A popular pumpkin annual crop - cucumber - can be successfully grown both in open ground and in greenhouses. This herbaceous plant has been familiar to mankind for more than six millennia.
The most common vegetable
It is believed that cucumber came to Europe from the Himalayan foothills. Today it is one of the most popular vegetable crops planted in the plots. And although the nutritional value of the fruit is not very large, the cucumber has a great advantage: it is equally good both in fresh and in processed form.
Mankind is also aware of the many healing qualities of this representative of the pumpkin family, due to the high content of phosphorus and potassium salts. Experts say that the constant use of fresh cucumbers removes cholesterol and normalizes metabolism, improves the condition of hair and skin.
Growing seedlings at home
Traditionally, this vegetable has been grown from seeds for centuries, however, for some time, many summer residents began to opt for another method - seedlings. Its main advantage is the possibility of obtaining an earlier harvest - for about ten fifteen days. Cucumber seedlings are thought to be more tender than tomatoes. Nevertheless, observing all the required agricultural conditions, it can be quite safely grown even on the windowsill. Properly grown and prepared for planting in the soil seedlings should have at least a couple of real leaves, a strong stem and well-developed root shoots. The color of the seedlings should be juicy green.
Care Features
In order to get a good harvest from seedlings grown at home, you need to follow a number of agrotechnical rules. First of all, it is light and temperature conditions, competent watering, as well as the correct selection of soil mass. Important prerequisites for obtaining the desired result are also optimal planting dates and, of course, timely top dressing of cucumber seedlings.
First of all, you should pay attention to the quality of the seeds. Those sold in stores are already, as a rule, decontaminated and prepared for sowing. This can not be said about home material: it necessarily needs pre-processing. This set of work includes a selection of the healthiest seeds, their disinfection, soaking and hardening. All these processing steps are very important for obtaining good seedlings.
What is feeding for?
The desire to get a rich and earlier harvest is the reason why amateur gardeners grow seedlings at home. Therefore, it is very important at the time of planting in the soil to have a well-developed seed.
Some vegetable growers believe that numerous changes in the “place of residence” for
melons are harmful, so they put the sprouted seeds immediately in peat cups, which they later dig into the ground.
In order for the most popular representative of the pumpkin family to have a healthy appearance, he definitely needs such an event as top dressing cucumber seedlings. It is believed that it is needed not only for normal development and growth, but also for the plant to accumulate a lot of organic trace elements. Only those cucumbers whose seedlings were fed correctly and in a timely manner will be large, healthy and tasty.
The timing
Some believe that after planting seeds in a soil rich in nutrients, they only need to be watered and wait for the first sprouts to appear. But this is a fallacy.
Despite the fact that peat or other soil composition is really rich in many trace elements, top dressing cucumber seedlings at home is necessary. This also applies to the process of growing tomato seedlings from seeds, as well as other vegetable crops. As a rule, the first feeding of seedlings of tomatoes and cucumbers is done only after the appearance of the very first leaf on the sprout.
In general, there are agrotechnical principles for applying fertilizers to the soil for vegetable crops at different stages of their development. For example, the first feeding of cucumber seedlings should be combined with watering and carried out in the early morning hours and better on warm days. Vegetables that have not yet begun to bear fruit are more likely to need nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium liquid fertilizers, while plants that already have ovaries need more magnesium.
If the first feeding of cucumbers is carried out at the time of the appearance of the first leaf, then the second is done with the second. The third time, fertilizer should be applied only two weeks after the first fertilizing.
Composition
In this case, the second top dressing of cucumber seedlings, as well as the subsequent one, is distinguished by a twofold increase in the number of mineral components. This is done in order to prevent certain diseases of this culture. As a first feeding, many gardeners prepare a mixture of ammonium nitrate, superphosphates, potassium sulfate and bird droppings.
If the seeds are grown in a greenhouse, then the second top dressing is done fifteen days after the first with a doubling of the number of components in the same volume of water. On poor soils or with weak growth, feeding of seedlings of tomato and cucumber with mullein very well helps. A solution of chicken manure with ash also helps.
In this case, you must always remember that fertilizer should not fall on cucumbers. Dressing seedlings should be carried out very carefully. Its completion should be mandatory watering with slightly warm water. The introduced solution should not fall on the aerial part of the seedlings. But if this could not be avoided, then the trunk and leaves should be immediately sprayed with clean water.
Yeast as a top dressing
Gardeners often use mineral or organic substances as fertilizers. Some people buy them at the store, while others prefer to make the solution with their own hands. Moreover, experts believe that self-made top dressing is most useful for seedlings of cucumbers, tomatoes, since only monitoring the growth and development of the plant helps to choose the right components for it that are not enough at a particular stage.
Today, many gardeners use drugs with effective microorganisms - a special group of saccharomycetes that contribute to the rapid decomposition of organics, and also, favorably affecting the microflora in the soil, protect the culture from diseases or pests. They include the most common yeast, with the help of which lush dough or tasty kvass is prepared. The top dressing made of them for seedlings of cucumbers, tomatoes is an excellent stimulant for rooting the plant, as well as normal growth and development. And if for tomatoes it has been used by domestic gardeners for a long time, then for pumpkin crops its use can be called an innovation.
How to deposit
Top dressing of cucumber seedlings with yeast is used immediately after transplanting into the ground. Contribute it twice. For the first time, cucumbers need a solution a week after the first nitrogen bait, and the second after phosphate. Two times for cucumbers is quite enough, since such bait is considered rather a stimulating event: it does not replace a full-fledged complex of nutrients.
A yeast-based fertilizer for gourds belonging to the pumpkin family is needed at the beginning of the growing season and during fruiting. In this case, according to reviews, the result is noticeable almost immediately. Cucumbers and tomatoes are very fond of this solution, and after it they begin to quickly build up green mass. The increase in the vegetative mass of the plant and the number of fetal ovaries, the reduction of empty flowers - all this contributes to the yeast feeding for seedlings of cucumbers, tomatoes.
Gardeners tips
To prepare such a fertilizer, a summer resident will need a couple of minutes. You can use different yeast - both raw, packed in briquettes, and dry. And if you don’t have them at hand, you can make a nutritious solution from bread or crackers.
At the same time, we must not forget that the yeast "works" only in a warm environment, so this feeding of cucumber seedlings is necessarily introduced into the heated soil. But you should not abuse such home fertilizer.
Seedlings on the windowsill
Few people realize that there is a very real opportunity to get good harvests of cucumbers or tomatoes at home, using for this purpose a balcony or window sill of your apartment, even in a multi-story building. But in vain, because from each window you can easily get up to five to six kilograms of tomato.
In most regions of our country, the cultivation of cucumbers and tomatoes on the windowsill begins in March and lasts until December. For this, only windows facing south are used.
Care
The cultivation of cucumbers or tomatoes on the windowsill for many Russians is a great opportunity to get a harvest of delicious fruits after the summer season. In addition, this, according to some, is a very original design when decorating the interior of your home.
However, in order to be able to pick a cucumber from a bush at any time, you need to know some features of this not-so-traditional version of growing a crop. For example, a plant needs to be watered almost daily, using at the same time standing water at room temperature. In addition, care must be taken to ensure that the soil is well moistened. However, in this case, stagnation of water in containers should never be allowed. If this is not done, then the root system of a vegetable crop can seriously suffer from an excess of moisture.
Fertilizer for indoor vegetables
An important factor for obtaining a good harvest of delicious crispy greens is the timely feeding of cucumber seedlings on the windowsill. Some for this purpose buy special complex fertilizers in stores , while others prefer to prepare the solution with their own hands, using bird droppings, coal ash.
It should be remembered that any fertilizer, especially for seedlings, requires compliance with moderation and caution. It must also be remembered that seedlings are adversely affected by an increase in the concentration of salts in the soil, so in no case should you overdo it, especially with mullein, which contributes to the development of fungal disease.
Feeding cucumber seedlings on the windowsill begins two weeks after the appearance of the first leaf. At this stage, it is best to use a solution of ammonium nitrate with magnesium sulfate and superphosphate.