Every experienced gardener knows that the cucumber bushes must be tied up to get a high-quality and decent crop. This article will discuss the need for garter and the most popular methods.
Why tie up cucumbers
Garter bushes are necessary because it:
- provides convenient access to cucumbers for care and harvesting;
- during irrigation, water freely flows to the rhizome of the bush, and does not remain on the foliage;
- It is an effective way to prevent fungal diseases and rot, due to the fact that leaves and fruits do not lie on the ground and are blown by the wind;
- facilitates the process of formation of the bush, its pinching and control of side shoots;
- simplifies the process of artificial pollination of flowers, ensuring the accuracy of the manipulation;
- the plant fully develops without interlacing with neighboring plants, which can negatively affect the quality characteristics of the crop;
- facilitates the process of weeding and removing weeds;
- the bush receives more sunlight, which contributes to its growth and development;
- the number of flowers and ovaries is maximally preserved, which ensures a good yield;
- the bush is less injured during the collection of cucumbers.
Important! The young bush has a soft and elastic stem, which can be easily directed for growth in the desired direction. If you miss the right moment of the garter, you can injure the plant, which will affect its yield.
Popular garter methods
In order to determine how best to tie cucumbers, one should take into account such factors:
- the size of the greenhouse;
- Features varieties of cucumbers.
Based on these criteria, apply both traditional methods of fixing and forming a bush on a support, which have been used for many years, as well as more original ones.
The main difference between various methods of garter is the location of the support:
- vertical
- horizontal.
Vertically
Vertical garter is the most popular method of growing cucumbers in a greenhouse, since it can significantly save space. To organize a vertical garter, a tire is placed in the upper part of the greenhouse, for which a special lace or artificial thread is fixed from one end, and its second end is fixed in the ground, near the bush itself.The green shoot of the plant as it grows is fixed along the length of the support in the form of a spiral. You can also organize a partition in the area of 2-3 sheets, where the lower part of the stem can rest on a horizontal bar.
In polycarbonate greenhouses create a high support, reaching 2 m in height. Next, they build a horizontal bar to which the ropes are used, which are used as a support for cucumbers.
Also, vertical tying in the greenhouse can be based on fastening the ropes to the frame of the structure itself by hooks when the other end is buried in the ground.
Important! The method of garter of cucumbers is selected individually for each variety, based on its characteristic features.
Horizontally
The horizontal arrangement of the garter of cucumbers in the greenhouse mainly consists in the fact that the cords are installed in the position of the ladder, the first step of which is at a level of 40 cm from the ground. Subsequent steps go at the same interval.If it is not possible to fix each rope individually, you can use a special grid, which is sold in specialized stores. To fix the mesh, several vertical pegs are used. The cucumber bush begins to curl along the grid, the fruits are clearly visible, and it is convenient to collect them.
This method is difficult to implement, although it is effective for low greenhouses. Also in polycarbonate greenhouses, you can create fastening of metal supports at different ends of the room with a height of about 1 meter, between which horizontal rows are created using a thick rope. Cucumbers cling to the rope steps and begin to grow along them.
The disadvantage of this method is the fact that, reaching the first stage, the plant ceases to grow up, only its side shoots develop, expanding in width.
Did you know? Cucumbers ripened in the greenhouse with long fruits can be kept from withering for longer if you do not tear off the stem and put them in a container of water like a bouquet by dropping tails in it. Water needs to be changed daily, and then the original bouquet of cucumbers will delight with freshness.
To the grid
In a polycarbonate greenhouse, cucumber bushes can be twisted on a grid. The garter net should be made of durable and high-quality man-made threads that can withstand heavy loads and do not deteriorate under the influence of microclimate conditions in the greenhouse.To install the trellis mesh, it is necessary to build a frame on which it is stretched, it can be two vertical supports. First, the mesh is fixed at the bottom edge, and then at the top.
- The advantage of this method of growing cucumbers:
- cucumbers themselves curl on a grid;
- no knowledge of how to tie up;
- no need to waste time on this.
Use of a grid is not suitable for all varieties. It is recommended to grow ordinary, bunch cucumbers on the grid. Weaving a bush on a grid combines vertical and horizontal tying, as the plant can develop in different directions.
On the trellis
Garter on the trellis - a design in the form of cross bars made of wood, metal or mesh - is gaining more and more popularity among gardeners.The thing is that you can make a kind of vertical ladder from almost any material at hand, and its vertical arrangement has many advantages in the process of growing and harvesting. As the bush grows, the shoots are tied to the next transverse bar, and the plant rises upward.
About how to tie and how to fix the shoot of a bush, it is worth saying separately.
The best option is:
- special clips that can be used repeatedly;
- cotton fabric, cut into wide stripes, with the ability to withstand heavy loads, but at the same time carefully maintain the stem of the cucumber;
- nylon fabrics; in practice, these are most often elements of nylon tights.
In addition, it is necessary to control the tension of the fastening and not to allow the loop to be tightened around the stem.Important! A wire, thread or fishing line can injure the shoots of a bush, crashing into a fragile and elastic stem and pinching it.
Pyramid
This is one of the types of vertical trellis, when the structure is the basis of 8-10 pegs, fastened with twine, which are connected in the center, forming a kind of pyramid. On this basis, stretch the mesh or twine with twine, forming horizontal crossbars.As a result, cucumbers plant around this pyramid, and they gradually entwine it. Thus, you can get not only a functional structure, but also an interesting element of decor in the form of a green hut.
A simpler way to properly create a pyramid in a greenhouse involves digging in the soil one tall pole, from which the threads stretch to the side, shoots of cucumber bush weave along them. As a result, about 15–20 bushes can be combined.
Arc shaped
The trellis can take the form of an arc that frames a row of cucumber bushes. To create an arc, wooden rods can be used, to which ropes stretched, fixed at the base of the bushes. When the bush begins to grow, its shoots are neatly attached to the guides of the ropes.Over time, he wraps around an arched trellis.
Important! It is necessary to engage in the construction of trellis of any kind before planting seeds in the soil.
Unusual methods of garter cucumbers
Creative ideas and technological development allow us to grow cucumbers not only in standard ways, as our grandmothers and great-grandmothers used to do for a long time. Not all of them are effective enough, but many of them deserve attention.
Decorative
Based on the use of a metal frame, which gives a certain geometric shape. A bush of a cucumber is planted inside the structure, and its whips are released outside and they wrap around the base mesh, as a result of which they get a green, for example, cube of cucumbers. However, it is worth noting the difficulty of implementing this idea and the inconvenience of maintenance.Barrel
For planting a cucumber bush using a large barrel with a volume of 200 liters. It can be without a bottom, which will be its additional advantage. The barrel is filled with suitable soil and seeds are planted. The grown bushes of cucumbers should not be tied, they will hang over the edge in a natural way as they grow.For this method, varieties of cucumbers with an average length of lashes are suitable.
Cucumber tree
To grow cucumbers in this way, it is necessary, fixing the cucumbers to the supports, make a sliding loop and tie them to the trellis. Side lashes are bred in different directions, fixing at the lower supports. During the appearance of female ovaries on the side loops, they are attached to the main trellis. The lateral and central shoots are connected at an angle of 50-60 °, which creates the likeness of a tree of cucumbers.From plastic bottles
From these usual everyday objects, you can make excellent fixators, with the help of which they fix the shoots to the support. A thread about 0.5 cm thick is made from a plastic bottle and wound on a spool. Then cut a piece with a length corresponding to the height of the greenhouse.At one end of the plastic thread, you need to make a small loop with which it is attached to the bush in the region of 2-3 sheets, threading the free end into a loop. The second, free end is fixed to the horizontal bar or trellis at the top of the greenhouse. Then you need to wrap a bush of cucumber clockwise around a plastic thread.
Did you know? Tartronic acid contained in cucumbers has a unique property of neutralizing the carbohydrates that we consume, and, accordingly, prevents the deposition of fats and weight gain. That is why cucumbers are an excellent dietary product.
Possible mistakes
When gartering cucumbers, some difficulties may arise associated with the choice of a garter method or compliance with the technology of tying.
Therefore, sometimes such errors may occur:
- Late garter. Having missed the moment when the bush reached a height of 30–35 cm and has a soft and elastic stem, there may be problems with its fixation, since the stem becomes stronger and, even applying some force to it, can be broken or seriously injured.
- Tight tying. Having created a too tight fixation and tightening the loop tightly on the diameter of the stem at the current moment, you can provoke its crushing in the future, when the bush grows larger, and the diameter of its stem also increases.
- Incorrect Garters can cause injury to the stem and lateral shoots, so it is better not to use hard metal clips.
- Timely stem twisting. If you do not control the growth of the bush and do not help the stem to curl in a given direction, then the top may fall off, as a result of which it may collapse.
- Growth direction. It is necessary to curl the stem clockwise, since all plants follow the movement of the sun, and this corresponds to their nature.