Cucumber is a magnificent plant that gives us a delicious fruit that receives the same name, vibrant and famous for salads and much better yet, easy to harvest in our own homes, either in pots or home gardens.
Cucumber has approximately 95% of its weight in water, so in addition to being very easy to grow, it is excellent for a low-calorie diet, all this without losing a right nutritional balance with a subtle combination of vitamins, mainly K, which make it a merely perfect option to harvest at home.
In this article, we will teach you everything you need to know how to sow and grow cucumbers at home and in pots.
How to plant cucumbers in pots
There are certain things that you must take into account if you want to know how to plant cucumbers in pots since although it is not a plant that requires exotic care, it does require paying attention to specific useful details that will help your plant to develop. Optimally, taking advantage of space and resources.
1) We get the cucumber seeds, preferably that they come from ripe cucumbers, and since these are not very frequent in the markets, you can resort to a botanical since the source is quite common and easily extracted.
2) Prepare a pot with good drainage, and that meets the condition of being at least 40 cm deep with a suitable diameter since this plant requires a lot of space to grow.
3) Place a tutor or guide; since the cucumber is a climbing plant, we can place a guide rod or mesh so that it grows upwards, and in this way, we save a lot of space.
4) Sow the seeds around the guide, at a depth of 1.5 to 2 cm. Since the cucumber has superficial growth, we must consider leaving at least 2 cm between each seed.
5) Keep the soil moist while it germinates; just keep it moist but not over water.
6) At the time of germination, choose the most promising plant and eliminate or transplant the rest.
7) Once this is done, we will have a beautiful cucumber plant in full development; now everything is patience and general planting care.
Cucumber plant care
The cucumber plant is a hermaphroditic plant, which means that it has both female and male flowers, and now you may wonder why this is important? Because these types of plants with abundant flowers tend to call crops insects, many of them are beneficial, but others, such as aphids and cucumber beetles, can damage our small home crop.
Another essential factor to take into account when caring for a cucumber plant is the drainage of the soil, puddles tend to suffocate the roots of the plant, and it stops development and later perishes, not to mention that it is a factor that can trigger diseases and fungi.
Outside of this, the rest of the care is generic for any other plantation, regularly reviewing to assess possible threats, monitoring the temperature and humidity of the soil.
Compost and irrigation
The fertilizer of the cucumber plant must be based on phosphorus and potassium, in combination with the fertile soil that we can get in a botanical garden, preferably get an organic fertilizer and mix with the ground in a 50/50 ratio.
As already mentioned above, cucumbers need a fair amount of moisture in the soil, but their roots quickly lose oxygenation, so irrigation must be constant throughout the life of the plant. Still, without generating puddles in her, that is, ensuring very well the drainage of the pot or garden.
Cucumber harvest
Cucumbers take approximately between 60 and 65 days to give their first harvest, of which we must consider a couple of essential details:
- Cucumber is consumed while it is still green, so when it starts to change its hue from green to yellow, consumption is not recommended.
- Please leave a little of the fruit/plant connection, that is, we will cut the cucumber from the plant a few centimeters before the main branch.
- You can leave the cucumbers for sausage cutting when they are about 5 cm.
- The more the cucumber grows, it becomes relatively more bitter; for that reason it is advisable to leave it at three-quarters of its total growth.
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