When it comes to growing healthy, long-lasting, and productive cucumber plants, how and when you fertilize really makes a big difference! Cucumbers are one of the most popular vegetables to grow at home. Perhaps it's because you can grow them almost anywhere - be it in a traditional garden, in raised beds, pots and containers, or even in straw bales if desired. Regardless of where and how you grow the vegetable, it needs a constant supply of nutrients to survive and thrive. Especially as the growing season progresses and plants begin to grow and produce. Therefore, it is important to improve the soil before planting and use a good fertilizer. You can make your own cucumber fertilizer to give the plants the best conditions for a good yield.
Homemade compost as fertilizer
Homemade garden compost is used as a soil amendment, while fertilizer is used to promote plant growth. Compost can also be used as a topical fertilizer or as a compost tea fertilizer. Compost contains the 17 nutrients that cucumber plants need to grow and thrive. A scoop of compost worked into each square meter of soil before planting improves the nutrient content of the soil. How to make compost yourselffind out here.
When do you fertilize the plants?
OneFertilize cucumbers successfully, you have to supply them with nutrients at 3 different times and in 3 phases.
- At planting time
- When mulching around the plants
- at 2-week intervals during plant development
The right start – how to fertilize cucumbers
Successful cucumber cultivation begins with the plants getting off to a good start on the day of planting. The best way to do this is to give the plants a boost of nutrients directly in the planting hole. How you fertilize depends on whether you are planting seeds or plants. When sowing seeds, it is important to first mix compost generously into the soil. How much compost? A good rule of thumb is that the planting hole or mound should be 50% soil and 50% compost. Compost is really a perfect, natural, balanced long-term fertilizer. Not only is it teeming with minerals and beneficial organisms, but it also helps retain moisture in the soil. And this moisture is important for seeds to germinate and grow quickly.
Caring for young plants – how to use fertilizer
Once your plants are in the ground and established, the next step is to provide them with regular butlight fertilizer applicationsto care for them as they develop. What does “established” mean? Planting transplants means giving the plants 7 to 10 days to get their roots into the ground before fertilizing. For seeds, it means letting them grow to the point where the seedlings are at least a few inches tall and have developed 3 to 5 leaves. If you don't give your plants additional fertilizer after planting, they likely won't perform as desired. However, if you give them too much, they will only produce leaves and few cucumbers.
When a vegetable plant is fertilized too frequently or too much, it uses the excess energy to grow leaves rather than flowers. The result is a vigorous plant with low production. And if too much fertilizer is used, the plant can even die. When planting transplants, compost is also the solution here. Dig the planting hole about three times the size of the root ball. Then fill the hole with a 50/50 mix of soil and compost to provide finished nutrients to the plants.
Which fertilizer for cucumbers: choosing the right food
Compost tea, worm tea or a high-quality soluble organic fertilizer are ideal for fertilizing plants. Fertilize every 10 to 14 days for the first 8 to 12 weeks to achieve vigorous growth and higher yield.For proper plant careOrganic gardeners recommend a homemade fertilizer mixture made from seed meal, lime, bone meal and seaweed meal. All materials come from nature and are usually available in garden centers. Seed meal can be purchased online or at an agricultural feed store. Homemade fertilizer does not burn the tender cucumber plants and you can easily and easily make your own cucumber fertilizer.
Make cucumber fertilizer yourself: recipe
- Mix the ingredients in a large bucket or container.
- Measure out 4 quarts of seed meal in a clean plastic bucket.
- Stir 1/4 liter of regular agricultural lime into the bucket of seed meal.
- Add 1/4 liter of plaster to the bucket.
- Pour in 1/2 liter of dolomite lime and mix all ingredients thoroughly.
- Supplement the fertilizer with 1 kg of bone meal, rock phosphate or high-phosphate guano and 1/2 to 1 kg of seaweed meal or 1 kg of basalt dust and mix well. This step makes sense if your soil is particularly poor in trace nutrients. If you do not know the nature of your soil, have a sample tested at your advice center.
- Work this fertilizer into the garden soil at a rate of 4 to 6 liters per 100 square meters of garden area before planting your cucumbers.
- Adjust this recipe to the amount of fertilizer you need, but keep the proportions the same.
- Also incorporate half a centimeter of compost along with the fertilizer.
When to apply homemade cucumber fertilizer
One week after the flowering period begins, add 1 cup of the homemade fertilizer to the plants. Fertilize again in three weeks. Do not continue to fertilize as this will encourage vine growth at the expense of fruit development. Cucumber plants do well when fertilized mid-season. Spread 1 cup of the fertilizer mixture around the plant and water it.
