Planting cucumber seedlings in open ground: how to plant, picking, further care

Why are cucumbers replanted?

In some areas, cucumbers are planted from seeds directly into the soil. But also often, gardeners first grow seedlings at home, and then transplant them into open ground or a greenhouse. There may also be an option that the plant is grown in a greenhouse and then transferred to the garden.

Cucumbers are mainly grown as seedlings in areas where spring lasts a long time and is characterized by temperature changes, and summer is short. Therefore, if you immediately plant seeds in the soil here, there is a risk of not getting a good harvest.

In addition, if you immediately plant cucumbers with seeds in open ground, they can germinate thickly. If such a situation arises, then it is necessary to plant them, otherwise during growth the plants will interfere with each other.

Choosing containers for seedlings

The era of cups made from polyethylene is gradually becoming a thing of the past. Modern gardeners either adapt containers for mayonnaise, sour cream and other products for growing seedlings, or buy special containers. In the first case, you need to remember that cucumber seedlings are demanding on the volume of soil, and therefore the container should be large, ideally from 0.5 liters. Containers sold in stores also have certain requirements.

Plastic cups

It is important that the cups do not wrinkle; this will injure the roots of the cucumbers. For these plants, it is better to buy containers with a removable bottom: this way you can remove adult seedlings with minimal injury.

If you buy wide cups, at least 10-12 cm in diameter, you don’t have to remove the seedlings at all. It is enough to remove the bottom and plant the plant in open ground. This is good protection against mole crickets.

Peat pots

If you don’t expect great results from peat pots, you can grow cucumber seedlings in them. The advantage of such containers is the possibility of planting in the ground without removing the seedlings - the roots grow through the soggy walls. However, the following conditions must be met:

It is necessary to have a strong tray in which you can put peat pots with seedlings;
It is better to make the bottom with holes to drain excess water, otherwise the walls will become wet and damaged;
The walls of the pots should be of medium thickness.

You cannot pour soil into such a container to the top, you need to leave 1-1.5 cm of space, this will protect the pots from damage. You will have to water the cucumbers more often; the soil here will dry out faster. Otherwise, the technique for growing cucumbers is the same as in other containers.

Peat tablets

Due to the high cost of peat tablets, this method is good when you need to grow 10-20 cucumber bushes. The tablets are compressed peat enriched with nutrients. Before sowing the seeds, the tablets are soaked in water, they swell, increasing in size several times. Cucumber seeds are placed in the resulting depression, pressing them with a match to a depth of 1 cm.

Water the seedlings by pouring water into sealed trays in which the tablets are placed. Other than watering and temperature control, no action needs to be taken. The seedlings are planted in the ground without removing them from the peat mass, so the roots are not damaged.

For cucumbers, peat briquettes are one of the best options.

Germination of seeds

Processing of seed material is not required if it was purchased in a store, because they have gone through all stages of processing and disinfection. But if collected from your own garden, they need to be prepared before planting.

The first thing to do is to warm them up for 2-3 hours at a temperature of 60 degrees. It is better to use an oven for these purposes. Line a baking tray with paper and place the seed on top in a thin layer. During the procedure, mix them several times.

Then the seed material needs to be soaked. Therefore, they are placed in a solution for 12 hours, for the preparation of which you need:

manganese sulfate - 0.2 g;
potassium nitrate - 10 g;
superphosphate 5 g;
water – 1 l.

The components must be diluted in a liquid whose temperature is 40-45 degrees. Dip the seeds into warm water so that it covers only a little of their surface. This approach will allow the seeds to “breathe” and improve their germination.

The next thing you can do is harden the seeds. To do this, they need to be wrapped in a damp cloth and left in the refrigerator for two days at a temperature of 0 to 2 degrees with a minus sign.

After completing the procedure, the container with the material for sowing, wrapped in gauze or cotton fabric, must be moved to a warm place (20 degrees). It is important to moisten from time to time with plain water or the solution in which the seeds were soaked. The main thing is not to overdo it with liquid, so as not to spoil them. The seeds will germinate in 48-72 hours and should be planted immediately.

Attention! If you leave the sprouted seeds too long, the sprouts will become long and it will be difficult to remove them from the gauze intact.

In addition, in order for a culture to develop normally in the future, it needs soil. Therefore, you need to first prepare everything for planting germinated seeds, choose a place and timing for the procedure.

Pre-sowing seed preparation

Cucumber seeds germinate faster than all other vegetable seeds. But before you lower them into the ground, you need to do some preparation. Of course, you don’t have to germinate or disinfect cucumber seeds - they will still sprout and begin to grow. But in order to guarantee high-quality and healthy seedlings, you need to properly process them before planting.

One important caveat is that if the seeds are store-bought, they may be processed, although this does not have to be done. In this case, you don’t need to do anything with them and they can be sown immediately in the soil or in cups. But seeds are now quite expensive and many gardeners are trying to get their own seeds.

It is necessary to take into account that you cannot collect seeds from hybrid cucumbers, they do not inherit the parental qualities, and their properties will be completely different.

Calibration Using calibration, high-quality, full-bodied seeds of the same size without a damaged shell are selected. Such seeds germinate together, at approximately the same time, which simplifies working with them.

To calibrate cucumber seeds, pour warm water into a glass three-quarters full and add a level teaspoon of salt. Mix well until the salt dissolves. Now place the seeds in the glass and mix well again. Let stand for 5-10 minutes. High-quality seeds will sink to the bottom, and dry, puny, damaged seeds will float to the surface. They need to be removed from the glass, the water carefully drained through a strainer, where the good seeds will remain.

Disinfection. On the surface of the seeds there may be pathogens that can cause serious diseases during the growing season. To prevent this from happening, disinfection is carried out. This is done using antiseptic solutions, for example, chlorhexidine, potassium permanganate or others. Chlorhexidine can be purchased at a pharmacy. There is no need to dilute it, just place the seeds in it for 30 minutes. Do not overexpose, otherwise the shell may be damaged. After this, the seeds are washed with clean water.

Soak. Now the seeds need to be soaked in warm water for 10-12 hours. For cucumber seeds this is enough, because... they have a not very dense shell, which quickly softens. Now the embryo can easily grow out.

Germination. The swollen seeds are placed in a damp cloth or between two cotton pads, which must be constantly kept wet, but not in a “swamp”. Seeds must breathe during germination. It usually takes 2-3 days, maximum 4, before sprouts appear. As soon as 50% of the seeds have sprouted, you can start sowing.

Cucumber seeds have a fairly long shelf life. It is not even recommended to sow them if they are fresh, from last year or even the year before. The best results will be obtained when sowing seeds in the third year of life. Cucumber seeds can be stored for up to eight years.

Growing seedlings

If you grow cucumbers through seedlings, you can get ready-made fruits much earlier than by sowing seeds directly into the ground. This cultivation option is especially relevant in the northern regions. In addition, this method increases the fruiting period.

You can prepare the soil for planting seedlings yourself in advance or buy it ready-made at a flower shop. In the first case, you need to mix peat, humus, turf and mullein in a ratio of 5:3:1:1.

To plant seeds, gardeners use cups filled with soil. The container can be made of plastic, paper or peat, and the size must be at least 70x70 mm. If the container is paper or peat, then you can transplant the seedlings into open ground without removing it from the cup.

You can also grow seedlings through seeds in boxes. The distance in the row should be at least 20-30 mm, and between the rows - 60-80 mm. In this case, over time, you can carry out a pick. The depth at which the seeds should be planted should be no more than 20-30 mm. You shouldn’t deepen it too much, as seedlings will be late.

Usually 2, sometimes 3 seeds are planted in a container. The top needs to be compacted a little with earth and watered with water at room temperature.

Attention!

Watering should be done through a sieve to prevent washing out of planting material.

Next, cover the container with film so that all shoots appear at the same time. To germinate seeds, the microclimate in the room must correspond to the temperature regime: no more than 28 and no less than 26 degrees Celsius with a plus sign. Open the containers after the first seedlings appear and lower the temperature for 4 days to 20 degrees Celsius during the day and 16 degrees at night. After this period, the thermometer reading must be increased by 5 points.

To avoid crops being stretched, they need additional lighting. Therefore, a special lamp is installed near the sprouts, which will shine in the absence of sunlight.

It is also important to fertilize cucumbers. The procedure is carried out for the first time after the appearance of two true leaves. Ammonium nitrate is used as a top dressing, which has a beneficial effect on plant growth. Two weeks later, the procedure is repeated, but with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers. To do this, dissolve 80 g of the substance in a bucket of water.

Water the plants only with warm water. Despite the fact that cucumbers are a moisture-loving crop, an excess of liquid can cause mold formation or rotting of the root system.

To avoid any questions about when to plant cucumber seedlings in open ground, you need to remember that the procedure is carried out 30-35 days after the first shoots appear. During this period, the roots will fill the entire space of the container, which is a sign of good nutrition and health of the plant.

Methods for planting cucumbers

In addition to the completely natural cultivation of cucumbers in beds “as is,” that is, with the vines placed on the ground, there are various options aimed at saving space in the garden. And if in greenhouses cucumbers were always grown on trellises or, at least, tying the vines in a vertical direction, then the trellis method became almost traditional among land-poor summer residents relatively recently. And after it, more exotic options appeared.

Growing on a trellis

It has been noticed that cucumbers planted close to trees easily climb to incredible heights, as a result of which both apples and cucumbers can be collected from one tree. It’s hard to say why, but in my garden, cucumbers are more partial to powerful apple trees than to less respectable cherries or plums.

Using this fact, many gardeners plant cucumbers next to natural supports (for example, a fence) or specially build them for them. Vertically growing cucumbers not only save space in the garden. They are much easier to care for, easier to collect, and the fruits hang clean.

Video: cucumbers under an apple tree

When grown on a trellis, plants can be planted more densely (the distances both in the row and between the rows are reduced). Therefore, the amount of fertilizer applied must be increased. Since it is undesirable to grow one crop for several years in a row in one place, craftsmen design the trellis to be easily dismountable or portable. In this case, the distance between the posts is maintained at about 1 meter, and several rows of wire are stretched across them.

In order for cucumbers to climb onto the trellis, it is often necessary to first tie the plants with soft twine. The situation is simpler if there is a mesh with large cells (at least 15 cm). By placing such a net vertically, you don’t have to worry: the cucumbers will behave like a vine. You can do it differently by stretching only one wire at a distance of about 2 meters from the ground. Cucumbers are tied with twine at a height of 10–15 cm from the ground, and this twine is tied to the wire. The technique of sowing seeds or planting seedlings does not differ from that of conventional cultivation.

A vertically placed mesh solves many problems with cucumber agricultural technology

Growing cucumbers in a barrel

Using old barrels is becoming a popular way to grow many vegetables that grow in large clumps. This is how they plant, for example, melons, watermelons, pumpkins, even strawberries. This saves space in the garden (the barrel can be placed anywhere), and the plants are in well-warmed soil. Any barrel, but preferably an iron one, dark-colored and full of holes, is filled halfway with all sorts of organic debris, and fertile soil, well flavored with humus, is placed above it. In the spring, water the contents with mullein infusion and cover with film to warm up.

Already in mid-May (for the middle zone), cucumber seeds can be sown in a barrel under temporary shelter. Since bushes grow faster in warm soil, it is more profitable to plant the earliest ripening varieties in a barrel; they can catch up with greenhouse varieties. Over time, due to the rotting of the remains, the soil in the barrel will still settle, so there are no problems with temporarily sheltering the bushes from cold weather. And by the onset of real summer, the shelter is removed, and the lashes are either allowed to hang down or sent to specially constructed arcs.

Barrels with planted cucumbers even decorate the area

The advantages of using barrels are obvious; it is much easier to care for cucumbers in them, but you have to water them more often than in a garden bed.

Video: planting cucumber seedlings in a barrel

Growing cucumbers in bags or tires

Instead of barrels, you can use large garbage bags with almost the same success. Most often, bags with a capacity of 100–120 liters are taken for this purpose. True, they are less stable than barrels, so they are reinforced with any wooden frame. They also drive a stake inside to tie the lashes. Cucumbers in bags have to be watered frequently, daily in hot weather.

Bags of cucumber plants can be transported from place to place

Instead of bags, sometimes they use several old car tires, placing them on top of each other in a cylinder (if they are the same size) or a pyramid. Since the tires are black, the soil inside them is quickly warmed by the sun. Drainage material is placed at the bottom of the pyramid, and then nutrient soil. Planting and care are the same as in barrels or bags.

How to prepare seedlings

Before planting cucumbers in the garden, the plants need to be properly prepared. First of all, they need to be hardened off so that the seedlings do not die. The procedure should be carried out approximately 7 days before the transplant. For this purpose, the culture must be left outside first during the daytime. And then increase your time in the fresh air and strengthen yourself even at night.

However, cucumbers should not be left in a place exposed to direct UV rays. The seedlings should be in the shade. You can also specifically shade it when solar activity is at its peak. Thanks to this approach, transplanting cucumber seedlings will be less painful for the plants, since they will get used to temperature changes.

Preparing planting material for sowing

It is recommended to plant fresh cucumber seeds in containers for seedlings. Over time, the grains show a poor germination percentage. When collecting seeds for sowing for seedlings yourself, you need to understand that if the grains were collected from vegetables of hybrid varieties, then you should not expect a harvest with last year’s fruiting properties and taste. If you want to get a vegetable with ideal characteristics from seedlings, you will need purchased planting material. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the varieties of cucumbers that produce the greatest yield.

Seed preparation begins with sorting . Small grains and irregular shapes are disposed of immediately. They are unlikely to grow into healthy cucumber seedlings, but rather fragile sprouts that will quickly die. Quality-looking seeds are soaked in salt water. The solution is prepared at the rate of 250 ml of clean water and 1 teaspoon of table salt. Wait a little time and separate the grains that float to the surface.

Only those that have settled to the bottom are suitable for planting in seedling containers. They are rinsed with running water and laid out on gauze to dry naturally.

But that's not all. To increase the protective barrier of cucumber seeds, it is important to carry out the hardening procedure . The grains are placed on a damp cloth, where they should germinate. Then the napkin along with the planting material is placed in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, take out the napkin and keep it at a comfortable room temperature. The manipulation should be repeated for another 2-3 days, until the shell of the grains cracks.

All this time, make sure that the piece of fabric does not dry out. The material must remain damp.

To achieve high germination, the grains are dipped in an aqueous solution of a biostimulant. Soaking lasts 10-12 hours.

Disinfection will help improve the health of seeds for seedlings . There are several ways to carry out this procedure:

For half an hour, the seeds are poured with a 1% solution of potassium permanganate in a soft pink shade. Next, the grains are thoroughly washed and dried.
You can place the seed in the oven for 3 hours. The temperature setting is 60 degrees. Gardeners are replacing ovens with incandescent lamps.
Before sowing cucumber seeds for seedlings, it does not hurt to place the grains under an ultraviolet lighting device. 5 minutes is enough.
Prepare an infusion with the addition of wood ash. Dissolve a couple of tablespoons of ash in 1 liter of warm water. Leave the solution to sit for three days. The grains are kept in the solution for half an hour and then dried.

Before sowing cucumber seeds in containers, if the planting material is not of very high quality or has been stored for a long time, it is recommended to germinate the seeds. Gardeners recommend not wasting time and sowing only those cucumbers that have already sprouted.

Although sprouted seeds have a significant drawback - they need warm temperatures and frequent watering. If the shells are dry and the seeds are not placed deep enough in the ground, the gardener should know that the seedlings are not able to get rid of the peel themselves. You can help them by spraying the seed coat with water using a spray bottle. When the surface gets wet, carefully remove the shell with a toothpick.

The optimal temperature for germinating vegetable seeds is from plus 25 to 28 degrees. Follow the step by step instructions:

Place the seeds in a container or on a plate with 2-4 layers of damp toilet paper. You need to take thick paper that will not disintegrate after liquid gets on it.
Then the container is placed in a plastic bag in a warm room for a couple of days. Cotton wool and gauze are not suitable for germinating cucumbers.

To enhance the growth and development of cucumber seedlings, you can soak them in fertilizers. This method especially helps gardeners who plant grains in infertile soil. Soaking in a nutrient composition is similar to the procedure using plain water:

The grains are laid out on paper, a piece of gauze and fabric.
Then pour in the prepared solution with fertilizer.
Cover and monitor the liquid level.

The seeds must remain in the nutrient medium for 12 to 20 hours. Processing is carried out at a temperature of 20 to 28 degrees Celsius. If the temperature is lower, the procedure may not be effective. Then the grains, which have increased in size, are placed in a gauze bag and left to germinate until a root is formed at a temperature of plus 25 degrees.

Beginners are interested in which fertilizer is suitable for preparing a nutritional composition:

You can take Epin. The seeds are left in Epin for at least 16-24 hours. 2 drops of the product are dissolved in 100 ml of water.
In Zircon, it is necessary to keep the cucumber planting material for 10-12 hours, 1 drop is added to 150 ml of water.
A solution of potassium and sodium humates is also suitable - one day of soaking is enough. The solution is made at 0.005-0.01%.

If cucumber seeds for seedlings have been stored for 6 to 7 years, it is better to carry out bubbling before sowing - the grains are enriched with oxygen. For young seeds there is no point in carrying out this procedure; the effect is minimal. Bubbling occurs as follows:

The seeds are placed in a bag made of gauze.
The bag is placed in a jar filled with water at room temperature; there is no need to heat it.
Air is supplied to the jar using an aquarium compressor.
Air passes through the tube, which enriches the bag with the seeds with oxygen. Bubbles are visible in the jar.

If there are a lot of grains in the glass container, it is better to replace the water with new water after a day. If cucumber seeds were purchased in a store at an impressive cost, most likely they have already been calibrated and treated with a fungicide and growth stimulator.

This is easy to understand by the changed color of the grains - when you open the bag, you will see colored planting material. Self-processing can harm such cucumbers. Plant them in a container for seedlings without any preparatory work.

More details about how to properly prepare cucumber seeds before sowing are described in the video:

Soil preparation

Transplanting cucumbers into open ground should be in previously prepared soil. You need to prepare the soil mixture for this procedure from:

peat – experienced gardeners advise planting seedlings in soil with the required peat content. Thanks to it, the soil becomes loose and better allows moisture to pass to the roots of the plant. If there is a deficiency of peat in the ground or no peat at all, then the crop will not receive life-giving moisture and will die;
humus - transplanted cucumbers will grow better in soil fertilized with humus. This ingredient makes any type of soil fertile and nourishes it. If planted seedlings wither, it means they lack nutritional components. Therefore, it is necessary to add humus to the ground approximately 20-30 days before transplanting. You can also add fresh manure to each bed. The depths should be 60-80 mm;
leaf soil - it is important to mix the soil with leaf soil. It can be collected in deciduous forests.

Attention!

Vegetable growers recommend avoiding soil collected near chestnuts and oaks - it contains large quantities of tannins.

When planting cucumbers, it is also necessary to treat the soil against diseases and parasites. Summer residents use a solution of potassium permanganate to disinfect the land. To prepare it, you need to dilute 1 g of the substance in 20 liters of liquid. To get rid of pathogenic microorganisms in autumn and spring, phytosporin is used.

Preparing the bed

It is important to choose the right place to plant cucumbers on the plot. Do not forget that cucumbers are susceptible to disease, and when choosing a location, you need to take into account what plants were located on it in the previous year.

You cannot plant cucumbers after pumpkins, zucchini, squash, and melons . The best predecessors are tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cabbage and onions. These crops have different diseases from cucumber, which means the risk of infection is minimal.

The place for cucumbers should be maximally illuminated by the sun during the day and at the same time be protected from the wind . Do not plant cucumbers in a draft, otherwise you will not get a harvest.

The bed for cucumbers needs to be dug well, humus and nitrophoska (a tablespoon per square meter) added to the soil. If the soil is highly acidic, add slaked lime or ash when digging. Cucumber prefers loose, light compounds , so if your site has heavy, dense soil, you need to add peat or sand to it.

The width of the bed should be selected in such a way that it is convenient to care for the plants (80-90 cm). For cucumbers, it is advisable to make high beds, raised 15-20 cm above the level of the rest of the soil. This height will provide the root system with sufficient heat.

IMPORTANT! Do not make the bed wider than 130 cm. In this case, you will have to plant cucumbers in three rows, and it will be difficult to care for the central specimens.

Disembarkation dates

Not everyone knows when to start replanting cucumbers permanently. It is better to start this procedure 30 days after planting the seeds in cups. If the crop grows in a greenhouse, then planting germinated seedlings can begin as early as April. The weather must be warm, otherwise the plants will die from frost. At a daytime temperature of 18 degrees, you can plant cucumbers. This approach will increase the number of adapted bushes.

The procedure should be carried out after the soil has warmed up to 16 degrees. If this rule is neglected and the seedlings are planted in open ground earlier, the roots of the plant will not be able to absorb moisture from the ground.

The timing of planting seedlings also depends on the place where they will be transferred:

in a polycarbonate greenhouse - mid-April;
to the beds in the greenhouse - in May;
for open beds - in June.

Some gardeners also determine the readiness of seedlings for transplanting by their growth. Here, the opinions of experts are divided: some believe that the crop should have 3-4 true leaves, while others are of the opposite opinion.

Optimal conditions for transplanting into the ground

To determine the timing of planting seedlings in open ground, it is necessary to compare all the favorable factors for growing cucumbers.

Seedling age

The peculiarity of cucumber seedlings is that the plants must be transplanted into the ground at a certain time. It is important to take into account the fact that the older the planting material, the lower the percentage of survival in open ground it gives.

Early ripening varieties of cucumbers are transplanted 25-30 days after sowing the seeds for seedlings.
Mid-season ones are ready for transplanting 35-40 days after germination.
Late – after 40-45 days.

The probability of losing “overexposed” seedlings is 50%. The main criterion is that the seedlings have at least one pair of true leaves.

Temperature conditions

Cucumber seedlings are very capricious, so they are transferred exclusively to heated soil .

During the daytime, the minimum soil temperature should be +16°C. If it is not possible to carry out such measurements, they are guided by the air temperature: during the day +18...+20 degrees, and at night – from +5.

You cannot go below these data, since it will be difficult for cucumber roots to absorb moisture from unheated soil.

In regions with a warm climate, seedlings are transferred to open ground in the third decade of May. In temperate latitudes - no earlier than mid-June.

How to plant cucumber seedlings in open ground

Planting cucumber seedlings in the ground is not an easy procedure that requires preliminary preparation. But if you do everything correctly, taking into account the advice of farmers, then you will be able to replant the vegetable without harm to it.

Correctly transplanting cucumbers into open ground can only be done using seedlings. This process is closely related to the temperature of the earth. This vegetable loves warmth, so it should not be placed in soil that has not warmed up. Therefore, before you start planting seeds in containers, you should choose a moment so that the soil has already warmed up well when transplanting.

Attention!

Favorable days will help you plant seedlings correctly without harm to the plants and the future harvest. Their list is indicated in the Lunar calendar.

It is better to replant seedlings at 25-30 days, when the crop has at least 2 true leaves and a root system has formed. In this case, it will be possible to properly plant cucumber seedlings without damaging the roots.

In order for the soil to grow a healthy plant, you must first prepare the holes for seedlings. The distance between bushes is determined depending on the variety:

low-growing cucumbers - maximum 5 plants per 1 sq.m.;
tall - 4 bushes per 1 sq.m.

As soon as the holes are ready, remove each seedling from the container along with the soil in which it grew. This way you can keep the root system intact. After the procedure, fill the holes with soil and water with water at room temperature.

How to plant cucumbers correctly

To grow vegetables, choose a well-lit area that is protected from the winds. Around the cucumber bed, “scenes” are formed, which can serve as plantings of potatoes, corn, sunflowers, hemp, and legumes. These tall plants provide an optimal microclimate for cucumbers. Planting vegetables in open ground can be done by seedlings or using seeds. The choice of method depends on several factors, including the climate of your region and the timing of harvest.

Unlike tomatoes, cucumbers are often planted from seeds. This is due to the fact that cucumber seedlings are very fragile, with delicate roots and shoots, so they are easy to damage. In addition, it does not tolerate acclimatization well to changed conditions (wind, sunlight, air temperature, different soil composition). Only experienced farmers who know all the intricacies of this process can achieve a good harvest when planting cucumber seedlings.

For ordinary gardeners, the method of sowing seeds in open ground is more suitable. In this case, the fruits appear only a week later, but the plants will be strong and resistant to external negative factors. Warm beds with a height of at least 20 cm are suitable for cucumbers. A layer of organic matter inside the plot not only provides the vegetables with useful substances, but also warms up the roots, saturating them with carbon dioxide.

Cucumber is a heat-loving crop, so it needs to be planted when the temperature of the top layer of soil warms up to at least 13-15 degrees. However, the plant does not feel very well at high temperatures (if the indicator rises above 28 degrees), then development may stop. The bed must first be fertilized with organic matter (chicken droppings, mullein or manure). This will provide the vegetables with nutrients and disinfect the soil, destroying the causative agents of many cucumber diseases.

The plant needs regular watering: if there is a lack of moisture, the leaves will begin to turn black, become fragile, and the bushes themselves will experience stress. Excessive soil moisture is no less destructive for cucumbers. As a result, there will be less oxygen in the ground, which will cause the tops to turn pale, and the development of green shoots and vines will slow down greatly. Water for irrigation is used at room temperature (about 18 degrees). The ideal soil humidity is 80%.

Since the crop prefers short daylight hours, it is best to grow it in mid or late summer. Despite the heat-loving nature of the vegetable, it requires only 10-12 photoperiods per day. The features of the process of planting seedlings and seeds have common features, which consist in the selection and preparation of the site. It is better to organize the beds from north to south, and apply organic fertilizer to the crop preceding the cucumbers.

An alternative option is to fertilize the soil immediately before planting the seeds/seedlings. Cow dung is the best choice. It is applied rotted to previous plants (5 kg per 1 square meter), and before sowing cucumbers it is used in the form of a 1:5 solution with water. You can replace compost with chicken manure (dissolve it in water 1:20) or with complex mineral fertilizer.

Further care

Work with cucumber seedlings does not end after planting them. Now you need to take care of it properly in order to reap a good harvest.

Watering

Cucumber seedlings need to be watered constantly. This should be done with warm water and always at the root.

Attention!

Each watering should be completed by loosening the soil.

On a normal day, moisturizing is required once every 7 days. But in the summer heat you need to water twice as often. Liquid consumption should be 10 liters per 1 sq.m. The procedure affects the taste of the product, so if you neglect it, the vegetable will be bitter.

If cucumbers grow on clay soil, then it should be moistened rarely, but with a large amount of liquid. In the case of sandy loam and light soil, carry out the procedure often, but in small portions.

Lighting

After transplantation, seedlings need to be shaded for the first 7 days to avoid direct sunlight. To do this, you can use mesh, cardboard, film, etc. The shelter creates a steam effect, so the plants quickly adapt to new conditions. But in this case, the land is almost not ventilated, which leads to the death of the crop due to high temperatures.

To support the vines of cucumbers, vegetable growers use trellises. Plants that are braided along them will receive the required amount of sunlight.

Top dressing

Fertilizers must be constantly added to the soil so that the seedlings do not wither or droop. During the summer you need to feed cucumbers 3-4 times. The procedure must be carried out for the first time 14 days after planting the plant in open ground. For this, summer residents use chicken droppings, ash, and mullein. If necessary, you can add mineral fertilizers to the soil: urea, potassium sulfate, superphosphate. During the process of fruit formation, the soil needs to be fertilized twice as often.

Nitrogen fertilizers must be diluted in the proportion of 10 g of the substance per bucket of water. It is better to use in the evening. It is not recommended to feed during the day to avoid burns to the leaves.

When fruiting, the best option is natural fertilizer. To prepare it, stir 1 liter of cow dung in a bucket of water and leave for 48 hours to ferment. Before use, dilute the resulting mixture in a ratio of 1 liter in a bucket of liquid.

Pinching and Garter

Another important procedure for growing vegetables is pinching. Gardeners carry it out several times a season. For the first time it is necessary in the process of formation of the second true leaf.

After the appearance of the 9th leaf, you need to repeat the manipulation. It should be done carefully, since it is always stressful for plants.

Another aspect that you need to pay attention to is tying the vegetable. Thanks to it, harvesting is much easier and many diseases can be avoided. For garters, I pre-install supports made of any material near each bush. A rope with the main stem of the crop is tied to them.

Seedling care

After emergence, cucumbers require well-planned care.

Watering

Watering the seedlings begins after the cotyledon leaves appear. At first, it is carried out using a teaspoon or syringe. Water is supplied directly to the roots without touching the leaves and stem.

Then, for watering, you can take a watering can with a thin spout without a nozzle. Water should be poured along the edge of the container. You can also water the plants through a tray. You need to moisten the soil as it dries, about once every 6 days. Water for irrigation should be taken warm and definitely settled; if there is melt or rain water, you can use it.

Temperature

Growing strong cucumber seedlings requires optimal temperature conditions. Lack of heat, as well as its excess, negatively affects plants.

Before emergence, the soil temperature is maintained at 20-25 degrees, then it drops to 18-20 degrees during the day and 15-17 degrees at night.

A few days before planting in the ground, the temperature must be lowered so that the seedlings undergo hardening. You can ventilate the room more often, gradually lowering the temperature, or take the seedlings outside or onto the balcony for a couple of hours, gradually increasing the time spent in cool conditions. The air temperature should not fall below 15 degrees.

Feeding

If the soil for sowing seeds does not contain all the necessary nutrients, the plants begin to experience discomfort. To prevent this from happening, seedlings need feeding.

When the cucumber seedlings have 2 true leaves, it is fertilized with a solution of 1 teaspoon of nitroammofoska or nitrophoska per liter of water. You can also take ammophoska, azofoska, infusion of slurry or bird droppings, herbal infusions.

The second fertilizing is introduced a few days before planting the plants in the ground. To do this, use a solution of 1 cup of wood ash per bucket of water or 20 grams of potassium nitrate and 30 grams of ammonium nitrate, 40 grams of superphosphate per bucket of water.

All fertilizing is carried out in accordance with the dosage, since an excess of fertilizers harms the plants.

Diseases of cucumber seedlings

Cucumber seedlings can get sick due to:

soil deficiency - this situation occurs when plants are grown in small glasses, peat tablets, etc. The root system does not have enough soil, which is reflected in yellowed leaves;
lack of minerals - if the soil is depleted, the situation will be corrected by applying fertilizer;
excess nitrogen;
excessive or insufficient watering;
lack of sunlight or frost - in this case it is important to ensure proper lighting;
pests;
powdery mildew - appears at a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius with a plus sign and a high level of humidity;
peronosporosis - a fungal infection;
sclerotinia, etc.

Damage to a crop can occur both when growing seedlings and after transplanting them into the ground. Sometimes a yellow border appears on the leaves of cucumbers. Read the link for more details on what to do about it.

Growing errors

If the rules for growing cucumber seedlings are not followed, they begin to stretch out and turn yellow, which will subsequently lead to their death.

The stretching of seedlings and the yellowness of their leaves appears for a number of reasons. You need to understand them first. The condition of the soil and roots indicates the criticality of the situation and helps determine what measures should be taken and how to treat the seedlings.

Among the most common reasons are:

Deficiency or excess of nutrients in the soil;

lack of light;
unstable temperature conditions;
dry or too humid air;
improper watering regime (waterlogging or drying out of the soil);
root growth;
damage to plants by diseases or pests.

Why do seedlings stretch out?

Seedling pulling occurs for a number of reasons. Healthy seedlings should be strong and stocky.

Lack of light and elevated temperatures lead to elongation and weakening of seedlings. Under the influence of heat, plants are drawn to the light. The problem can be corrected by installing additional lighting and ventilating the room daily.

It is not necessary to highlight seedlings all the time, but only during cloudy hours. If there is a lack of light in the early seedling period, the plants become stretched and the yield drops.

Intense bright light accelerates flowering, but prematurely ages plants and reduces yield. With 16 hours of daylight, flowering and fruiting of cucumbers is postponed to a later date.

If the seedlings are standing near the radiator, you need to constantly humidify the dry air. You can place a container of water near the seedlings, place a damp towel on the radiator, and use a spray bottle to humidify the air.

Excessive or insufficient watering leads to stretching of plants. It is held once every 6 days. Moisture should penetrate to the bottom of the container.

A cramped container also causes the seedlings to stretch out. The roots grow wider and become crowded, which affects the condition of the plant. When sowing seeds, you need to choose suitable containers that will be enough until the seedlings are transplanted into the ground.

What to do if cucumber seedlings turn yellow

The main cause of yellowing leaves of cucumber seedlings is fungal diseases.

Yellowness or white dots on the leaves indicate fusarium, pythiosis and other fungal diseases. In this case, the leaves do not respond to watering and remain lethargic. Plants need to be treated with special protective drugs.

Yellowness on the leaves can also indicate pest infestation. Among the more dangerous parasites are aphids, spider mites and whiteflies. In this case, it is impossible to do without treating plants with chemicals.

Other causes of yellowing include improper plant care.

Actively growing seedlings require more space and a large amount of minerals every day.

If the leaves turn yellow and dry around the edges, this is a lack of magnesium and potassium. When the top of the plant turns yellow, a copper deficiency is diagnosed. If green veins remain on yellow leaves, a deficiency of iron and manganese can be noted. To correct the problem, organic and mineral fertilizers are introduced (alternately, once every half month).

Cucumber seedlings need a lot of light for proper development. Strong bushes are formed with active lighting for 10-12 hours a day. Inadequate lighting or, conversely, placing containers with seedlings in light with access to direct sunlight leads to yellowing of the leaves.

If there is a lack of light, plants need to be provided with an additional light source, for example, an LED phytolamp.

To protect from direct sunlight, the seedlings are fenced off from the window with tulle or white paper attached to the glass.

Cucumber seedlings can also turn yellow due to low temperatures. When sowing seeds, you need to cover them with film, and protect the growing seedlings from the flow of cold air when ventilating.

Seedlings are sensitive to the lack of useful microelements. Feeding should be regular and comprehensive (containing all the required nutrients).

If the cotyledon leaves turn yellow and begin to dry out, this indicates new shoots that are appearing on the plant. To fix the problem, you need to remove excess shoots or ovaries.

Possible problems

Gardeners may encounter various difficulties when growing cucumbers. The most common:

The fruits stick out - this is a sign of moisture deficiency.
The leaves turn yellow - the seedlings are sick or lack nutrients.
The root system freezes - this scenario is possible if the plants were planted in a shallow hole - no more than 5 cm. Such a depth is shallow and cannot protect against frost.

In addition, in a new place, plants get sick for a long time and adaptation is difficult. Therefore, it is important to feed cucumbers.

To properly transplant cucumbers into the ground, you need to make an effort and follow the recommendations of experienced gardeners. You can also watch a video that demonstrates the entire procedure in detail.

Landing technology

The ideal option for growing cucumbers is peat pots or tablets . This method allows you not to injure the delicate roots and plant each plant along with a lump of earth in prepared holes.

For planting, holes are dug, the depth of which must correspond to the height of the pot or earthen ball in which the plant is placed.

The holes are placed at a distance of 20-30 cm from each other, the row spacing between plants should be 40-50 cm. Before planting, the hole is spilled with water.
Plant seedlings in peat pots in the hole along with them, deepening them to the full height. If the cucumber is grown in a cup, turn it over and, holding the stem with your hand, carefully remove it from the clod of earth. Try to act as carefully as possible without damaging the delicate roots.

ATTENTION! Plant only in the evening, preferably after 17.00. If the procedure is carried out in the morning or afternoon, the hot spring sun will burn your plants, they will wither and die.

Plants are buried in the soil up to the cotyledon leaves . The soil around is lightly compacted and watered. You need to pour about 1 liter of liquid under each plant to keep the soil as moist as possible.
After watering, the surface should be mulched with dry grass or small straw to prevent moisture from evaporating. You can cover the surface with a special lightproof film.

IMPORTANT! Do not water the cucumbers with cold water; the liquid should be slightly warm.

How and where to plant cucumber seeds for seedlings

Sow the seeds in pots with soil at the rate of approximately 0.3-0.5 liters per seedling root. The capacity can be any:

cardboard or plastic boxes - you must make several holes in them for the outflow of liquid;
special peat cups, in which cucumbers are then planted directly into the ground, have only one drawback - they lose moisture very quickly;
cellophane rolls fixed with a stapler or paper clip - to get to the root when planting, they are simply unrolled.

The pots are placed close to each other on a common tray for ease of care. Fill with prepared soil and sow two seeds in each so that the weaker shoot can be removed later. The sowing depth is no more than 3 centimeters.

If the seeds are planted in a common container, then the distance between them is kept two centimeters and three centimeters between the rows. With such a planting, you will have to pick up the seedlings later. Not everyone finds this procedure useful.

The container with seedlings is watered, covered with a damp cloth and put in a dark place until germination. Approximately 5-7 days. The optimal temperature for seedlings should be from 18 to 25 C. Overheating is no less dangerous than cold.

How to properly plant cucumbers for seedlings

After determining the timing, the next task is sowing the seeds and preparing for this process.

Soil mixture

Ready-made substrate is sold for seedlings, but if you want to make the soil mixture yourself, then prepare one of these compositions:

turf soil, peat, dry humus and sawdust in equal parts;
turf, sand, peat and sawdust in equal parts with the addition of a small amount of vermiculite or coconut fiber;
turf soil, lowland peat, humus and sawdust in a ratio of 4:4:1:1;
turf, rotted manure and sand in a ratio of 3:3:1.

Important! Seedlings react painfully to high acidity and literally wither in such an environment, so avoid compositions with a high peat content and check the soil pH before planting.

The mixture prepared with your own hands must be disinfected: pour boiling water, a solution of potassium permanganate, or heat in the oven for half an hour at a temperature of +80–100 °C.

After this, you need to add fertilizers to the soil: 6 g of urea, 8 g of potassium sulfate, 10 g of superphosphate and 2 g of magnesium sulfate per 10 kg of soil. Mix everything, cover with film and leave for 1-2 weeks so that the nutrients dissolve in the soil.

Find out the benefits and harms of fresh cucumber.

Growing container

You can grow seedlings in two ways: in one large container (containers, boxes) with further picking of sprouts and in separate small pots with a volume of 0.2–0.3 liters. Since cucumbers do not tolerate any transplantation very well, it is better to immediately grow seedlings in separate containers.

Cups made of paper or plastic are suitable for this purpose - they can be cut and the plant can be easily removed along with the soil without damaging the roots. It is also convenient to use cassettes for sowing, but the ideal option is peat tablets.

Cucumber seedlings feel great in them, and when the time comes to plant them in the garden, you just need to place the tablet with the sprout in the hole and sprinkle it with soil.

Seed preparation

To obtain high-quality and fast seedlings, seeds must be properly prepared for sowing. About a month before the expected date, transfer them to a warm place, somewhere closer to heating devices, to warm up. Next, before planting, soak the seed in water for a couple of hours.

Throw away the empty seeds that float to the surface, and disinfect the full-sized ones that sink to the bottom using one of the following methods:

hold for 20–30 minutes in a 1% solution of potassium permanganate;
place for 10–12 hours in an ash solution (2 tbsp/1 l of water) with the addition of 1 tbsp. l. nitrophoska;
fill with 2–3% peroxide solution for 6 hours.

Disinfected seeds are washed, slightly dried and soaked in a growth stimulator so that they hatch and germinate faster.

As a stimulant you can use:

ready-made solution of “Heteroauxin” - dosage is 25 ml/1 l of water, kept for 12 hours;
aloe juice - soak gauze with the juice squeezed from the plant and wrap the seeds in it for 2 days;
succinic acid solution - 15 ml/1 liter of water, soak for a day.

After such preparation, most of the seeds usually already have small sprouts, but even if there are none, the seeds can be safely sown in the ground.

Sowing seeds

At the time of sowing, the soil should be moist, but not wet, so the day before it should be well watered and lightly loosened. If planting is done in large containers, then shallow (2 cm) furrows or holes are made on the surface. Seeds of 2–3 pieces are placed in nests at a distance of 6–8 cm and sprinkled with a layer of earth.

Planting in cups and cassettes is carried out by analogy - the containers are filled halfway with the substrate, a depression is made in the center, seeds are placed in it and sprinkled. Small containers must have a drainage hole.

It’s even easier with peat tablets. They already have a hole in them; you just need to soak the tablet, put in the seeds and cover with the substrate. After sowing, the containers are covered with film and placed in a warm place (+23–25 °C) until sprouts appear.

Bush formation

Cucumbers are creeping or climbing plants. Removing excess vines, tying them, creating favorable conditions for fixing cucumber tendrils on vertical surfaces - all this also helps to increase fruiting time.

The method of forming a bush depends on the variety, method of cultivation and type of garter.

Under no circumstances should pinching or removing stepchildren be done by hand. For these purposes, it is necessary to use scissors or pruning shears, periodically dipping the blades into a solution of potassium permanganate.

Topping

Horizontal cultivation is the most common method of cultivating cucumbers in open ground. The correct strategy in this case would be to pinch out the central shoot, which has reached a length of one meter (some owners do this above the tenth leaf). The central lash stops developing. And the stepsons are actively growing, braiding the soil around the root. It is on them that the bulk of the ovaries are formed.

Someone recommends pinching the stepson lashes, leaving two or three leaves on them.

Pinching horizontally growing plants in this way is a classic technique, developed over decades of growing bee-pollinated varietal cucumbers in open ground.

When starting to form a bush, you need to understand that hybrids develop differently than bee-pollinated varieties. You cannot pinch them using the same method.

For modern hybrids with a predominantly female type of flowering, the vertical method of growing while maintaining a long main shoot is more suitable.

Stepsoning

When growing vertically, the method of forming in one or two lashes is usually used.

When growing a cucumber bush in one vine, all the stepsons are removed as they grow, and the central vine is allowed to grow up the trellis, carefully twisting it onto the support counterclockwise. When it reaches the top of the support, it is allowed to parallel the ground or lowered to grow down another meter. Then they pinch.

Formation into two lashes occurs in a similar way, but in addition to the central shoot, another stepson closest to the root is left. The lashes grow in parallel.

How to tie cucumbers

When gartering cucumbers, the main thing is not to damage them. You need to use wide nylon or cotton ribbons, do not overtighten the stem. If possible, only create conditions for natural weaving and support the plant.

The two main methods of growing bushes have already been described above and it has been noted that for open ground it is more convenient to form horizontal vines. This is due to the fact that plants lying on the ground are less affected by wind and bright sunlight. However, if you install an arc over a horizontal bush and send several shoots along it, this will allow the cucumber to branch over a larger area.

You can also install four supports above the furrow with cucumbers weaving along the ground and stretch several lines of wire or twine parallel to each other on them. The low-growing bush will climb along these supports.

Vertical cultivation is suitable for tall varieties or hybrids planted in an area sheltered from the wind. It should be noted that this method is more labor-intensive, and the plant grown in this way needs more attention.

Tying methods:

the most successful one is weaving on a mesh - a support is installed near the bed, on which a nylon or plastic net is fixed, the central shoot of the plant is fixed vertically on it;
weaving on a thin vertical support - a twine stretched vertically or a rod stuck into the ground is used as a support for the whip;
weaving on a V-shaped support is suitable for growing a bush formed from two lashes;
weaving on a pyramid - several bushes are planted from different sides on a pyramid from twine or wire stretched to a common rigid support.

Some varieties of cucumbers can be used to braid arbors and decorative hedges.