How to grow cucumbers in a greenhouse in winter: tips and tricks

The cucumber season usually starts in April and ends in the fall. In winter, they can be grown in a greenhouse. It should be well heated. Growing this crop in a greenhouse is practically no different from growing in open ground, however, you should know some agricultural techniques.

Content:

• Cucumber varieties for growing in a greenhouse
• Greenhouse and soil preparation
• Seedlings: planting and care
• Recommendations for cultivation

Cucumber varieties for growing in a greenhouse

In order for cucumbers to produce a good harvest, it is necessary to create appropriate conditions for them. When choosing a variety, you should decide in what conditions the cucumbers will be grown: indoors or open ground. The most popular varieties for growing in greenhouse conditions are:

• Cupid F1
• Hercules F1
• Dynamite F1
• F1 calendar
• Courage F1
• Cheetah F1
• Minion F1

All these varieties are hybrid. In the greenhouse, you should not forget to pollinate manually. If this procedure is not followed, the cucumber ovary will fall off and there will be no harvest. Among the shade-tolerant varieties, the following varieties are chosen: Domashny, Marafinsky, Rossiysky, Rykovsky, Arina F1, Marathon F1, Danila F1, etc.

Greenhouse and soil preparation

The winter greenhouse should be located on a flat area, a slight slope is allowed. It is desirable that the site is located on the south or southeast side. Near the location of the greenhouse there should be a source of water for watering the cucumbers.It is also necessary to consider the heating, lighting and automatic ventilation systems. Polycarbonate, glass, and polyethylene film are used as covering materials for greenhouses.

To grow a good harvest in a greenhouse in winter, it is important to properly prepare the soil. The soil needs to be dug up and disinfected with a solution of copper sulfate. This procedure is performed only if there have been no previous plantings in this area. The soil should consist of turf and humus. To this mixture add one part of sawdust, a spoonful of nitrophoska and four tablespoons of ash.

Mix the soil mixture well, level it in the greenhouse and make beds from it. Next, apply mineral fertilizers and tamp. Cover the beds with film for 2-3 weeks. You can grow cucumbers through seedlings or seeds. Before sowing seeds for seedlings, they should be disinfected.

Take a teaspoon of nitrophoska and dissolve it in a liter of hot water. Then add 1/3 teaspoon of boric acid and copper sulfate. Mix the solution well and pour in the seeds. Leave in this state for 10 hours.

After this procedure, the seeds are hardened. To do this, take gauze, soak it in cold water, pour out the seeds, wrap it carefully and put it in the refrigerator for a week. It is important to check the gauze from time to time. If it has dried out, moisten it with water again. After this, you can begin sowing seeds for seedlings.

Can be sown in peat cups or in a container. Place the container on a windowsill or other place where additional lighting is installed. Shoots will appear at temperatures above 25 degrees. To prevent the soil from drying out, cover the container with a damp cloth. The seedlings should be watered once every 2 days. You can enter fertilizer – mullein solution 1:6. Seeds are sown using a conveyor every 2 weeks.

Seedlings: planting in the ground and care

Planting in a greenhouse should be done in October, then cucumbers can be harvested in December. Seedlings can be planted immediately in pots a month after sowing the seeds. The distance between seedlings should be approximately 20 cm, and row spacing should be about 90-100 cm.

During the daytime, the temperature in the greenhouse should be between 25-30 degrees. A thermometer will help with this.

The first feeding is carried out with the appearance of 3-4 leaves. Next, the plant is fed with the appearance of flowers and after the first fruits ripen. A solution of mullein or chicken manure is used as a top dressing. Water the plants once every 5 days. With the appearance of fruits, the amount of watering is increased.

Caring for cucumbers in a greenhouse in winter involves loosening soil and weeding of seedlings. It is important to avoid high humidity and heat in the greenhouse, as this will lead to the development of fungal diseases: anthracnose, brown spot, white rot.

To ensure that the stem is formed correctly, a wire is pulled along the beds. The wire should be fixed at a height of 2-3 meters. As the plants grow, they are staked. If the variety is tall, then the stem is loosely tied with twine and secured at the top. It is important to ensure that the twine is not too tight, as the stem can be torn off and uprooted.

Video on how to grow cucumbers in a greenhouse in winter:

Excess flowers, shoots, and yellowed leaves are removed. It is also necessary to pinch out side shoots. This procedure is first performed on the second sheet, and then carried out on the third. As a result, 3-4 leaves should remain on the stem.If parthenocarpic hybrids are grown, then the stepsons and flowers are removed to a height of up to half a meter.

In this case, the female flowers are removed, and the next 5 leaves at the base are pinched above the first. Further above the other 5 leaflets, the stepsons up to a height of 1.5 meters are not removed. 3 ovaries are left above the second leaf. To avoid the appearance of fungal diseases, you should properly care for the plants and monitor the temperature and humidity in the greenhouse.

Recommendations for cultivation

An inexperienced gardener may encounter some difficulties in growing cucumbers in winter. The main problem is insufficient air humidity. Heating a greenhouse takes a lot of moisture, so it is necessary to regularly humidify the air. Cucumbers are heat-loving crops, so the greenhouse should always maintain optimal air humidity. To do this, you can spray the plants, place barrels of water, etc.

Artificial lighting is very necessary when growing cucumbers. Daytime lamps are hung, if the plant is not tall, at a height of 50 cm. In the future, the lamps are raised higher as the bush grows. It is very important to monitor the temperature in a greenhouse. It is necessary to avoid sudden changes and drops to +10 degrees. Then the leaves will begin to grow quickly, and the size of the fruits will decrease significantly.

Growing growing cucumbers in a greenhouse in winter is a labor-intensive process that will require investing money in the construction of a greenhouse and all communications. Despite this, you can get a harvest all year round, following all agricultural techniques.