How to pollinate cucumbers on your own

Some gardeners grow vegetables not only in the home garden, but also in the apartment, trying to create acceptable winter time conditions for plant growth. When cultivating, it is important to know how to pollinate cucumbers at home, because it is not possible to run insects into an apartment for this purpose, and without pollination, you cannot get the expected crop either at home or in the greenhouse.

Self-pollination of cucumbers

Why do cucumbers pollination

The main task of pollination of cucumber seedlings at home and in the greenhouse is for formation of ovaries, after which cucumber fruits are obtained.The essence of this process is the transfer of pollen from male inflorescences to female ones. If insects are engaged in the pollination process of vegetable crops, then in indoor conditions the artificial pollination of cucumbers at home is manually transferred to humans.

Pollination rules

Time

The process of artificial pollination of cucumbers can be carried out at almost any time. The time of the procedure depends on the cucumber variety and on exactly when the seeds were planted in the soil. At the same time, every gardener knows that the faster they pollinate cucumber inflorescences at home or in a greenhouse, the sooner you can get fresh vegetables from seedlings.

Before the pollination procedure, it is recommended to increase the humidity in the room where the seedlings are growing. This can be done by spraying water and a spray bottle or by installing a container of water near containers with seedlings.

It is preferable to plan the pollination process of cucumbers at home and in the greenhouse on the first day when the first inflorescences have blossomed on the cucumber seedlings. Pollinating flowers is recommended 20-24 hours after their opening. The best time for this will be early morning or evening, especially cloudy weather, when the bright sun does not shine through the window. If the weather is sunny outside the window, a shadow should be created in the room.

Temperature

When polluting cucumber inflorescences, the ambient temperature is of no small importance. Compliance with the required thermal regime increases the chances of the formation of ovaries, increasing the number of newly appeared inflorescences. Indicators from 24 ° C to 27 ° C are considered to be the most optimal for pollination.

It is recommended to pollinate the inflorescence at a moisture content of 70%. When the moisture level is lower than recommended, the pollen dries. If the humidity increases excessively, the pollen dries and sticks together.

Exceeding the required temperature threatens the pollen with the loss of fertilizing properties and, as a result, the loss of the future crop of vegetables.Lowering the thermal degree below the recommended one, although it preserves the pollination process itself, however, loses its qualitative characteristic: cucumbers grow small.

Fertilizing

Increase the efficiency of ovary formation at home if properly conducted pollination allows top dressing. For the mineral nutrition of cucumber culture, it is necessary to select ready-made fertilizers, among the components of which are phosphorus, potassium and urea. Urea is especially important for the development of hearths: it increases the number of cucumber ovaries.

In this case, with the help of top dressing, you can not stop at the first harvest, but try to stimulate a new flowering stage in plants. To do this, just lower the temperature by 7-10 points and introduce fertilizer complexes.

Differences between male and female inflorescences

Pollination needs to be done correctly

To correctly conduct a pollination procedure for cucumbers at home, it is important to know the main differences between female and male inflorescences, which will determine where to get pollen and where to move it.

Location

If male inflorescences are located mainly on the stem of a cucumber crop near the main stem of the plant, gathering in small groups of 5-7 inflorescences, then the female flowers grow one at a time and are usually formed on the side shoots. At the same time, male flowers are often called empty flowers.

Cucumber is a monoecious variety, flowers of which both sexes are formed on the same plant simultaneously.

External species

Externally, single female inflorescences differ from male ones in the presence of a compacted base, which is similar to a small cucumber.

Pollination with a flower

Simple manual pollination of cucumbers is carried out in the morning. The principle of pollination is to pick off male flowers and apply them to female flowers.

1. For this purpose, still unblown buds are isolated a day before opening, covered with gauze or a paper cap. This is done so that insects accidentally entering the room can not interfere with the future process. To collect pollen, male inflorescences will need 2 times more than female flowers.

The male flower opens for a day and subsequently withers, while the female can be pollinated for 2 days.

2. A day later, the protective cover is removed from the inflorescences and the male empty flowers are torn off, from which the petals located near the corolla are torn off.It is with a whisk with pollen on the anther and stamens that lightly touch the pistil of the female inflorescence.

When not all seeds are pollinated and pollen is enough, the partially pollinated primordium of the female flower withers and falls.

3. With a sufficient number of male empty flowers, corollas for a while are left right in the female flower. In order not to get confused which inflorescences have already been pollinated, they are recommended to be marked, for example, using a simple thread.

Pollination with a brush

You can pollinate cucumbers at home and while cutting off male empty flowers, and using a simple artistic brush. This is also a fairly effective method. It is recommended to choose a brush with soft bristles.

1. The process of pollination with a brush involves the accurate collection of pollen from a male inflorescence, while the bristles of the brush must be absolutely dry, otherwise all pollen that has fallen on the brush will remain on its bristles.

Each female inflorescence is processed by male flowers.

2. The brush with the yellow pollen collected on the bristles is brought neatly to the female inflorescence, spreading the material collected from the male anther and stamens along the surface of the female pestle.

3. Pollinated flowers are covered with paper caps, which are removed when it becomes noticeable that the ovary has formed and begins to increase in size.