How many days do cucumber seeds germinate?

Choose cucumber seeds, grow seedlings, wait for germination and get a rich harvest. Everything is so simple and it seems that the happiness of the gardener is very close. All this is at first glance. Indeed, choosing cucumber seeds is not so difficult.

The situation with obtaining a crop of the same cucumbers is a little more complicated – you will have to put your hands and partly your head. Proper care of adult plants requires both knowledge and considerable effort. Stepping and pinching cucumbers, watering and fertilizing, controlling humidity and temperature are not simple agrotechnical terms. Behind them lies the work of a gardener and the desire to do everything right.

Grow seedlings and wait for shoots

But this is, indeed, the concern for real professionals of cucumber art. Without strong and healthy seedlings, there is no early, rich harvest. Between him and good, even imported, cucumber seeds, an insurmountable swamp can arise from failures, wrong decisions and the desire to do everything anew. This article is to help those who want to overcome this swamp without loss.

Preparation of cucumber seeds for planting

The off-season allowed enough time for the enthusiast-gardener to decide on the variety or varieties recommended for next year, cucumbers. Whether these seeds were received by mail, bought in a trading network, or got, with an opportunity, through acquaintances, does not play a role.

It is best to use them in the first half of their allotted time.

Most importantly, they must be full-bodied and healthy specimens. Some of them will be used for growing seedlings, and the other – for planting directly in the garden.

The order of simple preparation looks simple:

• sorting cucumber seeds. It is necessary to prepare a 5% composition of the usual salt, dilute 50 g of NaCl in 100 cm³ water at 20⁰; dip the cucumber seeds selected for sowing into the prepared solution for 20-30 minutes, poor-quality and defective representatives of the cucumber planting material will float to the surface. Part of the seeds can be discarded in an unsoaked state;
• soaking seeds: in a liter of water, dissolve 1 ordinary, teaspoon of simple nitrophoska and a tablespoon, without a slide, a spoonful of oven, wood ash; place cucumber seeds in the solution for at least half a day;
• disinfectant heating of cucumber seeds. Place the seeds in a warm place (at t = 50⁰) for exactly 3 days, increase the heating temperature by 20⁰ and keep the cucumber seeds with it for another 24 hours;
• at home, heating cucumber seeds can be done at central heating radiators (at t u25d 27 – XNUMX⁰) within 30 days. The seeds warmed up in this way acquire a number of useful qualities: cucumbers have more female inflorescences, they begin to bear fruit earlier than ordinary cucumbers, there is no usual scatter in time for seedlings of one variety of cucumbers;
• seed hardening before planting. After the cucumber seeds have gone through all the previous procedures, they must be placed in wet wipes for germination. The process proceeds within 2 days at t = 20 – 25⁰ – until the seeds swell well. After that, the cucumber seeds are placed in the refrigerator for the same period.

In the same way, the uniformity of the yield of cucumbers will be affected by the differentiated time of their planting.

It’s time for sowing

All cucumber seeds have been fully prepared before planting. They all look cheerful, well-fed and with well-hatched sprouts. It’s time for the first landings. The terms are calculated in accordance with the conditions of their further habitat:

• if it is supposed to plant already strengthened seedlings immediately on open beds, then cucumber seedlings will spend almost 5 weeks at home. They need to wait out the period of possible frosts. Soil temperature should be close to 18⁰;
• if the planting of cucumbers will be carried out in greenhouse conditions, then seeds can be sown 2 to 3 weeks earlier;
• if dry seeds directly into the ground, then home care is no longer required. Before carrying out the process of sowing seeds of cucumbers, it is necessary to once again check the readiness for it of all garden property. It after all considerable and rather troublesome;
• free up space on the windowsill or loggia for the placement of all cups with crops;
• establish additional lighting, at the rate of 1 lamp of 60 watts. for 3 shoots;
• count the number of cups ready for sowing and compare them with the number of prepared seeds. Cups must be at least 400 ml in volume. and a height close to 120 mm;
• calculate the required amount of soil for sowing seeds, comparing it with the number of cups;
• arrange the cups filled with soil in the place intended for them. Water and let warm up.

Good for sowing cucumber seeds, the soil is a mixture of 2 parts of good soddy soil, 2 parts of ordinary humus and 1 part of fine sawdust. For 10 liters (bucket) of the mixture, you need to add, by a teaspoon, urea, garden superphosphate and potassium sulfate, which is customary for gardeners. It will be nice if there is a glass of ordinary ash in the house.

We start to sow

In each cup, it is necessary to place 1 germinated seed at a depth of 2 cm. After that, until the appearance of cucumber sprouts, the temperature is maintained close to 27⁰. And after that, the daytime temperature is reduced to 20⁰, and night – up to 15⁰ for 4 full days.

Produce a preliminary culling of crops and after that 20-day-old seedlings can be planted either in a greenhouse or in open ground. For open ground – the beginning of June. If home growing is supposed, then the process of additional lighting comes out on 1st place.

In open ground or a greenhouse, it is required to make holes, in dimensions equal to the size of a glass with seedlings of cucumbers. Between the holes – no more than 200 mm.

After that, all the wells are shed with a weak solution of potassium permanganate – half a gram per bucket. For each well, it is necessary to prepare 1 liter. similar solution. The day before planting, the cups with cucumber sprouts must be well shed. This must be done in order to better extract a clod of earth with a sprout.

If the stalk is stretched out, you should sprinkle it with ordinary peat or wet sawdust.

In the central zone of the country, cucumbers begin to be planted in open ground, without shelter, not earlier than May 25, until the beginning of June. In this case, dry cucumber seeds are used.

Swollen seeds can be planted in the first decade of the first summer month. At this time, the temperature of the soil should not be less than 15⁰ at the depth of the seedling cup (120 mm).

Cucumber seeds are sown to a depth of about 3 cm, as is the case with seedlings. The distance between the seeds must be kept within 100 mm. The timing of planting germination is highly dependent on air temperature;

• in hot, sunny weather and temperatures close to 25⁰ sprouts will be in 3 days;
• when the temperature drops to 20⁰ sprouts will slow down their development and appear no earlier than in a week;
• if the cold snap continues, you will have to look for ready-made seedlings on the market.

Seed care

The frosts have passed and the planting of cucumbers, strong and healthy, already require additional attention. They become cramped and uncomfortable in the garden. Lack of nutrition and micronutrients. An attentive gardener will not miss any of these moments. Any delay in leaving threatens to reduce the yield, its quality and delay fruiting.

First of all, a large family of seedlings must be reduced. Thinning should be at the rate of 5 cucumbers per 1 m² beds. After that, you should sprinkle the bed with a wet mixture of peat with sawdust. In this case, the beds must be absolutely clean from weeds.

Right now, for young seedlings of cucumbers, the first feeding is so important. It is much better if it is a foliar aqueous solution of urea. A similar solution should be prepared in this way – dilute 1 teaspoon of ordinary urea in a bucket of warm water. This is enough for 5 – 6 cucumbers.

Cucumbers really like it when they are looked after, they are attentive and courteous with them. They respond to love with reciprocity and a rich harvest. Even though it’s so natural.