Growing cucumbers in a barrel: how to get a harvest without hassle

Cucumbers in a barrel at home
Cucumber has been cultivated in Russia since approximately the 11th century. Today it is one of the main garden crops, after potatoes and cabbage.
Cucumbers are grown both in open and closed ground. If you have greenhouse facilities, you can grow cucumbers and without soil at all, using hydroponics and aeroponics methods.
In open ground, these vegetables are usually grown in beds, tied to trellises, which takes up a lot of space and requires additional costs.
It’s worth trying growing cucumbers in a barrel to appreciate another way to get a harvest of these vegetables on your plot without any extra hassle or extra effort.
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Advantages of growing cucumbers in a barrel over traditional beds

It is convenient to grow cucumbers in barrels, first of all, where the site, for various reasons, does not allow for a spacious garden bed for them.
Old metal barrels are suitable for this, so you won’t have to spend money on new ones. The capacity of the barrels is most often 200 liters, and they will take up no more than one square meter of space.
The next advantage of the method is that the barrels can be installed in the place where the light conditions are most favorable for the cucumbers.
This can be done near fruit trees, which will cover the plantings during the hottest hours of the day, but will not have a depressing effect on the growth of vegetables or delay their development.
When grown in a barrel, there is no need for exhausting regular weeding of cucumber seedlings. This will also protect young lashes from accidental damage.
Since the space in which cucumbers are grown will be limited to a barrel, maintaining the humidity regime will be much easier, this will eliminate excessive watering and unnecessary water consumption.
Cucumbers are a fairly heat-loving crop and late frosts can irrevocably destroy early shoots.
When there is a threat of frost, cucumbers planted in a barrel can always be quickly and easily covered with any material, preserving the plants from destructive freezing temperatures.
This time of year priming begins to freeze and frosts damage plants near the soil itself, and when planted in a barrel, the plants are raised above its level by at least 70 cm.
In addition, when grown in a barrel, it is easier for cucumbers to provide vertical support without installing several trellises. This will also save effort, time and money.
Considering the listed advantages, it is worth trying and installing one or two barrels on the site for growing cucumbers in them.

Preparing a barrel for growing cucumbers

It is better to start preparing the barrel no later than two weeks before sowing the cucumbers. In temperate climates, the outside of the barrel should be painted any dark color.
This will ensure good heating of the soil in sunny weather, which is very important in late spring and early summer.
Place the painted barrel in a convenient place, preferably well lit, but with the possibility of shelter during the hottest hours.
Place the remains of cardboard, paper, and large pieces of wooden blocks at the bottom of the barrel. A layer of such household waste must be alternated with layers of any soil. Having filled the barrel to about half in this way, you need to pour sawdust, leaves, hay or straw into it.
Add fresh, not yet rotted compost and add a couple of glasses of azofoska. This layer should not reach the top of the barrel by about 35 - 40 cm.
Approximately 20 cm of this volume should be left under good fertile soil. After it is poured, there should be at least 15 - 20 cm of free space in the barrel.
Sprinkle the soil in the barrel with enough water so that it is wet to the very bottom.
Cover the filled barrel completely with film and tie it.
After 14 days, the barrel of soil is ready for planting seeds. All that remains is to select varieties and start sowing seeds.
Growing cucumbers in a barrel occurs without first obtaining seedlings, which is also an advantage over the traditional method.

Sowing and growing cucumbers in a barrel

If when grown in open ground seeds It is not recommended to sow cucumbers before mid-May, and to plant seedlings after the threat of frost has passed, then you can sow seeds in a barrel starting in mid-April.
When choosing varieties, it is best to give preference to early and late varieties, because it is when grown in a barrel that it is easiest to protect cucumbers from spring or autumn frosts. To speed up the emergence of seedlings, soak cucumber seeds in water for 24 hours.
When sowing cucumbers in a barrel, you need to retreat 10 - 12 cm from its edge. Make small depressions at a distance of 15 cm from each other.
Place two cucumber seeds in each hole.Sprinkle everything on top with a one-cm layer of soil. One ordinary barrel can accommodate from 15 to 30 plants. Cover and tie the barrel with the sown cucumbers with film until shoots appear.
When the first true leaf appears on the cucumbers, the seedlings should be left open during the warm daytime. At night and on unfavorable days, cucumbers in the barrel must be closed. You can make a shelter like a tent.
To do this, just bury a wooden strip in the center of the barrel; an old shovel handle will also do. Attach the covering material to the remaining part above the ground, 80 - 100 cm high, and, if necessary, cover the barrel with it and tie it with twine or rope.
In addition, by opening such a “tent” only from the south side, you can improve heating and lighting sun of cucumber shoots.
When the threat of a return to negative temperatures has passed, the covering material can be removed, and in its place, pieces of twine can be secured, the other end of which tied to pegs, near each shoot.
If a variety with limited vine growth is planted, this may not be done. When harvesting cucumbers grown in a barrel, the cucumbers always remain clean.
Basic care, watering and fertilizing with this method of cultivation is not fundamentally different from the usual method.
It should be said that a barrel of cucumbers also looks quite decorative and can become an additional decoration on the site.
Video on how to properly grow cucumbers in a barrel:
Cucumbers in a barrel close-upCucumbers in a barrel