Alligator, Emerald Stream, White Delicacy – the best parthenocarpic (self-pollinated) Chinese cucumbers for the greenhouse. These vegetables with a thin skin, small seeds and a sweet aftertaste have a short ripening period. The fruits reach 80 cm. The cultivation of alien species is not much different from the cultivation of ordinary pumpkin relatives, but has some of its own characteristics.
The timing of sowing seeds depends on the type of room for cultivation vania. For example, in heated greenhouses sowing is possible all year round, and in ordinary ones with the arrival of the spring-summer period.
Soil
In cultivation, it is of great importance soil that should be harvested in the fall.
If you make a nutrient mixture for cucumbers, then throughout the growing season, they will not need additional fertilizing.
A mixture of soil (10 kg):
- turf land – 3 kg;
- sawdust 3 kg;
- humus 5 kg;
- wood ash – 250 g;
- superphosphate – 40 g;
- calimagnesia 15 g;
- m Chevin – ’10
For this soil composition, sawdust is advised to soak, for 2 weeks, with a solution of water (10 l) and ammonium nitrate (20 g).
Seedlings
Sowing begins in early spring. Containers for seedlings use separate, 10 cm in diameter, which are filled with prepared soil. Before planting, the seeds are treated: soaked in a solution of potassium permanganate in a solution, sprayed with growth stimulants. After, plant 2 pcs. in moist soil to a depth of about 1 – 1.5 cm, cover with a film. The temperature for the rapid emergence of seedlings should correspond to 25 – 30 ° C.
After the appearance of the first shoots, the film is removed. The optimum temperature for seedling formation is 22 – 25 ° C. Watering is carried out as the soil dries up, often sprayed. After the appearance of the third leaf, the plants are thinned out: they leave one seedling, small and weak ones are removed.
Planting seedlings
Seedlings are planted in the greenhouse soil in 15-30 days after the appearance of the 9th sheet. The distance between seedlings during transplanting is 20 cm.
Instructions for planting seedlings:
- A day before planting, containers with cucumbers are abundantly watered;
- Prepared wells are poured with a warm solution of potassium permanganate;
- As soon as potassium permanganate is absorbed into the ground, it should be poured with plain water;
- Seedlings with an earthen lump are carefully transferred to the holes;
- Root the plant’s neck should be 1.5 to 2 cm higher than the soil level.
During transplantation, strong, durable supports for the shoots are installed. Such cucumbers have a stem length of up to 3 – 3.5 m. In order for the fruits to grow beautiful and even, they must hang down. As the stems grow, they are systematically tied with reliable material. The first five lateral processes coming from the root should be removed.
Watering
The leaves must be sprayed daily
Cucumbers are irrigated twice a week with warm and settled water. Leaves need daily spraying (warm water). During the fruiting period, the number of irrigations is increased: the soil should always be moist. Water consumption for 1 one young plant is 0.5 l, for a mature one 1 – 1.5 l.
Regular cultivation of the soil and harvesting of weeds is recommended. For longer conservation of moisture, the soil is mulched with sawdust, straw or nettle. In this case, nettle will also serve as fertilizer, it has a high nitrogen content.
Harvest
The first crop ripens in 15 – 25 days after transplanting. The collection of cucumbers is carried out 1 time in 3 days. Regular harvesting of fruits stimulates the formation of new ovaries.
There is an opinion that if half is cut off from a Chinese cucumber, this part will grow back.Such a judgment is true only by 50%, since the plant continues to grow slowly, and the place of the cut dries out, contracts a little.
Chinese cucumbers are able for a long time, after full ripening, is on the stem. They do not perespeyut: they will not turn yellow, they will not become bitter. But only after harvesting, vegetables are not stored for a long time, after a day, they become soft and wrinkled. Fresh consumption, use for pickling, canning is recommended (for this they will have to be cut into smaller parts).
Fertilizing
Based on the external condition of Chinese cucumbers, you can to determine what top dressing vegetables need and when they need to be carried out:
- fruits become small – potassium deficiency;
- long and thin – lack of boron;
- twisted – lack of nitrogen;
- pear-shaped – a little potassium.
With a noticeable lack of potassium, cucumbers must be poured with a solution of water (10 l) and wood ash (1 tbsp.). Long and thin plants are sprayed with diluted boron (5 g) with water (10 l). To saturate with nitrogen: dilute calcium nitrate (20 g) with water (1 l), apply to the leaves. Carefully nourish the vegetables with nitrogen, an overdose can ruin them. All treatments are carried out in the evening to avoid chemical burns to vegetables.
As an additional fertilizer, mullein or horse manure is used.The use of fresh chicken manure is not recommended, it burns the root system of plants. After root dressing, vegetables are abundantly watered.
Diseases and pests
Chinese cucumbers, when grown in a greenhouse, are very rarely affected by any disease or insect. Under adverse cultivation conditions, they may suffer from downy and powdery mildew, anthracnose, alternariosis, aphids.
When powdery mildew appears on the inside of the leaves, a white coating forms. Fruits are bent, taste spoils. For treatment, the drug Topaz is used: 1 ampoule of fungicide is diluted in 10 liters of water, plants are sprayed 3 times, every 14 days.
Alternariosis – crayons, convex points of brown color that quickly spread across all leaves. Cucumbers are sprayed 2 to 3 times, every 2 weeks, with a solution: Ridomil Gold (50 g) and water (10 L).
Anthracnose – depressed areas of a dark color appear on the stems, brown spots appear on the leaves. The fruits rot. It is treated with Oxychid fungicide: 20 g of the drug and 10 l of water, repeated as necessary.
Aphids are small insects of black or light green color that deplete the plant. Fruits are not formed. In the fight against insects, Fitoverm is used: 5 ml of insecticide per 1 liter of water.
Conclusion
Chinese cucumbers like favorable climatic conditions, systematic spraying and nutritious soil. Growing in greenhouses has many advantages: high yield, early maturity, the ability to cultivate at any time of the year. The fertility of one bush reaches 40 kg, so 3-4 plants will be enough for home consumption. Almost all varieties of cucumbers are self-pollinated.
