How To Feed Flowering Cucumbers?

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Every summer resident dreams of a good harvest of cucumbers, and after all, it is not so difficult to achieve this goal - for this it is enough to regularly pamper growing crops with useful dressings, and it is especially important to have time to do this at the flowering stage! And it is not at all necessary to purchase expensive and sometimes far from the most harmless store-bought stimulants for this purpose - all kinds of nutritional mixtures can be prepared independently, and the composition of such mixtures will be completely safe and inspiring

Do cucumbers need a lot of dressings?

Some summer residents mistakenly believe that cucumbers need a lot of fertilizers, but this is not at all the case: the absorption capacity of the root system of cucumbers is relatively low, therefore, cucumbers take not so many nutrients from the soil. All that this crop requires is warm and well-moistened soil, warmed up in the spring by applying a small amount of manure, as well as moderate amounts of fertilizing during the most important periods of cucumber development. Good feeding will help not only increase the yield of cucumbers, but also contribute to a noticeable strengthening of plant immunity, respectively, many pests and ailments will simply not be scary to cucumbers!

How and with what are cucumbers fed?

For feeding cucumbers, both mineral and a wide variety of organic fertilizers are equally well suited. And in order for the plants to receive all the substances they need in the required volumes, it is recommended to alternate root dressing with spraying. However, the type of dressing is largely influenced by weather conditions: the best solution for warm summer days will be watering (the root system in this case will almost instantly absorb the nutrients that enter it from the soil), and on cloudy days it is best to resort to spraying. By the way, before starting root dressing, it is recommended to first water the cucumbers with clean water - this is necessary so that the roots do not get burned!

During the season, four dressings are usually carried out: the first - a couple of weeks after planting the seedlings in greenhouses or in open ground or at the stage of four to five true leaves, the second - during the budding period, the third - for flowering cucumbers, and the fourth - at the fruiting stage … It is not forbidden to carry out an unscheduled fifth top dressing, but only if the cucumbers have become extremely unimportant to bear fruit, or if they grow on too poor soils.

Top dressing of flowering cucumbers in greenhouses and in the open field

In order for the cucumber harvest to impress not only with its volume, but also with its quality, it is recommended to feed this crop with organic matter during the flowering period: either with a mullein solution (for every ten liters of water, 0.3-0.5 liters of mullein are taken), or with infusion of bird droppings (it cooked in a ratio of 1:15 and infused for three to five days). As a rule, about a liter of the prepared composition is consumed for each plant.

When ovaries begin to form on cucumbers, they are often deficient in calcium with potassium. And here feeding with ash will become a real salvation! It is especially good to make such top dressing on acidic soils - ash is endowed with alkalization ability.

Ash dressing can be both root and foliar. To prepare a saving infusion, the bucket is one-third filled with ash, after which the ash is poured with hot water and the bucket is set aside in a warm place. After a couple of days, the infusion is thoroughly mixed, after which it is filtered and poured into half a liter of the finished composition under each cucumber bush. After ten days, it makes sense to repeat the procedure, and then it will definitely be possible to notice that the cucumbers have begun to bloom much better! As for foliar dressings, they are more suitable for cucumbers planted in open ground: in general, three sprays are carried out, making sure that the healing solution completely covers the cucumber leaves. And the most important thing is to never forget that it is strictly forbidden to combine ash dressings with nitrogen ones!

Foliar dressing of cucumbers with potassium permanganate and boric acid also gives a good effect: ten crystals of potassium permanganate and 5 g of boric acid are dissolved in ten liters of water. And if you add fifty grams of sugar to this mixture, then it will not be difficult to attract the most useful pollinating insects in addition!