How often to water the seedlings of cucumbers on the windowsill and how much water does it need?

Watering cucumber seedlings is very important at all stages, because without enough moisture, seedlings will grow slowly or even die. Therefore, when growing seedlings, you need to know how many times to water the seedlings, with what water and how often to do it.

Signs of lack of moisture

Normally, seedlings are watered 3-4 times a week, making sure that the soil constantly remains slightly moist. If the soil is dry to the touch, this is the first sign that the plant has absorbed all the moisture, so it needs urgent watering. Along with this, other criteria can be distinguished that indicate a lack of oxen in the soil:

• leaves darken;
• they also become very brittle;
• seedlings are lagging behind in development, look lethargic.

It is also not worth getting too carried away with watering. If the soil is too wet, it is fraught with rotting roots, which can kill the shoots. Waterlogging criterion - the leaves begin to brighten and, as a result, become pale green.

How to water the seedlings?

Watering the seedlings, like adult plants, is necessary exclusively with settled water. It needs to be collected in the evening and defended overnight - thanks to this, it acquires room temperature, and also gets rid of the admixture of chlorine compounds (in the case of tap water).

For watering you can use:

• melt water is the best option, but in urban conditions it is almost impossible;
• ordinary tap water - it is desirable to settle it for a long period (24–48 hours);
• filtered - it can not be defended for so long - it is enough for the liquid to reach room temperature;
• an aqueous solution with mineral fertilizers - when applying top dressing.

In all cases, the water temperature should be in the range of 23-28^aboutC. If the room is fairly cool, it makes sense to warm up the liquid a little so that it becomes warm enough.

How often should you water?

The answer to this question depends on the age of the seedlings, as well as on the volume of water. The main criterion is that the soil must be constantly kept moist. To do this, you can water the seedlings with different volumes of liquid:

• Twice a day, if the containers are constantly illuminated by incandescent lamps. In such cases, the soil dries out quickly, not only due to heating, but also because the containers with seeds are quite small, and a small volume of soil quickly loses moisture.
• Small portions daily. It is especially convenient to do this when growing seedlings at home on a windowsill, since the summer resident can constantly take care of the seedlings.
• 3-4 times a week, that is, "day after day", in slightly larger quantities.
• Drip irrigation - daily.

In any case, you need to proceed from the fact that the minimum frequency of watering is 2 times a week, because otherwise the soil will definitely begin to dry out.

You can control soil moisture in different ways:

• Visually, which is especially easy if the seedlings grow in transparent containers. The soil should be uniform throughout the volume, without cracks.
• If the containers are closed and, moreover, rather deep, you can check the degree of moisture with a wire or a small stick. It is inserted at the edge and immersed in the bottom, taken out, and then rubbed with the soil adhering to it with your fingers. If it is rather dry, you need to water the seedlings urgently.
• By touch, examining the soil surface with your fingers.

At the initial stage, before shoots appear, each container is watered from a teaspoon or the soil is irrigated with a spray bottle. The powerful stream of liquid washes away the grain and can damage the roots. As soon as 3-4 or more leaves have appeared on the stem, you can water it with a small watering can.

Watering frequency and room temperature

The frequency of watering is also influenced by external environmental factors, primarily:

• room temperature;
• the power of the lamp for the backlight (which is also related to the temperature);
• air humidity indicator.

Obviously, the higher the temperature, the faster the water evaporates, which means that the more often you need to water the seedlings. With constant illumination of seedlings, the air temperature above the containers reaches 27-29^aboutC, therefore it is worth watering daily. If this is not possible, you can use diode lamps (they do not heat up), and also take care of sufficient air humidity using:

• a tray with water under pots or cassettes with seedlings;
• containers with water next to the seedlings;
• a moistened layer of felt, cloth, etc.

How to properly water seedlings: step by step instructions

Irrigation technology depends on the stage of seedling development:

1. During sowing, soil is applied to the pots and watered without seed using a small watering can. The main task is to completely moisten the soil.
2. After that, put 1 or 2 seeds, cover with soil on top (layer height - 1.5 cm) and water again, but this time very carefully, using a teaspoon. This can also be done from the spray.
3. Before sprouting, watered in the same way - using a spray bottle or a teaspoon. Another option for watering is with an ordinary medical syringe, which can be purchased at any pharmacy. With the help of gradual pressure on the piston, a small stable stream is obtained and poured over the soil.
4. As soon as the seedling has matured and produced several healthy leaves (3-4 or more), it can be watered with a small watering can. However, the jet should be very narrow and should be directed in a circle around the stem, and not directly at it. At this stage, the plant's need for moisture increases markedly. Therefore, watering is carried out so that the water reaches the bottom layer of the soil.
5. After 2-3 weeks cucumbers watered from a large watering can, like ordinary plants.

Watering the seedlings with a hose is excluded, even if the seedlings are strong enough. All actions are performed manually so as not to damage the roots and stem.

The Benefits of Pallet Irrigation

Traditional watering methods work well when the number of seedlings is small. For example, if a summer resident grows 15–20 cucumber bushes, he may well plant each seed in a separate pot or cassette and then water them first with a syringe and then from a watering can.

But when the number of bushes reaches 50 or more pieces, these methods become too laborious. To simplify the process, you can put all containers with seedlings in a tray. They act like this:

1. The lower part of the pots is cut off or cassettes without a bottom are immediately used so that the drainage layer is in direct contact with the surface of the pallet.
2. A layer of capillary mat is cut to the size of the pallet - this is a special synthetic fiber (felt) that absorbs moisture well and does not allow it to evaporate for several days.
3. This mat is placed on the pallet itself (smooth side down). Cover the top with another layer of protective material - it can be a regular fabric, which will further prevent drying.
4. Then pots or cassettes with seedlings are placed on this layer.
5. Pre-settled water is poured into a container so that 1 m² there was no more than 1–1.5 liters of liquid.
6. The liquid first penetrates into the dried soil, and then it is absorbed by the seed and germinating roots.

This method allows you to practically not monitor the state of the soil - the earth will "take" exactly as much liquid as needed until it becomes completely wet.The gardener can only periodically monitor the water level in the sump - there should not be any puddles there, but the surface must remain moist.

Watering and feeding

Fertilizers for cucumber seedlings are also applied with water. You need to do this 2 times:

1. The first application is 10 days after the appearance of the seedlings.
2. The second application is 10 days after the first.

The first feeding can be organic or inorganic. For example, cucumbers can be given mullein or bird droppings (1 part fertilizer to 10 parts water). 30 g of superphosphate fertilizer is added to the same volume of water.

During the second feeding, only mineral fertilizers are given (the amount of components is given for a standard 10 l bucket):

• 30 g superphosphate fertilizer;
• 15 g potassium sulfate;
• 5 g magnesium sulfate.

All these components are used together. However, they can be replaced with 1 product - "Kristallon", dissolving 50 g in a standard bucket of water.

Only potassium sulfate is taken as a potassium-containing fertilizer. Potassium chloride or other potassium salt cannot be used instead.

How can seedlings get sick due to a violation of the watering regime

Lack of moisture, as well as its excess, is detrimental to all plants, especially to crops as sensitive to water as cucumbers.

Due to a violation of the irrigation regime, such diseases and developmental deviations can occur:

• With a lack of liquid, the plants weaken, become lethargic, so powdery mildew can affect the seedlings. The leaves are covered with numerous pale specks. If you observe the temperature regime (from +25^aboutC), the causative agent that provokes the development of the disease dies.
• Cladosporium is olive spot. This disease occurs due to cold watering. The leaves become covered with brown spots, deform, which inhibits the growth of the seedling and can lead to its death.
• Also, due to too cold water, fusarium can occur, due to which the cucumber shoots begin to fade.
• Due to the excess amount of moisture in the soil, the roots of the seedlings will rot, symptoms of diseases such as white or root rot may appear.
• If you water with too much flow, the seed is washed out, and the first roots can get irreversible injuries, and the seedling will die at the beginning of growth.

How to water diseased seedlings

If symptoms of the described or other diseases occur, you need to immediately determine the type of lesion by external signs, as well as possible causes:

• lack of moisture;
• excess moisture;
• too cold water;
• low air temperature, etc.

After that, they act so as to eliminate this cause: increase or decrease watering, heat the water to 22–25^aboutC, defend it, etc.

In the water for spraying, "medicines" for cucumbers are dissolved - for example, Bordeaux liquid. Thanks to the active action of copper ions, it helps against various types of spotting, downy mildew and some other fungal infections. The concentration of the solution should be 3% for treatment or 1% for prevention. The resulting mixture is sprayed only on the seedlings themselves, trying to ensure that moisture does not get on the ground.

This tool allows you to quickly cope with diseases such as:

• olive spot;
• peronosporosis;
• septoria;
• anthracnose, etc.

The seedlings are sprayed with Bordeaux liquid (1% solution) after the appearance of 2-3 leaves. Secondary processing is carried out after 10-15 days. For the third (last) time, the bush is treated 3 weeks before harvesting. These are mandatory preventive measures that are carried out even in the absence of symptoms of diseases. For medicinal purposes, the bushes are sprayed as needed with a 3% solution until the pathogen is completely destroyed.

Thus, the seedlings of cucumbers are watered several times a week or daily. Adequate moisture is essential at every stage.Therefore, it is necessary to monitor both the regularity of watering and the condition of the water (temperature, settling time, additional cleaning using filtration).