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Many summer residents are increasingly abandoning chemistry in the garden – they want to eat healthy, environmentally friendly products. Therefore, instead of mineral fertilizers, natural top dressings can now be used.
Types of feeding cucumbers in the open field
Yeast nutrition
They are used for almost all garden crops, but cucumbers respond best to yeast. They can be used both indoors and outdoors. There are several recipes for yeast dressings, they are all equally good, which one to choose is up to you.
Dry yeast with sugar: Dissolve 1 bag of dry yeast weighing 10-12 g in 5 liters of warm water, add 1/2 cup of sugar and leave for 5-7 days in a warm place so that the mixture ferments.
How to use. 1 cup of “talker” in a bucket of water. Consumption rate – 1 liter per bush.
Dry yeast with ascorbic acid: 1 pack of dry yeast, 2 g of ascorbic acid dissolved in 5 liters of warm water. Insist, as in the previous recipe.
How to use. 1 cup of “talker” in a bucket of water. Consumption rate – 1 liter per bush.
Baker’s yeast with sugar: Mix a 1,5-kilogram pack with 1 glass of sugar and pour 10 liters of water, which must be heated to 38 – 40 ° C. Stir, let it brew a little.
How to use. Dilute the solution with water in a ratio of 1:5. Consumption rate – 0,5 liters per 1 plant.
Top dressing from yeast and bread: Pour 1/2 bucket of pieces of white and rye bread to the top with warm water, add 100 g of pressed (or 1 teaspoon of dry) yeast, 100 g of sugar or honey. Insist 3 days.
How to use. Strain the finished infusion and dilute with water at the rate of 1:5. Consumption rate – 0,5 liters per 1 plant.
Rules for fertilizing with yeast. During the summer, you need to spend 2 – 3 top dressing.
The first – when the seedlings have 2 leaves. This stimulates the active development of plants.
The second – at the beginning of flowering, to stimulate the ovary.
The third – after the first wave of fruiting, so that the bushes gain strength for a new portion of the crop.
You can store yeast concentrates for no more than 3 days – then they will lose their properties and start to smell bad.
It is better to water cucumbers with yeast in the evening, in warm weather.
What is fertilizing with yeast. Firstly, they revitalize the soil, create excellent conditions for the reproduction of soil bacteria, including those that bind nitrogen. As a result, cucumbers grow strong and healthy.
Secondly, the root system, fed with yeast, develops rapidly, and as a result, the resistance of plants to diseases increases and the yield increases.
Top dressing with ash
This is one of the best natural fertilizers. It contains up to 40% calcium, 12% potassium, 6% phosphorus, a whole set of trace elements (boron, iron, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, sulfur, zinc, copper), but no chlorine with nitrogen. But it creates favorable conditions in the soil for nodule bacteria that fix nitrogen.
During the season, cucumbers can be fed with ashes 4-6 times.
The first – immediately after germination, when the first true leaves appear.
The second – at the beginning of flowering.
The third is in the phase of active fruiting.
Then – once every 2 weeks.
Ash is used in three ways.
- Scatter around bushes. Consumption rate – 1 glass per 1 sq. m.
- Infusion: 2 tbsp. tablespoons of ash per liter of water insist for a week, stirring occasionally. Consumption rate – 1 liter per 1 plant.
- Solution: 1 cup of ash per 10 liters of water is infused for a day. This top dressing is used not for watering, but as a foliar – for spraying on the leaves.
Top dressing with iodine
An alcoholic solution of iodine is often used as a subcortex of cucumbers. It stimulates the growth of cucumbers, rejuvenates the lashes and leaves, increases the yield and fruiting period, improves the taste of fruits and contributes to the accumulation of vitamin C in fruits.
But some summer residents were disappointed in him – they say that after such feeding, the fruits grow crooked, and the plants often wither. So, indeed, it happens if you overdo it with iodine. Therefore, it is important to strictly follow the recipes.
Iodine solution: 5 drops in a bucket of water. Irrigation rate – 1 liter per plant, under the root, 3 top dressings from the beginning of July with an interval of 2 weeks.
As experiments have shown, when adding such a dose of iodine, cucumbers give the maximum increase in yield. If the dose is increased to 10 drops per 10 liters, cucumbers grow more leaves, and produce fewer fruits. At a dose of more than 10 drops, iodine acts depressingly on cucumbers. In addition, it is antiseptic and, when applied in large quantities, kills beneficial soil microorganisms (1).
Top dressing with soda
Another popular folk remedy that, if used incorrectly, can harm your cucumbers.
As a fertilizer, the solution is prepared as follows: 3 tbsp. spoons of soda to 1 bucket of water. Consumption rate – 1 liter per bush. It is better to water the plants with soda in the evening or early in the morning, while there is no scorching sun.
Two such top dressings are made per season.
The first – 2 weeks after planting seedlings in the ground.
The second – 2 weeks after the first.
It is impossible to fertilize cucumbers with soda more often, because sodium, which is part of it, accumulates in the soil and begins to inhibit plants.
Feeding with chicken manure
Bird droppings, including chicken droppings, are considered the most valuable among other types of organic fertilizers. For example, compared to cow dung, it is 3-4 times richer in chemical composition. The nutrients that it contains dissolve quickly in water and are easily absorbed by plants. In addition, litter has a positive effect on the development of soil microflora (2).
This organic fertilizer has all the main nutrients: potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, and all of them in an easily digestible form. It also contains many trace elements: manganese, cobalt, sulfur, copper and zinc. In addition to everything, organic acids, vitamins and biologically active substances necessary for the full development of cucumbers. But the main element of chicken manure is nitrogen. Nitrogen is quite active, so it is important to observe the doses of this fertilizer.
Prepare it like this: pour 0,5 buckets of litter into 0,5 buckets of water, cover and put in a warm place so that it all ferments. When gas bubbles stop emitting, you can use it. But pay attention: if you put litter in a bucket, and then just fill it with water to the top, then the proportion will turn out to be wrong! Water will fill all the voids in the manure, and it will turn out to be more than necessary. Therefore, you must first measure half a bucket of water, and then pour it into the manure.
Before watering cucumbers, it must be diluted with water in a ratio of 1:20.
Fertilize cucumbers with chicken manure twice.
The first time – 2 weeks after planting seedlings in the ground. Norm – 1 liter per bush. This top dressing will enhance the growth of cucumbers, they will build up powerful lashes and will be able to give more yield.
The second – after the first wave of fruiting. The norm is the same – 1 liter per bush. In this case, top dressing will prolong the fruiting season.
General rules for top dressing
1. Fertilize on warm days. Top dressing carried out on cool days is useless, because at a temperature of 8–10 ° C, nutrients are poorly absorbed.
2. First water – then fertilize. There is little benefit from fertilizing during drought. In such weather, phosphorus, for example, is absorbed worse, and nitrogen fertilizers poison the roots and microflora. Therefore, before fertilizing, the soil must be watered. Or fertilize the day after the rain.
Popular questions and answers
We talked about feeding cucumbers in the open field with agronomist-breeder Svetlana Mikhailova – she answered the most popular questions of summer residents.
Are folk remedies effective for feeding cucumbers in the open field?
Bread and kitchen waste can have a delayed effect because it’s organic – over time it will decompose and increase soil fertility. But not essential.
Soda can harm – excessive passion for it leads to salinization of the soil.
Do I need to feed cucumbers in the open field?
Is feeding alone enough to increase the yield of cucumbers?
Sources of
- Stepanova D.I., Grigoriev Mikhail Fedoseevich, Grigoryeva A.I. Influence of vermicompost and iodine top dressing on the productivity of cucumber in the protected ground of the Arctic zone of Yakutia // Bulletin of agrarian science, 2019
https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/vliyanie-vermikomposta-i-podkormok-yodom-na-produktivnost-ogurtsa-v-usloviyah-zaschischennogo-grunta-arkticheskoy-zony-yakutii/
- Degtyareva K.A. Technology for the preparation of bird droppings for irrigation of vegetable crops in protected ground // Dissertation, 2013 https://www.dissercat.com/content/tekhnologiya-podgotovki-ptichego-pometa-dlya-orosheniya-ovoshchnykh-kultur-v-usloviyakh-zash