How to feed cucumbers to obtain a plentiful and high-quality crop? Experienced gardeners make fertilizer for cucumbers according to the established scheme, but are guided by their own observations. Noticing how the leaves and fruits of the cucumbers are formed, one can judge the lack of mineral substances and the need for their additional application.
If there is very little time before planting cucumbers (several days), wood ash and superphosphate are used to fertilize the soil (1 cup sq.m. ash and 2 tbsp. l mineral fertilizers).A layer of overripe manure or other sweet organic matter (2 buckets per 1 sq. M) is put on top, watered with a solution of a natural growth stimulant (for example, humate 7) and the area is covered with a film.
For emergency feeding of cucumbers immediately before planting, use special complex fertilizers: phosphorus and nitrogen (azofoska, ammofoska, etc.), which quickly dissolve and disperse well in the soil.
Fertilizer in the fall
Autumn fertilizer of cucumbers – one of the most effective ways of feeding. At this time, cucumbers are still developing, and it is necessary to fertilize the land previously allocated for cucumber beds. An ideal remedy is rotted manure (mullein, bird droppings, horse manure, etc.) with the addition of wood ash and nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium fertilizers (nitrophos). In winter, minerals have time to dissolve well, so that in spring, when planting beds, the soil gains high fertility.
Unlike spring top dressing, even fresh mullein can be used in autumn, since seeds or seedlings will be planted only after a few months and they are not threatened by high temperatures of chemical processes occurring in manure. Recommended fertilizer rate per 1 sq. Km. m of land – 4 buckets of rotted manure, to which are added three glasses of wood ash and 90 g of nitrophoska. This mixture is evenly laid out over the site, and dug up before spring planting.
Feeding scheme
It is believed that in the summer you need to feed cucumbers 3-4 times. Most often, cucumbers are fed after the first leaf appears, but if the plants look strong and healthy, they are transferred to a later period – to the beginning of flowering.
Some gardeners selectively feed weak and pale plants that are lagging behind in growth. What fertilizers are needed for cucumbers at this stage? A prerequisite is a high nitrogen content in them.
This can be a soluble mineral fertilizer, herbal infusion, mullein, bird droppings, as well as a solution or infusion from manure. At the beginning of the flowering period, use potassium and ammonium nitrate, wood ash, fertilize plants with superphosphate, urea, boric acid solution.
During intensive fruiting, mineral fertilizers for cucumbers should be complex: contain potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus, magnesium. Even better – to do without chemistry at this time, using organic substances (mullein, bird droppings, etc.). The fourth top dressing is carried out in order to extend the fruiting period (most often in August, when the fruiting of the cucumbers decreases), using wood ash, an aqueous solution of soda, and an infusion of rotted dry grass for it.
Methods of applying fertilizing
There are 2 ways to fertilize cucumbers: root and foliar.The first variety involves the application of fertilizers directly under the root, the second – spraying the necessary substances on the leaves and stems. Root top dressing of cucumbers gives the best result in the warm season, when the root system is intensively developing and perfectly assimilates nutrients.
The foliar top dressing of cucumbers is more suitable for a cool summer, when the root system does not cope with the absorption of minerals.
Top dressing of any method should be done in the evening in cloudy weather so that excess sunlight does not turn into burns for plants.
It is recommended to apply fertilizer under the root after the rain has passed or after good watering.
Fertilizing with a lack of nutrients
The plants will tell you what they lack
feeding cucumbers can be carried out if necessary, depending on which substances the plants lack. Simple observations will help you find this out. By carefully inspecting the seedlings, leaves and fruits of the cucumbers, you can determine whether the plants are developing correctly and how their growth and fruiting can be helped.
Be sure to inspect the leaves of plants during sudden cold snap. Sometimes when the weather changes, green leaves darken, becoming bluish, purple or brown, and when warming, they turn green again.If the weather has recovered, and the wrong color of the leaves persists, the plants have consumed phosphorus. In this case, as a top dressing, cucumbers should be watered with a properly prepared superphosphate solution (superphosphate is dissolved in boiling water, insisted, and then wood ash and nitrogen fertilizers for cucumbers are added to it).
Plants react sensitively to the lack of trace elements necessary for them :
- Potassium. How to fertilize cucumbers if the fruits become hooked or become pear-shaped? At the same time, the edges of the leaves often turn yellow and bend to the bottom. These signs indicate a lack of potassium. Watering the cucumbers will help to fix the problem with infusion of ash or a solution of potassium phosphate.
- Nitrogen. Lack of nitrogen is manifested in thinning of lashes, slow growth, small leaves and a small number of shoots. The leaves turn yellow early, the fruits do not grow green, but light yellow, short and with a pointed edge. In this case, use special nitrogen-containing fertilizers for cucumbers or organic (manure, bird droppings, compost based on peat and green grass).
- Calcium. Yellowing areas between the leaf veins and flaccid edges indicate a lack of calcium: over time, they bend down and make the leaf look like an umbrella. If you do not make up for the shortage of this element, the root system will cease to grow and develop. To solve the problem, such cucumbers are fertilized with calcium nitrate or eggshell.
- Bor.A boron-deficient crop resembles a dwarf plant with an underdeveloped root system. Cucumber leaves thicken and harden, flowers crumble, shoots break. To correct the situation, cucumbers are fertilized with a solution of boric acid or boron mixtures, like borosuperphosphate.
Folk remedies
Yeast solutions
Among folk methods, feeding cucumbers with yeast solutions or mixtures is especially popular. It is used during the appearance of the first leaves, the beginning of flowering and fruiting. Fresh or dry yeast is diluted in warm water, sugar is added, infused, and then diluted with water again. Sometimes bread crusts, kefir or sour milk, jam are added to yeast yeast. It is recommended to add ash or ashes to the finished mixture to replenish the potassium and calcium reserves in the soil.
Beer
According to folk methods of fertilizing, cucumber can be watered with beer diluted with water in proportions of 1 to 10. Good results were obtained by gardeners who several times watered plants with kvass and even braga.
Egg shells
Egg shell powder is used as an additional fertilizer for cucumbers (in the table of the composition of this product, the calcium content is determined by 92%, the shell also contains magnesium minutes, phosphorous, potassium, phosphate, and organic compounds).
The powder is recommended to be mixed with mineral fertilizing in equal proportions and applied to open ground in autumn or spring. Thanks to this fertilizer, the cucumber will be provided with calcium and magnesium, and the soil will acquire a normal level of acidity. In addition, eggshells will facilitate planting care, as the soil structure will become looser, allowing air and moisture to pass through well.
Succinic acid
To grow this crop in a greenhouse, agricultural technicians use succinic acid solution as a top dressing. The tool is organic and environmentally friendly, increases crop productivity and its resistance to drought, provides early fees. Succinic acid can be used not only for greenhouse cucumbers, but also for growing in the open ground.
Fish waste
Fishermen often use the remains of fish production for growing cucumbers: heads, tails, skeletons and offal. All this is ground, infused and used for watering the soil. According to the reviews of those who poured weak cucumber vines, devoid of ovaries, with this infusion of fish heads, this procedure helped revitalize the creepers and get new shoots.
Other popular fertilizers
Especially popular use complex mixtures for cucumbers based on biohumus (they can also be used for some other garden crops: zucchini, squash, pumpkin).Typically, this fertilizer contains nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, sulfur, humic and other useful substances. Putting this solution under the root (or spraying) helps seedlings to take root in the open ground and develop correctly, increases crop yield, accelerates ripening, improves soil structure and the ability of plants to absorb nutrients.
Agricola is another effective drug with an environmentally friendly composition and good solubility. According to the reviews of those who watered cucumbers (or used for spraying): the plants not only grew, but also got stronger and recovered from the disease, became less susceptible to pests.
The Dutch complex agent Crystal has similar properties , of domestic preparations, Sudarushka complex fertilizer enjoys good reviews.
Useful tips
- Before fertilizing cucumbers, you should carefully calculate the dosage of each element or the required rate of the finished product, taking into account the properties of the soil on the land (fertile soil needs less fertilizing than clay or sandy loam). It is important to remember a sense of proportion: overfeeding will not benefit the crop, as a result, the quality of the fruit will suffer.
- If 2 g of boric acid is diluted in 2 l of water and 100 g of sugar added to the solution, it’s an excellent tool for spraying cucumbers, which has several functions at once. In addition to the fact that such spraying will provide fertilizing and moistening of plants, it will be an excellent prophylaxis of mold and attract insects for better pollination.
- Experienced agricultural technicians do not recommend feeding plants with yeast solutions at the same time as manure or bird droppings. What is the reason for the incompatibility of these funds? Active bacteria contained in manure adversely affect yeast fungi, which in turn interfere with the activity of bacteria. Thus, the beneficial effects of both products on plants and soil are dramatically reduced.
