How and when to plant cucumbers and tomatoes in one greenhouse, the advantages and disadvantages of such a neighborhood

What is good for one horticultural crop can significantly harm another. Before planting cucumbers and tomatoes in one greenhouse, a gardener should carefully study the needs of both crops, since they are not the most successful neighbors. In order for both vegetables to ripen in comfortable conditions, a certain compromise has to be found.

Why grow cucumbers and tomatoes together

Planting cucumbers under the same roof with tomatoes is more of a compulsory measure than necessary. Although vegetables are great in summer salads and make up the bulk of winter preservation, they prefer a fundamentally different cultivation.

The need to plant vegetables in one greenhouse arises mainly for two reasons:

1. Limited area of ​​the site. If there is only one greenhouse, you have to place two different crops under a common roof. Not every gardener is ready to refuse one component of the cucumber-tomato salad.
2. More comfortable temperatures essential for both cucumbers and tomatoes. In some regions, you cannot do without a greenhouse. This applies, first of all, to the northern regions of the country, but in the temperate climate in recent years, summer frosts have occurred - the greenhouse helps to hedge both cucumbers and tomatoes.

Cucumber needs

In a closed ground, the cucumber crop meets all the requirements: the fruits ripen large, juicy and pleasant to the taste. Cucumbers feel good both in polycarbonate greenhouses and in film structures.

What will the Zelenskians need for good growth and high yields:

1. Cucumbers should be grown in conditions of high air humidity - 87-90%.
2. The air temperature for growth is + 20-25 degrees; during the fruiting period, an increase to +30 is allowed.
3. To maintain moisture, the plants are watered daily.
4. Sprinkling is recommended. At the time of spraying, doors and vents are closed in the greenhouse to create a greenhouse effect. Sprinkling sometimes becomes the cause of the development of a fungus, so you should not abuse such watering, especially with thickened plantings.
5. Cucumbers are rarely ventilated, since they do not always tolerate drafts and dry air well.
6. Top dressing of cucumbers is carried out up to five times per season. At each stage of development, certain substances are taken: at the beginning of the growing season, the bushes need nitrogen, a phosphorus preparation is introduced for flowering, and when the fruits begin to appear, potassium-nitrogen.

Needs of tomatoes

Tomatoes can be grown both in the open field and in a special polycarbonate greenhouse. Greenhouse tomatoes produce an early, bountiful and tasty harvest. Residents of the northern regions cannot do without such an adaptation.

Features of growing greenhouse tomatoes:

1. The first condition for a healthy harvest is dry air. Tomato bushes are often ventilated to avoid moisture buildup and the development of fungal diseases.
2. Airing is needed not only to maintain health: in the absence of air circulation, plants are much worse pollinated. Due to such conditions, the amount of the crop suffers noticeably.
3. If summer nights are warm, then to ventilate the tomatoes in the greenhouse, you need to open both the vents and both doors.
4. Tomatoes ripen well at a temperature of + 22-25 degrees.
5. From the first point it follows that tomatoes do not tolerate frequent watering.Application of water should be rare and at the same time abundant. The optimal frequency is once a week in a stable warm, not dry weather. Watering tomatoes is planned in the first half of the day, so that excess moisture evaporates faster under the influence of the daytime temperature. By the evening, the humidity in the greenhouse should decrease.
6. Tomatoes are watered with strictly warm settled water. Liquid volume per 1 m3² - 10 liters. The depth of soil saturation with moisture is 20-25 cm. This is necessary to feed the entire root system, which lies quite deep in tomatoes.
7. The stream of water is directed only at the root; it is not recommended to wet the upper part of the plants. Sprinkling leads not only to fungal infections, but also to spoilage of the taste of mature tomatoes - they become watery and sour.
8. Mulching is necessary for a crop to retain moisture in the soil for a long time, as well as to protect against weeds and diseases.
9. During one season, tomato plantings are fed three times. The first fertilization occurs at the time of budding. The second - after the flowering of the second tomato cluster. The third feeding is carried out after the blooming of the third brush. The optimal composition will be a potassium-phosphorus complex. From organic matter, tomatoes perceive bird droppings.

What prevents co-cultivation

Based on the above maintenance requirements, it is worth considering growing cucumbers and tomatoes in the same greenhouse.

Reasons to abandon this approach:

1. Cucumbers are moisture-loving plants, which cannot be said about tomatoes. Due to dampness, the latter often develop fungal diseases, they are less pollinated due to wet pollen and, as a result, bear less fruit.
2. Tomatoes tolerate drought and high temperatures well. For cucumbers, such conditions are destructive: they need moisture and coolness.
3. Another reason is the need to ventilate the tomato greenhouse. Cucumbers do not tolerate constant drafts poorly, because of this, their lashes develop worse, respectively, the harvest is reduced.
4. Tomatoes prefer potash and phosphate fertilizers and suffer from excess nitrogen. Because of this element, the bushes grow powerful, and the fruits do not have time to pour. Cucumbers, on the other hand, are lovers of the nitrogen component in fertilizers.
5. Tomatoes will almost inevitably suffer from fungus due to the high humidity. At the same time, they have a number of common ailments with Zelentsi (anthracosis and mosaic). Accordingly, having originated on one crop, the disease will spread to another - there is a high risk of losing both crops.
6. Crops also have common pests: mites, thrips, aphid, whitefly.

Important! So that plants are less exposed to fungal epidemics, special varieties are selected. Among the tomatoes, it is worth noting the resistant to high humidity "Lyubasha", "Lark", "Soyuz 8", "Metelitsa", "Dubok". Cucumber varieties are selected for resistance to cold and fungal infections. These are the varieties "Masha", "German F1", "Goosebump", "Benefis".

To feast on both those and other vegetables without restrictions, it is better to build a second greenhouse or even grow one of the crops without a greenhouse. Both the quantity and quality of the crop will be better in these cases.

Co-cultivation rules

The main difficulty in joint cultivation is caused by the basic needs of plants, such as watering, air humidity, ventilation, temperature. In one greenhouse, it will not be possible to combine such different care requirements, but it is possible to bring the conditions for keeping individual beds closer to acceptable ones. Many years of experience of gardeners suggests that tomatoes should be treated more carefully: if cucumbers can still withstand low humidity, then tomatoes from excess moisture are massively affected by pests and diseases.

Compromise conditions for keeping plantings:

1. Air humidity is equal to 70%. Cucumbers will tolerate this decline without problems.
2. The optimum daytime temperature is +25 degrees, at night - not lower than +19.With an increase to +30, the formation of ovaries in tomatoes will be impossible, and with a decrease in night temperatures, the fruiting process will be inhibited.
3. Good lighting is essential for both beds. Cucumber scourges should not shade tomato bushes, and vice versa.
4. Airing is carried out according to a scheme more suitable for tomatoes. Cucumbers can tolerate a little dryness, while tomatoes are unlikely to tolerate excessive moisture.
5. Compulsory prevention of fungal diseases will be required for both garden crops.
6. The greenhouse should be large enough to allow room for both the beds and paths between them for maintenance.

Crop placement options

Growing tomatoes and cucumbers in the same garden is strictly prohibited. There are two main ways of placing under one greenhouse:

1. Division of space in two.
2. Disembarkation of three beds.

Differentiation

The easiest way is to split the greenhouse in half. At the same time, the beds are delimited in the center of the greenhouse with a film curtain. The material is stretched from the roof to the ground. This will create the right conditions for each part.

Which plots for which culture:

• it is better to place the tomato bed from the side where there are more vents;
• another option is closer to the greenhouse doors, tomatoes will be more comfortable here, and cucumbers will like the end of the greenhouse;
• if possible, the cucumbers should be planted from the north side of the greenhouse, where moisture evaporation is slower.

If the beds are too close due to the small size of the greenhouse, the film can be replaced with a metal sheet.

Alternation

The second way is to create three beds with a width of at least 60 cm. Paths are made between them. The central bed is prepared for cucumbers, two side beds - for tomato crops. On the middle bed, you need to install a trellis of stakes and a net for climbing plants. With this arrangement, it is better to give preference to low-growing varieties of tomatoes so that the cucumbers receive enough light. Tomatoes as they grow too tied up.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to provide both crops with equally comfortable conditions - you have to choose a priority plant. However, a strong bias in one direction or the other is fraught with the death of one of the vegetables. Therefore, you need to try to maintain a delicate balance.

Terms and rules for planting cucumbers

How and when to plant cucumbers correctly in the part of the greenhouse assigned to them:

1. The timing of planting cucumber seedlings in the greenhouse is the beginning or end of May (depending on the average temperatures in the region), the risk of recurrent frosts should be minimal. The seedlings move to the greenhouse when the air temperature in the greenhouse warms up to + 18-20 degrees.
2. The soil for the cucumber bed is prepared from peat with the addition of sawdust (10: 2); to improve the composition of the soil, 20 g of superphosphate, 10 g of potassium sulfate are added.
3. Digging holes for planting shallow, seedlings are placed vertically in them.
4. The distance between the holes is at least 40 cm. You also need to retreat 30-40 cm from the walls of the greenhouse.
5. Cucumbers are tied to vertical trellises a week after transplanting.

Planting tomatoes

The timing of planting tomato seedlings depends on the weather conditions of the region: in the middle lane, the bushes are placed in a greenhouse in early May, in Siberia - in late May-early June. The reference point for is the established soil temperature not lower than +15 degrees, as well as the height of the seedlings - 25-30 cm.

Rules for preparing and planting tomato seedlings in a greenhouse:

1. The soil is prepared in autumn, at least a week before transplanting. It is necessary to remove the top layer of 10 cm to remove the larvae of the pests. If necessary, peat, compost and sawdust are introduced into clay soils and loams (1 bucket per 1 m²), in peat bogs - sod land, sawdust and compost, 1 bucket per 1 m².
2. To improve the composition of the soil by 1 m² add 1 tsp. saltpeter and 3 tsp. superphosphate.
3. The height of one tomato bed is 30 cm.
4. Dig holes for bushes at intervals of at least 40 cm.The density of the planting affects the quality of the plants and the yield.
5. The depth of the hole is 20 cm.
6. Before planting, the soil is treated with a weak solution of potassium permanganate - about 1 liter per well. This will protect the plants from fungal infection in the early stages.
7. Preparing seedlings for transplanting: in 2-3 days, yellowed and cotyledonous leaves are cut off.
8. Before moving the seedlings out of the pot, the soil is watered abundantly.
9. The bushes are removed along with a lump of earth and carefully moved into the hole, then covered with soil.
10. After transplanting, the tomatoes are watered with warm water.

Advice! In order for the soil to warm up faster, in the spring it is covered with a black film.

Care Tips

Cucumbers and tomatoes in the same greenhouse will be more comfortable if you install a separator in the form of a film. Crop care is carried out according to the standard rules for each type.

If there is no separation, then you will have to strictly observe the compromise conditions. A special additive - hydrogel - will help to maintain the optimal moisture level for tomatoes with abundant watering of cucumbers. Crystals of the substance instantly absorb water when irrigating the bush, gradually transferring it to the root system.

This trick helps to avoid waterlogging and at the same time allows you to nourish moisture-loving plants. Thus, the cucumbers get enough water, and the tomatoes do not suffer from humidity. When planting in a cucumber hole, add half a glass of hydrogel.

A few more useful tips:

1. If the hydrogel was not introduced during planting, then it is recommended to mulch the soil under the cucumbers. Moisture after watering will remain at the roots and evaporate less into the air, which will reduce watering and reduce air humidity without compromising moisture in the soil. Mowed grass with a layer of 10 cm is suitable as mulch.
2. Pollinating insects may not always be able to enter the greenhouse. In order for the plants to self-pollinate better, they are periodically shaken by the trunk.

Obviously, growing your favorite vegetables in one greenhouse is fraught with many difficulties, from arranging the greenhouse to the risks of fungal diseases of all plantings. Nevertheless, greenhouse conditions also have a number of advantages: these are early harvest ripening periods, excellent fruit taste, and increased fruiting. With the right approach, you can provide decent conditions for both moisture-loving cucumbers and capricious tomatoes.