Cucumber "competitor": reviews, description, cultivation and photos

Breeders produce new varieties of vegetable crops every year. More, sweeter, heavier, before - these are their characteristics. But gardeners, despite the abundance of new varieties, persistently continue to sow old and time-tested. One of them is a cucumber "competitor".

Description

"Competitor" is an early variety. Seeds germinate well. The plant begins to bear fruit after a month and a half after emergence. "Competitor" is a very fruitful cucumber.

It has oval-cylindrical large-bunched fruits of bright green color. Length - from 9 to 12 cm, weight - from 70 to 100 g.

A variety of universal purpose. Cucumbers can be eaten fresh (very tasty) or canned.

"Competitor" is relatively resistant to major diseases, affecting the whole family of pumpkin. Grow it in greenhouses and open ground.

Seed sowing

Seeds of cucumbers are sown dry or sprouted. But they must be last year's, or better still older: the longer the seeds lay, the more female flowers are formed on the lashes. The most productive varieties of cucumbers are suitable for cultivation for six years.

Before germinating the seeds, they need to be calibrated - hold for 10 minutes in a 3% salt solution. Seeds that have settled on the bottom are washed with clean water and kept for a day in a weak solution of trace elements (boric acid, manganese) for disinfection.

Then dry for sowing or germinate.

For this:

• Put in a bowl, covered with a damp cloth. Watch that it does not dry out. It is necessary not to miss the moment when the germ, emerging from the seed, will be half as long as its length. Seeds of cucumbers germinate fast enough. They are sown in open ground, a greenhouse, seedlings or tablets. If at this stage the plant develops more strongly, it will be difficult for it to take root.
• When using the landless method, a polyethylene tape is prepared, toilet paper is placed on it, seeds are placed closer to one of the edges. The distance between them is a couple of centimeters. Then this tape is rolled into a roll and placed in a glass or other narrow container with water. It should not reach the seeds. Gradually the moisture rises over the capillaries of the paper and moistens the seeds. They will germinate at a temperature of 26 degrees. When sprouted, you need to unwind the tape and sow the seeds

Put them into peas or peat bogs to a depth of 1 cm. The temperature is reduced to 22 ° C in the daytime and up to 16 ° C at night. Moderately watered with warm water.

To accelerate fruiting, seedlings can be lightened.

Feed with an aqueous solution of mullein or chicken manure. You can use mineral fertilizers: superphosphate, urea, potassium sulfate.

It is necessary to season the seedlings so that it is ready to withstand the cold.

Soil preparation

Good predecessors for cucumber are onions, tomatoes, potatoes.

Autumn fertilize the soil with mineral or organic fertilizers. In the spring, dig up or cultivate the soil.

It is necessary to determine in advance the way to grow cucumbers. They can be sown in rows, leaving more room for spreading lashes. You can sow sweet corn next to cucumbers, which they will use as a support.

Growing on trellises

Increasingly, cucumbers are grown on trellises. This is done so that they are not damaged by peronosporosis (powdery mildew). It provokes moisture, which falls on the leaves from the soil. From peronosporosa often suffers a cucumber "competitor".

Growing on trellises gives the chance to protect it from illnesses and facilitates leaving. Lifting the stems from the ground, make it easier to harvest fruits, increase the time of fruiting and yield. To do this, you must first work a little.

Grow in this way early varieties, including the cucumber "competitor".

Description of the installation process:

• Tie poles are installed so that it is convenient to pass between the rows.
• Tension the wire in several rows or draw a cucumber net. The height of the structure can reach 1 m 70 cm.
• In the prepared soil under the net, seedlings are planted or seeds are sown to a depth of one and a half centimeters. Seedlings have four real leaves for the landing time. On a square meter should be about 15 pieces. With this density, the cucumber develops a "competitor". Feedback is advised to place one more row of these plants between the trellises. This will help save space, but will thicken the planting.

When to sow cucumbers? The soil temperature should be 15 ° C. Sowing in the southern regions is produced in the second half of April. In the northern - in the third decade of May. Seeds germinate in a week.

When growing cucumbers on a grid, additional reinforcement is not required. If the wire is used, after weeding and forming the density of plants, it is necessary to establish vertical supports by each twine with twine or rope. A variety of cucumbers "competitor" has long lashes. The shoots will cling to the antennae for support and climb up. But first they need to be directed, tied up to the trellis.

Watering

Seedlings are watered regularly. It used to be that sprinkling is the best way to water. But it helps to infect cucumbers with powdery mildew. Sometimes its signs appear on the second day after such watering.

Therefore, now more often pour water into specially prepared furrows. They need to be made so that water flows as slowly as possible. To do this, you can loosen the soil or mulch it.

But you do not need to fill the plot either. This can lead to decay of the roots. You can increase the irrigation rates during fruiting. Cucumbers pour in the morning or evening.

Top dressing

Before this procedure, the plants need to be watered, so as not to burn the roots. You can reduce these two processes into one. Feed up with a solution of mullein or chicken manure, mineral fertilizers.

Formation of a bush

When planting with the usual density, you can not form a vine from a vegetable such as a cucumber "competitor". Opinions of farmers say that if plants are thickened, then they need to pinch.

The first shoots are removed after the formation of several fruits. The next ones, like the main stem, are tied up on the trellis.

Diseases and pests

Cucumber is often affected by various diseases. It is powdery mildew, olive and angular spotting (bacteriosis), ordinary mosaic, cladosporium. To prevent these infections, cucumbers in the stage of one or two real leaves are treated with preparations containing copper. This is copper chloride, Bordeaux liquid. It is also used during the vegetative period when symptoms of the disease appear. Do this in the early morning or evening, so that there are no burns on the leaves.

With mites, aphids fight ten per cent carbofos.

Harvesting

When growing cucumbers on trellises, the yield is doubled. And the fruits on plants grown from seedlings are harvested 20, or even 25 days earlier than those planted in the ground. This gives an opportunity to get a good harvest until the middle of July, when the cucumber "competitor" is affected by powdery mildew.

Opinions of farmers say that for each region fit their own variety. In addition, you can not sow alone. After all, if he does not give a harvest, you will be left without cucumbers. The growing method on the trellis with the help of seedlings is suitable for the middle belt, including for the variety in question.

Comments from consumers in the Moscow region indicate that they do not use cucumbers from the greenhouse for pickling and preserving . They are afraid that the lids will swell, and all their efforts will be in vain.

Sorts of cucumbers for the Moscow region:

• "Zozulya" - early, fruits up to 23 cm long and weighing up to 300 g. Resistant to powdery mildew, but is affected by white rot.
• "Moravian cornichon" is a hybrid of universal type. Fruits - up to 10 cm in length. Bee-pollinated.
• "Herman" is a parthenocarpic hybrid. Very popular due to early maturation and good yield. Used as salad and for pickling.
• Cucumber is a "competitor". Opinions of truck farmers indicate that he is very fruitful and unpretentious to the conditions of cultivation.

The most productive varieties of cucumbers:

• "Hector" F1 - cucumber bush type. Resistant to disease and lack of moisture.
• "Sparta" is a bee-dusted hybrid. The fruits have soft skin, therefore they are suitable for preservation and salting.
• "Altai Early" - quickly ripens (on the 37th day) and yielding.
• "Evita" - is appreciated for the taste of fruits. They are not bitter at all.

Dutch varieties of cucumbers for the suburbs are not always suitable due to their inability to weather the conditions of the region, although they are leaders in yield.

Indian cucumbers are interesting, which grow by 7 cm a day. They are resistant to a drop in temperature.

Chinese varieties very early ripen and have a strong pleasant aroma. These are the "Chinese miracle", "wait-jo" varieties.