Growing Cucumbers in a Greenhouse

Homegrown cucumbers — aromatic, crisp, juicy… This vegetable people enjoy eating almost all year round. Therefore, it makes sense to set up a small greenhouse for growing cucumbers: your family will love eating them, and a small farm can earn good profit from year-round crop sales. How to prepare a greenhouse and grow cucumbers in a greenhouse, specialists from the company «Sekko» explain: here you can order film greenhouses from the manufacturer https://xn--e1aapcrn.xn--p1ai/ of any size for growing decorative and fruit-bearing crops.

How to set up a greenhouse

To grow heat-loving crops year-round, it is necessary to install a reliable, airtight structure that is adapted to maintaining stable temperature and humidity inside. What requirements are imposed on the greenhouse?

• To ensure the structure withstands snow gusts and heavy precipitation, it is necessary to take care of the structure’s strength. It is important that the frame does not rust: wood is not susceptible to corrosion, although over time it absorbs moisture and requires replacement. It is more rational to use metal elements, plastic, or polycarbonate for mounting the frame. But the most financially attractive solution remains installing a film greenhouse — durable and long-lasting.

• Size of the structure. Farmers recommend making the structure height no less than 2 m, since cucumber vines can grow to substantial sizes. A taut overhead trellis wire makes care of the crop and harvesting easier.

• Ventilation. If air does not reach the plants in the required amount, seedlings will die or grow slowly. Moreover, stale air is a breeding ground for diseases that affect fruiting crops.

• Lighting. Cucumbers love abundant sunlight and poorly develop in shade. Therefore, it is better to orient the greenhouse with its length running north to south: this way you will achieve even lighting of the fruits throughout the daylight hours.

How to grow cucumbers in a greenhouse

For the event to be worthwhile, it is necessary to prepare the soil for planting even in autumn months. First, it is necessary to disinfect the soil by removing the top layer up to 5 cm thick. Then, the soil is fertilized by adding 40 g of potassium and phosphate fertilizers per 1 m², up to half a kilogram of lime and cow manure. As an alternative to the last component, you can use sawdust or leaves. After this, proceed to forming the ridges, whose height is 0.2 m, width 0.7 m, and the spacing between rows is approximately 0.8 m. Before planting, loosen the soil, and place a wire horizontally above the planting spot.

Planting cucumbers

Since cucumbers are planted in a greenhouse, it is advisable to use self-pollinating varieties — pollination via bees in a greenhouse is practically impossible. Such crops are pollinated by dew and have several advantages: the plants are not afraid of cold, so they can be planted early in spring, and rarely suffer from common diseases of fruiting plants. Cucumbers have a short growing season and fruit for a longer period, thus the yield is consistently high.

Planting is carried out in two ways:

• Direct seeding (seed) method. Before planting seeds into the soil, it is necessary to disinfect them in a 7% potassium permanganate solution. When planting in fertilized soil, seeds do not need to be soaked. At intervals of half a meter, make holes into which seeds are planted and watered with warm water. It is better to plant in mid-April;

• Seedlings are transplanted at the end of May, when the plants are 25 days old. In this case, the hole is made deeper to accommodate the seedling with soil and peat. After this, each plant is watered with potassium permanganate and warm water.

Cucumbers: care and cultivation

What to pay attention to when caring for cucumbers?

1. Temperature regime. During the day, the temperature should be within the range of 20-30°C, at night from 16 to 19°C.

2. Watering: once a week until the plant starts flowering, twice a week during flowering, and every other day if the temperature significantly rises.

3. Additional feeding of cucumbers in the initial fruiting stage, then every 10 days. Fertilizer is applied in liquid form.

4. Remove the male flowers of self-pollinating cucumbers.

5. A few days after planting seedlings, tie the seedling to the wire.

With proper greenhouse setup and plant care, you can achieve an excellent harvest — up to 30 kg per 1 m².