Fertilizers for cucumbers

Cucumbers are the most common vegetable crop in garden and summer cottages in Our Country. Cucumber is unpretentious, easy to grow, it gives good yields of tasty fruits that can be eaten fresh or canned for the winter. But even such a simple vegetable needs regular feeding, because fertilizers help improve soil composition, saturate plants with deficient mineral components, increase yields and prolong the growing season.

How to draw up a top dressing scheme, what fertilizers are needed for cucumbers at all stages of crop development, as well as top dressing for cucumbers in a popular way – the answers to all these questions can be found in this article.

What are fertilizers for cucumbers

Before feeding vegetables, you need to deal with the fertilizers themselves and understand why certain components are needed.

So, fertilizers for cucumbers are divided into two large groups:

1. Mineral fertilizers.
2. organic fertilizers.

Mineral Fertilizers – these are chemical components from the periodic table, such as nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, calcium and others. Such elements are contained in any soil, but their amount may be insufficient, and soils of different composition contain various microelements.

For example, clay soils are deficient in iron and manganese, while sandy soils are usually deficient in potassium and nitrogen fertilizers. It is mineral fertilizers that can make up for existing shortcomings by simply watering the earth with a solution with the necessary additives.

On sale there are both complex and simple mineral fertilizers for cucumbers. A simple top dressing consists of only one component, it can be only potassium or only zinc. But in a complex fertilizer there should be at least two components, the use of such compounds helps to immediately saturate the soil with all the necessary substances.

Mineral components are called inorganic, because their origin is artificial – a synthesis from chemical elements. But plants, including cucumbers, are able to independently process such substances and turn them into organic ones, and then assimilate them.

Organic food is a food that contains natural ingredients. They consist, in fact, of the same chemical elements as mineral fertilizers. The difference lies in the fact that such top dressings are natural – they are either animal waste products, or compounds obtained in the process of decay, fermentation or decomposition of organic materials (greens, food waste, sawdust and much more).

Organic fertilizers include:

• compost;
• cow or horse dung;
• poultry droppings (chickens or quails);
• humus;
• wood ash;
• various folk remedies;
• herbal infusions.

But there are times when vegetables need additives that cannot be found in organic matter, or the gardener does not have access to such compounds (fresh manure or bird droppings are far from being found in any summer cottage). Then it is advisable to use mineral fertilizers for cucumbers.

Most often, gardeners use a mixed feeding system – the use of both mineral and organic fertilizers for cucumbers, as well as their competent alternation.

How to fertilize cucumbers

There are also methods for applying fertilizing to vegetable crops. There are two ways to fertilize cucumbers:

• root;
• foliar.

Root top dressing of cucumbers considered a standard procedure, it consists in introducing the desired nutrient component directly under the root of the bush, that is, into the ground.

Thus, the root system of cucumbers is saturated with deficient microelements as soon as possible – all useful substances are simply absorbed by the roots of plants.

You need to make root dressing for cucumbers in the evening, when the sun sets and the heat subsides, a cool cloudy day is also suitable for this procedure. Before applying fertilizers for cucumbers, the bushes should be watered abundantly – the earth should in no case be dry, this will lead to burns of the root system of cucumbers with too concentrated fertilizers.

Foliar top dressing of cucumbers is necessary under the following conditions:

• low night temperatures;
• cool and rainy summer;
• lack of sunlight (for example, when growing cucumbers in greenhouses or in shaded areas);
• some cucumber diseases that damage the root system;
• poor development of the roots of cucumbers.

Each of these factors leads to the fact that the roots of cucumbers do not develop properly, become superficial and weak. As a result, plants cannot absorb fertilizers applied in the standard way – under the root.

In such cases, foliar top dressing is needed, the use of which makes it possible to saturate even cucumber bushes with a weak root system with fertilizers. The essence of the method is to irrigate the stems, leaves and flowers of cucumber with special solutions with the necessary mineral components.

It is convenient to spray cucumbers from an ordinary garden sprayer, and this should be done in the evening or on a cloudy day so that the sun in combination with fertilizers does not cause burns of the green mass of plants.

Cucumber dressing scheme

Of course, any fertilizer must be applied in a timely manner, because at different stages of development, cucumbers, like any garden crop, need completely different trace elements and nutrients. If you do not take into account the needs of the crop, all efforts and expenses for fertilizers will be in vain – improper feeding can harm cucumbers even more than a lack of organic elements.

But most plots cannot boast of fertile soils, besides, the land is gradually depleted – almost all summer residents and gardeners of the country have to restore the composition of the soil.

For example, before planting fertilizers for cucumbers are not needed – the first feeding is carried out at the stage of formation of a pair of true leaves. Good soils will not need this fertilizer either – in areas with black soil, you can use cucumber fertilizer only at the stage of flowering and the appearance of ovaries.

The classic feeding scheme consists of four stages, but it should be adjusted taking into account the characteristics of the soil and the way cucumbers are grown. (in the greenhouse or in the open field).

First dressing of cucumbers

Cucumbers need to be fed no earlier than the first true leaf appears on them (not to be confused with a cotyledon pair of leaves). At this stage, not all plants need fertilizer, but only those that look weakened and grow slowly.

The most important component in this phase of cucumber development is nitrogen. Therefore, you need to feed the plants with fertilizers with a high nitrogen content. It can be either mineral fertilizers, such as ammofoska or azophoska, or organic feeds, such as chicken manure, grass infusion, liquid mullein.

The gardener can make up for the nitrogen deficiency in cucumbers in one of the following ways:

1. Feed the cucumbers with a solution of urea and superphosphate. To do this, dissolve in a bucket of water (10 liters) a tablespoon of urea and 60 grams of superphosphate. Fertilizer is applied under the root of the cucumber, along with watering.
2. In combination with loosening the soil around young cucumbers, root dressing with ammophos (5 grams) or diammophos (15 grams) is used. This amount of fertilizer will be needed for each square meter of land. Mineral components are scattered between the beds with cucumbers and a little buried in the soil.
3. You can also pour cucumbers with a freshly prepared solution of bird droppings. To do this, one part of chicken or quail manure is dissolved in 15 parts of water. The prepared solution is watered with cucumbers.
4. Prepare slurry in a ratio of 1: 8 – part of the cow dung is dissolved in eight parts of water and the plants are watered.
5. Herbal infusion is prepared for cucumbers in a ratio of 1: 5, after soaking the grass with water and pressing it down with a press.

Second dressing of cucumbers

The second stage of fertilizing young plants is carried out when the first flowers appear on cucumber bushes. Such top dressing is designed to make flowering more abundant, increase the number of ovaries, and prevent flowers from falling off.

You can also perform the second dressing of cucumbers in several ways:

1. Water the cucumber bushes with a solution of complex fertilizer. To do this, prepare the composition: dissolve 10 grams of superphosphate, 40 grams of ammonium nitrate and 30 grams of potassium nitrate in 20 liters of water.
2. Use a more accessible component – stir a glass of wood ash in a bucket of water, pour cucumbers with a solution.
3. Mix dry wood ash with superphosphate and sprinkle the ground between the cucumber bushes with this mixture, put some fertilizer into the soil.
4. Spray cucumbers with a solution of superphosphate (10 tablespoons per 2 liters of water).
5. A solution of boric acid (1 teaspoon) and potassium permanganate (10 crystals) applied to leaves and stems will help activate the flowering of cucumbers.
6. You can attract insects to pollinate cucumbers with a solution of boron and sugar: dissolve 100 grams of granulated sugar and half a teaspoon of boric acid in a liter of hot water. When the mixture has cooled, irrigate the flowers with it.

The third dressing of cucumbers

The next time you need to fertilize cucumbers at the stage of abundant fruiting – when the plants begin to give greens in large batches. It is at this stage that cucumbers consume the largest amount of nutrients from the soil – their content must be restored with fertilizers.

All that cucumbers need now is potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus. It is necessary to fill the deficiency of fertilizers in several stages, and this can be done in the following ways:

1. Pour the bushes with a solution of nitrophoska – dissolve a tablespoon of complex fertilizer in a bucket of water. This top dressing is performed when the first greens appear on the cucumber bushes.
2. A week after that, cucumbers are watered with this composition: a teaspoon of potassium sulfate and 0,5 liters of fresh mullein are diluted in a bucket of water.

At the stage of active fruiting, it is recommended to use only organic fertilizers to avoid saturation of cucumber fruits with nitrates and other harmful additives. Therefore, it is better to use mullein, chicken manure, humus, replacing them with mineral fertilizer complexes.

Fourth dressing of cucumbers

The last feeding of the bushes is necessary in order to stretch the fruiting, thereby increasing the yield of vegetables. Fertilizers for cucumbers at this stage should stimulate the formation of new ovaries and saturate the earth with those components that are needed for the ripening of large and even fruits.

So, There are several ways to make up for the deficiency of fertilizers in cucumbers:

1. Water the bushes with a solution of baking soda – take four teaspoons of soda in a bucket of plain water.
2. Dissolve a glass of wood ash in 10 liters of water and pour over cucumbers.
3. You can perform foliar feeding of cucumbers with infusion of rotted hay. Equal shares of hay and warm water are mixed and left for a couple of days. The resulting composition is sprayed with leaves and stems of cucumbers.

To achieve a greater effect, you need to alternate root and foliar feeding of cucumbers, use both organic compounds and purchased mineral fertilizers.

It is not at all necessary to use all four top dressings – it is necessary to monitor the condition of cucumbers at each stage of development.

Folk remedies for fertilizing cucumbers

Those who are afraid of complex fertilizers, but do not have access to fresh organic matter, can be advised to use folk remedies to feed cucumbers.

There are many such methods, but the following are considered the most popular:

• Bread sourdough. You can cook it from fresh black bread crackers or from bread crusts. To do this, an ordinary bucket or other container is filled two-thirds with breadcrumbs, all this is poured with water and covered with a plate or lid, the diameter of which is slightly smaller than the size of the container itself (this is necessary to remove air). A weight must be placed on top of the lid to create pressure. The container with bread is placed in a warm place and left there for a week. When the fertilizer is ready, it is diluted with cold water and used to water cucumbers. You can feed with bread every 10 days – this can replace all other fertilizers.
• Yeast fertilizer for cucumbers. In a ten-liter bucket of warm water, a one-hundred-gram pack of ordinary baker’s yeast is dissolved. Leave the composition for fermentation for 2-3 days. Each bush of cucumbers will need about 0,5 liters of such fertilizer, it is applied under the root. Yeast top dressing cannot replace a full-fledged complex, but they are good as an intermediate plant feed.
• Infusion of onion skins. Onions will help when the plants turn yellow foliage, which may indicate both a lack of fertilizer and infection of cucumbers. In a bucket of water you need to add a glass of onion peel, put the container on the fire and bring to a boil. After that, the solution is left under the lid for several hours so that the fertilizer is infused. The bushes are simply watered with the finished composition, after filtering the infusion through a sieve.
• Wood Ash. An excellent fertilizer option using only natural ingredients, because ash contains a lot of useful trace elements, besides, it loosens the soil, providing oxygen to the roots. Fine ash from burnt deciduous trees must be dissolved in water in the proportion of a glass per 10 liters. This solution is simply watered on the ground every 7-10 days – such top dressing may well be enough for cucumbers at all stages of development. Ashes from burnt tops, hay, sawdust, dry leaves can be used to fight insects and various infections – you just need to powder the ground on cucumber beds with such ashes.
• Green Fertilizers. Such compositions are prepared on the basis of an infusion of weeds, you can use ordinary grass left after weeding the beds or pick nettles, wormwood. The greens are poured with water and left in the sun under heavy pressure – after a couple of days the infusion is ready, it can be diluted with water and watered with cucumbers. Such top dressing will additionally help prevent pest attacks and protect cucumbers from diseases.

To summarize

All methods of feeding cucumbers have the right to exist – each gardener will eventually determine the most suitable option for himself. Fertilizing cucumbers is necessary for normal growth, larger yields and an extension of the fruiting period. Whereas cucumbers from unfertilized beds are easily distinguished by twisted small fruits, a bitter taste and a slightly saturated skin color.