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Many amateur gardeners are interested in how to prolong the fruiting of cucumbers in a greenhouse and get a good harvest in early autumn. Cucumbers belong to crops with a rather short period of fruiting - the wilting of their lashes begins in August, and by the end, and sometimes even in the middle of this summer month, the setting of new fruits stops. But with the right approach to the cultivation of cucumber bushes and the use of special agricultural techniques, you can extend the harvest until September - October.
The main reasons for the drying out of the whips, leading to a significant reduction in plant productivity, are the damage to the bushes with diseases traditional for cucumbers, the insufficient content of nutrients in the soil, damage to the stems, and a decrease in air temperature. Elimination of these factors will allow cucumber bushes to bear fruit successfully in the fall.
Fighting cucumber diseases
The most common diseases of cucumber bushes are powdery and downy mildew (penoporosis), bacteriosis. The defeat of plants by powdery mildew usually occurs when the air temperature drops below 18 ° C and high humidity, typical for rainy weather. The disease manifests itself in the form of a white bloom, first covering the leaves with small spots, then completely, causing yellowing and drying.
The likelihood of affecting the bush with powdery mildew increases with too intensive feeding with nitrogen fertilizers, irregular and insufficiently abundant watering.
Plant treatment should be started at the earliest stage of the disease. When spraying with solutions, ensure that the liquid hits both sides of the leaf in order to achieve complete destruction of the pathogen.
The following measures give an effective result:
- spraying the vegetative parts of the bush with horsetail decoction, marigold infusion with the addition of laundry soap, mullein diluted with water;
- treatment with chemotherapy - 0.5% solution of soda ash and soap, 4% solution of copper sulfate, 1% solution of Bordeaux liquid;
- periodic (once a week) spraying with a solution of colloidal sulfur;
- cessation of plant feeding with nitrogen fertilizers;
- disinfection of the greenhouse with formalin solution after harvest;
- maintaining the air temperature inside the greenhouse at 23-25 ° С, using warm water for irrigation.
When affected by downy mildew, the leaves of cucumbers become covered with light yellow spots, then after a while they turn brown and dry. The cause of the disease is infection with a fungus - the causative agent of foam, the rapid reproduction of which is facilitated by high humidity, the use of cold water for irrigation.
To eliminate the disease will help the termination of watering and feeding when the initial signs of foam porosis appear, treatment with Ridomil, copper oxychloride, Ordan. The solutions of these drugs should be warm. It is necessary to maintain the optimal temperature in the greenhouse (approximately 25 ° C). It is useful to spray the bushes with milk whey diluted with water.
These measures will also help prevent bacteriosis - angular leaf spot.
A characteristic manifestation of a bacterial disease of this species is the appearance of watery spots on the vegetative parts of the plant, gradually turning into depressions, at the bottom of which liquid accumulates.
Preventing the development of bacteriosis will allow:
- regulation of humidity and temperature in the greenhouse;
- balanced application of fertilizing with complex mineral fertilizers;
- treatment of bushes with fungicides, for example, Previkur, Metaxil or Etafol;
- careful selection of seed material - from healthy bushes, with soaking in 5% sodium chloride solution;
- complete removal of plant residues after harvest, followed by burning or deep embedding in the soil;
- disinfection of soil and greenhouse surfaces.
Stimulating the fruiting of cucumbers
The fruiting period can be extended by increasing the amount of nutrients contained in the soil. For this purpose, in large areas of cucumber cultivation, urea at the rate of 300 g per 1 hundred square meters, dissolving fertilizer in irrigation water.
In a small area, you can additionally spray the bushes with an aqueous solution of urea, dissolving 15-20 g of the drug in 10 liters of warm water. Instead of mineral fertilizers for root feeding, you can use a mullein diluted with water, adding 30 g for every 10 liters of solution superphosphate.
Cucumbers also begin to bear fruit more actively with the regular addition of loosening materials, which are usually peat, dried cut grass, humus or compost.
The bases of the stems covered with mulch give rise to additional lobular roots. This ensures that an increased amount of nutrition is fed to the stems and leaves, causing the growth of new vegetative mass and the rejuvenation of the plant.
When growing cucumbers on clay soils, the absorption of nutrient solutions for root hairs is more difficult, therefore, in such conditions, it is recommended to add mulch materials more often. You can also rejuvenate the bush by laying the leafless part of the stem at the base of the bush in rings and sprinkling it with fertile soil. Soon she will put down young roots that can provide the plant with the nutrition necessary for good fruiting.
Cucumber Care Tips
To increase the fruiting time of cucumbers will allow compliance with the following rules for caring for plants:
- When harvesting, you should carefully separate the fruits from the lashes, without disturbing their position and without tearing them off the ground, so as not to damage the lobe roots extending from the stem.
- Cucumbers will bear fruit better if they are harvested regularly. The best time for this operation is noon - during this period, the moisture concentration in the plant decreases, the elasticity of the stems increases and the fruits are more noticeable.
- With a decrease in air temperature at the end of summer, the amount of root dressings should be reduced by 2-3 times, compensating for them with foliar dressings (by spraying the stems and leaves), since even with a slight decrease in the temperature regime, the absorption of nutrients by the roots decreases significantly.
- To stimulate the growth of young shoots and the formation of new ovaries, it is recommended to remove the leaves in the lower part of the stem that are outside the fruiting zone.
- It is advisable to plant cucumbers in several batches. If there is not enough space, seedlings can be planted to previously planted bushes. Seedlings grown from stepchildren will enter the fruiting stage much earlier than those obtained by germinating seeds.
Conclusion on the topic
The recommendations given will help to increase the lifespan of cucumber bushes and the amount of the yield obtained. It is necessary to monitor the air temperature in the greenhouse, when it drops significantly, resorting to heating the greenhouse with a stove or other type of heater. In later periods, it is better to plant self-pollinated cucumber varieties (parthenocarpic), the yield of which is much higher than that of pollinated insects.
