What should be noted when fertilizing cucumbers
Cucumber is a type of gourd vegetable with very high nutritional value and numerous beneficial effects. It is a very popular vegetable in China, and its planting area in China is now very large. When growing cucumbers, fertilization is an essential task. And when fertilizing, there are many things we need to pay attention to. So what exactly should be noted when fertilizing cucumbers? Let's take a look together below!
1. Do not apply too much nitrogen fertilizer
Nitrogen fertilizer is an indispensable fertilizer in cucumber growth, and reasonable application of nitrogen fertilizer is the key to ensuring cucumber yield. However, we must pay attention to controlling the amount of nitrogen fertilizer applied; applying too much will instead produce the opposite effect. During the cucumber seedling stage, if too much nitrogen fertilizer is applied, it is easy to cause excessive vegetative growth of the seedlings. The leaf area of overgrown seedlings increases, and the leaves are thin and relatively pale in color. This leads to reduced stress resistance and makes them vulnerable to frost damage. If too much nitrogen fertilizer is applied during the fruiting stage, it will affect the fruit-setting rate of cucumbers, cause fruit abortion, and easily produce deformed cucumbers, bitter cucumbers, and so on.
2. Pay attention to balanced fertilization
When fertilizing, we must pay attention to controlling the amount of fertilizer applied. If too much fertilizer is applied, it will increase the salt content in the soil and affect the absorption of water and nutrients by the cucumber plants. This will not only hinder the growth of cucumber plants, but also easily produce various deformed cucumbers. Therefore, when fertilizing, we must pay attention to controlling the nutrient ratio in the fertilizer. Nitrogen and potassium fertilizers should be the main ones, with phosphorus fertilizer as a supplement. Among them, the proportion of nitrogen fertilizer is the highest, followed by potassium fertilizer, and finally phosphorus fertilizer. Therefore, we must attach importance to the application of potassium fertilizer.
3. Pay attention to reasonable topdressing
Many farmers, when growing cucumbers, think that as long as sufficient base fertilizer is applied, less fertilizer can be applied in the later stages of cucumber growth. In fact, this is a wrong idea, because as cucumbers are harvested, nutrients are continuously lost with the cucumbers. Therefore, a stable and long-term nutrient supply is needed. If topdressing is not taken seriously in the later stages of cucumber growth, the plants will show premature aging due to lack of fertilizer. This leads to a shortened effective harvest period and insufficient yield. Therefore, in order to ensure sufficient nutrition in the later stages of cucumbers, after cucumber planting, topdressing should be done about 5 times, combined with organic fertilizer.
4. Pay attention to foliar fertilizer application
The application of foliar fertilizer is also very important for cucumber growth. When applying foliar fertilizer, we should follow the principle of applying whatever the plants lack. We should promptly supplement the nutrients the plants lack. However, there are also many precautions. When applying foliar fertilizer containing large amounts of hormones, we must be cautious, because large amounts of hormones may cause premature aging of the plants and reduce yield and quality. Also, care should be taken to avoid mixing it with fungicides, so as to avoid affecting fertilizer efficacy. Finally, it should generally be applied during the peak fruiting stage of cucumbers, because in the later stage, cucumber growth is greater and the demand for fertilizer is also greater. Reasonable spraying of foliar fertilizer can promptly supplement the nutrition of cucumbers.
The above is a brief introduction to what to note when fertilizing cucumbers. That is all for today's introduction. This article is for reference only, and we hope it can help everyone!