How to Grow Cucumbers with Soilless Culture? The Latest Technique and Method Tutorial
Soil-based cultivation of cucumbers is no longer particularly suitable in many places. Due to the scarcity of land resources, soilless cultivation techniques have been developed. In many developed countries abroad, soilless cultivation of cucumbers is basically adopted, but in our country soilless cultivation techniques are not yet fully popularized, so today let us learn how cucumbers are grown with soilless culture.
1. Seed treatment
The seeds must be treated before sowing. The usual treatment method is scalding the seeds with warm water, that is, putting the seeds into hot water at 55 to 60 degrees, and after 10 to 15 minutes adding cold water to the hot water until it is about 30 degrees or so, then soaking for 5-8 hours before taking them out, wrapping them in cotton cloth, and then placing them at a temperature suitable for seed germination to promote sprouting.
2. Sowing and raising seedlings
After the seeds germinate, put them into a soilless plug tray for soilless cultivation to raise seedlings. The soilless plug tray generally uses one with 100 cells, and putting 1 to 2 seeds into each cell is enough. Then sprinkle a layer of peat and vermiculite, moisten with clean water, and control the ambient temperature well. At a suitable temperature, the cucumber seedlings will all emerge after 3 to 4 days.
3. Planting out
Before planting out, prepare the growing bed and mix the nutrient solution well. Try putting the nutrient solution into the growing bed to see whether it can normally deliver the nutrient solution. After everything is normal, wait until the seedlings have 3 to 4 leaves, then lift the seedlings out from the bottom together with their roots and move them into the growing bed. After planting out, remember to water once. The seedlings grow through the nutrient solution flowing past their roots. After about 3 to 4 days, the survival rate can be checked, and it is basically 100 percent survival.
4. Seedling stage management
One relatively important step in seedling stage management is to control the concentration of the nutrient solution well. During soilless cultivation, the seedlings grow relatively fast and are relatively prone to aging. After planting out, generally water 400 to 500 milliliters of nutrient solution each day, and during the development period 2,000 to 2,500 milliliters each day. Finally, when the melon seedlings have finished developing, the concentration of the nutrient solution must be lowered in time. Next, the temperature must be kept at about 15 to 25 degrees, and the water requirements are also relatively strict. When the plants grow to 15 to 20 cm, install supports in the greenhouse or set up strings so that they grow along the supports and strings.
5. Pest and disease control
The most common diseases of cucumbers are downy mildew and powdery mildew, and the pests are generally whiteflies and aphids. Downy mildew is basically caused by unsuitable indoor humidity and temperature, and is generally controlled with carbendazim and propamocarb, while powdery mildew is controlled with triadimefon. As for these pests, there are special pest-resistant pesticides. When there is nothing else to do, try to remove the pests and diseases yourself and pick off the leaves that have already been damaged.
The above is the soilless cultivation technique for cucumbers brought to you by Qinnong Web. We hope it can be helpful to everyone. If you want to learn more agricultural knowledge, you can follow us.