Fertilizers for feeding cucumbers
How to feed cucumbers to get a bountiful and high-quality harvest? Experienced gardeners apply fertilizer for cucumbers according to the established scheme, but at the same time they are guided by their own observations. Noticing how the leaves and fruits of cucumbers are formed, one can judge the lack of minerals and the need for their additional introduction.
Fertilizers for feeding cucumbers
Fertilization in spring
Those who decide to fertilize the garden in the spring should try to do this no later than a week before planting the cucumbers. It is better to use well-ripened manure, but you can also add rotten leaves or hay, sawdust. In the land allotted for cucumber beds, a ditch is dug out and filled with fertilizer (depth - about 40 cm). A layer of soil is poured on top and the area is covered with plastic wrap, pressing it tightly to the ground.
If there is very little time before planting cucumbers (several days), wood ash and superphosphate are used to fertilize the soil (per 1 sq. M. - a glass of ash and 2 tablespoons of mineral fertilizers). A layer of rotted manure or other rotten organic matter (2 buckets per 1 sq. M) is placed on top, poured with a solution of a natural growth stimulator (for example, humate 7) and the area is covered with a film.
For emergency feeding of cucumbers, immediately before planting, special complex fertilizers are used: phosphorus and nitrogen (azofoska, ammofoska, etc.), which quickly dissolve and dissolve well in the soil.
Fertilizer in autumn
Autumn fertilization of cucumbers is one of the most effective feeding methods. At this time, cucumbers are still developing, and it is necessary to fertilize the land previously allotted for cucumber beds. The ideal remedy is rotted manure (mullein, bird droppings, horse manure, etc.) with the addition of wood ash and nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium fertilizers (nitrophoska). In winter, minerals have time to dissolve well, due to which in the spring, during planting beds, the soil acquires high fertility.
Unlike spring feeding, even fresh mullein can be used in autumn, since seeds or seedlings will be planted only after a few months and they are not threatened by high temperatures of chemical processes occurring in manure. The recommended fertilizer rate per 1 sq. m of land - 4 buckets of rotted manure, to which three glasses of wood ash and 90 g of nitrophoska are added. This mixture is evenly spread over the site, and dug up before spring planting.
Top dressing scheme
It is believed that in the summer you need to feed the cucumbers 3-4 times. Most often, feeding of cucumbers is done after the appearance of the first leaf, but if the plants look strong and healthy, it is transferred to a later period - to the beginning of flowering.
Some gardeners selectively feed weak and pale plants that are lagging behind in growth.What fertilizers are needed for cucumbers at this stage? A prerequisite is a high nitrogen content in them.
It can be a soluble mineral fertilizer, herbal infusion, mullein, bird droppings, as well as a solution or infusion of manure. At the beginning of the flowering period, potash and ammonium nitrate, wood ash are used, plants are fertilized with superphosphate, urea, boric acid solution.
During the period of intensive fruiting, mineral fertilizers for cucumbers should be complex: contain potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus, magnesium. It is even better to do without chemistry at this time, using organic substances (mullein, bird droppings, etc.). The fourth dressing is carried out in order to prolong the fruiting period (most often in August, when the fruiting of cucumbers is declining), using wood ash, an aqueous solution of soda, an infusion of rotted dry grass for it.
Top dressing methods
There are 2 ways to feed cucumbers: root and foliar. The first type involves the introduction of fertilizers directly under the root, the second - spraying the necessary substances on the leaves and stems. Root feeding of cucumbers gives the best result in warm weather, when the root system is intensively developing and perfectly absorbs nutrients.
Foliar dressing for cucumbers is more suitable for a cool summer, when the root system is not so efficient in absorbing minerals.
Top dressing of any method should be done in the evening in cloudy weather, so that excess sunlight does not turn into burns for plants.
It is recommended to apply fertilizers at the root after the rain has passed or after good watering.
Top dressing with a lack of nutrients
Plants will tell you what they are missing
feeding of cucumbers can be carried out as needed, depending on what kind of substances the plants lack. Simple observations will help you find out. By carefully examining the seedlings, leaves and fruits of cucumbers, you can determine whether the plants are developing correctly and how you can help their growth and fruiting.
Be sure to inspect the leaves of plants during sudden cold snaps. Sometimes, when the weather changes, green leaves darken, acquiring a bluish, purple or brown hue, and when warming, they turn green again. If the weather recovers, and the irregular color of the leaves persists, the plants have used up phosphorus. In this case, as a top dressing, cucumbers need to be watered with a properly prepared superphosphate solution (superphosphate is dissolved in boiling water, insisted, and then wood ash and nitrogen fertilizers for cucumbers are added to it).
Plants are sensitive to the lack of trace elements necessary for them:
- Potassium. How to fertilize cucumbers if the fruits become hooked or pear-shaped? In this case, the edges of the leaves often turn yellow and bend towards the bottom. These signs indicate a lack of potassium. Watering the cucumbers with ash infusion or potassium phosphate solution will help to eliminate the problem.
- Nitrogen. Lack of nitrogen manifests itself in thinning lashes, slow growth, small leaves and a small number of shoots. The leaves turn yellow early, the fruits do not grow green, but light yellow, short and with a pointed edge. In this case, use special nitrogen-containing fertilizers for cucumbers or organic (manure, bird droppings, compost based on peat and green grass).
- Calcium. The lack of calcium is indicated by yellowed areas between the veins of the leaf and sluggish edges: over time, they bend down and make the leaf look like an umbrella. If you do not fill the lack of this element, the root system will stop growing and developing. To solve the problem, such cucumbers are fertilized with calcium nitrate or eggshells.
- Bor. A boron-deficient crop resembles a dwarf plant with an underdeveloped root system.Cucumber leaves thicken and harden, flowers crumble, shoots break. To correct the situation, cucumbers are fertilized with a solution of boric acid or boron-containing mixtures, like borosuperphosphate.
Folk remedies
Yeast solutions
Among folk methods, feeding cucumbers with yeast solutions or mixtures is especially popular. It is used during the period of appearance of the first leaves, the beginning of flowering and fruiting. Fresh or dry yeast is diluted in warm water, sugar is added, infused, and then again diluted with water. Sometimes bread crusts, kefir or sour milk, jam are added to the yeast starter culture. It is recommended to pour ash or ash into the finished mixture in order to replenish the reserves of potassium and calcium in the soil.
Beer
According to folk fertilization methods, a cucumber can be watered with beer diluted with water in a ratio of 1 to 10. Good results were obtained by gardeners who watered the plants with kvass and even mash several times.
Eggshell
As an additional fertilizer for cucumbers, eggshell powder is used (in the composition table of this product, the calcium content is determined by 92%, and the shell also contains magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, phosphate and organic compounds).
The powder is recommended to be mixed with mineral dressing in equal proportions and applied to open ground in autumn or spring. Thanks to this fertilization, the cucumber will be provided with calcium and magnesium, and the soil will acquire a normal level of acidity. In addition, eggshells will make planting easier to care for, as the soil structure will become looser, more air and moisture permeable.
succinic acid
To grow this crop in a greenhouse, some agricultural technicians use a solution of succinic acid as a top dressing. The product is organic and environmentally friendly, increases the yield of the crop and its resistance to drought, provides early harvest. Succinic acid can be used not only for greenhouse cucumbers, but also for those growing in the open field.
Fish waste
Fishermen often use the remains of fish production for growing cucumbers: heads, tails, skeletons and offal. All this is ground, infused and used to water the soil. According to the reviews of those who poured infusion of fish heads with weak cucumber vines, devoid of ovaries, this procedure helped revive the vines and get new shoots.
Other popular fertilizers
Complex mixtures for cucumbers based on biohumus are especially popular (they can also be used for some other garden crops: zucchini, squash, pumpkin). Typically, such a fertilizer contains nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, sulfur, humic and other useful substances. The introduction of this solution under the root (or spraying) helps seedlings to take root in the open field and develop correctly, increases crop yield, accelerates ripening, improves soil structure and the ability of plants to absorb nutrients.
Agricola is another effective formulation with an environmentally friendly composition and good solubility. According to the reviews of those who watered cucumbers with them (or used them for spraying): the plants not only grew, but also got stronger and recovered from the disease, became less susceptible to pests.
The Dutch complex agent Kristalon has similar properties; from domestic preparations, the complex fertilizer Sudarushka enjoys good reviews.
Useful Tips
- Before fertilizing cucumbers, you should carefully calculate the dosage of each element or the required rate of the finished product, taking into account the properties of the soil on the land (fertile soil needs less feeding than clay or sandy loam). It is important to remember about a sense of proportion: the abuse of feeding will not benefit the culture, as a result of which the quality of the fruit will suffer.
- If you dilute 2 g of boric acid in 2 liters of water and add 100 g of sugar to the solution, you get an excellent spray for cucumbers that has several functions at once. In addition to the fact that such spraying will provide nutrition and moisture to the plants, it will be an excellent prevention of mold and will attract insects for better pollination.
- Experienced agricultural technicians do not recommend feeding plants with yeast solutions at the same time as manure or poultry droppings. What is the reason for the incompatibility of these funds? Active bacteria contained in manure negatively affect yeast fungi, which in turn interfere with the activity of bacteria. Thus, the beneficial effect of both agents on plants and soil is sharply reduced.