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Many people like to dig into the soil in their garden plot, this craving especially manifests itself with age. Of course, you can go to the countryside on a fine day, or even better, live there all summer. But, unfortunately, not everyone can afford such a work holiday. The reason is simple: many simply do not have this piece of land on which to rest their souls. How can you replace dacha work in your apartment?
Even if you don’t get a good rest, you can always arrange a small vegetable garden on your windowsill or balcony.
Perhaps it seems like a difficult task to set up such a vegetable garden in your apartment, and, in your opinion, no vegetables will grow except flowers in pots, this myth dispels very quickly. There are a huge number of examples of how you can grow everything on a windowsill - from tomatoes and cucumbers, to onions and radishes. Although the situation will be most difficult with cucumbers, we will try to cover the question of growing them in your apartment as widely as possible. We will pay special attention to which varieties of cucumbers are the best for growing on a windowsill.
Possibilities of home garden beds
All the disappointments associated with unsuccessful attempts to grow cucumbers in an apartment can most often be associated with ignorance of the rules for caring for the plant; this can lead to the involuntary destruction of the plant in the first stages of its life. It is not enough to know how to choose the right soil mixture; you need to understand which varieties are most suitable for it. There are better hybrid bands to look into:
- Natasha F1;
- Masha F1;
- Fontana F1;
- Marinda F1.
Rodnichok F1 was especially loved by apartment gardeners; it can easily be called the best masterpiece of breeding activity by Moldovan specialists.
It has been bearing fruit consistently for ten years, and its resistance to diseases allows even beginners not to spoil their first harvest.
Problems of growing cucumbers in an apartment
A negative feature of growing vegetables on a windowsill is the problem of the space they occupy, because usually plants grow in width much more than in height, and that is why cucumbers stand out from their competitors, but in addition to the convenience of growing them, there are other advantages over other fruits.
- Cucumber is a shade-tolerant plant, if not shade-loving. They will not suffer from insufficient lighting on the windowsill in the winter.
- The coefficient of space occupied and yield exceeds any of the vegetables that can be grown in an apartment;
- The rate of fruit ripening from the moment of planting is 4 - 5 weeks; no other vegetables will give such a result.
The process of selecting varieties for the windowsill
Grow varieties cucumbers for the windowsill Not just any, but in order to understand which varieties are best to choose for your home garden, it’s worth a little understanding of what varieties there are in general and what they are used for.
- Self-pollinating - a variety of cucumbers in which both female and male sexual characteristics are present, in other words, there are pistils and stamens, as the name implies, they pollinate independently;
- F1 hybrids - the result of crossing two varieties, obtained in special agricultural laboratories. It is worth considering that only the first generation of such hybrids can be used, because they do not produce seed material;
- Bee pollinated – the name speaks for itself, for fruits to set, they need insects;
- Parthenocarpic - cucumbers that do not require any pollination, like group F1, there are no seeds in their fruits.
But plants are divided not only according to their pollination properties; they can also be divided into groups according to the method of consumption:
- Salad – the fruit has a thin peel, it can easily be eaten without peeling, such varieties are also characterized by the light color of the thorns;
- Pickling – a feature of this subspecies can be called good properties for pickling, their peel absorbs brine well, but it should be borne in mind that it is better to pickle such cucumbers immediately after picking, because after picking they do not last long, after which they begin to turn yellow and acquire bitterness;
- Universal - These are perhaps the best cucumbers for planting on a windowsill; they can be salted or eaten raw; their thorns are usually black.
Useful tips for apartment beds
What are the best varieties to choose for planting on the windowsill? Here are some tips that will definitely help you:
- Pay attention to the yield, the higher it is, the naturally more vegetables you will harvest;
- An important factor will be the whimsicality of the plant, because in winter you can observe a rather dry climate in apartments, but they love moisture, and a small amount of lighting can also negatively affect some varieties.
- Dimensions - find out whether this variety is characterized by strong growth; you can choose those that will not turn your house into a jungle;
- A good solution specifically for a window sill is to choose one of the hybrids; they are the most unpretentious and bear fruit in apartments, without any problems.
The best varieties for growing on a windowsill
From a huge number of cucumbers suitable for growing on a windowsill, we have selected the best for you. Here are a few of those that can be purchased in our country; when purchasing, you should pay attention to these:
Faust F1
An early-ripening hybrid variety, with a female color, does not require pollination, has smooth, medium-sized fruits reaching a length of up to 18 cm, no bitterness, can be used for salads.
Mistress F1
It has the best characteristics among analogues in terms of frost resistance; the disadvantages include the excessive branching of the plant.
The size of the ripe fruit is about 15 cm, covered with black thorns, they can be used both in salads and for pickling;
Zozulya
The best in terms of productivity, they bear fruit already on the 45th day after planting, cucumbers reach a length of up to 21 cm, and are decorated with white thorns.
The variety has medium branching and is used mainly for salads, although it can also be eaten lightly salted.
Masha F1
This parthenocarpic hybrid cucumbers, like the best varieties, ripen in 45 days; these cucumbers can be classified as universal, since they can be either pickled or eaten raw.
Ekaterina F
Harvesting can take a very long time; no other varieties can compete with Ekaterina in this. They have a titanic size of up to 24 cm; from one bush, you can thus harvest up to 18 kg of cucumbers.
It manages to ripen in almost the same time as the best varieties, in terms of early ripening - on average, the ripening period is up to 50 days. Little susceptible to any diseases and frosts. It can be used for preservation, but the best taste is revealed when consumed raw.
Window-balcony F1
It has a smooth skin and light green color. He is not afraid of any temperature changes in the apartment, and he tolerates illness well.
A specially bred variety for planting in apartment conditions, female flowers; the first harvest can be harvested already on the 55th day after planting. Only Ekaterina has the best yield indicators; from one bush of these cucumbers you can harvest up to 15 kg. The fruit reaches a length of 16 cm.
Onega F1
Perhaps the best variety in terms of ripening speed (only 38 days).
Its vine also has few branches, the fruits are very small, up to 80 grams, excellent for salting and pickling, we can say that this variety, if not the best in everything, then certainly has no competitors among pickling cucumbers.
