Summer residents, who proudly declare that they know and can do everything, cause distrust in me. Experience in growing vegetables, including cucumbers, accumulates over the years and is learned in comparison. Over the years, I have acquired some knowledge that I want to share.
✅ I do not create a "neighborhood" of cucumbers with tomatoes - absolutely different conditions are needed to grow these crops: cucumbers cannot stand drafts, and tomatoes love when their stems are ventilated.
Native to the tropics, cucumbers love warmth, moisture and light.
✅ A few days before planting, I spill the garden bed with warm water. And I immediately cover it with black plastic wrap to warm the soil from the sun's rays. I plant it in a greenhouse in early May, and plant it in open ground in the second decade of the month.
✅ I use several bushes of seedlings for early getting greens, but mostly I plant sprouted seeds at a distance of 30-50 cm from each other, depending on the variety. I only grow my cucumbers vertically. To do this, I build a support, to which I then tie up slightly grown bushes.
☝ Cucumbers growing without a support and trellis give much less harvest, and in a rainy summer they can rotfrom contact with the ground .
✅ I water and fertilize with warm water in the evening. Cucumbers are very large "water lovers", drying the soil leads to a sharp decrease in yield.
Do not allow too much moisture, otherwise they may start to "be capricious" due to lack of oxygen in the soil.
✅ ☝ The best option for retaining moisture in the soil, I find mulching with a thick layer of cut grass or weeds. Also, with this method, the loosening procedure disappears, and accordingly there is no risk of damaging the root system of your cucumbers.
If I leave for a few days, then between the rows I put five-liter bottles with holes through which water enters the beds and maintains moisture.
✅ Twice a month, to prevent fungal diseases, I spray cucumber whips with a solution prepared from a bucket of water, 1 liter of milk and 10 drops of iodine.
✅ I don't get tired of singing an ode to top dressing. Any plant needs them. Lean and crooked fruits will grow on the poor land. Plants need nitrogen immediately after planting for the formation and growth of the root system and the formation of leaves. Previously, I used an ash solution and yeast fertilizing, applied nitrogen fertilizers. During flowering and fruiting, she used phosphorus and potash fertilizers.
And now I'm not doing any of this. I use only one natural fertilizer - AGROPLANT. Believe it or not, it just "works wonders." All plants are always healthy, the harvest is always, as they say, even though heaps, and not only cucumbers, but tomatoes and peppers, not to mention potatoes. In general, I am satisfied. This year I took it for my daughter. Bought here on the official website, maybe it will come in handy for you.
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