were tied at the same time, but not in one knot, but throughout the shoot. Immediately tied along the central shoot, on the lateral shoot and there were no dried ovaries. The side shoots climbed themselves. The internodes of this plant are short; the leaves along the central shoot completely covered it. It was not visible where the lateral escape begins. Internodes on it are also short, leaf on leaf.

To find cucumbers, the plant had to be unwrapped. The gherkins of this hybrid are 6-9 cm long, slightly pot-bellied, dark green, shiny, their skin is thin, i.e. real salad, but you can also canned. I marinated them - it turned out what I needed. In July, she began to cut leaves along the central shoot, since it was impossible to get close to the side shoots. Fruiting a lot - all June, July. In August it also bore fruit, but already a little.

During the season, I carried out six dressings for cucumbers, including one with Humate +7. The weather in May-June was very changeable - rains, cold, heat.

This year I tested a new polycarbonate greenhouse. I took temperature records every day from May 19 to July 11. Here are some entries: July 3 at 8 am outside + 13 ° С, in a greenhouse on the ground + 18 ° С. The fruits of cucumbers are rotting, or rather - on three fruits of the Maryina Roshcha F1 hybrid there is gray rot, on two fruits of the Green Wave F1 hybrid - the same thing. On the shoots of the hybrids Maryina Roshcha F1 and Donskoy Passage F1, as well as the Karelsky variety - white rot. Pepper Yaroslav tied a lot of fruits like never before, did not form it, there were many shoots, so there was not enough light. As a result, whole shoots rotted.

And the central shoot of the cucumber hybrid Be healthy F1 is strongly cracked in the middle part (violation of watering). Anointed with putty (chalk with potassium permanganate), everything worked out, there was no infection.

Why did I write down everything like that? I wanted to understand: is it easy to work with new hybrids? I tried to meet their lighting requirements, the soil was loose, warm, lively, and provided uniform watering and feeding. The feeding area is sufficient - there are only three plants on 1.5 m², they were weakly branched and did not shade each other at all, their leaves were not huge. I didn't weigh the harvest, but it was enough for everything. Harvesting took place every other day until the end of July, but then there was a sharp decline, since there were few side shoots, and even more so second-order shoots, on which the main crop is usually formed. And yet, I picked cucumbers until the end of September.

At this time, the hybrids looked like this: an almost naked central shoot, as the leaves grew old, began to turn yellow, and I gradually cut them out. Lateral shoots are few, spacious, light, there are no usual vines. Farmers of such plants completely cut out and plant new seedlings nearby. This technology has been tested all over the world. If cucumbers bear fruit for a long time, as I did before - from May to October, then diseases accumulate, you have to resort to chemical treatments, and this is not only harmful, but also expensive. So the scientists correctly decided: we need sprinter varieties with a short fruiting period, so that not one cucumber, but 5-8 pieces sits in each node. It is we, the gardeners, have not yet adapted.

If you want to receive cucumbers already in May, then the seedlings must be grown with a "race" of 25 days. And then by the end of May there will be the first cucumbers. There are many hybrids that begin to bear fruit as early as 36-40 days. But such sprinter hybrids, which I talked about, already give a minimum yield in August. Therefore, if you grow them, go for two crops. The second time, you can also plant cucumbers with seedlings or sow seeds in the ground. Everyone can calculate the date of the second sowing. If you need cucumbers in August-September, then you need to sow around mid-late June. But at this time we have white nights, they can affect the formation of male flowers instead of female ones. For example, what the Manul specialists say about this in their brochure:

“The sex in cucumber is genetically inherited, but it can change under the influence of the external environment (in some hybrids it is stronger, in others it is weaker). This is due to the fact that in pumpkin crops, flowers at an early stage of their development have signs of bisexuality. Their sexualization is determined by the genotype of the plant and the growing conditions. Factors such as a short day, low nighttime temperatures, high solar radiation, optimal and elevated nitrogen levels, and CO gassing (carbon monoxide produced during combustion) increase the expression of the female sex. A long day, high night and daytime air temperatures, low humidity of air and soil, excess potassium shift the sex towards the male side.

What conclusions have I made for myself about such hybrids after the first year of cultivation?

1. They are easy to work with.
2. The massive harvest took place in June and the first half of July.
3. You do not need to engage in plant formation every other day, you just have to go in, harvest cucumbers in half an hour - and you are free.
4. The weather last season was unstable, but there was only a few rot.

There seems to be positives alone, especially for older people. But this time I didn't cut out the plants in July, I wanted to know what could be made of them?

Therefore, she poured fresh earth (the compost was prepared in barrels), fed with ammonium nitrate - 2 tbsp. spoons for 10 liters of water - used three liters for two plants. New buds on the central and lateral shoots did not immediately begin to wake up, but gradually all the plants began to overgrow with small leaves, and ovaries immediately followed. This lasted all August and September. I had to go to the greenhouse every day, where I usually picked 7-13 cucumbers, and sometimes it was two kilograms. There was a rumor that, they say, Louisa Nilovna did not have cucumbers this season either. My husband and I were ridiculous to hear such reviews, because we were already tired of walking and harvesting every day.

This year the greenhouse was new, made of polycarbonate. Its area is two times less than that of the former, home-made, and there were only eight tested hybrids, while the neighbors were used to observing overgrown vines in the old large greenhouse.

Will I grow these hybrids again? The seeds remained, their germination is good. The current season, due to weather conditions, should be more even - this is the year of Jupiter, a milder vegetable year. Maybe I’ll try to do the crops in two terms, although I don’t want to mess around, but it’s interesting to know how it can turn out? There are gardeners who have already switched to two crops per season. Their greenhouses are large, the crops are grown for their intended purpose. I regularly read the almanac of the Semko firm - "New Farmer". There are many articles devoted to the crop rotation in the greenhouse. Even a stable expression appeared “the second went” - it's about the harvest.

I wrote out from one article: “… by the beginning of June, the cucumber plants of the first cultural rotation (winter-spring) are weakening and become less productive. In addition, the marketability of fruits from the lateral shoots and from the "stubs" is much lower than from the main stem, on which ovaries are no longer formed by this time. The lengthening of the growing season of such plants is laborious, and the quality of the product and its cost are rapidly decreasing. " And further: “… In order to obtain high-quality products - pickles and gherkins of a certain size, it is planned to replace them for technological and commercial reasons. High-quality greens can only be obtained from the main shoot."

If today I decide to sow these hybrids again, I will change the feeding area for them, contrary to the requirements of science. Let them sit in cramped quarters, maybe it will be better for them. We know that plants are fighting for survival, and tightness for a cucumber is a kind of incentive to give birth more and faster.

Dare, master new varieties and hybrids and new technologies! After all, scientists work for us.

Luiza Klimtseva, experienced gardener

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