How to sow cucumbers in open ground correctly - 9 ways

Cucumbers in the country are more popular than potatoes. With the right choice of the variety and the successful organization of the beds, fresh greens are collected almost before frost. Despite the eternal difficulties with the lack of space for the beds, cunning summer residents will be able to place cucumbers - the methods of planting in open ground are so diverse that one can only wonder at the ingenuity of gardeners.

General rules for planting cucumbers

Cucumbers love warmth, moisture and light, so a place for them is chosen with good lighting, protected from the wind. The soil should be loose and fertile.

Grown by two main methods - seedling and seedless. The first one is suitable for any climate, for open and protected ground. The second is used in greenhouses or outdoors in the southern regions, where spring comes early and summer lasts long.

The soil

The substrate for growing seedlings is made up in different ways, starting from the acquisition of ready-made soil for seedlings (universal or special, for example "Gumimax" or "Soil for cucumbers") and ending with mixtures based on peat, sand, garden soil, and other components selected independently.

For sowing seeds, the necessary complex of fertilizers, as well as elements that normalize its mechanical and chemical composition, are applied directly to the beds for digging into the soil.

Planting depth of cucumbers

To sow cucumbers correctly, take into account the growing method:

• for seedlings, the embedding depth is 1 cm;
• on the beds - 5 cm.

When planting seedlings, the bushes are planted at the same depth as in the seedling container. Experienced summer residents recommend deepening the plants not only elongated, but also of normal sizes - additional roots will appear that will strengthen the cucumber vine and increase its yield.

Seed preparation

The seed preparation technique is simple, although time-consuming. Cucumber seeds are first warmed up at 60 ° C for two hours, then soaked in a nutrient solution. ).

Experienced gardeners do not recommend soaking the seeds before planting in open ground, since the rapidly hatching stimulated seeds can freeze during a sudden cold snap. It is better to sow them dry - sprouting naturally will give stronger shoots, although they may appear later than planned.

Which side to plant the seeds?

A simple, at first glance, business - planting a cucumber seed - has its own characteristics. The sowing result is influenced by the location of the seed in the hole (groove). Pecking begins at the pointed tip of the seed, it is from there that the first thin root appears. Therefore, seeds, dry or soaked and managed to hatch, are planted with the pointed side down - it does not matter if it is a seedling capacity, a greenhouse or an open bed. It is important that the “beak” of the germinated seeds does not exceed 5 mm, otherwise the cucumbers will lag behind in growth and bear fruit worse.

Dry seeds, which are usually planted directly in the ground, can also be placed horizontally. Only one thing is important - the sharp tip should not look up.Such seeds will take a long time to germinate, it is difficult, the plants are often painful.

From the recommendations of summer residents:

“When planting seeds in open ground, in each hole we add a half-liter jar of humus, a tablespoon of ash, mix with the ground. We plant 5-7 seeds, and when two real leaves grow, we thin out, remove a couple of the weakest ones. After another two weeks we leave a couple of the strongest bushes. "

Cucumber growing methods

The times when summer residents, having allocated a bed for cucumbers, grew them in sprout, are over. Modern materials make it possible to install light, stable trellises to let the whips up, to set up greenhouses with or without heating, to build light greenhouses.

On trellises

The traditional method of tying cucumber lashes to trellises is convenient for greenhouses and open ground. For trellises, it is preferable to form ridges 15-20 cm high above the general level of the site - good heating of the earth, its saturation with oxygen, a rapid outflow of rainwater greatly simplify all activities related to caring for plants. Instead of stalks weaving on the ground, summer residents get slender rows of vines, fully illuminated by the sun, well ventilated.

Instead of ridges, tunnels are often used - they dig trenches about 20 cm deep, at the bottom of which holes are formed for planting cucumbers. A convenient method is that at first the tunnels are easy to cover with a film that protects young plants from cold weather. As the cucumbers grow, the trenches are filled with mulch. Such beds are easier to water, after rains, no dirt remains on the leaves, which increases the risk of diseases... However, this is a more laborious process, which, moreover, is not applicable in areas where groundwater is located high.

For open ground, when grown on trellises, cucumbers are planted according to the scheme 20 x 60-100 cm, the trellis is installed either during planting / sowing, or after a couple of weeks.

Another popular, convenient method of growing greenery is that the grooves for planting are dug parallel to each other with a small step. The trellis is installed between them when the seedlings grow a little. At the same time, a wide variety of materials are suitable for its construction: a mesh stretched on metal poles, wooden or plastic large-mesh lattices. Some summer residents adapt nets or headboards from old beds. Sometimes corn and sunflowers are planted as a support between the furrows.

On trellis beds, especially those oriented from north to south, cucumbers are evenly illuminated and well ventilated, which reduces the risk of diseases.

Cucumbers in barrels

Large barrels act as beds - metal, plastic or wood, new or old. The advantage is that they can be positioned arbitrarily by choosing a suitable place for a small area.

The peculiarity of planting cucumbers in barrels is the careful observance of the alternation of layers filling the container.

1. To ensure good drainage, the bottom of the drums is cut off or multiple holes drilled into it.
2. About a third of the volume is the drainage layer, for which branches, crushed stone, expanded clay are used.
3. The next third is filled with dry tops, foliage, paper waste mixed with garden soil.
4. The final layer is a nutritious substrate. Its thickness is 15-25 cm.

An irrigation system is organized: a 5-liter canister from under the water with the neck cut down is instilled into the filled barrel. Holes are preliminarily made around the neck through which water and top dressing will flow to the roots.

Each 200 liter barrel can accommodate 4-6 cucumber bushes. To make varieties with long lashes feel comfortable, a support is installed on top of the barrels - a frame made of thick wire bent in an arc, rods.

Creatively-minded summer residents often decorate barrels, making a plot decoration out of prosaic containers. Thus, you can arrange a picnic area, flower beds, recreation areas.

Advantages of the method:

• There is practically no need for organic fertilizing, the embedded organic residues replenish the supply of nutrients in the barrel, at the same time warming the plantings. This promotes rapid growth and early ripening of zelents.
• Cucumbers do not need to be weeded, they suffer less from pests, diseases, they are easier to water and feed.
• Harvesting is easier because the cucumbers are located high and do not stick to dirt.
• Planting with seeds or seedlings is equally successful.

Disadvantages:

• The method is costly, since not every summer cottage has the required number of barrels.
• We have to stock up on a large amount of organic residues to fill the barrels.

In five-liter bottles

Another example of the resourcefulness of summer residents is the use of practically free containers.

Option 1

The upper cone-shaped part is cut off from the water bottles. 2-3 seeds or a couple of seedlings are usually placed in a container. When the young plants are strong enough, in appropriate weather, they are moved to a permanent place together with the container, cutting off the bottom and deepening the walls by about 15 cm. The bottles with cucumbers growing in them are covered with a cone from the night coolness.

The method has several advantages:

• the container walls buried in the ground create a barrier for pests living in the ground, primarily for the bear;
• the root area is free of weeds;
• as the lashes grow, soil mixture is poured into the bottle, where fertilizers are added, all of them will be delivered strictly to the destination - the root system;
• when watering, the water does not spread over the garden, which is important for areas where there is no water supply.

Option 2

Good for cold climates, for example, for the Leningrad region, Karelia, since it not only eliminates the need to transplant seedlings - bottles serve as an additional means of protection from the cold.

In the prepared soil, holes are made, seeds are planted, each group is covered with a five-liter bottle with a cut bottom on top. If the planting is carried out in a greenhouse, the bottles are covered with one layer of heat-saving material. For greenhouses, two or three layers are usually used, then the main material is thrown onto the arcs. In mild climates, they do without additional insulation of cucumbers planted under bottles.

When the first sprouts appear, the caps are removed from the bottles to provide the seedlings with oxygen.

In bags

The method is not much different from growing cucumbers in barrels... They take large garbage bags with a volume of 70-120 liters. You can use used packaging from bulk food products - cereals, sugar, etc.

The bags are filled with soil mixture filled with fertilizers. Often, the lower part is filled with garden debris (twigs, dry flowers, dry grass) and only the upper 15-20 cm is covered with soil, which allows more economical use of fertile land. After filling, small holes are made at the bottom of the bags to drain excess water.

Bags are arranged in rows or groups as space permits. On the sides, they are fixed with bricks, scraps of boards, between them, supports are installed for tying whips.

10-15 seeds are sown in each bag, the seedlings are then thinned out, leaving no more than 5-6 young plants.

Often, summer residents from one large bag make a full-fledged garden bed, completely filling it with a nutritious substrate. Cuts are made on the sides, where an additional batch of seeds or seedlings is planted.

Method advantages:

• the beds do not need preliminary digging;
• weeds do not grow or there are very few of them;
• saving water and fertilizers, since everything you need goes directly to the root system of cucumbers, and does not spread over the surface of the earth;
• low risks of contamination of "beds" with infectious diseases.

Herringbone bed (hut)

Another clever way to save space, which has a lot of variations.The bottom line is that in a place prepared for planting cucumbers, a metal pipe about three meters long is dug in to a depth of at least one meter. A circular furrow with a diameter of about a meter is marked for planting seedlings, wooden or plastic supports are strengthened, creating a frame of the structure in the form of a hut. Seedlings are planted in a circular manner with a step of 30 cm.When the vines grow a little, they are tied to a string, the lower end of which is fixed with a peg or hook, and the upper end is attached to the upper part of the central support. Instead of twine, you can use straight long branches, for example from hazel, thin timber, plastic pipes.

In addition to saving space, the method is also convenient in that, if necessary, it is easy to put a film or agrofibre on the frame, that is, to create a greenhouse that protects from the cold.

Tent structures can be erected over barrels, sacks, in order, if necessary, to quickly cover cucumber lashes from a cold snap.

Growing in a hut has one drawback - one part of the greenhouses is facing the north, so there is not enough sun for the cucumbers.

On willow twigs

The garden bed is prepared in the fall, the optimal size is 1x5 m. In the spring, after loosening the soil, two furrows are made along the long sides, stepping back 10 cm from the edge, and the third is between them. The depth and width of the grooves is 13 cm. They are filled with humus.

After planting the seedlings, support arcs are installed along the furrows, the material for which is willow twigs - they bend easily. The branches are selected so that the height of the arches is about 50 cm. Longitudinal arches should overlap by 8-10 centimeters. Then the rods are installed across the bed, the points of intersection of the longitudinally located branches are chosen as reference points for them.

As the lashes grow, they are not tied up, but simply directed to the arcs. As a result, they seem to lie on an "air cushion" without touching the ground. It is easy to close such a bed with foil or agrofibre, if the weather requires it.

In car tires

The painful issue - the disposal of old tires - has been successfully solved by summer residents who use them to grow cucumbers.

To organize the beds, they take several tires, usually from 3 to 5, put them on top of each other, getting an analogue of a barrel. The inner space is filled in the following order:

• the first tire - dry scraps of branches for good drainage, lightly sprinkled with soil;
• the second tire is straw or hay and food waste mixed with the earth;
• the third tire is fertile soil.

For watering, a plastic bottle is dropped, as in the version with barrels, or a metal pipe with small holes drilled in it.

A sheet of cardboard or thick paper is placed under the tires to limit the growth of grass.

This bed is easy to shelter from frost, and fresh organic materials provide it with warmth, which allows you to plant cucumbers early. When growing early varieties, two crops are easily obtained per season.

In buckets

For this purpose, buckets with a volume of at least 5 liters, plastic or metal, are suitable, in the bottom of which holes are punched. Particular attention is paid to the choice of varieties - bushy or weakly branched form a more compact root system. Depending on the volume of the bucket, 1-3 seeds are planted in it.

The advantage of buckets is that they are easy to carry from place to place, giving the landscape a peculiar twist. You can even attach them to a wall or fence at a height of a meter, beautifully styling them.

On the "mobile" garden

Such beds are called mobile because they are very easy to collect in any well-lit place, after harvesting they are just as easy to disassemble. They are very similar in principle to warm ones, but they are prepared just a month before planting seedlings.

Mobile beds are made narrow - 20-30 cm. Above ground level, they are raised to the same height. They start with a marking - pegs are driven in. Then lay out the layers:

1. thin branches that are collected during the spring pruning of fruit trees and shrubs;
2. unripe mulch collected in the spring or rapidly decomposing waste, including food;
3. a few centimeters of fertile soil.

The bed is spilled with an infusion of ash, then with liquid diluted humus, compost or a solution of EM preparations, covered with a black film so that the soil adjacent to the embankment gets under the shelter. Before planting cucumber seedlings, the garden is not disturbed.

When the time comes for planting seedlings, slots 5-7 cm long are made on the film with an interval of 25-30 cm, where the seedlings are placed.

The original methods of planting cucumbers, applicable in small areas, are not limited to this. Practical owners adapt ordinary wooden boxes, lining them with polyethylene, coconut fiber or mineral wool mats, PVC pipes - it all depends on ingenuity and imagination. A significant advantage of such non-standard approaches is that cucumbers can be planted with seeds without wasting time growing seedlings.

At first glance, unexpected options for planting cucumbers do not at all complicate the process of growing them - the care remains the same, except that it takes less time to weed and fight against diseases and pests. The methods are used not only in small areas, but also where there are no problems with the placement of borage. As a result, the site acquires a unique originality - a combination of purely aesthetic principles with practical ones. Some of the proposed ideas are easy to implement in a city apartment.