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Cultivation of cucumbers is a long and laborious process. It is important for beginner gardeners to remember that preparing cucumber seeds for planting in the ground is an important step, and the correct execution of these works is an integral part of obtaining a large and high-quality crop.
Pre-sorting and processing
You can get strong healthy seedlings of cucumbers only if the cucumber seed undergoes the necessary preventive procedures before planting:
- Selection of strong and high-quality seeds;
- Hardening of planting material;
- Disinfection;
- pickling;
- Pre-germination of seeds for seedlings.
All these operations are performed in a certain sequence, and each of them is a guarantee that the seedlings will sprout healthy with a high potential for growth and fruiting cucumbers.
The process of sorting cucumber seeds begins with weeding out weak and diseased seeds. A solution of table salt (1,5 tablespoons per 1 liter of water) will help in this, in which the grains must be lowered. Poor-quality and empty seeds will quickly float to the surface, healthy material will remain at the bottom of the container. It is these seeds that you need to choose for growing seedlings.
How to properly store and warm seeds
The second step is drying the seeds. Planting material should be kept in a warm, dry place throughout the entire storage period. Experienced gardeners use small cotton bags to store cucumber seeds, which are hung next to heating systems – stoves or batteries. Using this drying method, remember that the air temperature in the room should not exceed 24-250C. This can lead to drying and steaming of the seeds, which will negatively affect the seedlings as a whole.
Cold and moisture during storage contribute to the fact that the ovaries give a large amount of barren flowers, which, of course, will adversely affect the yield of cucumbers.
Grains for sowing can be warmed up immediately before planting. To do this, they are hardened using a thermostat – at a temperature of 550C – 3-3,5 hours, at 600C – 2 hours. Such heating of planting material affects the growth rate of seedlings and stability when transplanting seedlings into open ground.
Why is seed dressing needed?
After the cucumber seeds are sorted, you need to pickle them. This stage in the preparation of planting material is preventive, and prevents the development of viral and fungal diseases that are characteristic of growing seedlings in greenhouse conditions.
Disinfection is carried out by immersing cucumber seeds in a warm one percent solution of manganese (10 grams of manganese per 10 liters of water). If there is no manganese in pharmacies, use a solution using streptomycin. In both cases, the planting material is kept in solution for at least a day. After that, the cucumber seeds are washed with warm running water.
Another way to disinfect seeds is to use crushed or grated garlic. A large clove of garlic is crushed with a knife or on a grater and dissolved in a glass of warm boiled water. After the solution has cooled down, the volume of the liquid is adjusted to 1 liter, and the seeds are lowered into the container in gauze or a cotton bag. Planting material in garlic solution is kept for 30-40 minutes.
In stores and agricultural markets, you can see preparations prepared specifically for dressing. The most popular and well-established are TMTD and NIUIF-2.
Industrial pickling agents are potent poisons. When working with them, be sure to use protective equipment such as masks or gauze bandages, gloves, goggles.
For 1 kg of planting material, only 3-4 grams of TMTD or NIUIF-2 are used. Sorted grains of cucumbers are laid out in a three-liter bottle, a disinfectant is poured into the same place. The bottle closes tightly and shakes well. After the procedure, the seeds are rinsed in warm running water.
How to quickly and correctly germinate a seed
Every gardener strives to ensure that the crop begins to ripen as quickly as possible. In order to increase and accelerate the germination, the change to seedlings must be germinated before planting, using growth stimulants in the form of chemical and biogenic fertilizers.
You can quickly germinate a seed by preparing one of the solutions:
- 2 grams of zinc sulfate per 1 liter of water;
- 5 grams of baking soda per 1 liter of water;
- 10 mg of boric acid per 1 liter of water.
Hardening of cucumber seeds for seedlings is carried out by soaking the planting material for at least 20 hours. The solution should be cool – 18-200C. It is better to carry out the procedure in the evening, and the next day, dry the grains on a cotton napkin or rag.
And the last stage of the procedure – dry cucumber seeds are laid out on a flat surface and covered with a small layer of small sawdust, previously scalded with boiling water. Under such a fur coat, grains for seedlings are kept for 48 hours.
Of the natural biostimulants, the juice obtained from the stem and leaf of aloe is considered the best. Known for its antibacterial properties, this house flower helps the seed swell and open up.
Cut the juice from 2-3 large leaves of aloe along and place in a plastic bag. Leaves should be placed in the refrigerator for 10-14 days and kept there at a temperature of no more than 70C. Twist the stems or leaves thus aged in a meat grinder, squeeze out the juice from the resulting slurry, into which place the sorted cucumber seeds for 5-6 hours.
Both methods of stimulation are carried out immediately before landing. To get high-quality and strong seedlings, it is enough to harden after each procedure – for 2-3 days the planting material is sent to the refrigerator. So, grains adapt to possible low air and soil temperatures.
How and why hardening is carried out
Experienced gardeners harden only those cucumber seeds that are planted directly in open ground. By itself, this stage of preparation of planting material implies keeping it for a short period of time at low temperatures. Thus, it is possible to artificially increase the protective functions and resistance to low temperatures in many varieties or hybrids.
In addition, a set of procedures – calibration, drying and hardening of seeds for seedlings – increases the concentration of sugar. This indicator, in turn, affects growth inhibitors. All preparatory processes affect both the timing of the growing season of fruits, and the periods of maturation of the plant.
Moreover, such procedures are not carried out when the grain has entered the phase of active germination.
Conclusion
All stages and procedures for preparing cucumber seeds for planting have justified themselves since the middle of the last century, when hardening, as a method of improving germination, was first used in agriculture. When growing cucumbers, remember that hardening the seeds and preparing them for germination is already half the battle in getting a quick and tasty harvest.