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The success of growing cucumbers is determined by the comfort of the conditions it creates. Being tropical plants, they are sensitive to the lack of heat, but also to its excess. Constantly maintaining the correct temperature for cucumbers is more important than feeding and forming lashes.
Germinating seeds before planting them is a technological technique that improves the quality of seedlings. To obtain a positive result, the seeds need two factors - heat and moisture.
Traditional germination order:
The latter is especially important: if the seeds are cold, they germinate for a very long time or do not hatch at all.
To germinate seeds faster, summer residents use growth stimulants, diluting them and processing the seeds with the resulting liquid strictly according to the manufacturer's instructions.
The temperature range from 20 to 28 ° C is considered acceptable for the germination of cucumber, the optimal one is 23-25 ° C. In a humid environment, when oxygen is available, seedlings will appear on the 7-10th day, if the temperature is close to the lower limit, and after 3-5 days in the optimal mode.
You can sow seeds "dry", but practice shows that the germination capacity of soaked seeds is much higher than dry seeds.
For direct sowing of crops with germinated seeds in open ground, the soil temperature should not be lower than 13 ° C. If the weather after sowing is warm, the germination time is 7 days.
The timing of the appearance of the first shoots in seedling cups is also closely related to the temperature regime. It is one thing to plant seeds that have hatched in a warm, warmed earth, and quite another, if the ground is still cool enough.
The optimal thermal regime is 25-28 ° С - the pots with crops are maintained around the clock. If done correctly, the first tiny leaves will emerge from the substrate within 7-10 days. If the temperature is about 20 ° C, seedlings expect from one and a half to two weeks. At a lower (from 15 ° C) seedlings can not wait at all. In this case, sowing will have to be repeated.
Soil fertility also affects the time during which the seedlings emerge. The richer the soil in nutrients, the faster the sprouts appear.
Cucumbers grow normally if the air temperature is between 14 and 42 ° C. However, extreme numbers are critical, it is undesirable to be guided by them. The optimal temperature is considered to be 25-30 ° С during the daytime, 15-18 ° С at night.
For seedlings, the following parameter values are maintained:
A lowered temperature is needed so that the seedlings do not stretch out, they grow strong, squat.
A week before planting, a regime of 17-18 ° C is set in the daytime and at night in order to harden the plants.
Often summer residents plant cucumber seedlings when they form three true leaves. However, the main criterion that determines the landing time is a stable temperature:
The minimum permissible soil temperature is 13 ° C.
On unprotected beds, light film shelters are equipped to protect the planted seedlings from night hypothermia and prolonged bad weather for the first two to three weeks.
Given the high humidity inside the structure, the day and night temperatures are leveled, otherwise an ideal environment for the development of fungal infections will be created. The recommended range of parameter change is 23-28 ° С.
In extreme heat, cucumbers in the greenhouse must be ventilated. If the weather deteriorates and a prolonged cold snap is expected, unheated structures will be equipped with portable heaters, the power of which will allow maintaining the required level of heat.
If it is enough for greenhouse plants to simply maintain the required thermal regime, in open ground this process becomes more complicated.
The optimal temperature regime, when cucumbers develop normally, bloom, set fruits, is 25-30 ° C during the daytime. The maximum temperature that plants can withstand is 42 ° C. Under such conditions, cultivars need supportive measures, because already at 35 ° C the pollen becomes sterile, the ovaries dry up and fall off, and spider mite... In addition, the increased temperature accelerates the aging of the whips by reducing the absorbency of the root system.
To help cucumbers, in case of abnormal heat, additional irrigation is carried out, capturing areas close to the beds. During this period, sprinkling is allowed, which helps to reduce the surface overheating of the plant. In addition, an additional portion of water cools the soil slightly. If possible, the trellises are covered with light light agrofibre.
At the rest of the time, summer residents are more worried about the possibility of cooling the plantings, in particular because of the northern winds. It is difficult to provide open beds with stable heat, but there are several tricks that allow you to maintain comfortable conditions to some extent:
Backstage plants usually take up most of the moisture, so in such a neighborhood, cucumbers have to be watered more often than usual.
If the growing area is characterized by low night temperatures, adult plants are also sheltered at night (seven degrees is the maximum permissible difference in the indicator). The reason is simple: if the thermometer reads 15 ° C or less, plant growth stops. Cucumbers, on the other hand, belong to crops that grow precisely at night. The minimum night temperature is 10 ° C - the root system stops absorbing nutrients from the soil. This leads to starvation of plants and disease. Lower values of the parameter for 3 or more days leads to the development of irreversible processes of tissue destruction, death of cucumbers.
With the approach of autumn, when the air is noticeably colder, the cucumbers are covered with foil to provide them with warmth. This allows you to extend the period of fruiting.
Knowing what temperature cucumbers need for normal growth and fruiting, the summer resident can select varieties and plan the timing of planting cultivars of different ripening periods so as to get the maximum high quality yield.
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