Growing Cucumbers In Low Greenhouses

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

Cucumbers are traditionally grown in tall greenhouses with a garter to a trellis and removing the first ovaries, pinching lashes or spreading them along a ridge. It seems to gardeners that it is warm in greenhouses, and cucumbers feel good there.

But the heat is only in the upper part of the greenhouse, approximately at the level of the head and chest of a person, and below, at the level of the legs, where the roots of the cucumbers are, the temperature is much lower. This is, of course, if the cucumbers are not planted in a warm bed with biofuel. But it is known that cucumbers, like all pumpkin crops, it is very important that their roots are warm.

For two years now I have been growing cucumbers in low greenhouses with a height of 50-60 cm. In them, the ground warms up much better, and the most optimal conditions are created for cucumbers. True, on warm sunny days, such a greenhouse must be opened, otherwise all the cucumber plants will burn. For the device of such a greenhouse, purchased arcs made of steel tubes with a diameter of 10 mm in plastic, 1 m wide and 70 cm high are best suited.

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The arcs are stuck into the ground with a step of 70-80 cm, in the upper part of the arches are connected by two smaller rods (bed length 5 m). The arcs are screwed to the rods with soft wire, and the twists should be directed downward so as not to damage the film.

At the ends of the greenhouse, obliquely short persistent rods are placed. At a distance of 0.6-0.7 m from the end arcs, pegs are driven obliquely into the ground. The ends of the film are tied and attached to pegs. Large (six-liter) drinking water cylinders, half-filled, are placed on the film on both sides, or bricks are laid. Here is the greenhouse and ready. It should be located in the East-West direction.

If the sun warms up, the cylinders are removed from the south side, the film is spread to the north side, and the cucumbers grow in the open field. Cucumbers love direct sunlight - then they get sick less, and their fruits are tastier. If a thunderstorm starts, you do not need to close the cucumbers, but the greenhouse closes at night - the earth warmed up during the day gives up its heat to the air under the film.

For two years now, the cucumber bed in my garden has been arranged in this way: holes were dug in two rows on it with a pitch of 70 cm in a checkerboard pattern. The diameter of the holes is 30 cm, the depth is 20 cm. At the bottom of the holes, I put hay (you can just dry grass) with a layer of 4-5 cm, and on top of the hole I fill the hole with a mixture of turf soil (cucumbers love turf soil) and humus. Hay insulates the filled holes from the lower, cold layers of the earth. In each hole I plant four cucumber seeds - two on one side and two on the other. I put the seeds on the edge, so cucumbers sprout faster. After emergence, I leave the two strongest shoots in the holes.

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In order to get the first cucumbers earlier, you can plant 4-5 bushes with seedlings, which are better grown in peat pots, so as not to injure the root system of the cucumbers. On each sprout, I put a ring cut from a plastic bottle - to protect against some pest that gnaws the stems of the cucumber. When the cucumbers grow up, in the middle of the greenhouse, along its entire length, I install a U-shaped frame with a crossbar height of 20-25 cm. I carefully lift the cucumber lashes from the ground and throw them over the frame crossbar. It is necessary to water cucumbers with warm water from a barrel - not abundantly, but often, the ground should be constantly wet.

I fed the cucumbers with an infusion of dry bread crusts (the infusion fermented for three days, poured one and a half liters per watering can) and once with infusion of humus. I did not apply any mineral fertilizers, but, perhaps, it would be advisable to fertilize with Agricola fertilizer. The cucumbers grew completely free, I only made sure that the whips did not crawl out of the greenhouse. I want to note that I sowed only self-pollinated cucumbers, because recently there is little hope for bees.

To protect against frost, you need to prepare in advance the upper (neck) parts of the plastic bottles. When there is a threat of frost, and experienced gardeners know the signs of this - calm, clear sky, it gets colder - it is necessary to put such a cap from a bottle on each cucumber plant. Or you can throw an old blanket or old film over the whole greenhouse. You can also put newspaper caps on the cucumbers.

To extend the fruiting period, it is necessary to sprinkle the strongest lashes in the middle of their length with fertile soil. Young roots will appear in this place, and the lash will not turn yellow. The harvest that I received from five square meters satisfied me completely. We ate plenty of cucumbers in the summer, and also rolled up six three-liter jars for the winter. The main advantage of this technology is the low cost of the greenhouse and low labor costs.