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Cucumbers are so loved by gardeners that only lazy people don’t grow them on their plot. After all, they are good fresh straight from the garden, for use in salads, and for making cosmetic masks. And what wonderful preparations for the winter can be made from cucumbers. But growing them is not always easy. After all, not only people love cucumbers - all kinds of pests and microorganisms are also not averse to eating crispy greens. And the cucumbers themselves are quite demanding in terms of care - they need plenty of watering and regular feeding. But many people don’t want to use chemical fertilizers and protection products on their plots - after all, they grow cucumbers for themselves and their family. So gardeners turn to old, time-tested folk recipes.
Processing cucumbers milk is one of these procedures, which copes with several tasks at once. This is both a wonderful feeding and effective protection against various misfortunes that await cucumber plants at every turn.
Properties of milk
Using milk and its derivatives in the garden is not a new technique invented recently. People have been eating milk for several millennia and have been growing vegetables throughout this period.Therefore, they could not help but notice the beneficial effect that milk had on many plants. Why does this happen?
Only those elements that may be of interest to cucumbers should be mentioned:
- calcium,
- magnesium,
- potassium,
- manganese,
- iron,
- nitrogen,
- phosphorus,
- sulfur,
- copper and much more.
In addition, milk has several special properties that make it useful when used in gardening.
- Not a single pest is able to digest milk sugar (lactose), since insects simply lack some organs in the digestive system. Consequently, treating cucumbers with milk can create a barrier for many pests who want to feast on juicy cucumber vines.
- When spraying leaves with a milk solution, a very thin film is formed on them, which prevents various pathogens from penetrating inside.
- Milk can help the process of assimilation by cucumber plants of other useful substances that are contained in the soil or added along with fertilizing.
Hence the conclusion - feeding cucumbers with milk can solve several problems at once:
- Providing plants with nutrients
- Protection from diseases and pests
- Saturation of the soil with useful substances that enhance microbiological activity.
Ways to use milk
Of course, it is advisable to use raw milk for processing cucumbers. Pasteurized and especially sterilized milk will not always bring the desired effect, since heat treatment destroys many beneficial vitamins and minerals, no matter what the manufacturers of these products say.
In this way, you can not only not help, but also cause real harm to plants, in particular, cucumbers.
To use milk in the garden, it must be diluted with water in a ratio of 1:5 or even 1:10. It all depends on the purpose for which you are processing.
Watering with milk solution
If you want to mainly feed the cucumbers, dilute 1 liter of low-fat milk in 5 liters of water, stir thoroughly and water the cucumber bushes with the resulting solution so that each plant gets about 0.5 liters of the milk solution.
It is better to dig a shallow groove around the entire circumference 10-15 cm from the base of the bush, so that the root is in the center of this circle, and water directly into this depression. Usually, the roots of cucumbers are located close to the surface and are able to find all the substances they need on their own.
By the way, you can water cucumber plants from above, this way the milk solution will be absorbed by the leaves and additional protection from diseases and pests will be provided.
Spraying with milk solutions
Most often, a milk solution is used for preventive treatment of cucumbers. It is known that it is much easier to prevent any problem than to deal with its consequences.
The most common and unpleasant diseases of cucumbers are true and downy mildew. These diseases become especially rampant if the summer turns out to be rainy and cool.Abundant fertilizing with nitrogen-containing fertilizers also contributes to the occurrence of diseases. White spots first appear on the leaves of cucumbers, similar to those left by sprinkling with flour (hence the name), and then the leaves turn yellow and die.
It is best to start preventive treatments of cucumbers when they form 5-6 true leaves and repeat them regularly every two weeks. In this case, disease outbreaks can be prevented altogether.
To prepare the required solution, in a 10-liter bucket, dilute 1 liter of milk, 30 drops of regular iodine, 20 grams of grated laundry soap. Shake everything well and spray the cucumber bushes.
In general, it is iodine that is known for its beneficial effects on cucumbers. It is able to prevent yellowing of leaves on cucumber vines and creates a rejuvenating effect when many new buds and ovaries appear on the stems. Therefore, processing cucumbers iodine should be carried out very carefully, not forgetting to spray the underside of the leaves. It is advisable to spray not only the plants themselves, but also the ground around them.
Spraying should be carried out in cloudy weather or in the evening after sunset. Otherwise, the cucumber leaves may get burned.
The same solution is quite effective against bacteriosis and root rot. It can also help cope with the invasion of various types of aphids.
It should be noted that not only milk, but also various dairy products have a similar effect on cucumbers: whey, kefir, yogurt.In particular, the following recipe is popular among gardeners, which can cope with late blight.
For 10 liters of water, take 1 liter of whey, 40 drops of iodine and a tablespoon hydrogen peroxide. With this product you need to carefully treat all parts of the cucumber plants several times a season.
Conclusion
Thus, the use of milk, dairy products and commonly available products, such as iodine or hydrogen peroxide, allows you to cope with many problems in growing cucumbers and get a good harvest.
