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Cucumbers are grown outdoors or in a greenhouse. All varieties are divided into early, middle and late. If we are talking about use, then we can also distinguish three types:
- Salad.
- Suitable for blanks for the winter.
- Universal.
Seedling cucumber seedlings are usually planted early and on a closed ground. Cucumbers for pickling and canning are preferably grown outdoors and collected after reaching a medium size.
All sorts of cucumbers for salting are distinguished by a thin skin and elastic, dense flesh. Most often they have pimples of black color.
Best cucumber seeds for pickling
The quality of cucumber seeds persists up to 6-8 years. If you use your seeds, you need to consider that the best germination they have in the second or third year. To make sure that the seeds are vivid, it is advisable to check this:
You need to buy seeds in advance. Most often they are prepared for sowing, that is, no additional processing is required. The market offers such a volume of seeds of this culture that the choice can create a serious problem. When buying it is desirable to carefully read the text on the packaging to find out what they are intended for. It is also important to know the differences between the variety and the hybrid (marked as F1 or F2). The variety is produced for many years and is stable, the hybrid is designed for one year. This means that you can not determine what will grow from the seeds harvested from the hybrid.
Buying seeds is best in a specialized store. If cucumbers are grown for pickling outdoors, it is important that the seeds are zoned (designed for a particular region), resistant to cold air, low level of humidity, wind, temperature drops. Beneficial is also considered such a quality as shade-endurance.
Externally, the seeds of cucumbers must be "full" and not retained on the surface of slightly saline water.
Experienced truck farmers for a long time have paid attention to grades which name beam. They form a lot of ovaries, the fruits are small, tasty and suitable for canning.
Cucumbers for salting and canning
Classical for pickling and canning are such varieties as:
- "Elegant
- Nezhinsky;
- "Muromsky
- "Movir
- "Cascade
- "Spring
- "Great
- "Competitor
- "Erofei".
"Competitor" refers to early varieties, fruits grow to 12 cm. "Erofei" - a universal variety with a mixed type of flowering, small fruits (6-7 cm), tuberculate.
Experienced truck farmers believe that Nezhinsky is the best variety. It is resistant to disease and is not demanding in care, pollinated by insects.
Other varieties and the Nezhin "dynasty" differ in the same qualities:
- "Nezhinka
- "Era
- "Stage
- "Nosovsky."
In appearance, cucumbers of any of these varieties have all the qualities of "salty medium size, thin skin and sufficiently dense flesh, that is, the kind of salted cucumber varieties look like in the photo below:
In marinated and salted form these cucumbers are strong and crunchy. An additional advantage is the opportunity to get quality seeds.
Cucumbers for open ground are self-pollinated for pickling: Zozulya, Zador, Orpheus, Alliance. Lovers of very small canned cucumbers can grow "Parisian Cornish" or "Lilliput". They are very fruitful, with excellent taste qualities.
For those whose area is little illuminated by the sun, the best sorts of cucumbers for pickling can be: "Muromsky 36" or hybrids "The secret of the company F1" and "Podmoskovnye pm F1".
"Muromsky 36" - small light green cucumbers (length 6-8 cm), resistant to short-term lowering of air temperature.
"The secret of the company F1" and "Podmoskovnye pm F1" - universal varieties with fruits of medium size.
How to grow cucumbers for pickling and preserving at home?
Those who do not have a garden can grow cucumbers on the loggia or balcony, provided that the variety is chosen correctly. Cucumbers must be self-pollinating, vigorous and with small fruits. These qualities are cornish cucumbers.
Sow cucumbers for a balcony you need in February. For salting and canning are suitable "Balcony" and "City cucumber". Scourge they are quite compact, and the fruits from the sinuses grow in bundles. These varieties are distinguished by their small fruit size, excellent taste and aroma, and the ability to be put in cans for the winter.
Seedlings are grown at home. After landing on the balcony, each plant is tied to a wire, located at a height, m above the box. Periodically, you need to remove the antennae and loosen the soil. Sprinkle cucumbers on the balcony 2 or 3 times a week with water at room temperature. It is also desirable to spray stems. When the cucumbers grow to the wire, the tops are plucked.
Two varieties are suitable for growing on a windowsill: "Russian" and "Rytov whips which grow to 2 meters.
You can sow them in February, April, August and October. There are 2 methods of seeding: on seedlings and immediately on a permanent place. If seedlings are grown, cucumbers are transplanted only after 3 or 4 real leaves have appeared.
The soil should be fertile: 4 buckets of garden land, ¼ bucket of compost, half a liter of ash and coarse sand. Sprinkle cucumbers need warm water, the temperature in the room should not be below 25 ° C during the day and 17 ° C at night.
Regardless of the method of planting, each plant is plucked over the fifth real leaf. About 20 days later, 2 lashes begin to grow from the sinus, which must be tied up or sent to a "ladder" made of wood or metal.
The second time the stems are plucked when they grow 4-5 real leaves. From the sinuses lashes will grow again. First there will be vapors (flowers of a male), then - with ovaries (female). Pollination is carried out manually - the male flower is applied to the female one. Immediately after pollination begin to develop cucumbers. With proper care from one plant, you can take up to forty fruits.
