Content
Growing cucumbers in the Urals in a greenhouse is complicated by the limited favorable growing season of plants. Frosts sometimes persist until the 1st or 2nd decade of June. They may start again at the end of August. To obtain an earlier harvest of cucumbers in the Ural climate, many summer residents grow the crop not by sowing seeds, but by planting seedlings. Those years that are favorable for obtaining a good harvest of cucumbers occur in the Urals about 3 times in 10 years.
What varieties of cucumbers are suitable for growing in the Urals
The climate of the Urals has its own characteristics, which complicate the process of growing crops. Among the different varieties of cucumber seeds, you can choose the most suitable for growing in the Urals. You shouldn’t limit yourself to one variety, so it’s best to choose 4-5 varieties. For example, the Nezhenskie cucumber variety is ideal for salads and pickles, which can be harvested until autumn. You can choose early and mid-season varieties of cucumbers. The following types of hybrid varieties are ideal for growing in the Urals:
- Voyage F1 is an early ripening cucumber variety that ripens in 45 days in a greenhouse, does not require pollination, and tolerates temperature changes normally.
- Arina F1 is a cold-resistant cucumber hybrid that is high-yielding and resistant to various plant diseases.
- Amur F1 is an early ripening variety that tolerates high and low temperatures well, planting it with seeds or seedlings in open ground; full ripening of the fruit can be expected in 40-45 days.
- Moscow Evenings F1 is an early ripening variety suitable for growing in a greenhouse or in open ground, grows well in the shade, and is resistant to diseases such as powdery mildew, olive spot, etc.
The Voyage F1 and Arina F1 varieties are suitable only for fresh consumption, and the hybrids Podmoskovnie Vechera F1 and Amur F1 are also suitable for pickling. It is not difficult to make the right choice among the variety of cucumber varieties for growing in the harsh Ural climate, so the result should meet all expectations. To achieve this result, you will need to provide proper care for cucumbers.
Sowing seeds in the Middle Urals
Growing cucumbers in a greenhouse using seedlings leads to a faster harvest. Plant cucumbers seeds are necessary in deadlines, depending on the type of crop cover used. It should be ideal for caring for plants in the conditions of the Middle Urals. Cucumber seedlings can be grown in special bags or pots.
This type of crop does not tolerate picking well, and damage to the roots of seedlings can lead to a delay in the development of an adult plant by 10-15 days.
The development of cucumbers that are planted in open ground as seedlings occurs quite quickly, 20-25 days earlier. Seeds for seedlings are first heated by pouring hot water.They must be kept in a thermos for two hours, and then pickled by placing them in a dark solution of potassium permanganate for half an hour.
After these procedures, the cucumber seeds will need to be soaked in warm water, the temperature of which should not be higher than 40 °C. You need to wait 10-12 hours until the seeds are ready. Soak the seeds until they are completely swollen to speed up the emergence of seedlings. This method of pre-sowing seed preparation is the easiest and most affordable. Water must be poured in 2 doses, which will ensure the best absorption of liquid into the seeds; it is changed every 4 hours. You can use a plate to place the seeds on it. A small gauze bag, which should be placed in a container of water, is also suitable for soaking them.
A proven method of soaking seeds by preparing an infusion of wood ash is also effective. Taking it in the amount of 2 tbsp. l., pour microfertilizer into a 1 liter container. Next, warm water is poured into it and the contents are infused for two days. The solution should be stirred periodically. After this, the infusion should be carefully drained and the seeds placed in a gauze bag should be immersed in it for 4-5 hours.
Germinating cucumber seeds
Before sowing cucumbers, the soaked seeds are germinated by spreading them in a thin layer on a damp cloth. The room temperature should be 15-25 °C. The top layer of seeds must be covered with a damp cloth. Using this approach, the emergence of seedlings can be accelerated by 5-7 days. The germination period for cucumber seeds is 1-3 days.
By maintaining humidity at an optimal level, make sure that the water does not evaporate. To do this, the fabric with seeds can be placed in a plastic bag or covered with glass.To prevent it from being too wet, the amount of water must be appropriate. If there is an excess of moisture, the process of oxygen supply, which is necessary for the normal germination of cucumber seeds, becomes difficult. Air access can only be ensured by regularly turning the seeds over on a cloth.
It is necessary to finish germination when most of the seeds already have white sprouts. When they have already appeared, the development of the plant root begins simultaneously with them. Therefore, it is important not to miss the moment of pecking cucumbers from seeds. If the fragile root that appears is damaged during sowing, it will be impossible to obtain a plant from it.
Seeds should be planted in moist, warm and cultivated soil. If you had to delay sowing the seeds, then after germination they should be stored in the refrigerator at a temperature of 3-4 °C.
Growing cucumber seedlings
For normal growth of cucumber seedlings, all containers with future cucumbers should be placed on the windowsill on the sunny side, and if necessary, add an additional source of lighting. By setting the optimal temperature, the seedlings can get their first true leaf 5 - 6 days after planting the seeds. The appearance of the second leaf can be expected 8-10 days after the first. The rapid growth of seedlings can only be ensured by proper soil care, since plants will develop fully only under conditions of normal soil breathability.
Before planting seedlings in the ground, they should be fed 2 times with UKT-1 complex fertilizer. The first feeding is carried out in the first leaf phase at the rate of 1 glass of solution per 4-5 plants.The second should be carried out 3-4 days before planting in the ground with the same composition at the rate of 1 cup per 2-3 plants. If you do not water the seedlings before fertilizing, then after using the fertilizer solution, the roots of the cucumbers may burn.
When feeding plants, it is necessary to monitor their condition. Each feeding of seedlings should be completed by watering the cucumbers with warm water and potassium permanganate. This allows fertilizer to be washed off the leaves, preventing blackleg. Feeding seedlings with milk water, which includes milk and water - 200 g and 1 liter, respectively, is quite effective. The mixture is consumed at the rate of 1 cup per 5 plants in the first leaf phase, and 3 plants in the second leaf phase.
Planting seedlings in the ground
In the Urals, cucumbers are planted in the ground as seedlings in film greenhouses on May 20 without the use of biofuel.
Plants are planted in the ground without biofuel in a glass greenhouse on May 5th. Growing cucumbers as seedlings in a glass greenhouse in the Urals usually begins on April 25, if there is manure in the soil. A film greenhouse with biofuel in the form of manure, better than horse manure, is suitable for planting cucumber seedlings in the Urals from May 1.
Having decided when to plant cucumbers in the greenhouse, it is necessary to properly prepare the seedlings for planting in open ground. Plants at 30 days old should have about 4-5 leaves. If you start planting plants in the soil that have not been prepared for sunlight, they may immediately die. Two weeks before planting, you need to start placing boxes of cucumbers in the sun. At first, you should choose warm, windless days. You cannot keep seedlings outside for a long time, and in the future the procedure time can be gradually increased.
To install boxes with cucumber seedlings, you should choose a shaded area that is protected from drafts. Before planting, it is necessary to prevent infection of seedlings by treating cucumbers with solutions of Epin or Immunocytophyte. Before planting, the plants should be squat with wide, dark green leaves. The root system of future cucumbers should be strong.
You can plant cucumbers in soil where tomatoes, eggplants, onions or cabbage were grown last year. Since these types of crops have other diseases, cucumbers will be planted after them with minimal risk.
You should not make the bed wider than 1.3 m, as you will have to plant cucumbers in 3 rows, which will make it difficult to care for the plants in the middle row. Cucumbers should not be planted in a draft. The bed should be well prepared and dug up, since light and loose compounds are preferable for cucumbers rather than heavy and dense soil.
