Every year, as soon as the snow begins to melt, experienced and beginner gardeners buy seeds, preparing to harvest a rich harvest. Growing cucumbers is not a complicated procedure, but still requires some care. To collect the maximum amount of vegetables during the season, you need to properly form the plant bush. Therefore, it is useful for all gardeners to know how to pinch cucumbers.
To begin with, you should choose seeds: these can be either hybrid varieties or the most common ones, but their care will be different. You can germinate them in a greenhouse or in glasses on the windowsill, it all depends on the personal capabilities of each gardener. When the time comes to plant seedlings in the open ground, you should pull the trellis along which cucumber lashes will wander. The support must be firm because adult plants are quite heavy.
When the seedlings begin to branch, it is necessary to tie it to the trellis, but not tight under the cotyledon leaves. This will enable the bush to develop normally. Before pinching cucumbers, you must wait until they grow their lashes. If the seeds were bought hybrid, then when forming a bush, it is necessary to cut off the top above the sixth leaf. Cucumber should have only three main shoots, everything else is removed. If the variety was ordinary, then only one stem is formed, which by default is the main one.
After pinching the cucumbers is no longer necessary, it is necessary to care only for the main shoot. Only four growth points should remain on the stem, from which the crop will be harvested. No more, because it can weaken the bush. Weak, twisted and excess loops are recommended to be removed without delay. Leaves should not be picked because they feed the stems with useful substances.
Many gardeners not only do not know how to pinch cucumbers, but also do not understand why this is necessary. Indeed, why is it so necessary to tie up plants, cut off excess lashes, trim the tops, if everything can be left to chance and get a crop. If you do nothing, then cucumbers, of course, will grow, but there will not be as many as they could be, and the quality of vegetables will be noticeably worse. The fact is that this plant has such a feature as the laying of male shoots, which are also called empty flowers. Only the lateral shoots of the female crop yield, which is why it is so necessary to pin the cucumber. Otherwise, the female stems will grow very few, and the fruits will be bitter.
When planting cucumbers, it is important not only to pinch them in time, but also to properly care for them. These plants love water, so in hot weather they need daily watering, and you should not forget about feeding. They need to be planted not too close to each other, since the trellis can tear under the weight of the lashes, and the leaves will be covered by flowers, so you can never wait for the ovaries.
If you follow all the recommendations, timely form bushes and care for them, then the crop will be early and plentiful. In any case, the time and effort will not be wasted. Such fruits have an attractive appearance, very tasty and crispy. For the sake of this, it is worth a little tinkering with seedlings.