Breeders every year publish new varieties of vegetable crops. Bigger, sweeter, heavier, earlier - these are their characteristics. But gardeners, despite the abundance of new varieties, stubbornly continue to sow old and time-tested. One of them is a rival cucumber.
Description
"Competitor" is an early variety. Seeds germinate well. The plant begins to bear fruit a month and a half after the emergence of seedlings. "Competitor" is a very productive cucumber.
It has oval-cylindrical coarse-humped fruits of bright green color. Length - from 9 to 12 cm, weight - from 70 to 100 g.
A variety of universal purpose. Cucumbers can be eaten fresh (very tasty) or canned.
The "competitor" is relatively resistant to major diseases affecting the entire pumpkin family. Grow it in greenhouses and open ground.
Sowing seeds
Cucumber seeds are sown dry or sprouted. But they should be last year, and better still older: the longer the seeds lay, the more female flowers formed on the lashes. The most productive varieties of cucumbers are suitable for cultivation for six years.
Before germinating the seeds, they need to be calibrated - hold for 10 minutes in a three percent salt solution. Seeds that have settled to the bottom, washed with clean water and incubated for up to a day in a weak solution of trace elements (boric acid, potassium permanganate) for disinfection.
Further dried for sowing or germinate.
For this:
- Stack in a dish, covered with a damp cloth. Make sure that it does not dry out. We must not miss the moment when the sprout emerging from the seed will be half its length. Cucumber seeds germinate quickly enough. They are sown in open ground, a greenhouse, seedlings or tablets. If at this stage the plant grows stronger, it will be difficult for it to take root.
- When using the landless method, a plastic tape is prepared, toilet paper is laid on it, seeds are placed closer to one of the edges. The distance between them is a couple of centimeters. Then this tape is rolled up and put in a glass or other narrow container with water. It should not reach the seeds. Gradually, moisture will rise through the capillaries of the paper and moisten the seeds. They will germinate when exposed to a temperature of 26 degrees. When they germinate, you need to unwind the tape and sow the seeds
They are placed in peas or peat bricks to a depth of 1 cm. The temperature is reduced to 22 ° C during the day and to 16 ° C at night. Moderately watered with warm water.
To accelerate fruiting, seedlings can be illuminated.
Feeding with an aqueous solution of mullein or chicken droppings. Mineral fertilizers can be used: superphosphate, urea, potassium sulfate.
Be sure to harden the seedlings so that it is ready to withstand the cold.
Soil preparation
Good predecessors for cucumber are onions, tomatoes, potatoes.
In autumn, fertilize the soil with mineral or organic fertilizers. In the spring, dig or cultivate the soil.
It is necessary to determine in advance the method of growing cucumbers. They can be sown in rows, leaving more room for spreading lashes. You can sow sweet corn next to cucumbers, which they will use as a support.
Trellis cultivation
Increasingly, cucumbers are grown on trellises. This is done so that they are not damaged by peronosporosis (powdery mildew). It provokes moisture, which falls on the leaves from the soil. Cucumber "competitor" often suffers from peronosporosis.
Growing on trellises makes it possible to protect it from diseases and facilitates care. Raising the stems from the ground, facilitate harvesting, increase fruiting time and yield. To do this, you first need to work hard.
Early varieties are grown in this way, including the "competitor" cucumber.
Description of the trellis installation process:
- Trellis posts are installed so that it is convenient to pass between the rows.
- Pull the wire in several rows or stretch the cucumber net. The height of the structure can reach 1 m 70 cm.
- Seedlings are planted in the prepared soil under the net or seeds are sown to a depth of one and a half centimeters. Seedling for planting has four true leaves. There should be about 15 pieces per square meter. With such a density, a competitor cucumber develops well. Reviews advise between trellis to place another row of these plants. This will help save space, but will thicken the landing.
When to sow cucumbers? Soil temperature should be 15 . Sowing in the southern regions is carried out in the second half of April. In the north - in the third decade of May. Seeds germinate in a week.
When growing cucumbers on a grid, additional reinforcement of the structure is not required. If wires are used, then after weeding and forming the density of plants, it is necessary to establish vertical supports near each plant using twine or rope. The "competitor" cucumber variety has long lashes. Shoots will cling tendrils to supports and rise up. But first, they need to be sent, tied to a trellis.
Watering
Seedlings are watered regularly. It used to be that the best way to water is sprinkling. But it contributes to the infection of cucumbers with powdery mildew. Sometimes its symptoms appear already on the second day after such watering.
Therefore, now more often they pour water into specially prepared furrows. They need to be made so that the water flows as slowly as possible. To do this, you can loosen the soil or mulch it.
But you do not need to fill the site either. This can cause root rot. You can increase watering rates during the fruiting period. Cucumbers are watered in the morning or in the evening.
Top dressing
Before this procedure, plants need to be watered so as not to burn the roots. You can reduce these two processes into one. They feed with a solution of mullein or chicken droppings, mineral fertilizers.
Bush formation
When planting with normal density, you can not form a vine from such a vegetable as a rival cucumber. Reviews gardeners say that if the plants are thickened, then they need to be pinched.
The first shoots are removed after the formation of several fruits. The subsequent ones, like the main stem, are tied to the trellis.
Diseases and Pests
Cucumber is often affected by various diseases. This is powdery mildew, olive and angular spotting (bacteriosis), ordinary mosaic, cladosporiosis. To prevent these infections, cucumbers in the stage of one or two real leaves are treated with preparations containing copper. This is copper oxychloride, Bordeaux liquid. It is also used during the growing season when signs of the disease appear. Do this in the early morning or evening, so that there are no burns on the leaves.
With ticks, aphids fight ten percent karbofos.
Harvesting
When growing cucumbers on trellis, the yield doubles. And the fruits on plants grown from seedlings are harvested 20, or even 25 days earlier than from those sown in the ground. This makes it possible to get a good harvest until mid-July, when cucumber "competitor" is struck by powdery mildew.
Feedback from gardeners suggests that each region has its own varieties. Moreover, one cannot sow alone. After all, if he does not give a crop, you will be left without cucumbers. The method of growing on a trellis using seedlings is suitable for the middle strip, including the variety in question.
Customer reviews of the Moscow Region indicate that they do not use cucumbers from the greenhouse for pickling and preservation . They are afraid that the caps will swell, and all their efforts will be in vain.
Varieties of cucumbers for the suburbs:
- "Zozulya" - early, fruits up to 23 cm long and weighing up to 300 g. Resistant to powdery mildew, but affected by white rot.
- "Moravian Gherkin" is a hybrid of a universal type. Fruits - up to 10 cm in length. Bee pollinated.
- "Herman" is a parthenoscopic hybrid. Very popular due to early ripening and good yield. Used as a salad and for salting.
- Cucumber is a "competitor". Reviews of gardeners indicate that it is excellent fruiting and unpretentious to growing conditions.
The most productive varieties of cucumbers:
- "Hector" F1 - bush type cucumber. Resistant to disease and lack of moisture.
- "Sparta" is a bee-pollinated hybrid. The fruits have soft skin, therefore they are suitable for preservation and salting.
- "Altai early" - quickly ripens (on the 37th day) and fruitful.
- "Evita" - appreciated for the taste of the fruit. They are not at all bitter.
Dutch varieties of cucumbers for the Moscow region are not always suitable because of the inability to weather the region, although they are leaders in yield.
Indian cucumbers are interesting, which grow by 7 cm per day. They are resistant to lower temperatures.
Chinese varieties ripen very early and have a strong pleasant aroma. These are the varieties "Chinese miracle", "wait-jo".