Cucumbers are classified as heat-loving plants. To obtain a good harvest, a bed must be equipped for cucumbers in a greenhouse. However, in order to really enjoy the harvest, it is necessary to comply with some requirements for the soil, the creation of the bed itself, as well as for planting this crop.
Soil for planting
An ordinary bed for growing cucumbers is not suitable for greenhouse conditions. The composition of the soil in a greenhouse must have certain components, such as humus, compost, turf soil, sand, peat, and limestone. All these components must be used in certain proportions. For example, humus in an amount of 30%, peat - 50%, and field soil - 20%. The greenhouse bed must have the following properties:
- ensure good heat exchange;
- correlate the required amount of mineral fertilizers for maximum heating;
- easily absorb water when watering and fertilizing;
- be quite light and loose;
- allow the amount of air necessary for crop growth to pass through.
An important procedure before planting cucumbers is to completely disinfect the soil. It is carried out as follows:
- after the harvest is harvested, the soil is watered with a solution of copper sulfate;
- treat the soil with very high temperature steam;
- the soil is dug deeply, having previously been treated with a formaldehyde solution;
- A highly effective sulfur bomb is used.
If we talk about the size of the bed in the greenhouse, then the width should be no more than 1 m, and the length should be less than 5 m.
It is believed that the richest harvest of cucumbers can be obtained from a manure bed. For this purpose, in the fall, or at least in the spring, they dig a ditch 35-40 cm deep and 40 cm wide along the entire length of the bed. Then cow manure is laid out in a thick layer, it is compacted, filled with a 1% hot solution of manganese and covered with polyethylene. After heating the manure, it is sprinkled with a mixture of sawdust, peat and humus. At the end, they are again filled with potassium permanganate and covered with plastic wrap until sowing.
In addition, if the acidity level is disturbed, special actions must be taken to normalize it.
Creating warm beds
There are several types of beds for cucumbers: deep, high, normal, warm. It’s easy to make a greenhouse bed even at home. To do this you will need the following tools: bayonet shovel, pitchfork, rake, scythe. First of all, using a bayonet shovel, you need to build a ditch of the above dimensions. The length can vary up to 5 m, which is due to the size of the greenhouse and the wishes of the gardener.
When the trench is ready, branches of trees or shrubs are laid across it, all the voids between which are filled with sawdust. Instead of branches, you can also use freshly cut grass. It must be trampled down well so that the cucumbers do not fall through and grow in the hole. If the grass layer is poorly compacted, then in a rainy summer the fruits may rot.
The next layer should be straw (5 cm).After laying it in the trench, a fertilizer of manure diluted in warm water is poured into the trench. The edges of the resulting bed should be covered with some material: branches, slate, boards, etc.
If you use a grass layer, the technology for preparing the bed will be slightly different. So, you need to pour a hot brew of potato peelings and moldy bread crusts on top of the grass. This decoction leads to fermentation, which results in the formation of microorganisms that have a beneficial effect on the growth of cucumbers.
The finished ridge is covered with earth and poured with a bucket of boiling water, and then, as in the previous case, covered with plastic wrap. In both options, you should plant seeds or seedlings no earlier than 2-3 days after all the layers have settled.
Useful tips and advice
When the preparation of the soil and the bed itself is completed, you can directly plant the cucumbers. The height of the bed should be at least 20 cm, and the distance between the sprouts should be 30 cm. If planted more densely, the plant will suffer from lack of light. Since the cucumbers are weaving, it is necessary to stretch a rope or wire over the ridges at a height of 2 m.
Temperature plays a big role in effective germination. So, at a temperature of 30°C, the first sprouts from seeds will appear within 5 days. At 12°C they will not germinate at all. The most optimal temperature is 20°C. With such indicators, sprouts can be seen in 20-25 days.
In addition, to obtain a good harvest, the cucumber bed should be located in a place where there are no running waters, streams or irrigation canals.
Otherwise, the yield will be reduced.If the bed is arranged in the place where cucumbers already grew last year, then it is advised to replace the top layer of soil with a new one. It is necessary to ensure that there is no weed. To do this, they need to be removed all the time, and the soil must be treated with special substances that prevent the appearance of grass and pests.
The location for greenhouses with cucumber beds is chosen so that the entire greenhouse is evenly illuminated by the sun, not too exposed to the wind, and the planting areas are located from east to west, which contributes to better heating.
With proper arrangement of greenhouse beds, their service life can be about 10 years.
The nutrients obtained by the methods described are stored for a long time, so it is not necessary to make new beds for cucumbers every spring.
Thus, growing a good harvest of cucumbers in a greenhouse with your own hands is quite real. Despite the fact that a certain amount of knowledge and a considerable amount of time spent will be required, the result will certainly please any gardener.
