Strong Roots Are The Key To A Good Harvest Of Cucumbers

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

Each of us, when planting vegetables in our garden, hopes that the harvest will be high and does everything for this: carefully selects seeds or seedlings, carries out processing, watering, feeding in a timely manner. And the harvest seems to be good, but I want even better. What else can you do? Just taking care of the root system and making it more powerful, moreover, it does not require a lot of work and time. By the way, the growth of a powerful root system in cucumbers occurs in three stages

How to build up the root system in cucumbers?

In general, it is not difficult. But with the seedlings, you will most likely have to confuse yourself, or buy ready-made, but at an early stage, two or three leaves. Although I recommend growing the seedlings yourself for the best effect, this does not require large expenses, both time, labor and financial. In addition, if you buy ready-made seedlings even at the earliest stages, then the first stage of building up the root system will be skipped.

Where do we start? From planting seeds. We take a container (any box, high pallet, and so on) with high sides, not less than 8-9 centimeters. At the bottom we pour a layer of sand, a small, about a centimeter and a half, on top a layer of a mixture of garden soil with peat or humus. This layer must be burnt to the middle of the container, that is, its height will be approximately 4 centimeters.

Now we start planting seeds. By the way, before planting, the seeds do not need to be soaked, you can simply treat them with a manganese solution or any other disinfectant. Landing is done to a depth of one to two centimeters. The distance between adjacent plants should be about four centimeters. Water, if necessary, then cover with foil or glass and leave in a warm place until shoots appear.

As soon as the seeds hatch, remove the film or glass and transfer the box to the lightest window. Gradually, as the cucumbers grow, pour a mixture of garden soil with purchased peat into the container. We repeat this operation constantly until the container is filled to the top or the first 2 true leaves appear in the cucumbers.

As soon as the container is filled to the top with earth or the first real leaves have appeared, it is time to start the second stage - transplanting our seedlings into individual containers. It is not difficult to do this, the main thing is to choose the correct height of the containers: it should be higher than the previous place where the seedlings grew, about 2 times, that is, 15-18 centimeters. We pour soil onto the ground, carefully remove the plants along with a clod of earth from the general container and transplant it into an individual one. And again we put it in a warm, bright place, allowing the seedlings to grow, but at the same time constantly observing it and adding earth as needed. By the time the seedlings are planted in open ground (this will be the third stage), individual pots with cucumbers should be filled to the brim with soil.

Now comes the last, third stage - planting in open ground and the last build-up of the root mass. We dig a wide (about a metro wide) trench in the garden bed, the depth is one bayonet of an ordinary garden shovel. Carefully pour up to 10 centimeters of humus or peat (but better - humus) on the bottom and leave it for a while so that the soil warms up well. It will take about ten days. Now you can plant cucumbers in the garden, but first prepare the straw: we will need it for the top layer. In addition to straw, prepare a mixture of soil with superphosphate (about 35 grams of fertilizer is needed per plant).

We plant seedlings in a prepared trench, we have 4-5 plants per square meter. We fall asleep with earth mixed with fertilizer, and from above, along the "aisle", carefully cover everything with a ten-centimeter layer of straw. Watering. That's it, the cucumber bed is ready.

Why so much fuss? Firstly, cucumbers with a powerful root system, planted in a trench, increase the growing season. Secondly, the yield increases. Thirdly, significantly less water is required for irrigation.