Iodine for cucumbers in a greenhouse is a good and affordable alternative to expensive industrial top dressings and chemical preparations that prevent the disease of this plant. Many adepts in agriculture and gardening have already appreciated the benefits of this simple all-rounder and successfully use iodine to increase the yield of vegetables.
Non-traditional “garden” use
A 5% alcohol solution of iodine can be found in every pharmacy. For many, it is a discovery that this effective antiseptic can be used to combat a variety of plant diseases and prevent them. But those who have ever experienced recipes with iodine in the “garden” business are beginning to use it to process almost all garden crops: from tomatoes and eggplants to potatoes and strawberries.
Benefits of using iodine in horticulture:
- allows you to increase the fruiting period of plants;
- stimulates seed germination, stem growth and flowering;
- increases yield;
- increases the content of vitamin C in vegetables;
- promotes rejuvenation of the lashes;
- increases the number of ovaries;
- suppresses fungal infections (peronospore, phytophthora) in the early stages of development;
- activates the vital forces of plants.
The tendency of greenhouse cucumbers to various diseases is one of the significant disadvantages of growing this vegetable in a temperate climate. Treatment of rough creeping stems and heart-shaped cucumber leaves with water and iodine before flowering and during the growth period is a good prevention of basal and other types of putrefactive diseases.
Disadvantages of using iodine in gardening:
- in large quantities, iodine vapor is harmful to humans, therefore, after processing in a greenhouse and a greenhouse, one cannot stay for a long time;
- improper dosage of the chemical can lead to burns and death of plants.
To date, several recipes for feeding and spraying cucumbers with iodine have been successfully used.
Recipes and rules of application
Iodine is very volatile, so the easiest way to disinfect a greenhouse with cucumbers and get rid of excess moisture is to hang open bottles of the substance around the perimeter of the greenhouse. This can be done immediately after sowing cucumber seeds in the greenhouse, periodically adding iodine solution to the jars as the shoots grow.
Recipes for iodized fertilizer for cucumbers:
- Feeding cucumbers with iodized milk.
Ingredients:
- water – 9 l;
- skimmed milk – 1 l;
- iodine – 30 drops;
- laundry soap – 20 g.
Rub the soap on a fine grater, add to warm milk, pour in iodine, mix with water and mix thoroughly. Spray plants. Repeat every 10 days as cucumbers grow.
- Feeding cucumbers with iodized bread infusion.
Ingredients:
- white bread – 1 pc;
- water – 15 l;
- iodine – 1 vial.
Soak a loaf of bread in water and leave overnight. In the morning, knead the bread thoroughly with your hands, pour in iodine. Strain the resulting solution, bottle and use to process cucumber leaves as needed. Store fertilizer bottles in a dark, cool place.
- Fertilizer with whey.
Ingredients:
- water – 1 l;
- alcohol solution of iodine – 40 drops;
- unpasteurized whey – 1 l;
- hydrogen peroxide – 1 tbsp.
Mix all the ingredients, treat the plants every 10 days after sunset.
Top dressing of cucumbers and preventive spraying with iodized water will get rid of simple and downy mildew, root, gray and white rot, and help defeat late blight.
Proportions for spraying: 5-10 drops of iodine solution per 10 liters of water. For prevention, it is necessary to carry out 3 sprayings with an interval of 10 days.
In order not to use pesticides to fight rot, experienced gardeners use iodine along with urea. To do this, 50 g of urea is mixed with 20 drops of iodine, 2 liters of serum and 10 liters of water. The resulting solution should be treated planting 2-3 times a season.
Having decided to grow cucumbers in a greenhouse for your family or for sale, you should learn that preventing plant diseases is much easier than fighting them. Following the rules of agricultural technology, and correctly using such available substances as iodine, even a novice summer resident is able to get an excellent harvest of elastic tasty cucumbers.
