When to plant this crop outdoors? To answer this question, gardeners take into account the peculiarities of the weather and the sowing calendar. In the first case, you can understand at what time you can safely plant in the soil, and with the help of the second, the most appropriate date for such an event is selected.
When to plant cucumbers at home
This is best done at a time when the soil warms up to fourteen to fifteen degrees Celsius. Here it is necessary to take into account that if the temperature is kept at a minimum value, the vegetable will hardly begin to grow. Simply put, the beds should be warmed up even better. Otherwise, the plant will be exposed to growth only in the daytime, under the sun. And on cool nights, the process will pause.
It is quite natural that the decision to land is perceived by many with great caution. More experienced gardeners prefer to trust their own experience. So, when fifteen degrees of heat in the ground is established, you can safely start planting, because in the spring the thermal regime will only increase, which will provide favorable conditions for growth.
In the middle regions of our country, the soil composition in the greenhouse warms up by mid-May. At this time, you can land without much risk, and there is always the opportunity to arrange additional heating. For this purpose, manure, overheating hay or sawdust, is laid on a half-meter depth of the beds. A simpler option is to cover the beds with plastic wrap.
You can speed up the harvesting somewhat without waiting for the May period.
For this, seedlings are pre-grown. For planting seeds for seedlings, the time is determined simply - a three-week period is counted from mid-May. This time will be quite enough to get perfectly formed sprouts. This method of determining planting is good if you plan to use a greenhouse for further growth. It is recommended to sow seedlings intended for open ground in early May.
What days is correct landing possible
Sowing time can be divided into three periods:
- early. For planting in open ground, you must wait for June 5th. But if the soil is warm enough and the climate in your area is warm, then sowing can be done between the fifteenth and twenty-fifth of May.
- middle. This sowing is carried out in June, until about the tenth. Any cucumber varieties are suitable for him. The first crops can be harvested with the onset of August;
- late. For this period, it is recommended to sow varieties intended for salting. The advantage of such sowing is that fresh cucumbers will delight you before the onset of frost.
Cucumbers planted at a lower temperature will either stop growing or die completely.
This year's lunar calendar has determined the following landing days:
month | auspicious days | conditionally favorable days |
March | 1, 6 – 7, 29 – 31 | 4 – 5 |
April | 9 – 10, 27 – 28 | 1 – 2 |
May | 26 – 27 | 2 – 3 |
June | 8 – 9 | 3 – 4 |
Preparing cucumber seeds for sowing
This procedure is required at home. In order for the seeds to swell, they should be placed in water at room temperature for ten to twelve hours, changing it several times. Many gardeners advise to warm up the seed fund a couple of months before planting. Before the sowing itself, the seeds are disinfected with a manganese solution and additionally treated with a drug that enhances growth.
Rules for growing seedlings at home
For this, it is recommended to use peat pots, paper or plastic cups, cassettes.
Seedlings do not tolerate transplanting well, for this reason, picking must be excluded.
To create ideal conditions, the soil is best composed of garden or turf soil, adding humus or sawdust. Prepared seeds are planted in a couple of pieces in each container to a depth of about one and a half centimeters. The pots are placed on a pallet, sprayed with water, covered with foil or a piece of glass, and placed in a warm place.
So that the sprouts do not stretch too much, the temperature in the room should be within twenty degrees of heat for several days. Then it is allowed to increase it by three to four degrees. It is also necessary to completely exclude drafts, which are contraindicated for seedlings.
The seedlings are transferred to well-lit places; on cloudy days, additional supplementary lighting is organized.
Watering is carried out every two days, for which they use rain or boiled water. Before transplanting seedlings into the ground, they begin to harden it by opening a window or taking containers outside for several hours.
If necessary, seedlings can be fed using complex mineral compositions. But you have to make sure that the solution does not get on the sprouts themselves.
The main reasons why cucumber seeds do not germinate
The most common are the following:
- low temperature conditions of the soil;
- great depth to which the seeds were embedded;
- the ground is heavy and dense enough;
- dry soil;
- severe waterlogging;
- the use of numerous methods of preparing seeds for sowing;
- violation of the storage conditions for seed.
What to do if the cucumbers have not risen
If you did everything correctly and avoided the main mistakes mentioned above, but cucumber seeds still did not please you with their good germination within two weeks, it is best to reseed them. It should also be remembered that cucumbers respond well to organic fertilized soil. It is recommended to add a certain amount of humus to the natural soil during new preparation.
Naturally, everything seems simple and straightforward. But anything can happen, and if you did not get on an auspicious day, you should not panic. Plants can be saved by covering them with special material or polyethylene. Remember that the planting dates given here are not final - in each region they are adjusted by the peculiarities of climatic conditions. Therefore, your own growing experience should not be discounted!