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Plants have the highest yield of cucumbers if seedlings were grown in greenhouse conditions. Do you live in the city, and appear on the plot only in the summer? Then use the tips for planting seeds and germinating seedlings at home. Planting cucumbers in this way is also convenient for residents of country houses who do not have greenhouses and specially equipped premises for growing seedlings.
Choosing cucumber seeds for home seedlings
Sowing seeds at home can be carried out starting from the end of February. If you are growing varietal cucumbers in the open field, then most likely you are harvesting the seeds of the varieties you like in advance. With proper storage, cucumber planting material can last up to 8-10 years, but the best and most reliable seeds are aged for 2-3 years. They are recommended to be planted by experienced gardeners and farmers.
When storing cucumber seeds for a long time, it is important to follow two rules: the air temperature in the room must be at least 200C, and the air itself must be dry. Before planting in the ground, the grains are subject to mandatory sorting, soaking in disinfecting solutions and hardening.
The statistics of surveys conducted among summer residents indicate that at home the best seedlings of cucumbers are obtained from the seeds of self-pollinating hybrids. This does not mean that planting seeds collected from your own crops is futile, you just need to tinker with them a little more.
Watch a video on how to prepare cucumber seeds for sowing:
Preparing seeds for sowing at home
Preventive measures are carried out only with those grains that you harvested yourself. Shop hybrids are usually sorted and prepared for sowing by the manufacturer. To protect yourself and get strong seedlings of cucumbers, be sure to read the instructions for planting seedlings, and after that get to work.
Before the cucumber seed is lowered into the ground, it will have to go through several stages of processing and preparation for sowing:
- Calibration. All planting material is placed in a 3% saline solution. The floating seeds of cucumbers are thrown away, those remaining at the bottom are taken out and dried.
- disinfection. It is carried out by soaking the planting material in a weak 1% solution of potassium permanganate. The grains are disinfected for 25-30 minutes, and washed with warm running water and dried.
- Swelling and sprouting. Cucumber seeds are spread evenly on a slightly damp cotton rag. In the process of germination, it is necessary to ensure that the rag does not dry out. Solutions containing components that stimulate plant growth can be added to a humid environment. The seeds are kept until they begin to hatch and the stalk reaches a length of 1,5-2 cm;
- Hardening. When sprouts hatch from the grains, the napkin is folded and sent to the refrigerator for 45-50 hours. The procedure is necessary for hardening the seed and preparing the seedling for transplanting into the soil.
Having carried out all the preventive procedures before sowing seeds in the ground, you can be sure that cucumber seedlings grown at home will be strong and stable. You need to plant only that planting material that has been completely pre-treated.
Seed sowing
In order to grow cucumber seedlings at home, every effort must be made to ensure that it is strong and resistant to various diseases. You can achieve what you want if you carry out a number of activities related to the selection and preparation of containers and substrate before planting.
Soil preparation
The substrate for growing cucumber planting material is prepared from the following components:
- Sod land – 1 part;
- Humus – 1 part;
- Peat – 1 part;
- Sand – 1 part;
- For 10 kg of a mixture of the above components, 30 g of nitrophoska and 30 g of urea are used, as well as a glass of wood ash.
Before planting the seed in the ground, all components must be thoroughly mixed and kept at room temperature for 2-3 hours.
Bubbling
Growing cucumber seedlings at home begins with bubbling seeds. This mandatory process is associated with the stimulation of the growth of seeds, the age of which is from 2 years and above. To do this, planting material is folded into a small cotton bag or gauze and kept at high temperatures for 2-3 weeks. At home, you can use a thermostat or a regular aquarium water heater for bubbling.
In the video you can see simple ways to bubbling and heat treating cucumber seeds at home:
The choice of capacity for seedlings
Despite the fact that the main thing in the process of growing seedlings of cucumbers from seeds is the preparation of material and substrate, the choice of containers for seedlings must also be approached responsibly.
Choosing the right container for seed germination can minimize the likelihood of root breakage during transplantation and save the plant from diseases associated with changing climatic conditions when the root and stem are connected to open ground.
The landing container is filled with prepared soil by 2/3. As the cucumber seedlings develop, the volume of land in the container can be increased.
Rules for sowing seeds of cucumbers
Before planting, it is necessary to review the planting material again. Only dry and well hatched grains fall into the ground. No more than 2 seeds are planted in one container, then the soil in the container is moistened, and the pot itself is covered with plastic wrap. Such a shelter will allow you to maintain a humid microclimate, keeping the evaporation necessary for the seedling from warm and moist soil.
Find the warmest (but not driest) place in the house and locate the landing containers there. It should be remembered that before the appearance of cucumber sprouts, the temperature in the room should not fall below 23-250C.
At home, cucumber seedlings appear above the ground on the fourth day. After the seedlings have appeared, the film can be removed from the container, and the plant can be moved for several days to a cool room with a temperature of 15-160C. After that, return the cucumber seedlings to a dry room, providing a temperature regime of 19-200C.
Carefully observe the cucumbers, regularly checking the condition of the sprouts. If the seedlings stretch too quickly, then the cucumber does not have enough sunlight or the temperature in the room is exceeded. If the leaves turn yellow, there is not enough moisture and oxygen. Cucumber sprouts began to fade – pay attention to the temperature regime.
Feeding, watering and hardening seedlings
Cucumber seedlings are grown at home for about a month. Feeding seedlings with fertilizers during this time is carried out only two times:
- 2 weeks after sprouts appear. For top dressing, it is necessary to prepare a solution at the rate of: 3 liters of purified and settled water and 15-20 grams of urea. At least 100 ml of this liquid is poured into each container.
- One week after the first feeding. The composition of the fertilizer: for 3 liters of water – 15 grams of nitrophoska and 30 grams of wood ash. Everything is thoroughly mixed, infused for 3-4 hours, then filtered. The cost of funds is the same as in the first case.
Do not forget that seedlings for cucumbers are grown at home for no more than a month. Correctly determine the timing of planting seeds by calculating the exact time until they are transferred to open ground. An overgrown plant can get sick for a long time and adapt to new climatic conditions. If the cucumber seedling is not fully formed, it will quickly die not only in the open area, but also in the greenhouse.
Seedling of seedlings
Today, the supplementary illumination method is very popular in stimulating the growth of seedlings of cucumbers. It is used in the event that it is impossible to find a place in a house or apartment for a sufficiently long-term natural lighting of seedlings. So, it often happens in cases where the apartment has small dimensions, and there are too many containers with seedlings.
Dim fluorescent or conventional energy-saving lamps are suitable for the supplementary illumination procedure. The main criteria for a correctly performed event is that the distance to the seedling surface should be at least 20 cm, and the duration of the light flux should be at least 12 hours a day.
Most often, the additional illumination method is used when the weather outside is cloudy, and the length of the daylight hours does not yet allow the seedlings of cucumbers to receive enough light for growth.
Remember that a cucumber seedling that has just hatched really needs good lighting. The first sign of a lack of light is the drooping and sluggish stems of the plant, slow growth, yellowness that has appeared on the leaves.
How to water cucumber seedlings at home
Despite the fact that the cucumber is a vegetable crop that requires regular and abundant watering, seedlings grown in an apartment should be watered only as needed. Cucumber seedlings grow properly and well if the root is only slightly moistened. The volumes of liquid should be moderate, not to mention the fact that water should not stagnate in a pot. Watering cucumbers is carried out only with warm and settled water.
If you use the additional lighting method for growing cucumbers, the seedlings must be watered twice a day (morning and evening) in small portions. If your seedlings are in conditions of good natural light – 1 time in the morning.
Growing seedlings at home will be a pleasure and give a good result only if all the recommendations for seed preparation are used and the conditions for keeping them in the ground are observed. Cucumber seedlings grown at home can be transferred to greenhouses and hotbeds as early as early May, with the only requirement for the room itself – it must maintain the optimum growth temperature.
After watching the video, you will learn the basic rules for growing cucumber seedlings at home:
