Fresh salad or crispy pickled gherkins - cucumbers are good in any form. Summer residents like them for fertility and adaptability, athletes and slimming for low calorie, and all together for a refreshing aroma and excellent taste.
In this article, we'll talk about growing cucumbers, in particular about how to feed cucumbers in the greenhouse and in the open ground.
Watering and top dressing of pearls
Many people think that you do not need to look after cucumbers at all - planted and forgotten. Under favorable weather conditions this plant can indeed yield a plentiful harvest almost without care. However, in order to ensure an abundant and high-quality harvest, it will take a little effort.
To begin with, prepare the bed (dig up and pre-introduce organic fertilizers), then sow cucumbers, wait for the shoots and protect them from possible spring frosts. After 3-4 leaflets develop, form a whip according to the recommendations of the seed manufacturer.
The whole period of vegetation (if the summer is not very wet) cucumbers need watering. Of course, beds are also desirable to regularly weed out and gently loosen the ground after watering or rain. Do not forget about the additional nutrition of plants - cucumbers are very responsive to the application of fertilizers.
Top dressing of cucumbers in open and closed ground is not fundamentally different. The only difference is that the greenhouse plants are fed more often. The most common method is root top dressing, when nutrients or mixtures are introduced into the ground after rain or watering.
An excellent result gives the introduction of organic - a tincture of chicken manure, manure or compost.
Of course, any fertilizer must be strictly dose. On irrigated or poor soils, it is permissible to apply up to 10 kg of organic per square meter. On fertile soils this norm is less - up to 3 kg / m². Exceeding the recommended doses of organic application accelerates the growth of leaves and weeds, but the quality of the crop is deteriorating - voids appear, the number of ugly fruits increases.
The first fertilizing of cucumbers can be carried out already 10-15 days after emergence (calcium, phosphorus and nitrogen). The next period when plants need additional nutrition is fruiting. After the appearance of the ovaries, cucumbers should be fed every 10 days (magnesium, potassium, nitrogen).
In the second half of summer, the cucumber is fed with ashes or chlorine free potassium fertilizers and phosphorus ( superphosphate ). Note that the fertilizer after the application must be carefully sealed in the ground, otherwise the benefits of fertilizing will be reduced at times.
Foliar top dressing of cucumbers
The second method of fertilizing is foliar. In this case, fertilizers are diluted to a low concentration, and the resulting solution is sprayed over the leaves.
Foliar top dressing is carried out in the evening or in cloudy weather. Otherwise, the combination of not having absorbed the mineral salts on the leaves and the active sun will cause serious burns to the plants (until death).
Advantage of foliar nutrition in the rapid entry of elements into plant cells. This is very important, for example, with prolonged cold snaps, when the life of the plant slows down, and the roots do not so actively absorb nutrients from the soil.
Extra-root feeding of cucumbers with a tincture of bread will appeal to all who try to avoid the use of "chemistry" on their site.
For the preparation of bread tinctures, it is necessary to soak stale bread in boiled water (the container should be filled with bread as tightly as possible). After a week of infusion in a warm place, the infusion is diluted with water (1: 3). If desired, in the infusion, you can add a complex mineral fertilizer (near the matchbox fertilizer at 15 liters of infusion). You can use bread fertilizer every 10 days, but do not forget to pre-water the plants - you can not apply fertilizers to dry soil.