Cucumbers love moisture, but everything is good in moderation, even for them. In addition, they also need warmth in addition to large volumes of water, and prolonged rains are usually accompanied by a drop in temperature. How to save the harvest in such conditions? Anything is possible, but only if you act quickly, decisively and prepare in advance for such a development of events.
If the rains become prolonged, all parts of the plants are affected. The roots begin to rot, the leaves stop growing, turn yellow, fall off, there is no talk at all about flowering and the formation of fruits. Naturally, the situation must be corrected.
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Reliable protection
The simplest and most logical solution is to protect the cucumbers from excess moisture and insulate them:
- arrange additional drainage on the beds, ensuring a good outflow of water;
- cover the plants with plastic wrap. In order not to damage the lash, install special arcs that will support it. The cover is easy to remove and the props can stay in place throughout the season just in case;
- use mulch such as straw, wood shavings, dry grass;
- if cucumbers grow in a greenhouse, it must be regularly ventilated.
In regions where heavy prolonged rains are not uncommon, it is worthwhile to immediately make high beds, where water cannot linger. It will not be superfluous to put a layer of insulation in them, for example, manure or compost.
Top dressing
It is necessary to feed cucumbers in any case, but with heavy rains, the role of additional nutrients increases significantly. The fact is that water quickly flushes out of the soil everything that plants need. Therefore, to get a harvest in such difficult conditions, it is necessary to regularly compensate for the losses. Since the use of rather expensive drugs can cost a pretty penny, because they will have to be applied much more often than in normal weather, you should pay attention to simple folk remedies:
- iodine - not only saturates the soil with useful trace elements, but also significantly increases the immunity of plants, protects them from gray rot and late blight;
- ash - an excellent substitute for potash dressings. You can prepare infusions or scatter over the soil, pollinate plants;
- solutions of soda and soap - protection against fungi;
- extracts from manure - preparing feeding solutions.
Precautions
Weather forecasts are often wrong, but phenomena such as weekly rains can be predicted quite well. Therefore, all gardeners are advised to keep track of forecaster warnings. Knowing that bad weather is ahead, you can take some measures:
- be sure to thin out thickened bushes;
- remove side shoots;
- Tear off large lower leaves - they can become gateways for infection.
When the rains stop, the plantings should be treated with a special soda solution, dissolving 30 grams of soda and 20 grams of laundry soap in 10 liters of water. Be sure to loosen the soil - this will contribute to the speedy evaporation of moisture.
If it is impossible to deal with bad weather, you must learn to coexist with it. And the harvest will be saved!
Do you know how to care for cucumbers during prolonged rains?
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Read about feeding cucumbers in the following article:How to feed cucumbers in the open field after planting