How I grow indoor cucumbers in the winter on a windowsill: I tell you about two reliable planting methods

How to grow cucumbers in winter at home? This requires a little effort.

Seed selection

To grow greens on the windowsill, you need to choose parthenocarpic cucumbers with a note on the package that the varieties are suitable for development in indoor conditions. Or it must be F1 hybrids. These plants are more compact, the fruits are neat, as a rule, small, gherkin type.

Here are examples of hybrids:

City gherkin;

Russian winter;

Miracle at the window;

Rytov's room cucumbers;

Window-balcony, etc.

When to sow

If you sow the seeds of cucumbers in the first days, then by March 8 you can already get the first fruits. Before planting, you need to pay attention to the ripening time of the zelents so that they have time to ripen for the women's holiday.

Soil preparation

The soil mixture must be chosen fertile and nutritious, breathable and light. For looseness, you can add coconut substrate to the soil by mixing 1 to 1 with the ground. Vermiculite is also suitable.

Drainage and containers

For planting cucumbers, you can choose cups, containers, packaging for mayonnaise and milk, pots with drainage holes.

As a drainage, a little expanded clay should be laid out at the bottom of the tank. Then pour a nutritious soil on top and mix with vermiculite (no more than 40 percent of the total mass).

2 ways to plant cucumber seeds

The first way. Seeds must be soaked in a cloth, cotton pad and left to germinate. After the seeds hatch, they need to be planted in moist soil to a depth of 1 cm.

From above it is necessary to cover the container with cling film, then put it on a pallet and put it in a warm place. The temperature for germination should ideally be + 23- + 25 degrees and even higher.

Second way. If you do not want to transplant plants, then you can use the following method. It is necessary to take a large container and pour expanded clay there. Pour half of the soil on top, since with the development of the cucumbers, you will pour the earth into the pot. Also, vermiculite should be added to the soil and mixed.

Cucumbers are not soaked if there is a special shell on top of the seeds. These seeds have already been processed and disinfected. It is necessary to make a depression in the soil, spill it with a little hot water (not boiling water) and compact it slightly. Put a seed there (to a depth of 1 cm) and sprinkle with dry earth. Cover the top with foil.

Care

The film needs to be slightly opened for several minutes a day so that mold does not form on the surface of the soil, in the same turn you will give air to the seeds.

If you are afraid that you will forget to open the film, then make holes in it.

Backlighting is required in winter. For this, ordinary LED lamps or phytolamps are suitable.

If there is no additional lighting, the planting will have to be postponed until the end of February, since the plant needs 15-16 hours of the day.

When grown on a windowsill, cucumbers must grow warm, they must be insulated from the cold, using, for example, styrofoam, on which pots or other containers with cucumbers should be placed.

If possible, substitute a table to the window where you will place the plants.

Of course, we must not forget about feeding and watering. The latter should be done in the morning. It is better to use natural fertilizers as top dressing (infusion of onion peel, potato broth, coffee grounds, banana skins, sugar, iodine, ash).

Be sure to keep an eye on your plants, as diseases can occur, and you need to have time to cope with them in time.