Growing vegetables is an exciting experience. Cucumbers can be included in the list of favorite crops that are popular among vegetable growers. They show off on vegetable beds next to tomatoes and herbs and many other plants. In addition, they are grown in greenhouses and even on the window of a city apartment.
For the cultivation of cucumbers in the open ground, pick up areas protected from drafts, well warmed by the sun. They cannot be grown in shaded areas in the garden. Heat and moisture - these are the basic requirements of cucumber culture for normal development and fruiting.
When choosing a site, attention should be paid to soil fertility. It is cooked in the fall. Having dug up a site, organic fertilizers are introduced. They will perfectly increase fertility and improve the structure of the soil. If liming was carried out in the fall, then they are applying fertilizers in the spring. By May 20, rotted manure, ash and complex mineral fertilizers are added to areas under vegetable crops.
Cucumbers belong to the pumpkin family. This group of vegetable crops belongs to thermophilic plants. This property determines the timing of sowing cucumbers in open ground. They may vary according to weather conditions. In different regions, this period begins at different times. You can start sowing cucumbers in open ground when warming the soil and stable night air temperatures, which should not fall below 10 degrees Celsius. Usually acceptable conditions for sowing cucumbers in open ground occur at the end of May.
Do not rush to sow. Under favorable conditions, cucumbers emerge in a week. And with early sowing, they can be damaged by short-term frosts. Untimely crops can lead to damage and even death of seedlings. In this case, the sowing of cucumbers in the open ground will have to be repeated. With the complete loss of plants, the beds are formed anew. With partial death of seedlings, sowing is carried out in the places of their loss.
For successful cultivation, preliminary preparation of cucumber seeds for sowing is required , which contributes to their good germination and resistance of the sowing material to diseases and adverse weather conditions.
Seeds sorted out. The feeble and damaged are discarded. Sorting of seed can be done manually or with a slightly salted solution. To prepare it, dissolve 2 teaspoons of salt in a liter of water. Dense seeds are lowered to the bottom of the tank. And unsuitable seed remains on the surface of the liquid. Such seeds are thrown away. The remaining seeds are washed with running water and dried slightly. After which the treatment is continued with a pink solution of potassium permanganate. Disinfection in this way is carried out for fifteen minutes. This is an excellent preventive measure that will help protect future plants from diseases. Then proceed to the next stage of preparation of seed material of cucumbers.
Preventive treatment with potassium permanganate is replaced by soaking. For this, the seeds are placed in a damp cloth treated with a solution of mineral fertilizers or growth stimulants. The process of dropping seeds is carried out at a temperature of 22 degrees Celsius. When sprouts appear, you can sow cucumbers in open ground. Such seeds germinate very quickly. Therefore, soaking should be made suitable for the period of establishing warm weather. It is also good to restore sprouted beds with sprouted seeds.
Sowing cucumbers in open ground can be done with dry seeds or dry and soaked at the same time. In this case, after the disinfection, the seed is dried and sown in the ground. Purchased seeds that have been processed by seed suppliers do not require additional seedbed preparation.