2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
It would seem that everyone knows how to grow a cucumber. However, every year even experienced vegetable growers face problems that give up. Let's try to repeat the well-known truths so that the cucumber beds only please and bring the necessary crop of deliciously crispy cucumbers
Long way to Europe
Interestingly, most of the cultivated plants have their ancestors that grow freely in the wild. The cucumber stands out from this set, because no one has yet managed to meet its wild-growing brother.
Having begun its life in India several millennia before the birth of Christ, the cucumber migrated along the paths of inquisitive travelers to Ancient Egypt, and from there it moved to Europe.
The value of a cucumber
Europeans appreciated the pleasant taste and dietary qualities of cucumber and began to grow it in their gardens. Such chemical elements as pectins, potassium, iodine, silicon, sulfur and others contained in cucumber have made it attractive for the diet of people suffering from obesity, edema, and liver diseases. And the content of enzymes in cucumber, which in their composition are close to insulin, turn cucumber into one of the main foods for diabetics.
The wonderful qualities of a cucumber do not end there. Traditional healers with the help of fresh cucumber juice relieve people from gastrointestinal colic. One has only to add bee honey to such juice in order to take such a community a couple of tablespoons three times a day, as a person gets rid of a harsh cough and forgets about catarrh of the upper respiratory tract.
When it comes to feminine beauty, cucumber and its healing juice are indispensable. Manufacturers of cosmetics are very active in using cucumber, creating various masks that effectively refresh and whiten the skin.
Features of the structure of cucumber
The cucumber stalk creeping along the ground obtains food with the help of highly branching roots located at a shallow depth. The branchiness of the roots is the reason for the negative attitude of the cucumber to transplants. Therefore, it is much more reliable to sow seeds immediately to a permanent place of residence.
Cucumber leaves grow in size very quickly, especially if they grow in greenhouse conditions, so the plant requires the attention of a grower to form the size and direction of the lashes.
Male and female flowers are located on the same stem, moreover, male flowers appear earlier. That is why it is advised to pick off the first flowers, since they have nothing to pollinate yet, and they take away nutrients from the plant. The removed flowers can be used to decorate and enhance the vitamin value of vegetable salads.
The place of laying female flowers is a varietal characteristic of the plant. Their later appearance determines, as a rule, the location of female flowers on the upper nodes of the stem and on the lateral shoots.
Side shoots also develop from the nodes of the stem. Their number depends on the variety of cucumbers and their growing conditions.
Let there be light and warmth
The Indian origins of the plant affect the photophilousness of cucumbers. It is worth shading its lashes, as their growth slows down, the plant noticeably loses strength, weakens in front of the onslaught of diseases and pests.
If the formation of lashes is left to flow, then their thickening will affect the excess of the number of shoots with male flowers to the detriment of shoots with female flowers, since the main shoot will develop, and the plant will no longer have the strength to develop lateral shoots with female flowers. Although the hybrid varieties have female flowers on the main stem, they crumble fruitlessly when there is a lack of light.
For active growth and development of the plant, a temperature is required in the range of 22-26 degrees Celsius. If the temperature goes off scale for 42 degrees or drops below 14, 5 degrees, then the vitality leaves the cucumber, and it stops growing. Its roots are not able to draw food and moisture from the soil at a prolonged air temperature below 10 degrees. Even minor short frosts kill the plant.
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