Content
A greenhouse for growing cucumbers all year round is a stationary room in which optimal conditions must be maintained for the growth and fruiting of this heat-loving popular vegetable. Ordinary country greenhouses are not suitable for protecting cucumbers from winter frosts and autumn-spring slush. They are good only in summer and early in autumn. To get a good harvest of cucumbers in a greenhouse all year round, it is necessary to provide the vegetables with the most comfortable conditions:
- temperature regime;
- soil and air humidity levels;
- ventilation;
- good lighting;
- timely watering;
- high-quality feeding and care of shoots.
Growing cucumbers in a greenhouse all year round is a very expensive business; the costs can only be recouped with large volumes of vegetables intended for sale. A greenhouse used year-round has many requirements.
The best material for a greenhouse is polycarbonate. Plates made of this material perfectly transmit light, provide sufficient air circulation and serve as a good heat insulator. It is most convenient to assemble a polycarbonate structure on a metal frame. It is built from pipes on which it is easy to make fastenings for future walls.Before this, the metal structure must be painted to protect the material from rust, because growing cucumbers requires high humidity during the entire growth period.
Heating in a greenhouse
Cucumbers are heat-loving plants that do not grow in poor light and low temperatures. Seeds or seedlings can be planted in the soil only at a soil temperature of at least +12°C, and the air temperature must be maintained at +20...+25°C during the entire life cycle of the plant. In summer and early autumn, vegetables grow well in open ground or in a greenhouse covered with ordinary plastic film.
But in order to grow cucumbers all year round, it is necessary to provide the greenhouse with additional heat sources. The easiest way is to install a stove in the center of the building, which is heated with coal or wood. But this heating method requires constant monitoring, since wood and coal burn quickly and do not retain heat for long.
An alternative way is to build a special stove that burns sawdust. Sawdust burns completely over a longer period of time than firewood, and the temperature after complete combustion lasts up to 10 hours. This is quite enough to heat the greenhouse at night.
The most reliable and expensive option is to create a separate boiler room, the pipes of which will connect the greenhouse with a boiler that heats the water. The fuel in this case is liquid, solid or gas, and the heat source is water vapor flowing around the perimeter of the greenhouse and maintaining the temperature at the required level around the clock.But this heating method is extremely expensive, so it is only suitable for large industrial greenhouses that supply large wholesale warehouses and stores with vegetables.
Greenhouse lighting
Polycarbonate materials transmit sunlight well, but in winter the daylight hours are much shorter. And cucumbers need bright lighting for 13-14 hours a day. Therefore, growing these vegetables in a greenhouse all year round will not do without additional light sources. Various methods are used for this:
- Special lamps, intended for greenhouse plants. Their advantages are that they are best suited for maintaining the process of photosynthesis in plant leaves and are inexpensive, but the disadvantage is the complexity of installing such devices.
- Energy saving mercury lamps They provide a sufficient amount of light, but do not last long and are difficult to dispose of.
- Fluorescent lighting devices can also be used in a greenhouse, but they take up quite a lot of space and look bulky.
- LED built-in lighting Looks great, but installation is expensive.
Additional lighting in a greenhouse for growing cucumbers is one of the main conditions for obtaining a harvest, so in any case you will have to choose some option. Before installing the greenhouse, you should also choose the most illuminated area, but preferably on the windless side, since drafts and temperature changes can negatively affect growing vegetables.
Soil treatment
Before formation cucumber beds you need to prepare the soil. First, remove the top layer 5-10 cm thick to get rid of parts of other plants and possible pests.Then the ground is treated with bleach or copper sulfate. This is necessary for the final destruction of harmful microorganisms that are in the soil.
The purified soil is fertilized with various minerals containing nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. It is more convenient to use ready-made fertilizers designed specifically for growing cucumbers. In some cases, the soil is additionally fed with manure and bird droppings, but in a large greenhouse, using industrial fertilizers will be the best option. If cucumber seeds were planted in a greenhouse, you will have to wait several days for the first shoots.
With the seedling method of cultivation, after tilling the soil, beds are formed up to 30 cm high and with a distance of up to half a meter between them. You need to make holes in the beds, maintaining a distance of up to 30-40 cm. This is necessary so that future cucumber bushes do not interfere with each other.
Before planting seedlings, the hole is watered with water, a weak solution of manganese or nitrate, which will disinfect the soil again and create a nutrient medium for young and weak roots. Then the seedlings are placed in the hole and covered with a dense layer of soil.
Caring for cucumbers in a greenhouse
Already at the planting stage, it is necessary to provide trellises to which long shoots of vegetables will be tied. They are pinched at a length of 50 cm, creating a multi-layered bush: the lower side and middle shoots need to be tied over the first leaf, the upper ones over the second. All secondary stems with dead ovaries and dry leaves must be removed immediately, otherwise they will interfere with the formation of fruits.
Large year-round greenhouses are usually equipped automatic watering system. This is an expensive technology, but it saves time. If it is not possible to purchase and install automation, you can get by with traditional manual watering. You just need to make sure that the water is not cold, especially in winter, when the temperature of the air and soil is already difficult to maintain at the proper level.
Air humidity in the greenhouse should be about 90%, and soil humidity - 50%. But a ventilation system is also absolutely necessary, because high humidity and relatively low air and soil temperatures can lead to the appearance of gray rot, which can destroy the entire crop.
During the cold season, cucumbers especially need additional sources of nutrients. Water-soluble fertilizers sprinkled on the leaves are effective in controlling this problem. There are a large number of such products on the market, designed specifically for growing cucumbers in a greenhouse all year round.
Even if all conditions for the growth of vegetables are created in the greenhouse, it is better to choose hybrid varieties that are less sensitive to frost, humidity changes, artificial lighting and other unfavorable factors that arise in late autumn and winter.
The peculiarity of these types of cucumbers is not only their resistance to difficult conditions, but also the speed of fruit ripening, which will allow you to harvest a rich harvest throughout the year.
