Cucumbers are healthy and popular vegetables. They are grown both in open ground and in greenhouses. For normal growth and good fruiting, an important component of agrotechnical measures is the nutrition of cucumbers. What nutrients a vegetable needs, how and when to add them, read the article.
How to prepare a greenhouse and soil
Immediately after the harvest, which occurs in the autumn, the greenhouse must be cleaned of plant debris and dig up the soil. All structures made of metal, wood, glass, plastic should be treated with a disinfectant. You can use bleach at the rate of 300 g per bucket of water. But before use, the composition is infused for three to four hours.
When growing cucumbers, top dressing is mandatory for them. But we must not forget that the soil depleted in the previous season also needs fertilizer. Its acidity will decrease if you first add rotted manure, humus or compost. For a square meter, one bucket of organics is enough. After that, the soil is enriched with fluffy lime or dolomite flour in the calculation of 300 to 500 g per square meter of land area.
In the spring, you again need to dig the site. About a fortnight before planting cucumber bushes, a certain amount of nutrients should be introduced into the soil:
- superphosphate and ammonium nitrate 20-30 g;
- potassium salt of 15-25 g;
- potassium sulfate 20 g
After this, the soil must be poured with an aqueous solution of potassium permanganate (three grams per bucket of liquid) and covered with a film that is removed before planting.
Fertilizing during the growing process
At different periods of plant vegetation, fertilizing cucumbers in the greenhouse is needed. At the beginning of development, the vegetable needs nitrogen, during the period of active growth - potassium, and during fruiting - phosphorus and plentiful watering, so that the fruits are juicy. Top dressing of cucumbers under the root is carried out by organic fertilizers.
Mineral supplements can be applied by root and foliar methods. Fertilizing cucumbers is carried out in the following periods:
- After half a month from the moment of landing.
- After the plants bloom.
- At the beginning of fruiting.
- During the period of mass ripening of vegetables.
Dressing greenhouse cucumbers at the root
When three or four full-fledged leaves appear on the plant, root cucumbers are fed in the greenhouse. What fertilizers can be used?
The first top dressing is carried out with ammonium nitrate, sulfuric or potassium chloride in the amount of 15 g of each fertilizer and double superphosphate, which needs to be taken a little more - 20 g. The whole set is bred in a bucket of water with a capacity of 10 liters. This composition is enough to water 10-15 bushes. This procedure occurs during the period when the roots are strong enough and are able to consume the required amount of nutrients.
The second fertilizing of cucumbers with fertilizers is carried out after half a month or even 3 weeks after the primary. At this time, cucumbers begin to bloom and form ovaries. They need a lot of potassium. There is also a need for nitrogen, but to a lesser extent. However, the best fertilizer for cucumbers are fertilizers with an organic composition. To do this, use chicken droppings or mullein. The composition of the solution includes the following components:
- liquid droppings - 0.5 l;
- nitrophoska - a tablespoon;
- water - 10 l;
- boric acid - 0.5 g;
- manganese sulfate - 0.3 g;
- potassium or ash, in its absence - 50 g.
The consumption of the prepared composition is small: three liters per square meter.
The third time, cucumbers are fed half a month after the previous procedure. This time they use liquid mullein, for which they are bred in the amount of one and a half or two tablespoons in a bucket of water with a capacity of 10 liters. The consumption of the solution is more: 7-8 liters. The fourth top dressing is done after two weeks with the same composition.
The need for foliar top dressing
Growing cucumbers, vegetable growers make up a feeding plan, which necessarily includes the foliar method of fertilizing, that is, spraying the leaves with useful compounds. You can buy them in a store (Epin, Zircon) or cook them yourself. Here are the recipes for some formulations:
- Superphosphate, potassium nitric acid, boric acid, sulfuric manganese, zinc sulfate are taken in the proportions: 10/30/1 / 0.4 / 0.1. The unit of measure is grams.
- For a different composition, a 50% urea solution in the amount of 50 g is diluted in ten liters of water. If you combine this solution with mulching, fruiting is extended for a while. As mulch use needles, humus or sawdust.
- In water (1 l) boric acid is dissolved in the amount of a teaspoon and crystals of potassium permanganate, 10-12 pieces are enough.
Such top dressing has some advantage: fertilizers are immediately absorbed by plants, and useful material has less loss. But you must always remember that this power source is optional. The beneficial substances obtained by foliar top dressing do not saturate the plants with all the elements necessary for them. It is used in cases where cucumbers lack one or more substances or they lack the sun, as the climate of the country is characterized by many cloudy days. Such top dressing is carried out for cucumbers grown in open ground and in the greenhouse.
Outdoor Cucumbers
The beginning of planting these vegetables in the beds occurs at the end of spring and continues until the beginning of the first summer month. Plants find themselves in a new environment, which differs from the previous temperature and soil composition. So that cucumbers quickly take root and bear fruit well, you need to prepare it in advance. In the future, in the process of growth, fertilizing cucumbers in the soil should be carried out, as a result of which the yield will increase, and fruiting will be longer in time.
For cultivation, choose a sun-protected, but not very shaded area. It is important that before this, tomatoes, root crops, legumes or corn grow on the bed. You can not grow cucumbers for several years in a row in one place. It is undesirable for zucchini to be the precursors of culture.
The plot is prepared in the fall. It is carefully dug up while planting fresh manure, compost or humus in the soil at the rate of 5 kg / m². Organics are rich in nitrogen, but other trace elements are contained in small quantities. Therefore, in the spring, potassium with phosphorus should be introduced into the soil. Enough of them is 10-25 g / m² and 15-30 g / m² of superphosphate.
Feeding cucumbers in the open ground
For good growth and abundant fruiting, cucumbers need nutrients. Vegetables in the open ground are fed during the same periods of development as in the greenhouse. For this, fertilizers of organic and mineral composition are used, as when growing in greenhouse conditions: mullein, droppings, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium.
Below in the article are examples of top dressing for cucumbers, regardless of where they grow.
Folk recipes
Foliar top dressing of vegetables is carried out using folk remedies. So, good nutrition for cucumbers are infusions from additives of organic origin.
- Fresh hay is poured with water (the ingredients are taken in equal proportions) and insisted for two days. Cucumbers are watered 3 times, with intervals between treatments of one week.
- Wood ash is an affordable and necessary fertilizer for vegetables. It can be used throughout the growth of cucumbers: from planting to harvesting. The interval between procedures should be 9 days. Apply a dry substance or infusion, which is easy to prepare yourself. For this, ash in an amount of 200 g must be poured with water at room temperature, insisted for two days, and then diluted in a bucket of water just before watering.
- Great benefit for the growth of cucumbers brings chicken droppings. Fresh diluted in water in a proportion of 1/10, rotted - 1/20. But before applying the infusion, the plants are first watered with plain water. Chicken droppings process only aisles.
- Cucumbers feed eggshells rich in trace elements. To do this, it is crushed and sprinkled with vegetable beds. You can cook and tincture, for which you need to fill the shell with water and withstand the solution for several days.
- An addition to the nutrition of cucumbers is peel from onions. A solution is prepared from it. To do this, 200 g of husk is poured with a bucket of water and put on a stove. When it begins to boil, the liquid is removed from the heat and insisted for 5 hours. Watering is carried out under each plant.
Feeding with herbal infusion
Good nutrition for vegetables growing in a greenhouse and open ground, are infusions of various herbs. They are easy to cook on their own. There is no need to go far for vegetation - grasses grow underfoot.
To prepare the infusion, you need to grind the quinoa, nettle and plantain. In total, one kilogram is required - 330 g of each grass. Next, the mixture is poured with 12 liters of hot, but not boiling, water and infused for three days. After this, the infusion is filtered.
Feeding cucumbers with yeast
This method is not common, but its use allows you to get high yields of vegetables. Food for plants is prepared simply: yeast in an amount of 100 g is dissolved in a bucket of water, whose capacity is 10 liters. Exactly one day, the infusion wanders. After that, it is ready for use. Cucumbers are fed under the very root during the flowering period.
Vegetables will be enriched with phosphorus, potassium, vitamins and other minerals. Productivity will increase significantly and the taste of fruits growing both in the open ground and in the greenhouse will greatly improve.
DIY Organic Fertilizer
Growing cucumbers is not complete without top dressing. All mineral fertilizers are bought. Gardeners who do not have cattle on their compound acquire organic matter. Costs significantly affect family budgets. But there is a way to prepare organic fertilizer that does not require investments. To do this, you need to collect all the weeds from the garden or from the beds in the greenhouse. Add to them the leaves of dandelion, plantain and chop everything into small fractions. Pour one kilogram of the resulting herbal mixture with a 10 liter bucket of water. Insist the solution during the day, strain and pour cucumbers at the rate of four liters per square meter of the area.
Honey tincture
Such top dressing is relevant for cucumbers during their flowering, as it attracts insects that pollinate plants. To prepare it, it is enough to dilute honey in warm water: one liter tablespoon. When the solution has completely cooled, they need to spray the leaves and stems.