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Plants have the highest yield of cucumbers if growing seedlings was carried out in greenhouse conditions. Do you live in a city and appear on your garden plot only during the summer period? Then use the tips for planting seeds and germinating seedlings at home. Plant cucumbers in this way it is also convenient for residents of country houses who do not have greenhouses and specially equipped rooms for growing seedlings.
Choosing cucumber seeds for home seedlings
Sowing seeds at home can be carried out from the end of February. If you are growing varietal cucumbers in the open field, then, most likely, you harvest the seeds of the varieties you like in advance. With proper storage, planting material for cucumbers can last up to 8-10 years, but the best and most reliable are seeds that are aged for 2-3 years. Experienced gardeners and farmers recommend planting them.
When storing cucumber seeds for a long time, it is important to follow two rules: temperature room air must be at least 200C, and the air itself must be dry. Before planting in the ground, the grains are subject to mandatory sorting, soaking in disinfecting solutions and hardening.
The statistics of surveys conducted among summer residents suggests that at home the best cucumber seedlings are obtained from the seeds of self-pollinating hybrids. This does not mean that planting seeds harvested from our own crops is futile, just a little more tinkering with them.
Watch a video on how to prepare cucumber seeds for sowing:
Preparing seeds for sowing at home
Preventive measures are carried out only with those grains that you harvested yourself. Shop hybrids are usually sorted and prepared for sowing by the manufacturer. To keep yourself safe and get strong cucumber shoots be sure to read the instructions for planting seedlings, and after that get to work.
Before a cucumber seed is lowered into the ground, it will have to go through several stages of processing and preparation for sowing:
- Calibration... All planting material is placed in a 3% saline solution. The emerging cucumber seeds are thrown away, the remaining ones at the bottom are taken out and dried.
- Disinfection... It is carried out by soaking the planting material in a weak 1% solution of potassium permanganate. The grains are disinfected for 25-30 minutes, and washed with warm running water and dried.
- Swelling and germination... The cucumber seeds are spread evenly on a slightly damp cotton rag. During germination, it is necessary to ensure that the rags do not dry out. In a humid environment, you can add solutions containing components that stimulate plant growth. The seeds are kept until they begin to hatch and the stalk reaches a length of 1.5-2 cm;
- Hardening... When sprouts emerge from the grains, the napkin is rolled up and sent to the refrigerator for 45-50 hours. The procedure is necessary for hardening the seed and preparing the seedling for transplantation into the soil.
Having carried out all the preventive procedures before sowing seeds in the ground, you can be sure that the cucumber seedlings grown at home will be strong and stable.You only need to plant the planting material that has been completely pre-processed.
Sowing seeds
In order to grow cucumber seedlings at home, you need to make every effort to ensure that it is strong and resistant to various diseases. You can achieve what you want if, before planting, you carry out a number of activities related to the selection and preparation of containers and substrate.
Soil preparation
The substrate for growing planting material for cucumbers is prepared from the following components:
- Sod land - 1 part;
- Humus - 1 part;
- Peat - 1 part;
- Sand - 1 part;
- For 10 kg of a mixture of the above listed components, there is 30 g of nitrophoska and 30 g of urea, as well as a glass of wood ash.
Before planting the seed in the ground, all components must be thoroughly mixed and kept at room temperature for 2-3 hours.
Bubbling
Growing cucumber seedlings at home begins with bubbling seeds. This obligatory process is associated with the stimulation of seed growth, the age of which is from 2 years and above. For this, the planting material is folded into a small cotton bag or gauze and kept at high temperatures for 2-3 weeks. At home, you can use a thermostat or a conventional aquarium water heater for bubbling.
In the video, you can see simple ways to bubble and heat cucumber seeds at home:
Choosing a container for seedlings
Despite the fact that the main thing in the process of growing seedlings of cucumbers from seeds is the preparation of the material and the substrate, it is also necessary to approach the choice of container for seedlings responsibly.
The correct choice of container for germinating the seed can minimize the likelihood of root rupture during transplantation and save the plant from diseases associated with changes in climatic conditions when the root and stem are connected to open ground.
The planting container is filled with prepared soil by 2/3. As the cucumber seedlings develop, the volume of land in the container can be increased.
Rules for sowing cucumber seeds
Before planting, it is necessary to revise the planting material again. Only dry and well-hatched grains sink into the ground. No more than 2 seeds are planted in one container, then the soil in the container is moistened, and the pot itself is covered with plastic wrap. Such a shelter will allow you to maintain a humid microclimate, keeping the evaporation necessary for the seedling from the warm and moist soil.
Find the warmest (but not driest) spot in your home and locate landing containers there. It should be remembered that before the appearance of cucumber sprouts, the temperature in the room should not fall below 23-250FROM.
At home, cucumber seedlings appear above the surface of the soil on the fourth day. After the seedlings have appeared, the film can be removed from the container, and the plant can be moved for several days to a cool room with a temperature of 15-160C. After that, return the cucumber seedlings to a dry room, providing a temperature of 19-200FROM.
Watch the cucumbers carefully, regularly checking the condition of the sprouts. If the seedlings stretch too quickly, it means that the cucumber does not have enough sunlight or the temperature in the room is too high. If the leaves turn yellow, there is not enough moisture and oxygen. Cucumber sprouts began to wither - pay attention to the temperature regime.
Top dressing, watering and hardening of seedlings
Cucumber seedlings are grown at home for about a month.Fertilizing seedlings during this time is carried out only two times:
- 2 weeks after sprouting. For feeding, it is necessary to prepare a solution at the rate of: 3 liters of purified and settled water and 15-20 grams of urea. At least 100 ml of this liquid is poured into each container.
- A week after the first feeding. Fertilizer composition: for 3 liters of water - 15 grams of nitrophoska and 30 grams of wood ash. Everything is thoroughly mixed, infused for 3-4 hours, then filtered. The expense is the same as in the first case.
Do not forget that seedlings for cucumbers are grown at home for no more than a month. Correctly determine the timing of planting seeds, calculating the exact time before transferring them to open ground. An overgrown plant can hurt for a long time and adapt to new climatic conditions. If a cucumber seedling is not fully formed, it will quickly die not only in an open area, but also in a greenhouse.
Supplementing seedlings
Today, the method of additional lighting is very popular in stimulating the growth of cucumber seedlings. It is used in the event that it is impossible to find a place in the house or apartment for a sufficiently long natural light of the seedlings. So, it often happens in cases where the apartment is small, and there are too many containers with seedlings.
For the additional lighting procedure, dim fluorescent or ordinary energy-saving lamps are suitable. The main criteria for a correctly performed event are that the distance to the seedling surface should be at least 20 cm, and the duration of the luminous flux supply should be at least 12 hours a day.
Most often, the method of supplementary lighting is used when the weather outside the window is cloudy, and the length of daylight hours does not yet allow the seedlings of cucumbers to be given sufficient flux of light for growth.
Remember that a freshly hatched cucumber seedling really needs good lighting. The first sign of a lack of light is drooping and sluggish stems of the plant, slow growth, and the appearance of yellowness on the leaves.
How to water cucumber seedlings at home
Despite the fact that a cucumber is a vegetable crop that requires regular and abundant watering, seedlings grown in an apartment should be watered only as needed. Cucumber seedlings grow correctly and well if the root is only slightly moist. The volumes of liquid should be moderate, not to mention that the water should not stagnate in the pot. Watering cucumbers is carried out only with warm and settled water.
If you use the additional lighting method for growing cucumber, the seedlings must be watered twice a day (morning and evening) in small portions. If your seedlings are in good natural light - once in the morning.
Growing seedlings at home will give pleasure and give a good result only if all the recommendations for the preparation of seeds are used and the conditions for their maintenance in the soil are met. Home-grown cucumber seedlings can be transferred to greenhouses and hotbeds already at the beginning of May, with the only requirement for the room itself - it must maintain an optimal growth temperature.
After watching the video, you will learn the basic rules for growing cucumber seedlings at home:
