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Often, when buying their favorite vegetables at the market, people think about how nice it would be to have a garden, mess around on it on the weekends and reap delicious fruits. And those who have such an opportunity are puzzling over how to carve out a piece of land for a particular culture. For both the first and the second, resourceful gardeners found a solution – growing cucumbers in bags. If desired, city residents can organize this process even on the balcony and delight the family, and summer residents can save space in order to grow other crops. In addition to the fact that this process is not only useful, it is also very exciting, but first things first.
Preparing the landing site
First of all, you need to determine the place where the cultivation of cucumbers in bags will take place, prepare the bags themselves, hollow tubes, cord, wooden sticks, soil and seeds.
Preparatory work carried out before filling the package with earth
- We take a bag. For this purpose, it must be dense (polyethylene or from sugar), with a volume of 70-120 liters.
- You will need a two-meter wooden stick. A nail is hammered at its end.
- We tie a cord, fishing line or rope to the nail, along which the stem of the vegetable will subsequently curl.
- In hollow tubes, holes with a diameter of 5 mm are made in a checkerboard pattern at a distance of 6-5 cm. The length of the tube must be equal to the height of the package. The bottom of the tube must be closed; this can be done with ordinary plasticine.
- We prepare the soil. To grow cucumbers in bags, you will need a mixture of garden soil and rotted manure.
When all the materials are ready, we proceed to the preparation and arrangement of the “bed”. The process takes place in the following order:
- a plastic bag is placed on a pre-prepared pallet;
- fill the bag three-quarters with earth and wrap it with tape around the entire circumference so that it does not tear;
- we drive a wooden stick into the center of each;
- around the stick, at a distance of 10 cm from it, we place three or four tubes with holes;
- on the sides of the container on all sides in a checkerboard pattern, it is necessary to make triangular cuts, each side of which is about three centimeters, to determine at what distance to make cuts, proceed from the fact that no more than 12-15 vegetable bushes can be placed in one bag.
Thus, the place for growing cucumbers in a bag is ready, you can start planting.
We plant cucumbers
It is possible to grow cucumbers in a “vertical garden” (as the bags are called in another way), as in the case of a greenhouse and open ground, in two ways: seeds and seedlings.
Seedling. Seedling preparation is carried out in exactly the same way as if this crop were planted in open ground: in early May, pre-prepared seeds are placed in glasses (200 ml) and when three full-fledged leaves appear, the seedlings are transplanted into a bag. How it’s done:
- from above, 3-4 plants are planted on open ground;
- in each hole from the sides, the remaining seedlings are planted, placing the plants perpendicular to the package and parallel to the ground.
Planting seeds. Cucumbers are planted in this way in exactly the same way as seedlings: on the upper surface of the soil, in small holes between the irrigation pipes, 3-4 pre-prepared seeds are placed. The rest are carefully placed in the side holes. It is best to sow at the end of May.
A significant advantage of this planting method is that the seeds in such bags hatch before the seedlings appear in cups, and the plant itself subsequently develops faster and better.
Whichever method is chosen, after planting, the vegetables must be watered through plastic watering tubes.
Features of agricultural technology
There is nothing complicated in the process of growing vegetables in vertical beds. They require even less attention than soil and greenhouse.
Watering. The main thing is not to flood. It should be borne in mind that polyethylene holds moisture well, therefore, unlike their relatives in the garden, “bag” cucumbers are watered as needed. On average, watering occurs once every 3 days, or in small quantities daily.
You can easily check the soil moisture by dipping your finger into the soil, and in transparent bags, the state of the soil will be visible through polyethylene. Irrigation is carried out through inserted tubes with holes, thanks to which water is distributed evenly to all roots. As in the case of ground and greenhouse cucumbers, the water temperature should be + 22C – + 23C.
If the plants do not have enough of the moisture that they are provided, they will begin to sprout roots through the holes made and draw water from the pan on which the bag is placed.
Top dressing. Vegetables can be fed. As a fertilizer, you can use the same solutions as for soil or greenhouse “relatives”. Top dressing should be done through the same tubes that are used for irrigation.
Garter. After the plant has 5-6 full-fledged leaves or antennae, they should be tied up, directed, so to speak, in the right direction. After that, the stem will curl itself.
Light. If the cucumber is grown on the balcony, then in hot weather shading should be done, thus protecting the leaves of the plant from direct sunlight, which can burn them.
Plant formation. As a rule, cucumbers growing in a bag do not require pinching, but if the growth is very intense, then you can pinch for 10-12 leaves.
What are the advantages of the method
By growing cucumbers in bags, you can avoid many of the troubles that accompany this crop when grown in open ground and greenhouses:
- the roots of the plant in the bag will not be damaged by the bear, which means that the bush will not die and will bring the harvest;
- the plant will not get sick, subject to the requirements for care;
- root rot does not form in the ground provided that it is properly watered.
There are also benefits for humans:
- the first and most important advantage of this method of growing cucumbers is that from a small “plot of land” you can harvest no less than from a garden;
- saving space in the garden;
- the possibility of growing on the balcony, since the bag does not take up much space;
- no need to dig a “bed”;
- convenience and ease of care for culture;
- early ripening of a vegetable (faster and earlier than in open ground);
- convenience of harvesting;
- purity of cucumbers.
And one more tip: if you want to enjoy the delicious and juicy fruits of a fresh vegetable until the very frost, then you should plant different varieties of cucumbers.
Video “Little tricks for growing cucumbers in bags”
Video with the secrets of growing cucumbers in bags. How much humus should be put in one bag, how many bushes should be in a bag.
