Chinese cucumber is not a new selection, but a variety of the specified vegetable, which speaks of true origin.
Its distinctive features:
- long-term fertility (from 40 cm to 1 m, depending on the variety);
- small seeds that do not increase for a long time, despite the growth of the fetus;
- the skin is thin and bubbly;
- great taste without bitterness;
- the pulp is dense, tender;
- voids are absent;
- wonderful aroma that spreads throughout the room when slicing vegetables.
The dishes (salads, rolls) that use Chinese cucumber are very tasty. You see a photo of one of them below. So I want to take a mini roll and put it in my mouth. By the way, in China, cucumbers are usually fried, such as zucchini and squash.
Chinese cucumber is preferably grown in greenhouses, but it also feels rather well in open ground, only fruiting is not so long, and the number of fruits is less. To get early production, you need to grow seedlings. Seeds are preferably etched in a solution of potassium permanganate, and then kept in a growth promoter. Then place them in a damp cloth. After about 3 days, small roots will show quality seeds.
When they germinate, you need to plant them in peat pots with disinfected soil (you can use purchased for seedlings or make a mixture of humus, peat, sand and ash). The stalks with cotyledonous leaves appear quickly - after 3 days. After about 10 days, when 3, and preferably 4, real leaves are formed on the plants, they need to be transplanted to a permanent place.
A bed or place in a greenhouse must be prepared a week before: add humus and ash and spill with a hot solution of copper sulfate. After this procedure, it is advisable to cover this place with foil for several hours.
Chinese cucumber must be grown vertically so that all plants are well lit by the sun. When planting seedlings, it is not necessary to thicken, it is optimal to leave 0.5 m between plants. After 10 days, you need to start forming. In the sinuses of the first four leaves, you need to pluck out all the flowers and shoots. You can’t feel sorry for them, with the correct formation of the main stem, there will be many more. A further 6 lateral shoots need to be pinched when they reach 25 cm. The following can be left 40 cm, 50 cm. The main shoot should be pinched as soon as it reaches the maximum height of the trellis or roof of the greenhouse.
Chinese cucumber should be watered only under the root with warm water. Its leaves should not touch the ground. Plants need good ventilation. From sowing seeds to fruiting, you have to wait a short time - about a month. From one plant it is really possible to collect 30 kg or more fruits, depending on what size cucumbers are removed.
Care is required throughout the season: weeding, shallow loosening, watering are desirable in the morning. Feeding is mandatory, it is possible with infusion of weeds after fermentation and 10-fold dilution with water. The same tool is good to handle whips. All dried and suspicious leaves should be removed in the morning in dry weather. After 1.5 months from the beginning of fruiting, the lower leaves must be removed.
Try to grow Chinese cucumbers. Varieties Kui Min, Ii Djinn, Lifent Senius and others are rarely found on sale, and hybrids are almost always there. The Chinese Snakes series is remarkable in that the plants stand green and bear fruit until late autumn, which means that you will have fragrant and tasty cucumbers on your table for a long time.