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Cucumbers occupy the second place among vegetable crops in terms of cultivated area. They need warmth and moisture for good growth.
Cucumber seeds should be sown only at a temperature of about 15 C. If the temperature is 10 degrees outside, cucumber ladders stop growing, begin to turn yellow and rot. If frosts start outside, there is a risk that the plants will die. Cucumbers grow best on flat, low-lying areas protected from dry and cold winds.
High places are not suitable for them. Applying manure to cucumbers gives a significant increase in yield, so I bought it vegetable seeds by mail it is desirable to sow them with the first crop after applying manure.
In addition to manure, mineral fertilizers are applied to cucumbers in the following average indicative rates per 1 acre (in kilograms): superphosphate – 2,5, ammonium sulfate – 2,0, potassium salt (40 percent) – 1,5. When applying these fertilizers without manure, their quantity should be doubled. Natural fertilizers, as well as mineral fertilizers on areas that are not flooded with water in the spring, are applied in the spring under plowing.
Fallow plowing with plows with front plows 22-25 cm deep. In early spring, the arable land is plowed; after 3-4 days, it is necessary to carry out shallow cultivation of the field with simultaneous plowing. Immediately before sowing cucumbers, the field is deeply cultivated with a cultivator. Better buy cucumber seeds and sow at the time when frosts are most likely to occur.
The optimal time for sowing is the second decade, and, as a last resort, the first decade of May. Cucumbers are sown with seed drills with row spacings of 90-120 cm, depending on the variety, wrapping the seeds 2-3 cm deep; the rate of sowing seeds with a seeder is 600 grams, and with a manual, nesting method - 500 grams per 1 acre.
When sprouts appear, it is necessary to loosen the interstices; when the first leaves of the crop are formed, they are dug out, at the same time, the seedlings should be left at a distance of 5-10 cm from each other and at the same time loosen the soil in the rows. When other true leaves begin to appear and the plants are strengthened, they are plucked a second time, leaving them already at a distance of 15-20 cm, depending on the variety. To increase the yield, during the growth of cucumbers, one or two fertilizings are carried out: the first - as soon as the first leaf appears, and the second - before the first collection of cucumbers. During top-up, it is necessary to apply natural and mineral fertilizers.
Further care for cucumbers consists in systematic loosening of rows, weeding and pest and disease control. On irrigated areas, cucumbers should be watered mainly during the period of flowering and fruiting, on average once per growing season. To speed up the harvest, cucumber seedlings are grown in peat-earthen pots.
Cucumbers are collected as marketable fruits appear: in the first days of fruiting, every two days, and during the period when cucumbers are constantly bearing fruit - daily or every other day. The earliest varieties of cucumbers: Barkhatsy and Berlyzovsky.
Thus, the correct preparation of the soil, the choice of seed material, as well as care features play an important role and directly affect the yield of cucumbers.
