Spring is coming, and the body already requires vitamins. With what pleasure you would crunch on a fresh, just plucked cucumber! It is not necessary to wait for the summer, they can be planted at any time of the year on the windowsill. And in a month and a half you will enjoy the first fruits of your efforts.
Choose seeds for planting
When answering the question of how to grow a cucumber on a windowsill, it must be mentioned that not all varieties of cucumbers will grow and bear fruit in an apartment environment, so you need to carefully consider their choice. For these purposes, self-pollinated hybrids such as "zozulya", "April", "stella", "cucaracha" are optimally suitable. If preference is given to bee pollinated varieties, then pollinating hybrids must also be planted. And this will create unnecessary worries and take up additional space on the windowsill. And planting, for example, a cucumber "zozulya", you will receive a friendly return of the early cucumbers already 50 days after germination. Green coarse-humped fruits weighing from 160 to 300 grams will delight you with an excellent taste.
Choose a place, capacity and soil
If the house has windows facing the south side, then planting cucumbers is best there. The east and west sides can also be considered as an option, but the north side is best avoided. If you have long been thinking about how to grow a cucumber on the windowsill, then do not miss this important point.
The capacity for planting should be roomy enough - at least eight liters for one plant. For these purposes, a wooden box or a durable plastic bag is suitable. At the bottom of the tanks you need to make holes to drain excess water and ventilate the roots.
The soil for planting cucumbers should be light and nutritious. The shops have a large selection of ready-made soil mixtures. You can use them, or you can make a substrate yourself. For a quality mixture, you will need 20% of the land, 40% of compost, 10% of sawdust and 30% of peat. An incomplete matchbox of urea and two boxes of superphosphate and potassium sulfate must be added to the mixture .
Be sure to lay a drainage layer on the bottom of the tanks before filling them with soil.
We grow seedlings of cucumbers
Now we turn directly to the answer to the question of how to grow a cucumber on the windowsill. Soak the seeds and wait for their germination. Take the strongest of them and put them in peat pots. Now they need to be put together in one box, covered with a transparent film and put away in a warm place. After seedlings appear, seedlings need to be rearranged in a cool place, so the seedlings will not stretch. After the appearance of 4 or 5 sheets, the top must be pinched. This technique will enhance the growth of the root system and side lashes. It does not hurt to create additional seedlings for seedlings using fluorescent lamps.
Planting seedlings in a permanent place
After about 25 days, the cucumbers can be transplanted to a permanent place. Seedlings need to be planted directly in peat pots in a well-moistened soil, additionally watering each cucumber. The photos in the article show that with this method of growing, you can get strong healthy plants. Carefully monitor the soil moisture - the soil should never dry out.
Cucumber Care
When the seedlings begin to grow actively, you need to stick pegs near the plants and stretch the ropes along the wall of the balcony or to the top of the window. Cucumbers need to be tied to them. Then they will cling to the rope on their own. From time to time, feed seedlings with mineral fertilizers, on cloudy days, light up with fluorescent lamps. Do not tighten the collection of ripened cucumbers - they slow down the growth of the remaining fruits.
That's all the tricks on how to grow a cucumber on the windowsill. Following these recommendations, you can get up to 30 cucumbers from each plant.