Good, refreshing and delicious, organic cucumbers deserve a place in any garden. Cucumbers are an essential ingredient for any sandwich, summer salad, or a natural drink.
You do not need greenhouse to grow cucumbers. There are many varieties, both for the exterior and for the interior, but it is good to check which of them are suitable for your garden. Cultivating cucumbers is easy if you realize a few basic rules.
Cucumber varieties
Well there are two kinds of cucumbers. We have cucumbers that are fresh and then pickled cucumbers. Usually, the cucumbers who want to eat fresh ones let them grow longer, up to 16 - 20 cm, and the cucumber for pickles is good to pick them when they are tender and have a size between 6 and 10 cm.
We can also plant cucumbers for eating, which grow bigger, or we can plant cucumbers special for pickles. They are also called cornichon.
Besides these two varieties, we also have long cucumbers, lemon or cucumber-free cucumbers.
How to grow cucumbers
Cucumbers can be grown almost anywhere. If you do not have a place in the garden you can grow in a deep glastra near the house. There are also varieties that climb, so you can have them at your fingertips if you plant them near a fence. Cucumbers grown in this way will have better results and fewer diseases.
The first thing you need to know is that cold weather and cucumbers are not friends. Cucumber seeds need a warm, constant temperature and a minimum of 21 degrees Celsius soil temperature.
Planted too early, outside, cucumber seeds will not grow. On the other hand, there is no point in making cucumber seedlings, because when the temperature is favorable, they will grow very quickly.
My advice is not to waste your time doing home grown ups and then moving them to the garden, because it's a worthless job and a lost time.
In case you do not know, cucumbers adore water. If you want to get good results, keep the soil where you planted the cucumber always wet. Do not over-drain because their roots will rot. Whip regularly in the morning and use a thick layer of mulch around the root. The mulch layer will protect the soil against the sun while maintaining a higher humidity.
Because cucumbers like nutrient-rich soil, use compost, or if you do not use organic nutrients. If you have access to compost or worm-compost, mix with water and leave to soak for a few days, then water the cucumbers with that water mixed with compost.
Diseases and pests
The most common pest is cucumber cockroach. There are two kinds of such cockroaches. One is yellow with black spots and the other is black with black stripes. To get rid of these cockroaches, it's easiest to pick them up and kill them without using chemicals.
Curing cucumber is a fungicidal disease. This disease manifests itself as a white powder on the leaves and spreads very quickly. This disease is caused by high temperatures and dry soil.
If this disease occurs, break the affected leaves and destroy them. Do not throw them into the pile of compost. A spray of water and bicarbonate can be used to treat and protect the cucumber from an even greater infestation. You need to sprinkle a week.
Plants that are severely affected should be thrown out of the ground and destroyed, thus reducing the risk of infesting the rest of the crop.
Another good way of preventing this disease is to sprinkle the leaves of cucumbers with water every morning. Use a hose and thoroughly wet the plant, because the cucumber picking hates the water.
