Growing cucumbers in a greenhouse In winter, it makes it possible not only to provide your family with vitamins, but also to establish your own promising business. You will have to spend significant amounts of money on the construction of a shelter, but the fruiting process can become continuous. To ensure a happy harvest, choose suitable varieties and properly care for the plantings.
Choosing the ideal variety for indoor soil
Growing cucumbers in a winter greenhouse is a complex process, the success of which depends on many details. One of them is choosing the right variety. It is advisable to opt for first generation hybrids. Compared to classic varieties, they are more hardy, have high yields and are less susceptible to diseases. The only negative is the impossibility of collecting seeds yourself. They ripen, but do not guarantee the full set of qualities of the mother plant.
Numerous manuals for gardeners will help you understand how to grow cucumbers in a greenhouse in winter. In them you can find recommendations for choosing varieties for specific climatic zones. It is important to purchase cucumber seeds that do not require pollination. Hybrids of Polish, Dutch, and domestic selection have proven themselves to be excellent.
In a greenhouse you can grow fruits suitable for salads or pickling. Lettuce hybrids include the following:
- Anyuta;
- Atdet;
- Vincent;
- White angel;
- Orlik;
- Cartoon;
- Masha;
- Tsarsky;
- Fawn.
These cucumbers have a lighter color and white spines. Popular salad hybrids include the short-fruited hybrids Herman, Cheetah, Cupid, and Orpheus. They are distinguished by a darker fruit color, black spines and a fairly dense peel.
Cucumber greenhouse
A winter greenhouse is a permanent structure that differs significantly from a regular summer greenhouse. It should provide the plants with an ideal microclimate, regardless of the outside temperature. The greenhouse is built on a durable cinder block frame, which needs to be buried about 0.5 m. It is best to make it pitched: this roof shape does not allow snow to linger and provides optimal insolation. Greenhouses with a metal frame, covered with sheets of cellular polycarbonate, are particularly durable. One wall should be made blank by lining it with logs or cinder blocks. It will protect the plantings from the cold wind and help save on heating costs.
The winter greenhouse is equipped with double doors with a vestibule that protects plants from cold air flows. Windows are needed for ventilation and curtains for shading in sunny weather. For lighting, powerful fluorescent lamps are installed under the ceiling.
Plants can be planted in the ground or on multi-tiered racks. It is better not to use hydroponic technology. Cucumber grown in a nutrient solution becomes tasteless and watery and loses its aroma.
Deciding how to grow cucumbers in the greenhouse In winter, think about the heating issue in advance. For normal life, plants need a constant temperature of at least 23°C. The easiest way to organize a water boiler is with pipes laid on the floor.However, this design has a drawback - high heating costs. Combining water heating with wood stoves or fires will help you save money. Insulating the structure with roofing felt will also reduce costs. The sheets are laid out outside along the entire perimeter of the greenhouse on ground cleared of snow. Another way to economically heat greenhouses is to use biofuel. Cut straw is mixed with cow or horse manure, placed in heaps and covered with film. The rotted mixture is laid out on prepared beds and covered with a layer of fertile soil. Such fuel maintains a stable temperature and additionally fertilizes the soil.
Vegetable care
It is better to grow cucumbers in seedlings. The seeds are sorted, treated with a solution of potassium permanganate, wrapped in linen cloth and placed in a saucer with warm water. When the sprouts appear, the seeds are placed in pre-prepared cups made of peat, plastic or paper.
Planting in individual containers allows you to avoid traumatic picking and preserve the fragile root system of seedlings. They are kept in a warm, well-lit place, watered daily with warm, settled water.
For planting, a light nutrient mixture of garden or turf soil with humus and a small amount of washed river sand is used. The same mixture is spread over greenhouse beds. The seedlings are moved into the shelter when they have 2-3 pairs of true leaves. Before planting, the soil is spilled with a hot solution of copper sulfate or potassium permanganate, cooled and mixed with wood ash and complex mineral fertilizers.Plants are placed at a distance of 35-40 cm from each other; wide row spacing is required to make caring for the plantings easier.
The technology for growing cucumbers in winter provides for a consistently high temperature and humidity of at least 85%.
With insufficient watering, the fruits become bitter and small, and the yield is greatly reduced. Plantings should be watered with warm water at least 3 times a week. The greenhouse can only be ventilated in the off-season; in cold weather the vents should not be opened. Immediately after transplantation, young plants are tied to rope supports.
In closed ground, cucumbers require frequent feeding. Ammonium nitrate is applied to the soil weekly, superphosphate, potassium chloride. For those who prefer organic fertilizers, you can water the plants with an aqueous solution of mullein or bird droppings. After feeding, you should rinse the stems with clean water to avoid burns.
Fruiting time depends on the variety. Hybrids with an extended period of fruit ripening are often planted in the greenhouse, allowing harvesting to take place over several months. Do not allow cucumbers to overripe; they will become tough, dry and less tasty.
Growing vegetables indoors is possible even in winter. Heat-loving cucumbers that ripen in December or January are a real miracle that you can create with your own hands.
