Content
Cucumbers, originating from the tropics and subtropics of India, are a moisture-loving, light-loving crop. It is believed that they have been cultivated for more than 6 thousand years. Cucumbers began to be grown first V India and China, then in the third century AD through Afghanistan, Persia, and Asia Minor they came to Greece, and from there they spread throughout Europe. The cucumber came to our country from Byzantium; in the tenth century, Suzdal and Murom became centers for their cultivation.
Cucumber is very demanding on fertilizers, this is not surprising, given the pace of its growth. In one season in the open ground, you can collect about 2 kg of greens per square meter, and in a polycarbonate greenhouse - up to 35. When growing cucumbers in a personal plot or in a country house, we want to provide our table with environmentally friendly products, so we are increasingly thinking about what mineral fertilizers can be replaced. Feeding cucumbers with folk remedies does not present any particular difficulties. We will give you several options for fertilizers that are reliable and time-tested, and also do not require significant material costs.
What do cucumbers like?
Before moving on to fertilizing, you need to find out what conditions cucumbers need for successful life and fruiting.
Cucumbers prefer:
- Humus-rich soil with a neutral or slightly acidic reaction;
- Moist, warm soil, not lower than 15 degrees;
- Fertilizer with infusion of fresh manure;
- Warm air with a temperature of 20-30 degrees;
- High humidity.
Cucumbers react negatively to:
- Poor, acidic, dense soil;
- Watering with water with a temperature of less than 20 degrees;
- Sudden change in temperature;
- Transplants;
- Temperature less than 16 or more than 32 degrees;
- Loosening the soil;
- Drafts.
At temperatures below 20 degrees, cucumbers will slow down their development; at 15-16 degrees, they will stop. High temperatures are also not beneficial - a cessation of growth is observed at 32 degrees, and if it rises to 36-38, pollination will not occur. Even short-term frosts lead to the death of the plant.
Like all pumpkin crops, cucumber has a weak root system and poor regeneration. When transplanting, loosening and removing weed The sucking hairs break off, and they are no longer restored. It will take a long time for a new root to grow, on which sucking hairs will appear. The soil should be mulched to avoid loosening, and emerging weeds should not be pulled out, but cut off at ground level.
What substances do cucumbers need?
Cucumbers need a lot of fertilizer. In a short growing season, which is 90-105 days depending on the variety, under favorable conditions they are capable of forming a fairly large harvest. In addition, cucumbers are forced to feed on long shoots and leaves, and their roots are located in the arable horizon and are not able to obtain nutrients from the lower layers of the soil.
The need for essential nutrients changes as development progresses. At first, nitrogen should predominate in fertilizers; at the time of the formation and development of lateral vines, the plant absorbs a lot of phosphorus and potassium, and during active fruiting, the vegetative mass increases greatly and the cucumber again needs high doses of nitrogen fertilizing.
Particularly a lot of potassium fertilizers are needed - they are responsible for flowering and fruiting. If this element is not enough, you will not get a good harvest.
Fertilizing cucumbers with folk remedies
It is preferable to feed cucumbers with organic fertilizers rather than mineral ones - they have low salt tolerance, and most purchased preparations are salts. In addition, environmentally friendly or organic food is exactly what we strive for when growing our own vegetables.
There are many traditional ways to feed cucumbers without using chemicals. We will give you several folk recipes, and you yourself will choose the most suitable fertilizer.
Ash as fertilizer
Ash is a universal fertilizer; it is an invaluable source of potassium, phosphorus and microelements, but contains vanishingly little nitrogen. If you do not give potassium fertilizers to cucumbers, there will be no harvest. If the fertilizing does not have enough phosphorus, the already weak root system will not be able to deliver either water or nutrients to the leaves and fruits.
Even when planting seeds in a hole, you should add 1/2 cup of ash as fertilizer, mix it well with the soil, and water well. Then the cucumbers are fed with ash in one of the following ways:
- fertilize at the root immediately before watering at the rate of approximately 2 tablespoons per bush;
- dissolve a glass of powder with a liter of water, and when fertilizing, use 2 liters of fertilizer per plant.
So cucumbers can be fertilized every 10-14 days.
Manure, bird droppings, green manure
All pumpkin crops, including cucumber, love fertilizer with fresh manure, but only in the form of liquid fertilizer; applying it at the root is unacceptable. All plants respond very well to green fertilizer - an infusion of weeds. By introducing nitrogen, we risk increasing the amount of nitrates in vegetables and fruits. This is especially dangerous for cucumbers, which require increased doses of this substance. Green fertilizer is remarkable because even if we unwittingly exceed the norm, the risk of nitrate formation in fruits is minimal.
Mullein contains all the nutrients necessary to feed the plant, but most of all it contains nitrogen. The main differences between bird droppings are that they contain more nitrogen and no weed seeds at all.
Infusions for fertilizing cucumbers are prepared as follows: take 3-4 buckets of water per bucket of manure or droppings, leave for several days, stirring occasionally. At this time, the fertilizer ferments, uric acid evaporates from it - it is this that burns the roots of cucumbers or other plants. Weeds are infused by placing them in barrels and filling them with water.
After the mixture has fermented, mullein is diluted with water 1:10, manure - 1:20, and green fertilizer - 1:5. Fertilize once every two weeks at the rate of 2 liters per root.
Yeast
Yeasted cucumbers Fertilize 2-3 times a season. There are many ways to prepare such dressings. Here's one of the best:
- Yeast – 1 pack;
- Sugar – 2/3 cup;
- Water – 3 l.
Place the jar with the solution in a warm place and leave for 3 days, stirring occasionally. A glass of the mixture is diluted in a bucket of water, cucumbers are fed 0.5 liters at the root or filtered and processed one leaf at a time.
Onion peel
An infusion of onion peels is not so much a fertilizer as an immunostimulant and protection against pests and diseases. It contains nutrients, tonic cucumber vitamins and quercetin, a flavonoid that has a beneficial effect on living organisms.
For these purposes, infusions and decoctions are prepared, cucumbers are sprayed or fertilized at the root. The best thing:
- pour a handful of onion peels into 1.5 liters of boiling water;
- cook for 5-7 minutes;
- leave until cool;
- top up to 5 l
and spray on the leaf.
Features of fertilizer in greenhouses
In polycarbonate greenhouses Cucumbers are fed in the same way as in open ground, they are simply fed more often and in no case are they missed. Indoor soil allows you to get almost 15 times more greens per square meter than indoor soil. Accordingly, there should be more fertilizers.
Signs of nutritional deficiencies
There are often cases when cucumbers lack some nutritional element and need to be given in a higher dose outside the feeding schedule. But, before applying fertilizers, you need to determine by external signs what the vegetable needs.
Nitrogen deficiency
Light small leaves signal that the cucumbers urgently need to be fed with an infusion of bird droppings, manure or green fertilizer. The beak-curved, narrow, light tip of the green leaf also indicates a lack of nitrogen fertilizers.
Potassium deficiency
A brown border (marginal burn) on leaves is a sign lack of potassium. The spherical swollen edges of the cucumber indicate this. Extra feeding with ash is needed.
Phosphorus fasting
Leaves pointing upward indicate a lack of phosphorus fertilizers. Cucumbers are fed with ash, and be sure to spray on the leaf.
Signs of micronutrient deficiency
Most often, cucumbers lack magnesium. At the same time, the leaves acquire a marble color. Dilute a glass of dolomite flour in a bucket of water, fertilize the soil with the resulting “milk”.
If the leaves turn yellow-green, it means that the cucumbers lack trace elements. You need to remember that plants do not absorb them from the soil well; perhaps you simply neglected foliar feeding. Urgently fertilize the cucumbers leaf by leaf with ash extract. To do this, pour a glass of powder into 5 liters of boiling water, let it brew overnight, and carry out the treatment in the morning.
Conclusion
By feeding cucumbers with folk remedies, you will not only save money, but also grow environmentally friendly products. In addition, it is much more difficult to overfeed the plant with organic fertilizers.
