Many gardeners complain that in last years heat and drought prevent stable harvests of cucumbers. We have collected for you, our dear readers, the most important conditions, ensuring that your cucumber beds will delight you with tender, juicy greens.
Protecting cucumber plantings from heat and drought
Not every year is favorable for growing cucumbers. And if in rainy weather with moderate temperatures, inexperienced gardeners can still hope for a decent harvest, then heat and drought can ruin all their work. In order not to be left without a harvest, you need to know a few subtleties of working with cucumbers. And what is most important for a cucumber is moisture and temperature conditions. We will try to provide them.
Loosening
The easiest way to retain moisture in the soil is by loosening. The fact is that the entire soil is permeated with tiny capillaries, through which water can easily rise from deep layers to the surface, where it quickly evaporates.
During the loosening process, these capillaries are destroyed, so that water can no longer rise up as quickly. Only dry surface layers should be loosened so as not to damage the roots of the plants. If you carry out this procedure at least three times a week, then cucumbers will easily tolerate drought.
Mulching
You can retain moisture in the soil by mulching the bed around your cucumber bushes. The layer should be no thicker than five centimeters, otherwise pests may appear in the soil. You can cover the soil with weeds that have not produced seeds or grass cut from a lawn mower.
Sawdust can also be used, but it should be pushed aside before watering. In addition, such mulch will not let water into the soil during rain. Use parts as mulch deciduous plants not recommended, but conifers are welcome. If there is nothing suitable at hand with which to mulch the plantings, then the soil can be temporarily covered with newspaper or cardboard, but they are also moved away before watering.
During drought, it is important to monitor the weeds growing in the garden. Plants grown in a cucumber bed can draw water from the soil and damage the roots of crops.
Burying lashes
During drought, cucumbers quickly age and may stop bearing fruit before the end of the year. summer season. To avoid this, you should periodically rejuvenate the plantings. They do it this way: they dig a cucumber vine at the base, and when it takes root, the old plant, which has already stopped bearing fruit, is cut off from the young one. In this way, you can harvest several crops from one cucumber bed.
Treatment with anti-stress drugs
During drought, the plant suffers from a lack of moisture, both in the soil and in the air. they should be periodically treated with anti-stress medications. Such drugs include, for example, Epin, Epin-Extra, Ecopin. It is inexpensive, safe and very effective drug, which allows plants to survive drought, light frosts and soil salinity.
Shading
Protect cucumbers from the harmful effects of direct sun rays possible using a special fine-mesh mesh. You can find it in almost every hardware store, but if you were unable to buy a suitable shelter, you can use agrofibre. However, this material is short-lived and can only be used for one season. Ordinary fabric should not be used for this purpose, as it will get very wet after rain, take a long time to dry and can collapse the supports with its weight.
To tension the mesh you need to place a strong support. The corners of the beds are dug into the ground metal pipes. Their height above the ground should be 1.5 - 2 meters. In this case, the racks located with north side, should be made slightly higher facing the sun. Now you need to weld two bent at right angles in pairs so that you get corners. We drive the welded parts tightly into the upper parts of the pipes.
Next, we put four more pipes, cut exactly to size, on the opposite ends of the branches. Sharp parts that can damage the mesh are filed off and wrapped in several layers of waterproof fabric. Next, the mesh is stretched over the frame and tied along all the edges using thick wire or polypropylene twine.
All these measures are simple, reliable and time-tested. A little care and attention - and the cucumber beds will thank you with an excellent harvest.
Whether the cucumbers were sown directly into the ground or seedlings were planted there, caring for them from a certain point becomes the same: watering, fertilizing, hilling (especially if cucumbers were grown without seedlings), loosening the soil, protection from weeds and diseases, as well as some special techniques that the cucumbers themselves do not need to feel good, but help increase the yield.
Watering cucumbers
Watering for cucumbers is perhaps the most important process. With a lack of water, there will be fewer fruits, and their quality will noticeably deteriorate. IN open ground This is precisely what is most often associated with such a nuisance as the bitterness of Zelentsy. Therefore, cucumbers need to be watered regularly, on average once every 6 days, even more often in hot weather, but watch not so much the calendar as the soil, because, unlike greenhouses, the beds are open to all rain. In other summers, cucumbers not only do not have to be watered, but on the contrary, they must be protected from waterlogging by laying drainage grooves, because when water stagnates, the roots can begin to rot. The most reliable signal that it is time to water is when the soil dries out.
In this case, it is necessary to make allowances for the fact that young plants need relatively small amounts of water, and adults - significant ones, and if for the former a bucket of 1 m2 is often enough, then for older ones - for each bush. True, young plants need to be watered a little more often than adults. In any case, water should thoroughly saturate the soil to the entire depth where the roots live, although it is not recommended to pour it specifically under the roots; it is best to use furrow irrigation or sprinkling. But there is one important limitation here: if in greenhouses it is not only possible, but sometimes even necessary to completely douse plants with water, then in open ground, if water gets on the leaves on a hot day, they will get severe burns, so you need to make sure that this does not happen. It is better to water cucumbers either in the evening, when the sun stops burning strongly, or early in the morning. The condition that cucumbers cannot be watered with water at a temperature below +10...12°C also remains in force.
Loosening the soil
It is advisable to loosen the soil around the cucumber after each watering or heavy rain, but you cannot shift the vines - they can only be carefully lifted, or temporarily moved to the side, returning them to their place after the soil crust has been loosened.
Feeding cucumbers
To obtain good harvest, cucumbers must be fed, on average 5-6 times per season, otherwise they will begin to get sick from a lack of nutrients, and the fruits will become small and ugly. The first fertilizing should be carried out after the first thinning of seedlings (and for seedlings - during their cultivation) with solutions of organic and mineral fertilizers. Among organic fertilizers, you can use mullein (1 liter of thick solution per 10 liters of water) and chicken manure (the same amount of fermented solution), best with the addition of ash (2 cups per 10 liters of water). From mineral fertilizers (if used separately from organic ones), for fertilizing per 10 liters of water you need to take 15 g of urea, 50 g of superphosphate and 15 g of potassium sulfate. During the fruiting period, it is advisable to additionally increase the amount of nitrogen and potash fertilizers 2-2.5 times.
In addition to this, the same mineral fertilizers It is advisable to spray cucumbers every 15-20 days, taking for foliar feeding 5 g of ammonium nitrate, 10 g of superphosphate and 8 g of potassium sulfate per 10 liters of water (this amount is enough for 30 m2 of trellis). In addition, at least a couple of times, in addition to them, cucumbers should be fed with the same foliar microfertilizers; it is especially important to give them to cucumbers growing on a trellis.
By the way, about trellises - when growing cucumbers on them, the lower side shoots must be cut off so that they do not creep along the ground
Methods for increasing the number of female flowers
Since the yield of cucumbers depends on the formation of female flowers, in addition to the usual care when growing varieties with mixed type flowering, it is also worth doing something to increase their number. About some methods - about pre-sowing heating of seeds, pinching the apical bud of late-ripening varieties at the seedling stage with four to five true leaves, reducing the number of waterings during budding and pinching vines with male flowers- has already been said here. In addition, you can use ringing of stems. To do this, you need to do it around the stem sharp knife shallow circular cut just below two upper leaves. Banding can only be done in dry weather. There are also special preparations - growth hormones, some of which are designed to produce more female flowers on cucumbers and other vegetables with fruits.
Many summer residents want to grow their first cucumbers as early as possible in order to prepare fresh ones. vegetable salad. This is quite possible if the plantings are protected in time from gusts of wind, frost, sunlight and pests.
Cucumbers under covering material help solve several problems at once. What covering material is best to use for cucumbers for protection purposes and how to care for the plantings after covering?
Cucumbers under covering material
Cucumbers - picky vegetable crop and will not grow in the shade or in the cold. And under the scorching rays of the sun it will quickly burn. Shelter can serve artificial lighting for seedlings in early spring, also provide the soil with optimal moisture.
Cucumbers under covering material
Benefits of using a cover for cucumbers
- the possibility of planting seedlings or seeds in mid-spring, when the temperature outside is cold;
- protection of plants from strong winds, scorching rays of the sun when planting in open ground under a canopy from a pipe;
- prevention of diseases and pest infestations.
You can purchase the following types of material for use in greenhouses or planting cucumber seedlings in early spring for the purpose of covering:
- polyethylene (film);
- spunbond;
- non-woven agricultural fabric.
It is wise to choose plastic film when planting seeds as additional protection. Non-woven fabric:
- at the time of planting cucumbers in open ground, when the probability of frost is still high;
- when plants bloom;
- in the summer heat when the outside temperature is over 30 degrees in order to cover and accelerate the ripening of plantings.
Planting and growing cucumbers under spunbond: how to plant?
Note! Cucumbers under spunbond - new option cultivation for summer residents. This is a lightweight, soft and affordable covering fabric. If used correctly and as intended, it is quite possible to ensure optimal conditions for the growth and development of vegetables throughout the season, ultimately achieving high yields.
Greenhouse for cucumbers
Today, covering spunbond is an excellent alternative to polyethylene, since it is made from environmentally friendly polypropylene and has a fairly fine fibrous structure. The effectiveness and features of using spunbond are that the fabric:
- allows moisture and air to pass through well, providing ventilation to the soil;
- retains heat;
- wear resistant;
- has excellent light transmittance;
- will not lead to cultural injury;
- will provide the soil with air flows;
- will protect plants from harmful radiation and accumulate heat;
- no need to use plastic frame for covering vegetables or for urgent removal for watering, since it is equipped with small holes through which you can water with warm water from a bottle.
By variety, manufacturers offer light and dark spunbond. But you should understand when and with what spunbond it is better to cover cucumbers:
- white with possibility of use on open areas with a soil density of up to 30 g per 1 m², capable of accelerating the formation and preventing overheating of the root system of cucumbers;
- black with an earth density of 50-60 g per 1 m² using soil mulching during the period;
- black and white with a soil density of 50 g per 1 m², as quite resistant to weeds;
- white and red with good protection of the vegetable from adverse weather conditions.
Important! The only downside to spunbond is that you have to remove it during the formation of the ovaries in the morning and cover it again in the late afternoon.
Spunbond
How to plant cucumbers in a spunbond greenhouse? Planting into greenhouse soil is done directly through cut holes on the surface of the covering sheet, which is used to cover vertical trellises when arranging the greenhouse. This will prevent subsequent rotting of the root system, and fragile sprouts will not burn or turn yellow from the scorching rays of the sun.
Note! Covering fabric - good protection for vegetables after ripening. After all, cucumbers under spunbond do not come into contact with the ground when growing, which means they will remain in their pure form at the time of harvest.
Spunbond is a dense fabric that does not transmit light. It is known that weeds will not be able to grow in the shade and will quickly begin to rot. For cucumbers, this is a benefit, a natural fertilizer.
Of course, spunbond will not be able to protect plants from all negative phenomena nature. It is still important to comply with agrotechnical requirements: plant seedlings in sufficiently warm soil, select the optimal variety, taking into account the weather and climatic characteristics of the region.
What is better to protect cucumbers: film or material?
Experts do not give a clear answer to this question: the better to protect cucumbers, because both film and non-woven fabric have pros and cons. When choosing, you should consider the purpose of use. Many summer residents prefer non-woven products to protect vegetables from wind, frost, insect pests, and the rays of the scorching sun. Advantages:
- failure to create a greenhouse effect;
- high throughput moisture and air;
- reliable protection against the onslaught of pests;
- an excellent barrier for rapid growth weeds;
- no need to remove material for the purpose of ventilation and watering of seedlings.
Cucumbers under protective non-woven material
Cucumber seedlings are preferably grown under black spunbond, so as not to be afraid of the plants overheating from the scorching rays of the sun in hot weather. Although, of course, PVC films It also has its advantages:
- creating a greenhouse effect;
- heat accumulation throughput;
- light transmittance;
- frost protection;
- high wear resistance.
Note! It is reasonable to use the film to create a greenhouse for seedlings and accelerate soil warming in early spring. If the purpose of using a covering product is to protect cucumbers from overheating or weeds and create soft contacts with plants, then, of course, it is reasonable to use non-woven fabric.
What is better to cover cucumbers: with film or material?
Many new gardeners ask: what is better to cover cucumbers: with film or not with cloth? If you sow seeds in open ground, it is best to cover the cucumbers with a white non-woven cloth. The fabric will prevent weeds from growing because it is dense. It is wise to cover the seedlings with your hands from the sun's rays and the onslaught of pests with a black non-woven product.
Film - less effective material and problematic to use, because When watering, it is necessary to remove it, and when ventilating the plants, open it slightly and control it so that the root system does not overheat.
If you don’t know how to protect cucumbers from frost in early spring when planting in a greenhouse, experts recommend covering them with white spunbond, stretching them on arcs.
Note! Light non-woven fabric is light, weightless and durable. It is recommended to use to protect cucumbers and tomatoes from ultraviolet radiation and frost.
When choosing optimal option shelter for seedlings, the thickness of the material plays a significant role. A thin covering can be used to cover cucumbers after germination, a thick covering can be used when arranging greenhouses in early spring.
If you need to provide cover for cucumbers from weeds, then it is reasonable to lay black film next to the cucumber beds, and to directly cover the seedlings, select material taking into account climatic conditions.
The purpose of the covering cloth is to simplify the care of seedlings and increase productivity. When choosing, you need to compare the pros and cons of both options in order to know the best way to cover the cucumbers when low temperatures or, conversely, in the heat.
Cucumber is a traditional crop, and every season gardeners face similar problems. Cucumbers get sick, have difficulty withstanding heat or, conversely, excess moisture, the ovaries fall off, and the fruits do not ripen. Even experienced gardener faces serious difficulties in growing cucumbers.
Quite hot weather, which often occurs in early to mid-summer, determines a number of problems when growing cucumber crops, both in open and protected ground.
First of all, heat And low humidity contribute to the development of a nasty pest. In a greenhouse in dry, hot weather, the appearance of common spider mites is inevitable.
- At the first signs of disease, plants must be sprayed with the biological preparation Fitoverm.
- It is advisable to treat on the underside of the leaves, where the pest is concentrated.
- When spraying only on the upper side of the leaf, the product does not reach the pest, and therefore you will not get a positive effect.
| Falling of the cucumber ovary in the heat |
Dry hot weather affects the quality of pollination of cucumbers, especially in greenhouses - the ovary turns yellow, falls off, and the fruits do not ripen.
In order to improve pollination of cucumbers in a greenhouse, it is necessary to apply a number of agrotechnical measures:
- Irrigate by sprinkling from above. As a result, the leaf surface of the plant cools, which also helps in the complex of measures to combat spider mites;
- shade the southern slopes and side surfaces of greenhouses using light covering material. This way we will prevent overheating of the soil and protect the plants - the temperature will drop, which will contribute to better pollination,
- carry out foliar feeding.
Foliar feeding to increase cucumber ovaries:
- 1 tsp. boric acid dilute in 10 liters of water and add a few drops of iodine and crystals of potassium permanganate - so that the solution is pink.
- Treat plants with this mixture once a week, preferably in the morning or evening, as the number of ovaries increases sharply.
It is clear that additional care should be taken about watering in hot weather.
- Cucumbers are both a heat- and moisture-loving crop, so if the plants look wilted, you should definitely increase the watering rate.
- During the fruiting phase, watering cucumbers is especially important, otherwise the plants will wither, pests will spread, and the fruits will be bitter.
- It is recommended to use about 10-15 liters of water per 1 sq. m.
In addition to hot weather, excess moisture can also harm cucumbers.
- If you grow cucumbers in open ground and it rains continuously outside, unpleasant diseases cannot be avoided either.
- Wet weather promotes the development of false powdery mildew, angular bacterial spot.
- It is very difficult to fight them, and you can regulate the amount of your harvest only by growing cucumber varieties that are resistant to these diseases.
Cucumbers love manure and water - this is wisdom that has come down to us from time immemorial. And, it seems, there’s nothing to be clever about: I made a warm manure bed (soil mixed with humus), water it properly, and that’s it, the harvest is guaranteed. But it's not that simple. This summer, when in many regions the temperature does not rise above +12 - +16 degrees for weeks, people are falling into despair and are preparing to buy cucumbers for canning in the store.
Only peace! . To many FORUMHOUSE members it succeeds. We have studied the experience of outstanding borage growers on our portal and tell you what they feed the plants and what they do to get consistently large yields both in prolonged cold weather and in drought. delicious cucumbers no signs of bitterness.
- How to calculate the amount of organic matter for feeding cucumbers.
- What kind of manure is best to feed cucumbers?
- What should be the ratio of nitrogen and potassium in fertilizing.
- Which feeding method is suitable for cold summers?
- How to understand what microelements cucumbers lack.
- How to make grass dressing.
- How to make an extract from ash.
How to calculate the amount of organic matter
Let's consider the case of a FORUMHOUSE participant, typical for this summer Saraikina Sveta. Her cucumbers grow on humus, but it was cold all summer, and it rained, the bushes were stunted, with yellow leaves. It is even impossible to form a plant, because “there are, one might say, no side shoots.” This is what it looks like:
Sveta herself suffers from sharp changes in soil and air temperatures.
Sveta Saraikina member of FORUMHOUSE
In my opinion, I won’t see any cucumbers.
What can you do to still “see the cucumbers”? Colleagues at FORUMHOUSE diagnosed a nitrogen deficiency using photography. It seems like how can this be if cucumbers grow on humus and have enough organic matter. But in general, understanding how much organic matter cucumbers need is the most difficult thing in growing them.
Oddly enough, manure differs from manure, content useful substances it is different and depends on many factors.
It is impossible to say exactly for feeding: as already mentioned, in each case it may have a different content of useful substances. With experience comes intuition, when you already know approximately how much manure to dilute in a bucket of water, how much solution to pour into the hole.
But for reference: the most effective organic fertilizer For cucumbers, chicken manure is considered to be the one that contains the highest concentration of beneficial microelements. The only thing:
The solution of chicken manure should not be highly concentrated; it can easily burn plants.
Be careful!
Cow, horse and pig manure have a nitrogen to potassium ratio of approximately 1:1. If you feed cucumbers with them, then add 10-15 grams of potash fertilizers (for example, potassium sulfate) to a bucket of solution.
Slogvaln member of FORUMHOUSE
I add a bucket of mullein infusion directly into the barrel, pour a quarter of a bucket of ash into it, wait half an hour (I read that it will dissolve during this time), and mix thoroughly with each addition.
The solution remaining in the barrel Slogvaln feeds the cucumbers next time. The more time passes, the more the ash dissolves, the more correct the ratio of potassium and nitrogen in the fertilizing becomes.
Per season Slogvaln feeds several of these large barrels to the cucumbers. And one more thing: as soon as the cucumbers bloom, she mulches the beds with straw. Plants are warmer under a blanket of mulch, and in cold summers they especially need such care.
The ratio of nitrogen and potassium in feeding
As we all know, the most important microelements for cucumbers are nitrogen and potassium. It depends on them how intensively the plant grows and develops, and how many fruits are poured on each bush. The following proportions should be maintained in fertilizing:
Feeding method in cold weather
But this general recommendation, the nitrogen and potassium content in the fertilizer should vary depending on the condition of the plant. So, if the plants are literally growing by leaps and bounds, and there are not enough fruits for them, we reduce nitrogen fertilizing and add potassium. And vice versa: if the cucumber bush is tired of bearing fruit (it will give us a signal about this by sharply reducing fruiting, literally: “they just picked a bucket a day, and suddenly there are three cucumbers”), then we give it time to rest and recover, increasing share of nitrogen. After a week and a half, the amount of nitrogen decreases again.
Cucumbers respond well to foliar feeding. And in cold weather they should become mandatory. The fact is that in the cold summer, when for a long time the thermometer shows +14 - +16 degrees, root fertilizing becomes ineffective. Without heat, some of the beneficial nutrients do not dissolve well and remain in compounds that are difficult for the cucumber to reach. The fact is that root hairs do not work as actively in cold weather, and it is better to feed plants through the leaves.
For foliar feeding, weak solutions of Kemira, Mortar, Kristallion, etc. are recommended. On average, 10-15 grams per bucket of water is enough; for young plants the concentration should be a little less, for fruit-bearing plants a little more.
In cold weather, foliar feeding is carried out weekly.
If the summer is not cold, then one foliar feeding will be enough for 2-3 weeks.
Leaf feeding is carried out in cloudy but dry weather, in the late afternoon.
How to understand what elements a cucumber lacks
Member FORUMHOUSE Stols has been growing cucumbers for many years, but for the first time he gets these strange light plants with strange light fruits.
What's wrong? Actually it's clear:
Olga1113 member of FORUMHOUSE
They want to eat, and everything in a comprehensive manner, and nitrogen in particular.
Light colored leaves indicate a lack of nitrogen, and the shape of the fruit in the photo above indicates a lack of potassium. It would be correct to feed the plants with potassium nitrate, preferably on the leaves, but if it’s too scary, then at least at the roots.
It’s also good to make an extract from the ash and supplement it with fermented nettle, the so-called stinkweed. Fertilizing is done as follows: half the container is filled with nettles (preferably) or other grass, and filled with water. For better fermentation, add a pack of granulated yeast, or maybe a glass of some jam. After a week, the feeding is ready.
Consumption of herbal fertilizer: 1 liter per bush. By the way, cucumbers are such plants that even with herbal feeding they can only be burned in this way, so follow the “water + drink” rule. Dilute it!
pavel-79 FORUMHOUSE member
It is diluted almost 1 to 10 and before feeding the ridge is first watered with ordinary clean water.
Plants themselves always tell us what they lack; just listen to them carefully and everything will be fine. So, let's learn the language of cucumbers.
| Lack of substance | Symptoms |
|---|---|
| Not enough nitrogen | Abnormally light colored leaves, stems and fruits. With a significant lack of nitrogen, the leaves turn yellow, the plants stop growing, the roots turn brown and die. |
| Phosphorus deficiency | The leaves are too dark and small. |
| Potassium deficiency | “Zucchini” shape of the fruit, bronze border of the leaves. |
| Magnesium deficiency | Light green and yellowish spots on the lower leaves. |
| Calcium deficiency | Cucumbers don't grow well acidic soils. If this story repeats itself for several years, try careful liming. |
| Boron deficiency | The leaves bend like beech C and break easily. |
How to make an extract from ash
The legendary extract from wood ash will help compensate for the lack of most of the above-mentioned microelements in cucumbers. To prepare it, a three-liter jar of ash is filled with a seven-liter bucket of boiling water and left for a day. When feeding, a liter of extract is diluted with a bucket of water.
Can be applied to soil and dry soil wood ash, on square meter cucumber bed will require 300 grams of ash. The only thing: ash is not mixed with nitrogen fertilizers containing ammonium nitrogen (for example, ammonium sulfate or ammonium nitrate). The fact is that the ash contains potash, which releases ammonium from the above-mentioned nitrogen fertilizers, which turns into ammonia and evaporates uselessly from the fertilizer.
We hope these simple rules will help your cucumbers beat any cold summer.