How to manage summer cucumbers during the fruiting period? Remember these four key points

To increase summer cucumber yields and achieve a bumper harvest and higher income, management during the fruiting period should focus on four areas.

1. Reasonable topdressing

Cucumbers are heavy feeders and need relatively large amounts of nitrogen and potassium during the fruiting period, so after the first harvest, apply a heavy topdressing once, with 30 kg of nitrogen-potassium fertilizer per mu. After entering the peak fruiting period, open a furrow in the middle of the bed and apply fertilizer about every 10 days, with 15 kg of compound fertilizer per mu, then cover with soil after application. In the late fruiting period, combine foliar feeding with pesticide spraying, spraying the leaves with trace elements such as monopotassium phosphate, magnesium sulfate and boron, or with a urea solution, to extend the functional life of the leaves, prevent premature senescence, promote cucumber growth and increase late-season yields.

2. Water management

The flowering and fruiting period is also the season of intense summer heat, and the plants transpire strongly. To ensure the water needed for flowering and fruiting, a sufficient water supply must be guaranteed. During long periods of sunny weather or high-temperature drought, water lightly in the morning and evening; during the peak fruiting period, ensure watering about once every 5 days, and when necessary spray water in the morning or evening to lower the temperature and increase the number of female flowers.

3. Disease and pest control

For Fusarium wilt, spray with 70% Dexon at 800 times dilution or 20% Likewen at 800 times dilution; for downy mildew, spray with 58% Ridomil at 600 times dilution or 72% Kelu at 750 times dilution; for powdery mildew, spray with 20% triadimefon at 2000 times dilution or 10% Shigao at 2000-3000 times dilution; for bacterial angular leaf spot, spray with 200 ppm agricultural streptomycin; for melon aphids, spray with 1.8% abamectin at 3000 times dilution or 2.5% Tianwangxing at 3000 times dilution; for melon borers, spray with 50% Kulong at 800 times dilution or Bacillus thuringiensis preparations, etc.

4. Timely harvest

Cucumbers can be harvested 8-10 days after flowering. Harvesting should be done in the early morning; harvesting in the afternoon not only tends to make the fruit bitter and affect quality, but the fruit, because of excessively high temperatures, also keeps poorly for storage and transport, reducing its market value.

Dingzhou City Agriculture Bureau Wang Hu