Content
- 1 How to choose cucumber seeds for home seedlings
- 2 Choosing a place to plant cucumbers
- 3 How to prepare planting material
- 4 Soil and containers for cucumber seedlings on the windowsill
- 5 Planting cucumber seeds for seedlings
- 6 Caring for cucumber seedlings on the windowsill
- 7 Indoor diseases and pests
- 8 Conclusion
Every experienced gardener will tell you with confidence that you can get a high-quality and rich harvest of cucumbers only from strong, well-developed seedlings. In the process of growing young seedlings from cucumber seeds, climate plays an important role.
Cucumber is a warm and light-loving plant, and that is why many summer residents prepare seedlings in greenhouses or at home. Growing cucumber seedlings at home on the windowsill, you can constantly keep their growth under control, care for and water them on time, while receiving not only pleasure from the result, but also invaluable experience.
How to choose cucumber seeds for home seedlings
An important component of quick seed hatching and good growth of cucumber seedlings is the choice of planting material. To grow cucumber seeds at home, choose early self-pollinating, resistant varieties or hybrids adapted to grow in low light.
When purchasing cucumber planting material in a store, pay attention to varieties that have proven themselves for growing at home:
- Parthenocrapic hybrids - Barnaulets, Balcony Miracle F1, Dragonfly, Matrix;
- Self-pollinating hybrids - Cucaracha, Zozulya, Aprelsky, Parus, Kurazh.
Please note that some of these varieties were bred by breeders specifically for growing cucumbers on balconies and loggias, so the varieties are maximally adapted to home conditions and closed ground.
If you decide to grow insect-pollinated plants on your windowsill cucumber varieties for further transplantation of the plant into an open priming at the dacha, pay attention to such as: Olimpiada, Ladoga, Frigate, and as pollinators, plant several seedlings from Ermine and Hercules seeds.
Choosing a place to plant cucumbers
The main thing that needs to be taken into account when growing cucumber seedlings on a windowsill is that they should not be in a draft. Try to place cucumber seedlings on a window that you rarely open for ventilation. Sharp temperature fluctuations, especially with small early shoots, can destroy the plant.
Cucumber seedlings loves warmth and sunlight, so grow it on a windowsill, where the frames are well insulated for the winter and nothing prevents natural light from entering the apartment.
If cucumber seedlings sprout in late February - early March, provide additional lighting on the windowsill. The same must be done if the seed hatches late or the seedlings rise too slowly. Additional lighting is an important stage on which growing cucumber seedlings at home depends.
Before installing planting containers on it, be sure to cover the surface of the window sill with any heat-insulating material so that the soil in the pots does not “pull” the cold from the window sill. A cold substrate can significantly harm the cucumber by overcooling the root that has not yet matured.
How to prepare planting material
Even if you did not buy cucumber seeds in the store, but collected them from a previous harvest, and are completely confident in their quality, carry out preparatory measures before planting. For seeds from which seedlings will be grown on a windowsill, it is necessary to calibrate and disinfect them, as well as germinate them for rapid germination of seedlings.
Using a saline solution, select high-quality cucumber planting material for cultivation. Good seeds placed in salt water will immediately settle, while hollow ones will float. After the procedure, the material must be washed with warm running water.
Another procedure included in the complex of measures for preparing planting material for cultivation is heating. This procedure can be carried out by keeping cucumber seeds at a temperature of 45-500C within 3 days. This can be done at home using a regular aquarium water heater as a coolant.
If you are planting seedlings from cucumber hybrid seeds or using imported varieties of the crop for planting, be sure to read the instructions. Most often, the manufacturer prescribes in it all the recommendations for pre-treatment and proper care of seedlings.
The last stage before placing planting material in the ground is germination. This is necessary in order to plant an already hatched cucumber seed into the soil and obtain a guaranteed 100% germination rate.
Cultivation begins with the grains being laid out on cotton cloth, gauze or a napkin soaked in growth stimulants. Planting material is kept in a humid environment at a temperature not lower than 250Until cucumber sprouts form 10-15 mm in length. As a rule, the entire process takes no more than 3 days.
Soil and containers for cucumber seedlings on the windowsill
Before choosing a container for planting seeds, decide when and how you will transfer the seedlings to the greenhouse or open ground. If the cultivation of cucumber seedlings is carried out in a city apartment, and they will have to be transported to the garden in the trunk of a car, it is better to choose small planting containers that will fit well in a box without damaging the stems of the plant. To grow cucumbers on a balcony or loggia, choose large pots with a soil volume of at least 5 liters.
It is believed that the best containers for growing cucumber seedlings are small peat pots or ordinary paper cups. The main thing is that after transplantation the roots of the plant are not damaged.
The substrate is prepared from the following components, taken in equal parts:
- Peat;
- Humus;
- The land is turf;
- Sand
For 10 liters of such a mixture, be sure to add a glass of ash, 50 ml nitrophoska, 30 ml urea. You can add a little finely chopped sawdust to the mixture well mixed in a large container.The planting containers are filled 2/3 with the mixture, and after the first and second watering, the substrate is added, if necessary.
Planting cucumber seeds for seedlings
Once the seeds have hatched, they can be planted in the soil. Distribute containers with soil evenly over the prepared surface of the window sill. Remember that if you choose a planting box as a container for growing seedlings, then the seedlings will need to be pinched as they grow, and when transporting them to the dacha, they must be planted in separate containers.
Cucumber seeds are carefully transferred with tweezers into moistened soil and sprinkled with substrate so that the sprout is visible on the surface. After this, water again. At the initial stage of growing cucumber seedlings on a windowsill, it is important to create a greenhouse effect for it. Each container is carefully covered with plastic wrap, and the temperature in the room is ensured - at least 250WITH.
The film is removed from the planting containers when the cucumber seedlings are clearly visible on the surface of the ground. As soon as this happens, take care of stable natural light on the windowsill. In winter, when daylight hours are still too short, additional lighting should be provided at least 10-12 hours a day. Without this, growing seedlings on a windowsill is simply impossible.
Caring for cucumber seedlings on the windowsill
As soon as you see two leaves above the soil surface, the seedlings on the windowsill need to be fed. For this, 2-3 teaspoons nitroammofoski or nitrophoska is diluted in 3 liters of settled warm water.
If the day is not hot and the leaves are not exposed to open sunlight, you can perform foliar feeding by only lightly sprinkling the leaves and stem with the prepared fertilizer. When the window sill is brightly lit, root fertilize by simply adding 1-2 teaspoons of solution to the soil. After carrying out the procedure several times, the cucumber seedlings are watered very carefully, avoiding overflow and stagnation of water in the container.
The second feeding is carried out two weeks after the first. Solution for fertilizers maybe the same. During the second feeding, 0.5 cups of fertilizer is poured into the planting container. After this, the plant is not watered for two days.
Watering cucumber seedlings throughout the entire time of cultivation on the windowsill should be carried out at the same time. For example, at 7 or 8 o'clock in the morning, but so that you are sure that you can do it at the same time. It is advisable to keep water for watering cucumber seedlings in the same room where the plants are kept. Small or weakened seedlings react to the slightest changes in temperature, so watering should not cause them discomfort.
Please note that both overwatering and underwatering are equally bad for a young plant. Cucumber is one of the crops that loves a humid environment, but if the substrate is too wet and does not have time to dry out, it often causes rotting of the root that has not yet matured. As soon as the seedlings grow and become stronger, you can add spraying to the watering.
Indoor diseases and pests
If the seeds for seedlings have undergone complete pre-treatment, then growing seedlings, as a rule, will not cause trouble, and the seedlings themselves grow healthy and strong.However, in exceptional cases, the plant may be attacked by pests, which you need to be aware of.
Whitefly
The best remedy to combat this insect is a strong tobacco solution. Large leaf tobacco is placed in a spacious container, filled with boiled water so that it lightly covers the leaves, and kept in a water bath for 20-25 minutes. Water the cucumber seedlings with the cooled infusion.
Aphid
An insect that can almost completely destroy the leaves of seedlings within two days. When disinfecting seedlings, the same tobacco decoction is used, with the only difference - the plant is not watered, but only the leaves are wiped with the solution.
Spider mite
If cucumbers are infected with spider mites, then the best way to get rid of them is to prepare a garlic solution. One head of finely chopped or crushed garlic is kept in 1 liter of settled warm water for an hour. This infusion is used to water the seedlings.
Conclusion
Healthy and strong seedlings on the windowsill will grow only if the climatic conditions are maintained when planting seeds and caring for seedlings, and the plant itself receives a sufficient amount of moisture and light.
Transplanting seedlings into a greenhouse can be done as early as mid or late March. The plant is placed in open ground after reliably making sure that the soil has warmed up and frosts are no longer expected on the soil.
You can find out what else to pay attention to when growing seedlings on a windowsill by watching the video.
