Many houses and apartments have houseplants and flowers. However, you can decorate your home with other green and useful plantations. Want to master the cultivation of cucumbers on the windowsill? This process is simple and can become a real hobby for your whole family.
Cucumbers on the windowsill - varieties
If you want to pamper yourself with fresh cucumber, grown with your own home, then, first of all, you need to choose the right kinds of cucumbers for the balcony and window sill. After all, at home, if there is not enough light, not every plant can develop properly and yield. Cucumber varieties for growing in the house must have the following properties:
- shade-tolerance is especially important, because even on the southern window-sill, plants will receive less light than in a greenhouse or on the street;
- unpretentiousness - an important quality for indoor plants, because the radiator under the windowsill and cloudy weather outside the window will not make the plant strong and strong;
- good ability to branch will allow to collect a greater crop of cucumbers.
There are many different kinds of cucumbers for growing in an apartment. You can buy seeds of parthenocarpic, that is, self-pollinating, hybrids. Here are some of them:
- F1 Window-balcony, has a fragrant and sweetish taste;
- F1 Elizabeth - with sparse tubercles on cucumbers;
- F1 Patty, F1 Primadonna - fruits do not have bitterness;
- F1 Russian style - with pimply cucumbers, begins fruiting very early.
Experts recommend that for the cultivation of cucumbers on the windowsill bee-polluted hybrids, which are characterized by a special shadowiness:
- F1 Relay, F1 Olympics, F1 Marathon have a female type of flowering and require manual pollination;
- F1 The athlete has a beam arrangement of the ovaries, is resistant to diseases;
- F1 Faust, F1 Forward - tall hybrids, have increased shade tolerance, are recommended for early sowing (in mid-February);
- F1 Flagship and F1 Arbat are sown in March, these are ripening and yielding varieties.
How to plant cucumbers at home on the windowsill?
Many novice truck farmers are interested in learning how to plant cucumbers on a windowsill. To harvest these crispy vegetables, you must adhere to certain rules:
- for placing boxes with cucumbers in an apartment, windows that look to the south, south-east or south-west are best suited;
- in the autumn and winter time, it is necessary to organize the illumination of cucumbers by fluorescent lamps; for this purpose one can use reflectors, mirrors and even a simple foil, sticking it so that the light gets on the grown plants;
- Cucumber does not like drafts, so you need to carefully ventilate the room.
How do cucumbers grow on the windowsill?
To grow cucumbers at home on the windowsill, their seeds must be germinated. This will accelerate the emergence of seedlings. Seed material is wrapped in cloth or placed between several layers of toilet paper and regularly sprayed, not letting the fabric dry out. Sprouted seeds should be put in a warm place, where the temperature is about + 28 ° C. About two days later, small shoots will appear. After this seeds are planted one by one in plastic cups, deepening into the ground for 1-2 cm. So you will grow seedlings, which later will have to be transplanted into more spacious dishes.
For the cultivation of cucumbers on a window sill, a box or pot that has holes for drainage is suitable. At the bottom of it you need to pour brick crumb or gravel with a layer of 2 cm, and then - a primer, which you can buy in the store or cook yourself. The soil mixture for planting cucumbers should consist of the upper fertile layer of the earth, peat, humus. For 5 kg of such soil it is recommended to add 1 glass of ash and 1 tablespoon of chalk.
In the dish prepared in this way we plant grown cucumbers, which already have 3-4 leaves. At the same time, it is necessary to pinch the tip of the rootlet, which will promote the formation of new shoots on the plant. If you do not want to grow seedlings, you can sow the seeds of cucumbers right into the box with the earth, cover it with a film and put it in a warm place. With the emergence of seedlings, a container with seedlings must be placed on a window sill, preliminarily laying under it any warming material. Next to the plants, you need to install a peg to which you will tie a cucumber whip.
How to grow cucumbers on a windowsill?
At this stage, care for cucumbers on the windowsill should be very thorough:
- Water should be watered every day, using only standing water at room temperature for this;
- In the mornings, several times a week it is recommended to spray plants, as drying can lead to the scattering of the entire ovary;
- If the roots of plants are shown on the surface of the soil, they must be sprinkled with earth;
- Once a week cucumbers are fed with mineral supplements;
- Ripen cucumbers in time, without bringing the plants to exhaustion.
How to pollinate cucumbers on a windowsill?
Bee-polluted hybrids of domestic cucumbers need artificial pollination. It is better to do this in the morning. Breaking a male flower (a void), we must gently lead them along the female pestle (its perianth has the appearance of a small cucumber). With the help of a male flower, 2-3 women can be pollinated. In order for pollination to be more qualitative, you can plant one plant-pollinator of the variety F1 Hercules or, for example, F1 Gladiator next to your cucumbers. Thanks to this growing of cucumbers on the windowsill, after two weeks on the plants must appear the first fruits.
How to pinch the cucumbers on the windowsill?
As practice shows, it is possible to grow a cucumber at home on a windowsill if all agrotechnical measures are observed. On the main cucumber stalk, male flowers or hollow flowers grow, and females form on lateral shoots. In order to stimulate their growth, they use pinching of cucumbers. This procedure begins when the plant has 4-5 leaves:
- tighten and fasten the trellis at the top, to which you will tie growing cucumber stalks;
- for the formation of lateral weaves should be cut bush above 6 leaves, leaving it only three shoots (for hybrids) or one (for other varieties);
- all weak and withered leaves must also be removed.
How to tie a cucumber on a windowsill?
Beginner home vegetable growers should know how to care for cucumbers on the windowsill and how to tie growing cucumber strands. The easiest way to pull on the window frame is a grid with large cells, and then the plant will spin, clinging to the support with its antennae. If you planted a cradle while planting cucumber seedlings, then one end of a thin rope can be tied to it, and the other end of it can be fastened at the top of the window. You can use a crocheted lash and a light rope ladder.
How to water cucumbers on the windowsill?
Sometimes those who decided to grow vegetables at home, the question may arise, how often to water the cucumbers on the windowsill. These vegetables are in great need of regular watering, but you need to know that on sunny days, you can even moisturize plants twice a day, but in cloudy days they should be watered less often. It is best to water cucumbers in the evening or in the morning. It should be done carefully, the water jet should not be too strong, so as not to erode the roots of plants.
Adding cucumbers to the windowsill
Cultivation of cucumbers on the windowsill can not do without their additional feeding. But for this you need to know what to feed the cucumbers on the windowsill. Begin to fertilize these plants about 2 weeks after planting. You can use, for example, nitroamophous or the infusion of wood ash in hot water. Before applying fertilizer plants must be watered, which will protect their roots from possible burns. The next feeding is carried out during the pickling of seedlings and one more - during flowering. When flowers appear, the plants are fed with ammonium nitrate and sulphate.
Cucumber diseases on the windowsill
Cucumbers grown at home are sick much less compared to those growing in a greenhouse or in a garden. However, the cultivation of cucumbers on the windowsill can not be carried out under ideal conditions. There are several reasons that cause cucumber diseases on the windowsill:
- violation of the regime of air humidity and temperature;
- watering very cold water;
- Depleted land was chosen for cultivation of cucumbers;
- When working with a plant, tools that are not disinfected are used.
Why do the leaves dry on cucumbers on the windowsill?
If your plants start to dry leaves, then, probably, growing cucumbers on the windowsill is done incorrectly. In addition, some of the diseases and pests of the plant may lead to the drying of the leaves:
- aphids - upon careful examination on cucumber lashes you can notice this parasitic insect, which drinks juices from the leaves and cucumbers can die. To prevent this from happening, you must treat the plant with garlic infusion or an insecticide ;
- The sprout fly is another harmful insect, which is the reason why cucumbers turn yellow on the windowsill. Its larvae live in the soil and then move on to young plants, destroying them. Before planting cucumbers, disinfect the soil;
- root rot is a fungal disease, in the beginning of which cucumber leaves start to dry, and then the roots rot and the plant dies. There is a disease due to excessive moistening or over-drying of the soil. Cope with the situation can help pouring fresh land into a container with a plant.
Yellowish cucumber seedlings on the windowsill
Often there are cases when seedlings of cucumbers on the windowsill turn yellow. This happens for various reasons:
- substandard seeds, seedlings of them grow weak and weak. If this is found, it is better to re-seed the cucumbers;
- unsuitable, depleted soil, it must be replaced and reseeded;
- insufficient or excessive watering can lead to the drying of seedlings;
- violation of temperature and drafts - another reason for the yellowing of cucumber seedlings.
Cucumbers wilt on the windowsill
If the home cucumbers on the windowsill begin to wilt, then most likely they lack moisture. In a hot period they should be sprayed from the spray gun. At night, the room temperature should not be below + 15 ° C. Maybe you do not water the plants enough. So you need to adjust the watering. When the sun is too bright in the daytime, plants need to be shaded, attaching foil or even plain paper to the window.