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Many amateur gardeners are interested in how to prolong the fruiting of cucumbers in a greenhouse and get a good harvest in early autumn. Cucumbers are crops with a rather short fruiting period – the withering of their lashes begins in August, and by the end, and sometimes in the middle of this summer month, the setting of new fruits stops. But with the right approach to growing cucumber bushes and the use of special agricultural practices, you can extend the harvest until September – October.
The main reasons for the drying of the lashes, leading to a significant reduction in plant yields, are the damage to the bushes by diseases traditional for cucumbers, insufficient nutrients in the soil, damage to the stems, and a decrease in air temperature. The elimination of these factors will allow cucumber bushes to successfully bear fruit in the fall.
Fight against diseases of cucumbers
The most common diseases of cucumber bushes are powdery and downy mildew (penoporosis), bacteriosis. Powdery mildew damage to plants usually occurs when the air temperature drops below 18 ° C and high humidity, characteristic of rainy weather. The disease manifests itself in the form of a white coating, first covering the leaves with small spots, then completely, causing yellowing and drying.
The likelihood of damage to the bush with powdery mildew increases with too intensive fertilizing with nitrogen fertilizers, irregular and insufficiently plentiful watering.
Treatment of the plant should begin at the earliest stage of the disease. When spraying with solutions, ensure that the liquid gets on both sides of the leaf in order to achieve complete destruction of the pathogen.
The following measures give an effective result:
- spraying the vegetative parts of the bush with a decoction of horsetail, infusion of marigolds with the addition of laundry soap, mullein diluted with water;
- treatment with chemotherapy drugs – 0,5% solution of soda ash and soap, 4% solution of copper sulfate, 1% solution of Bordeaux mixture;
- periodic (once a week) spraying with a solution of colloidal sulfur;
- stop fertilizing plants with nitrogen fertilizers;
- disinfection of the greenhouse with formalin solution after harvest;
- maintaining the air temperature inside the greenhouse at a level of 23-25 ° C, using warm water for irrigation.
When affected by downy mildew, the leaves of cucumbers become covered with light yellow spots, then after a while they turn brown and dry. The cause of the disease is infection with a fungus – the causative agent of penoporosis, the rapid reproduction of which is facilitated by high humidity, the use of cold water for irrigation.
To eliminate the disease will help stop watering and fertilizing when the initial signs of foaming appear, treatment with Ridomil, copper oxychloride, Ordan. Solutions of these drugs should be warm. It is necessary to maintain the optimum temperature in the greenhouse (approximately 25 ° C). It is useful to spray the bushes with whey diluted with water.
These measures will also help prevent bacteriosis – angular leaf spot.
A characteristic manifestation of a bacterial disease of this species is the appearance of watery spots on the vegetative parts of the plant, gradually turning into depressions, at the bottom of which liquid accumulates.
To prevent the development of bacteriosis will allow:
- regulation of humidity and temperature conditions in the greenhouse;
- balanced fertilizing with complex mineral fertilizers;
- treatment of bushes with fungicides, for example, Previkur, Metaxil or Etafol;
- careful selection of seed material – from healthy bushes, soaked in 5% sodium chloride solution;
- complete removal of plant residues after harvesting, followed by burning or deep incorporation into the soil;
- disinfection of the soil and surfaces of the greenhouse.
Stimulation of fruiting cucumbers
It is possible to extend the fruiting period by increasing the amount of nutrients contained in the soil. For this purpose, urea is applied on large areas of cultivation of cucumbers at the rate of 300 g per 1 hundred square meters, dissolving the fertilizer in irrigation water.
In a small area, you can additionally spray the bushes with an aqueous solution of urea, dissolving 10-15 g of the drug in 20 liters of warm water. Instead of mineral fertilizers for root dressing, you can use mullein diluted with water, adding 10 g of superphosphate for every 30 liters of solution.
Cucumbers also begin to bear fruit more actively with regular addition of loosening materials, which are usually used as peat, dried mowed grass, humus or compost.
The bases of the stems, covered with mulch, put out additional lobular roots. This provides an increased amount of nutrition to the stems and leaves, causing the growth of a new vegetative mass and rejuvenation of the plant.
When growing cucumbers in clay soils, the uptake of nutrient solutions by the root hairs is more difficult, so adding mulching materials more often is recommended in such conditions. You can also rejuvenate the bush by laying the part of the stem devoid of leaves at the base of the bush in rings and sprinkling it with fertile soil. Soon she will put up young roots that can provide the plant with the nutrition necessary for good fruiting.
Cucumber Care Tips
To increase the fruiting time of cucumbers will allow compliance with the following rules for caring for plants:
- When harvesting, you should carefully separate the fruits from the lashes, without disturbing their position and not tearing them off the ground, so as not to damage the basal roots extending from the stem.
- Cucumbers will bear fruit better if harvested regularly. The best time for this operation is noon – during this period, the moisture concentration in the plant drops, the elasticity of the stems increases and the fruits are more visible.
- With a decrease in air temperature at the end of summer, the number of root dressings should be reduced by 2-3 times, compensating for them with foliar dressings (spraying stems and leaves), since even with a slight decrease in temperature, the absorption of nutrients by the roots is significantly reduced.
- To stimulate the growth of young shoots and the formation of new ovaries, it is recommended to remove leaves in the lower part of the stem that are outside the fruiting zone.Rejuvenation of cucumber bushes
- It is desirable to plant cucumbers in several batches. With a lack of space, seedlings can be planted to previously planted bushes. Seedlings grown from stepchildren will enter the fruiting stage much earlier than those obtained by seed germination.
Conclusion on the topic
The above recommendations will help increase the life expectancy of cucumber bushes and the amount of harvest. It is necessary to monitor the air temperature in the greenhouse, with its significant decrease, resorting to heating the greenhouse with a stove or other type of heater. In later periods, it is better to plant self-pollinated varieties of cucumbers (parthenocarpic), the yield of which is much higher compared to pollinated insects.