Seedling Cucumbers At Home: When To Plant In According To The Lunar Calendar, Growing Methods, Rules Of Care

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

When and how to properly plant cucumber seedlings

Cucumbers are thermophilic plants, but they are most popular not in the south, but in the central regions of our country, where even cucumber festivals are held at the height of summer. A Russian person cannot be deprived of this vegetable, it is one of our Russian "brands". Most often, cucumbers are grown by sowing seeds directly in the garden, but to obtain early production, they often sow seeds and to obtain seedlings at home.

Content

• 1 Is it necessary to plant cucumbers through seedlings
• 2 When to sow: lunar calendar 2019

• 3 Preliminary preparation

  • 3.1 Seed preparation
  • 3.2 Soil preparation

• 4 How to grow cucumber seedlings at home: technology and features

  • 4.1 Growing seedlings on a windowsill
  • 4.2 Growing seedlings in a greenhouse
  • 4.3 Hardening of seedlings and planting them in open ground

• 5 Variants of containers for sowing seeds for seedlings

  • 5.1 Sowing seeds in cups
  • 5.2 Sowing seeds in peat pots

  • 5.3 Use of peat tablets

    5.3.1 Video: Cucumber seedlings in peat tablets

  • 5.4 Use of eggshells

    5.4.1 Video: growing seedlings in eggshells

• 6 Some helpful tips

  • 6.1 What to do if seedlings stretch out
  • 6.2 What to do if seedlings turn yellow
  • 6.3 What to do if pests appear

• 7 Features of cultivation in different regions

  7.1 Video: growing cucumber seedlings in the Leningrad region

Is it necessary to plant cucumbers through seedlings

Cucumbers are planted almost throughout the entire territory of our country: somewhere in the open ground, somewhere in greenhouses, and in the north - only in heated greenhouses. Once upon a time, cucumbers were eaten only in summer. In the last Soviet years, long greenhouse cucumbers began to be sold by the Day of the Soviet Army, but now cucumbers of various varieties can be bought almost all year round. Huge greenhouses have been built to grow them in large agricultural enterprises. If we talk about Russian summer residents, they mainly sow cucumbers only in the spring, but they try to do it early in order to get the first crispy products when the body is not yet spoiled by summer vitamins.

Once upon a time in the spring it was for the happiness to buy such long cucumbers: no others were offered

In most of our country, there is no need for the obligatory sowing of cucumber seeds for seedlings: in many varieties and hybrids, the first cucumbers ripen within 33–38 days after germination, and even by sowing seeds in a garden at the beginning of summer, you can grow so many cucumbers that will be enough eat and preserve. But if you want to get the products early, at the very beginning of summer, and there are no greenhouses in the country, then it makes sense to cook seedlings. It is not difficult to do this in a city apartment, because, unlike, for example, cabbage seedlings, cucumber seedlings do not require low temperatures, and room conditions suit it perfectly. And seedlings grow quickly, does not require much time. It also does not require a lot of space on the windowsill, because to get early products, it is enough to plant no more than a dozen copies.

When to sow: lunar calendar 2019

In central Russia, it is advisable to plant cucumbers in a garden bed no earlier than the end of spring (in the greenhouse, of course, earlier, depending on its quality). And since about a month should pass from the moment of sowing seeds to planting seedlings, the best time for sowing seeds falls in the third decade of April. These terms almost do not depend on the variety of cucumbers: they all grow at about the same rate, and all varieties and hybrids are planted and sown at almost the same time.

However, in recent years, many gardeners and gardeners have been checking the dates of their summer cottages with the phases of movement of the heavenly bodies, and many printed and electronic publications systematically publish various lunar calendars, in which the most favorable and prohibited dates for sowing or planting certain crops, caring for them, harvesting. It is not always correct to use such calendars, since analysis shows that different publishers indicate completely different dates in them for the same occasion. Sometimes those days, which in one newspaper are called the best for sowing, in another are recognized as prohibited. Therefore, those who want to do everything "as the Moon orders" must go through many sources, analyze them and make the right decision for themselves.

It is believed that sowing of cucumbers should be done during the growing moon, closer to the days of the new moon. At this time, growth processes are activated, which has a good effect not only on the ripening of seeds, but also on obtaining a future harvest. Based on this, many sources call the most favorable dates in 2019:

• March 20, 25;
• April 10, 11, 12;
• May 12, 13.

It is believed that cucumbers should be sown during the growing moon.

However, in other publications the given terms are shifted by several days in one direction or another. Careful analysis allows us to conclude that it makes little sense for a working person to focus on such calendars, otherwise you can simply skip all sowing dates and be left without a crop. Yes, probably, there is something in the influence of the heavenly bodies on the earth's flora, and the phases of the moon do in some way affect the health of plants. But, most likely, not enough to fanatically follow the instructions of astrologers. After all, no one will help us better than we will do it ourselves!

Preliminary preparation

For sowing cucumber seeds for seedlings, you need to prepare: the actual seeds, nutrient soil and containers in which we will place this soil. As for the containers, everything is absolutely clear here: unlike many vegetables, cucumber seedlings should be grown exclusively in individual cups! No boxes are suitable in this matter: cucumbers do not tolerate transplants, the diving operation is excluded for them. Moreover, the design of the cups should be such that seedlings can be removed from them with minimal damage to the root system. Best of all - completely without damage, and this is possible only when using peat pots or tablets. In addition, containers for cucumber seedlings should be quite large: with a volume of 300 ml, or better - about half a liter: the seedlings grow very quickly.

Seed preparation

Cucumbers are good because you don't have to buy their seeds every year: they are stored for a very long time, sometimes up to 8 years. Moreover, fresh seeds are worse than those that have been in place for two or three years. For sowing, it is preferable to use two-, three-, four-year-old seeds. On the plants grown from them, female flowers appear earlier - which means that they begin to bear fruit faster. Of course, this does not apply to those hybrids in which almost all flowers are female.

As for the seeds from their cucumbers, the situation here is getting more complicated every year. This is simply due to the invasion of a huge number of new hybrids (F1). Honestly, I can't even believe that they are all really new, the variety of bags in seed shops is so great! It sometimes seems: what else can you invent new in a cucumber? But hybrids are much more expensive than good old seeds! Of course, their harvest is usually higher, and their resistance to unfavorable conditions and pests is more reliable … But our grandmothers always planted proven varieties of cucumbers and never remained without a harvest. Sometimes we also “sin” with this, and we take seeds from our own fruits.

However, when more and more hybrids are planted around, it becomes dangerous to take seeds from their own varieties: everything is pollinated, and what will ultimately turn out is not known in advance. Therefore, you have to gradually give up harvesting cucumber seeds from your garden and use the store. And since the real date of their collection is unknown, even they should be kept in the nightstand for a year. In general, the main stages of seed preparation are as follows (but not all of them are required):

1. Calibration.
2. Warming up dry seeds.
3. Disinfection.
4. Swelling in water.
5. Hardening.
6. Germination.

Seed calibration can be done manually: cucumber seeds are quite large and empty by touch. It is easier, of course, to dip them in a solution of table salt (dessert spoon in a glass of water), shake and wait a few minutes. The unfit will not drown.

If we sow newly purchased seeds, before sowing they need to be warmed up by a heating battery for a couple of days. This reduces the amount of wasteland.

The seeds of cucumbers are quite large, easy to handle

Is seed disinfection obligatory? It is not required for seeds of well-known companies bought in a serious store. It is better to disinfect your own seeds or from "Aunt Masha" first and only then start germinating or sowing them. The simplest thing is to hold them for 15–20 minutes in a strong solution of potassium permanganate. It is not necessary to prepare strictly a 1% solution, as most sources advise! Well, where can you get such an accurate scale at home? The solution should be dark purple in color. Just wait until all the crystals of potassium permanganate dissolve, the dissolution is slow! After disinfection, the seeds should be rinsed well with clean water.

After disinfection, it is useful to harden. This operation is especially important if planting seedlings in open ground is planned for a risky period (when cold snaps are still possible). For planting in a greenhouse, hardening seeds does not make sense. Do not harden the seeds of the hybrids either. Hardening is simply keeping the wet seeds in a cloth under refrigerated conditions. You need to keep them there from 18 to 24 hours.

Before sowing, the seeds are kept in clean warm water (from 20 to 30 ^o C) for about a day (until they swell). Then they are slightly dried so that they do not stick together during sowing. Seeds are germinated at the same temperature, preferably in wet sawdust, sand or moss. Germination is completed when a small root is formed - half the length of the seed.

If during germination they managed to grow such long roots as in the photo, it will already be difficult to sow them: you can break off

Can you do none of the above? Can! The seeds will also sprout when dry sowing. Only a little later. But there is enough time in the spring, there is no need to rush anywhere? Therefore, we select from the described steps only those that are strictly necessary in each specific situation.

Soil preparation

For growing seedlings, a cucumber needs a light, acid-neutral, moisture- and air-permeable soil. It should be very nutritious, since a cucumber has to live in it for no more than a month, the seedlings grow very quickly, you may not have time with top dressing. And it's better to do without them altogether. If the finished soil is bought in a store, it should be specifically for cucumbers and not very cheap: any land from an unknown manufacturer may not be nutritious enough. It is not necessary to disinfect the purchased soil, but if it was purchased in winter, it is better to keep it in the cold for several days.

For self-preparation of the nutrient mixture, you need to mix turf soil, good compost, peat and sand. Compost is taken in two parts, the other components - one at a time. Of course, all the components are not always at hand, options are possible: someone adds sawdust, someone replaces sand with perlite, etc. But only if the soil is taken directly from the garden, it must be disinfected: calcined in the oven (oh, how it smells wonderful in the kitchen!) or spill it with a pink solution of potassium permanganate. If there is no humus at all, you will have to add a complex mineral fertilizer (for example, up to 50 g of azofoska per bucket of mixture). Ordinary wood ash is very good in a mixture for cucumbers (a glass on a bucket of soil).

Sometimes the prepared soil mixture is treated with complex fungicides: Fitosporin, Fitoverm, and others. All this, of course, is good, but cucumbers cost a pretty penny! If there is a danger that harmful microorganisms have not been completely destroyed in the calcined earth, and there is no potassium permanganate in the house, it will be cheaper to shed the earth with a blue solution of copper sulfate. The prepared soil in the stage of normal moisture should be poured into cups, placing a centimeter layer of drainage on the bottom, and let it settle for a day and mature.

How to grow cucumber seedlings at home: technology and features

Sowing seeds in cups is not difficult. Seeds are placed in 2 pieces at a depth of about 1.5 cm, after the emergence of shoots, only one of them is left in the cup (for expensive prepared seeds this is an unnecessary luxury, you can do it one at a time). The seeds are sprinkled with soil and the crops are sprayed with a spray bottle. Place the cups in a tray, cover with glass or transparent film and transfer to a warm place (preferably 25-28 ^o C). The emergence of seedlings can be expected in 5–8 days, sometimes a little earlier.

Growing seedlings on a windowsill

The best place for seedlings is a warm windowsill lit by the sun. Until the emergence of seedlings, they do nothing with the crops, only sometimes they raise the glass to slightly ventilate, and if necessary, spray the soil with water. When the mass of shoots glass must be removed, and the temperature in any way lower: in the first week it should stay about day 18 ^of C, and at night a few degrees lower. Then the optimum temperature is about 24 ^o C during the day and 18 ^o C at night.

In this case, the illumination of the seedlings in the daytime should be as much as possible and uniform. In case of insufficient lighting, the seedlings quickly stretch out, poorly absorb nutrients, and in the end they may simply die. Therefore, if there is a lack of sunlight, additional lighting with fluorescent lamps or diode lamps must be provided.

Seedlings need space, when grown at home, the plants should not touch each other, so the cups must be rearranged from time to time. The remaining stages in the care of seedlings are ordinary, and they boil down to watering and hardening before planting in the ground. Top dressing is required only if a poor soil mixture is used.

Often not only seedlings are grown on the windowsill, even small yields of cucumbers are obtained

Watering can only be carried out with warm water (about 25 ° C). In no case should it be poured, the soil should always be slightly moist: excess water quickly leads to decay of the root system. After watering, it is advisable to lightly add dry clean sand to the roots. Top dressing is needed only if something is clearly wrong with the seedlings: the growth has stopped, the leaves have turned yellow or started to curl, etc. there was not enough power.

Usually, it is enough to pour an ash infusion or a mixture of microelements (containing boron) on the cucumbers. And sometimes it is better to carry out foliar feeding: spraying the leaves with a weak solution of complex fertilizer (according to the instructions on the package). Only the solution should really be weak so as not to burn the leaf apparatus. After any type of feeding, the seedlings must be well watered, and the soil must be slightly mulched.

The advantages of growing seedlings at home are that they are always in sight, it is easy to adjust conditions. Disadvantages appear in case of insufficient lighting of the window sill, but this is fixable: you just need to correctly install additional lighting.

When there is not enough light, you have to equip the backlight: it is best to use special phytolamps

Growing seedlings in a greenhouse

When growing a dozen plants, there is nothing more convenient than a home windowsill, but if you have to plant a large number of cucumbers, it makes sense to think about using a greenhouse. Especially if there is a modern polycarbonate greenhouse in which it is easy to maintain the required temperature regime. In the event of a sudden drop in air temperature below the extreme limit, you can cover the seedlings inside the greenhouse with non-woven fabric, but usually this is not necessary.

Of course, in the greenhouse, the seedlings need constant care, so greenhouse cultivation is suitable only for those gardeners who can visit their farm every day. If the further cultivation of cucumbers is supposed to be in the greenhouse, the seeds are sown around April 20, and in mid-May the cucumbers are planted in a permanent place. If the further habitat is open ground, then the timing of sowing seeds remains the same as in an apartment.

Since a sufficient area can be allocated to seedlings in the greenhouse, you can do without seedling cups by sowing seeds in a small bed. But it is necessary to sow so that the cucumbers grow freely, the roots of neighboring plants do not intertwine, and during transplanting, each specimen could be easily removed from the garden bed with a large lump of earth without disturbing the root system.

When grown in the greenhouse, you should try to maintain the same temperature conditions as the house: immediately after emergence slightly lower temperature, and further prevent its decline below the 20 day ^of C, and at night 14 ^about C. Periodically, it is necessary to ventilate the greenhouse, to avoid the formation of condensation on surfaces. In the phase of two true leaves, you can feed the cucumbers with a weak solution of fertilizers; in the greenhouse, no one bothers to use mullein infusion for this. It is advisable to water the seedlings in the morning.

It makes sense to use a greenhouse when growing a large number of seedlings.

Growing seedlings in a greenhouse has advantages over an apartment one if it is possible to regularly visit the greenhouse: then the obvious advantages are the presence of large sown areas. The disadvantages of an unheated greenhouse can affect the sudden sudden cold snap, when even covering with insulating material may not help. But such cases are rare.

Hardening of seedlings and planting them in open ground

Seedlings of cucumbers in a temporary place live no more than a month. From this time, the first week it is kept at a low temperature, the second - in comfortable conditions, and then they begin to accustom to the harsh life in the beds. Both at home and in the greenhouse for a while, cucumbers are given “shakes”, lowering the temperature or arranging small ventilation, but without serious drafts. For a week of transplanting to the garden, these activities should become more stringent.

In the conditions of an apartment, they first take out the cups with seedlings for 15–20 minutes on the balcony, then the time is gradually increased. In a greenhouse, windows or doors are opened. However, at the same time, at first, they try not to lower the daytime temperature below 17 ^o C. By planting on a bed, the seedlings should stay in the fresh air for up to half of the daytime.

A high-quality seedling of cucumbers, ready for life in the garden, should have 4–5 strong, large, dark green leaves on a strong but short main shoot. It is very good if by this time she has already had antennae and quite excellent if several buds have arisen.

Before transplanting, the soil in the cups must be abundantly moistened. Seedlings carefully removed from the cups are planted after 30–40 cm. More frequent arrangement is possible only for some varieties characterized by low growth vigor. It makes no sense to remind that the garden bed should be prepared long before planting and abundantly filled with fertilizers, primarily organic. It makes sense to add local fertilizers in the form of a glass of wood ash to each hole dug with a scoop, mixing them with the soil and watering well with warm water. It is not necessary to deeply deepen the plants: it is optimal to plant cucumbers 2-3 cm deeper than they grew in cups.

The cucumber seedlings planted in the garden are well watered with warm water and mulched with a thin layer of humus or at least dry soil.

Variants of containers for sowing seeds for seedlings

As mentioned above, the use of common boxes for growing cucumber seedlings is excluded. The practice of making homemade containers from plastic wrap is also a thing of the past. If there are no special containers for seedlings, for a year you can accumulate a sufficient number of various plastic cups from under products: sour cream, mayonnaise, cottage cheese, etc. But for cucumbers they should be of a solid size: the minimum is about 300 cm ³, or better half a liter.

Sowing seeds in cups

I would like to warn against the use of flimsy cups, the material of which is very thin. It is advisable to use only those vessels that, when handling them, hardly change their shape, otherwise the roots of cucumbers will be easily injured when transferring seedlings from place to place and removing them during transplantation.

In any case, you need to have such containers that would allow you to easily and painlessly extract plants with a clod of earth from them. The most suitable are special cups or pots with a retractable bottom, which is pushed out of the cup along with the plant by pressing the finger.

One press of your finger - and the bottom, together with the plant, moves out of the pot

There is an opinion that when planting seedlings it makes no sense to get rid of the container, you can only deprive it of the bottom, and the root system of cucumbers will then begin to penetrate into the lower layers of the soil. The cup itself can be removed after harvesting. The opinion is very correct, if the cups are wide enough. Such a measure is extremely useful in the fight against a terrible pest - a bear. When the author of these lines had a plot on the shore of a pond and a bear could dig up as much as he wanted at any time, he had to specially use protection, planting each plant (cucumber, tomato, cabbage, etc.) in a can of canned food with remote bottom. It helped.

Sowing seeds in peat pots

Peat pots were incredibly popular 10-15 years ago, but now they are used a little less often, since it was believed that their usefulness was greatly exaggerated. However, the convenience of the cups is undeniable: after all, it is not necessary to extract the seedlings from them, they are buried together with the cup, and the roots easily penetrate the walls. Therefore, it is recommended to use them mainly for plants that do not tolerate transplanting well; those are cucumbers. Peat seedling pots come in different sizes.

For the manufacture of peat pots, peat and pressed cardboard are used; these materials in the summer in the garden decompose almost without residue. However, different manufacturers produce pots with different wall thicknesses. Very thin ones are inconvenient because their handling is difficult: they easily become limp and even torn. The roots of plants are not always able to penetrate through the thickest walls. For seedlings of cucumbers, pots with walls of medium thickness are needed; their size should also be medium.

Cucumber seedling pots should not be too small

Some gardeners soak peat pots in fertilizer solutions before use. To be honest, such a procedure seems clearly redundant. But it is imperative to choose a good strong box for them, where they will stand firmly. It is advisable to make several holes in the bottom to drain obviously excess water. Water will leave through the walls, but it will take some time, and the walls will be soaked in vain. The soil is poured into the pots, not reaching about 1 cm to the top.

Sowing seeds and caring for seedlings in pots do not have any significant features. Perhaps only watering is required a little more often than when using plastic containers. With the right choice of pots and their use, the number of their advantages, which was mentioned above, significantly exceeds the number of conditional disadvantages.

Use of peat tablets

Cucumber seedlings can be grown in peat tablets in the largest size options. Peat tablets are very convenient to use when growing seedlings of various plants. They are made from pressed peat with the addition of micronutrient fertilizers, so top dressing, as a rule, is not needed. Before use, the tablets are placed in any convenient waterproof box and filled with water until they swell completely. On one side of the tablet, a small depression is made for spreading the seeds.

One seed is introduced into the grooves, after which they are buried in the peat with a stick or toothpick to a depth of about 1 cm. The seedlings are watered from below: water poured into the bottom of the box is itself absorbed into the peat in the required dose. If the size of the tablet is selected correctly, all the care of the seedlings consists of periodic watering and monitoring the temperature. Seedlings are planted in a garden bed together with a tablet, just like peat pots.

Peat tablets swell greatly from water and turn into excellent containers for seedlings

The use of peat tablets is extremely convenient, there is only one drawback: a decent cost. But if you need to grow only a dozen cucumber seedlings, you should not think about the shortcomings: the advantages of the tablets will more than block them.

Video: cucumber seedlings in peat tablets

Using eggshells

The inventive mind of a Russian person comes up with a variety of options for growing seedlings: plastic bottles, toilet paper, egg cells, etc. Some gardeners grow seedlings of cucumbers in eggshells. They do it like this:

1. Peel the boiled egg gently to leave most of the shell intact.
2. Pierce 1-2 holes for drainage in the whole end with a needle.
3. Put the soil in the shell.
4. Place the shell in the cell.
5. Moisten the soil by spraying.
6. A seed is planted at a shallow depth.
7. Spray again.

Caring for in-shell seedlings is no different from caring in cups. It is planted in the garden bed together with the shell, crushing the footprint so that the roots can more easily reach the soil. The advantages of such a container seem rather doubtful and consist, perhaps, only in cost savings and in the fact that the shell serves as a fertilizer. An obvious disadvantage is the size of such a "container": it is difficult to grow cucumber seedlings in it to marketable condition.

It is convenient to use the shell, only it is too small for a cucumber

Video: growing seedlings in eggshell

Some helpful tips

Subject to all the rules of preparation for sowing and correct agricultural technology, the seedlings of cucumbers grow strong and do not cause big problems for the gardener. But if something was done with the marriage, options are possible, sometimes ending in the complete death of the seedlings.

What to do if the seedlings stretch out

During the cultivation of seedlings, it is necessary to clearly withstand the temperature, light and humidity conditions. Pulling seedlings almost unambiguously indicates that the temperature was exceeded, there was not enough light, and the watering was not done according to the rules. The temperature after the appearance of the first shoots must be necessarily reduced, and the illumination increased.

You should not sow cucumbers too early, when the daylight hours are short: these are unnecessary problems that are not worth the time and effort spent on solving them.

In healthy seedlings, the distance from the soil to the cotyledonous leaves a week after germination should not be more than 5 cm. It is difficult to save the clearly stretched seedlings, it is better to repeat the sowing. If the problem has not gone deep, you can try to increase the illumination and lower the temperature, and add some clean soil to the roots.

Such seedlings are unlikely to be saved

At an older age, stretching rarely happens and only because of a lack of space: growing seedlings must be periodically moved away from each other. Sometimes the excess nitrogen in the soil is also to blame for stretching the seedlings.

What to do if seedlings turn yellow

Yellowing of the leaves can signal various problems, up to a serious illness. But in the case of seedlings, this is rare: it is unlikely that she managed to catch sores somewhere in a short time. Most often this happens due to poorly prepared soil, which lacks nitrogen fertilizers. In this case, watering with a urea solution and lightly spraying it over the leaves can save the plants. But yellowness can appear not only from a lack of nitrogen, but from an incorrect overall balance of nutrients in the soil. Here, nothing can be done without a competent analysis, it is better to take a new high-quality soil and, if not too late, repeat the sowing.

Slight yellowing of seedlings can be eliminated, but in the photo there is already a threatening situation

The leaves can turn yellow from too low temperatures: you should check if the plants are cold, especially at night. Lack of light can also affect the color of the leaves, but at the same time, first of all, the seedlings begin to stretch. But too bright spring sun can, on the contrary, burn part of the foliage, and this also needs to be monitored. Other causes of yellowing of leaves are as diverse as they are rare, they are the topic of a separate, very detailed discussion.

What to do if pests appear

The main pests of cucumbers are: melon aphids, ants, root nematodes, whiteflies, spider mites, etc., the list is very wide, but at the seedling stage most of them cannot harm plants, especially at home. Pests can only get into the soil, but with proper preparation, this is impossible.

In particular, miniature collembola worms, which are six-legged creatures several millimeters long, can get into the soil. They eat small roots of seedlings, the risk increases with waterlogging. If they are really turned on, you can try drugs for soil pests, for example, Thunder-2, or universal insecticides (Aktaru).

Gall nematodes look similar (if without a microscope). For a mild invasion, the same measures can help.

Features of cultivation in different regions

The general principles of growing seedlings of cucumbers not depend on the region, differ only in terms of seeding and subsequent transplanting into a bed: the landing is possible when the soil temperature of 18 ^to C. In the southern regions seeding is possible in the very first days of April, and in the north - only May. In most regions of the country, sowing seeds is carried out at the end of April. For greenhouse cultivation of cucumbers, the dates are shifted 1–2 weeks earlier.

In the Leningrad region, Karelia and the surrounding regions, the cultivation of cucumbers outside greenhouses is rarely discussed at all. Therefore, the time of sowing seeds depends on the quality of the greenhouse: in a heated greenhouse, this can be done at any time of the year. But ordinary summer residents transplant seedlings into unheated greenhouses only at the end of May, which means that the seeds are sown shortly before the May holidays. The situation is the same in most regions of Siberia and the Urals.

If we talk about the Kuban or the Astrakhan region, then there is no point in growing seedlings for the consumption of cucumbers at the usual time. And to get early harvests in the open field, sowing seeds in greenhouses can begin at the end of March, and for greenhouse cultivation - in February.

Video: growing cucumber seedlings in the Leningrad region

Cultivation of cucumber seedlings is practiced if you want to get early harvests, but for normal consumption in the middle of summer in most of our country, you can safely sow seeds directly into the garden. The process of preparing seedlings itself is simple and accessible to any gardener with minimal experience in working with the land.