How to grow cucumbers on the balcony: step-by-step instructions

Varieties for growing on the balcony

To get a good harvest of greens from your home windowsill, you need to approach the choice of seeds responsibly. For this purpose , it is advisable to select hybrid varieties and pay attention to the following characteristics of vegetables:

• precocity;
• undemanding to lighting;
• small fruit size (within 7-8 centimeters);
• self-pollinating plants.

According to the specified parameters, gherkin-type varieties will be the best choice for growing in a small room. It has been noticed that the fruits of such crops do not outgrow and do not turn yellow, even if the greens are not picked on time.

These plants are characterized by long-term fruiting (greens can be harvested before the first frost) and excellent taste, but to obtain a good harvest it is necessary to create favorable conditions.

The best varieties of cucumbers for growing on the balcony are:

• Zozulya;
• April;
• Hybrid Claudius;
• Balcony miracle;
• Hybrid Mirinda;
• Debut;
• Hybrid Gladiator;
• Dubrovsky;
• Variety Stella.

Note! The color and size, as well as the taste of the fruit, will depend on the characteristics of the particular variety.

Seed material

Before planting cucumbers, you need to make sure that the selected variety is suitable for the balcony growing method. Breeders have developed varieties intended exclusively for cultivation in a city apartment. You can take a closer look at varieties intended for growing in a greenhouse. It is best to choose low-growing and self-pollinating plants. Of course, you can always use manual pollination methods, but they are not always effective and require time, while self-pollinating varieties are guaranteed to produce a harvest.

The best balcony varieties are considered to be the following: City Cucumber f1, Courage f1, Balagan f1, Balcony Crunch. All of them are high-yielding and disease-resistant.

Selection and preparation of a site

The best conditions for the development of cucumbers are created on window sills located in the south or southeast side of the house. In this case, the vegetable receives a sufficient amount of light and heat from the sun.

But to protect the plant from possible drafts or sudden temperature changes, the containers must be placed in a glazed and pre-insulated balcony or loggia.

If necessary, it is necessary to provide additional heating of crops or install phytolamps (if the amount or duration of natural lighting is insufficient).

Advice! According to numerous reviews from gardeners, when growing cucumbers on the balcony, you need to provide a climate control system. If this is not done, the first sprouts that appear may die from overnight frosts.

To save useful space indoors, apartment residents use flower containers for planting cucumbers. Such containers have compact dimensions, the minimum container width is 15 centimeters, while the length of the product can reach 85 centimeters. During preparation, drainage holes must be provided in each container to remove excess moisture.

It is known that stagnation of water in a container can lead to rotting of the roots of vegetables. Excess moisture will accumulate in a special shallow stand. Expanded clay granules or small crushed stone serve as drainage; they are placed in the lower part of the pot.

Garter and shaping

Cucumbers need a garter to support the plant. There are several ways to tie up a vegetable crop. Stores sell a special coarse mesh made from thick fishing line. Two supports are installed on the sides of the container with seedlings, to which the mesh is tied. You can build an analogue of it from scrap materials.

As for the formation of the plant, only the central stem is left. All side shoots are pruned. With this form, the bush gives maximum yield. If necessary, pinch the central stem.

Priming

To grow cucumbers on the balcony, you need to prepare the right high-quality soil for the crop. You can buy soil in a specialized store or make it yourself.

Vermiculite and peat are considered important components of the nutrient mixture. In addition, the soil must contain the following components:

• 1 volume part of peat;
• 1 part of turf land;
• 1 part humus;
• 1 part sawdust.

All components are thoroughly mixed. Add 5 grams of urea and 10 grams of nitrophoska to a bucket of this mixture.

In the absence of mineral fertilizers, 50 grams of sifted wood ash are added to the same volume of nutrient substrate.

Pollination ability

In a confined space without wind, it seems impossible for insects to achieve fruit set. There are special self-pollinating plant varieties.

The usual process of fertilization is absent here. The fruits are formed automatically. Well, only these cucumbers don’t have seeds. This must be taken into account if you want to independently continue the family of your wards.

Seed preparation

Not everyone knows when to plant cucumber seedlings. Seeds need to be sown in seedling containers from the first days of April so that the plants can sprout their first shoots before the middle of this month.

Subsequently, the cucumbers are moved to the balcony.

Important! Many hybrids are considered early ripening; on average, 60-70 days pass from the moment of sowing the seeds to the first harvest of the greens.

Young plants do not tolerate transplantation well, so it is recommended to plant the grains in disposable plastic cups . At the bottom of each container, several holes are made with a needle to remove excess moisture from the nutrient substrate. The process of planting vegetable seeds consists of several simple operations:

1. Pour the cucumber seeds out of the bags.
2. Prepare a weak solution of potassium permanganate in a glass and drop the seeds there for 15-20 minutes.
3. After the specified time, spread the seed in a thin layer on gauze, which is placed in a saucer with warm water (temperature 55-65 degrees).
4. Germination of cucumbers occurs in a warm and humid environment; the first sprouts on the grains appear on the second or third day from the start of the process.

Sprouted seeds are placed in a nutrient substrate at a depth of 1.5 centimeters, one piece per container. In the first week of cultivation, the air temperature in the room is kept at 22-24 degrees, then gradually reduced.

Instructions for growing cucumbers

Good yields are achieved by diligently following the rules of planting, watering, and fertilizing plants, so we will analyze growing cucumbers on the balcony step by step, stage by stage. You should start by preparing containers for soil, which will require a lot.

Preparing balcony “beds”

Before planting seeds, it is necessary to resolve issues with the containers that will replace the beds and the soil. Moreover, for germinating seeds you will need smaller containers, and for planting plants in the ground - large boxes, buckets, pots or trays.

Plastic flower boxes and netting for shoots

Seeds are usually sown in small plastic disposable cups. Peat cups are sold, from which the sprouts do not need to be removed for planting in the ground. It is believed that the walls of the container will collapse over time and mix with the soil. However, such preparations are not suitable for early ripening plants - the root grows faster than the peat dissolves in the soil.

Cups are placed on a pallet or tray

The root system of cucumbers loves free space, so for growing adult plants you will need a fairly large container - 5 liters, and ideally 10 liters. Large pots for indoor plants or buckets are suitable, taking into account the fact that one plant is planted in 1 container.

Instead of more conventional containers, you can use plastic boxes. Wooden ones will also work, but only as a flowerpot: inside the wooden box you need to place a sealed container with drainage and holes to drain excess liquid.

If there is no suitable container, cucumbers are grown on the balcony in plastic bottles placed along the windows or hung from the walls. By cutting off the top or wall of the vessel with a construction knife, it is turned into a convenient tray.

Modified bottles are as functional as plastic pots

Vegetables are demanding on the soil, which must be loose, fertile, and fertilized. For balcony beds, purchased universal soil for vegetables, flowers, or labeled “for seedlings” is suitable. If you come across dry peat soil, it must be enriched - diluted with humus, black soil and fine sawdust. To ensure looseness, add river sand, perlite or vermiculite.

When watering, the soil does not form lumps and does not float

Wood ash is considered a good soil additive (0.3-0.4 l per 10 l of soil). Potassium sulfate, superphosphate or combined liquid fertilizer is used as fertilizer in the proportions specified in the instructions.

Sowing seeds

If you want to time the cultivation of the crop to coincide with the traditional ripening time, before the sowing procedure you should calculate - add 40-60 days (depending on the ripening period), and you will find out when the first cucumbers will appear. It turns out that early ripening plants planted at the end of February will delight you with a harvest by the beginning of May.

Seeds ready for sowing

The order of sowing cucumber seeds for the balcony:

• untreated seeds are soaked in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for 10-15 minutes;
• the disinfected seeds are rinsed and placed on a napkin, which must be periodically moistened for 2-2.5 days;
• add a growth stimulator (Epin, Zircon) for several hours;
• sowing is carried out.

The strongest and healthiest hatched seeds are selected and planted 1 at a time in a small container with prepared moistened soil and sprinkled with a thin layer of the same soil on top.

A sprouted seed in the ground turns into a sprout

It is important to remember that germination requires a temperature slightly higher than usual – +24-25°C. It is gradually reduced to +18°C, but especially resistant varieties can withstand +15°C.

Growing seedlings

As soon as the seedlings emerge from the ground, they need to be placed in a well-lit area on the balcony. In early spring, the daylight hours are not as long as in May, so artificial lighting can be provided during the dark period. Seedlings should be in the light for 16-18 hours, under the rays of the sun or under a phytolamp.

While small sprouts are gaining strength, the soil must be constantly moistened and the temperature regime must be maintained at +21-22°C. Stagnation of water in cups should be avoided, as should drafts during ventilation. For irrigation, use only clean, settled water at room temperature; cold water cannot be used directly from the tap.

When the first leaves appear, fertilize. This is easy to do by purchasing in the store liquid complex fertilizers specifically designed for cucumber seedlings. As the plant grows, fertilizing is repeated, usually timed to coincide with the appearance of the next leaf.

Healthy and strong shoots

The period for growing seedlings in small containers is approximately 25-26 days, after which they are transplanted into the ground, in our case, into closed ground (in greenhouse conditions). Picking cannot be done, as cucumbers react poorly to any damage to the root system.

Planting in closed ground

Until planting in a permanent place of growth, the seedlings could be in the warmest zone, that is, on an insulated loggia or right in the apartment - on the window sills. Now it is necessary to plant cucumbers on the balcony, that is, in the place where after some time they will bloom and begin to bear fruit. There is no point in waiting until the flowers appear; it is better that they give color after being planted in the ground.

Plants ready for transplanting

1 seedling is planted in pre-prepared pots or buckets, carefully handling the roots. The approximate dimensions of the container are 30 x 30 x 30 cm or more. Each pot has drainage and a system for draining excess liquid (a tray is provided for this). It is desirable that the soil be “native”, that is, the composition is the same as in the cups for seedlings.

Make a hole in the center of the soil backfill, spill it with warm water, then insert the seedling into it along with a also moistened lump of earth from a cup. Sprinkle soil on top, lightly compact and irrigate again. It would be a good idea to immediately install trellises or secure a net - climbing plants cling to them as they grow.

Mesh as a support for shoots

If there are a lot of healthy seedlings and the container has run out, you can use thick garbage bags. They are wider than pots, so 2-3 plants can fit in one bag (at the rate of 3 pieces per 1 m² of soil).

Rules for caring for plants

In order for cucumbers to develop properly and bring the expected harvest on time, you must follow the plant care requirements, which relate to watering, loosening, and fertilizing. If all conditions are met, urban vegetable growers achieve amazing results, proof of this is the numerous photos of cucumbers on the balcony posted on the Internet.

The flowering and fruiting process is successful

So, what you need to pay attention to:

• Watering. Plants are regularly watered with settled water at room temperature, making sure that the soil in the pots does not dry out.
• Drainage. The soil should be moist, but not swampy, so water for irrigation flows freely into the pan.
• Aeration. Loosening is done carefully, trying not to damage the roots. To compensate for the settled soil, add a small amount of soil.
• Spraying. Moisture is needed not only by the roots, but also by the leaves. Air humidification is carried out traditionally - with a spray bottle.
• Shading. Direct sunlight, which is quite hot already in April, has a negative effect on cucumber shoots and leaves, so it is better to cover the windows with a tulle curtain.
• Feeding. It is risky to use organic fertilizers (bird droppings, manure) in a residential area, so you can get by with liquid fertilizers such as Fertika-Lux, Ovary.
• Removing the mustache. The lateral shoots do not participate in the formation of fruits; they can be pinched off.

Wherever the pots with crops are located, there must be support for the shoots nearby. A thin wire or stretched twine will help only at first, before the fruits are quite heavy. It is better to immediately make a strong wooden lattice or wire mesh on the frame.

Metal rods for support

Please note that overgrown bushes take up a lot of space, so try to place them along the wall so that there is a path for free movement. Shoots that reach the ceiling must be pinched.

Seedling care

About three days after sowing, containers with cucumbers are transferred to a well-lit windowsill.

Note! Young plants can die from cold air, so when ventilating the balcony, the seedlings need to be moved to another room.

If there is insufficient sunlight on the windowsill, it is necessary to artificially increase the duration of daylight hours. Fluorescent lamps are used for this. Protect crops from direct sunlight; it is better to shade them with a curtain.

An important condition for caring for cucumber seedlings is proper watering. The soil under the crop is moistened up to two times a day. Watering should be reduced if excess liquid begins to leak out through the drainage hole of the glass.

From the age of one month, cucumbers are fed with liquid fertilizers (10 grams of urea per 3 liters of water). During watering, 100 grams of the nutrient mixture is used for each plant.

Top dressing

The seedlings must be kept on the windowsill for at least 4 weeks. During this period, the shoots will have time to gain strength, and the cucumbers will grow quite well on the balcony.

The first month is considered the most active stage in the development of cucumbers, so gardeners strongly recommend supporting plant growth with fertilizing. Fertilizers are applied 2-3 times a month.

• The simplest feeding option is a urea solution (1 tbsp per 3 liters of water). To feed each shoot, use half a glass of solution.
• Another version of the feeding mixture consists of the following component reagents:

• ammonium and potassium nitrate (4 and 12 each, respectively);
• superphosphate (25);
• magnesium sulfate (4);

The calculation in grams is given for 8 liters of water.

Attention!

Overuse of fertilizing can have the opposite effect. It is better to follow the golden rule and fertilize the seedlings at intervals of at least 10 days.

Transfer to containers

A month after sowing, the seedlings are moved into prepared containers, the soil in which is preliminarily spilled with hot water. The plants are transferred to new containers with special care along with a lump of earth.

To do this, the culture is removed from a plastic cup, moved into a container and pressed with earth. When growing cucumbers on a balcony, they must be protected from drafts and direct sunlight. Corners and end walls are considered ideal places to place them.

Preparatory process

Seeds of a hybrid variety for growing on the balcony can be planted in plastic bottles or containers. Such containers are designed for planting indoor flowers. But you don’t have to bother and plant cucumbers in cut-off plastic bottles (such varieties tolerate such conditions remarkably well). It is a common belief that plastic bottles produce small cucumbers, but we don’t need any more, because hybrid varieties will never be able to produce large fruits.

You can even grow it this way in large bottles.

Of course, choosing a suitable container for growing cucumbers is a very important matter, but special attention should be paid to the choice of soil. It is necessary to remember that cucumbers will grow actively and produce more or less good fruits only if the gardener uses fertile land.

You shouldn't go outside and poke around on the lawn. It is best to visit a specialized store and purchase suitable soil there.

By suitable soil we mean a universal type, which is designed for growing all kinds of vegetable crops with an acidity level in the range of 6.3-6.8. It’s very good if you have a summer house nearby and you can bring some land from there. It is recommended to mix this soil with purchased soil and perlite (4 parts soil, 1 part soil, 1 part perlite). Before planting seeds, it is recommended to additionally treat the soil with a fungicide. You can also warm up all the prepared soil in the microwave.

Cucumber seed sprouts are quite fragile, so they must be handled delicately. In the case when the purchased seeds have an unnatural appearance, such as colored, this will indicate that they were processed in a factory and do not need protection from pests.

If the seeds are ordinary, then it is recommended to keep them for some time (15 - 20 minutes) in potassium permanganate, rinsing them with clean water.

The prepared seeds must be planted in a container: we make holes, keeping a distance of 30-40 cm between them, and plant a seed in each hole (if you want to play it safe, you can plant two seeds in one hole at once). Planting depth - no more than 2.5 cm. As soon as all the seeds are planted, the container must be covered with a plastic bag and left in a sunny place (for example, on a windowsill), where the average temperature during the day is approximately 25 degrees.

Caring for cucumbers on the balcony

Cucumbers on the balcony are watered and fed in the first 7-10 days from the moment of moving . After another 10 days, when the crops begin to develop intensively, they are tied to a support made of strong wire.

The garter is carried out using scraps of fabric or soft rope. In this case, one of the ends of the twine is tied around the cucumber stem, and the other is secured to the support.

Other plant care procedures include periodically loosening the top layer of soil to enrich the cucumber roots with oxygen.

In addition, you need to remove the tendrils of the crop and remove debris from the container. For better development, the leaves of adult plants are sprayed with a spray bottle. At the end of summer, the crop is covered with agrofibre overnight to prevent it from freezing.

Variety selection

There are a number of selective hybrids that bear fruit beautifully on window sills and balconies. These include:

• Balcony cucumber;
• Showcase;
• Emelya;
• Claudia;
• Hummingbird.

The options do not differ from the usual varieties of vegetables in taste and methods of use. At the same time, the resistance of such cucumbers to many common diseases has been noted.

Pests and possible diseases

Growing cucumbers on the balcony is not difficult, because these vegetables are rarely affected by diseases, but they can suffer from pest invasions.

In this regard, the gardener must constantly monitor his plants and take timely measures when pests are detected:

• Whiteflies are repelled with tobacco decoction, which is used to spray cucumber leaves;
• Spider mites are afraid of garlic solution and humid air; do not forget to water the plants.
• Aphid colonies can be destroyed with a soap solution with mustard added.

Important! Diseases and pests appear on cucumbers as a result of improper care, and the gardener himself is to blame.

Elegant

Variety “Graceful”
An exceptional variety of greens, pollinated by bees. It is cultivated on a balcony or windowsill. Breeders have developed many forms of hybrids of this type, which makes it possible to achieve a rich harvest even without bees.

Zelentsy have the shape of an ellipse, dark green, with tubercles on the skin. Cucumbers taste great fresh. Good for pickling and pickling.

Resistant to cucumber diseases, easily tolerates temperature fluctuations. It can itself pollinate other plants nearby.

How to sow cucumbers

When growing by seedlings, it is better to take peat cups or tablets, from which the seedlings are not removed when replanting. More often, sprouted seeds are sown one at a time in permanent containers, because the roots of cucumbers are tender and are susceptible to transplantation.

To sow seeds in a container, drainage is poured into the bottom, then filled with soil. The sprouted seed is placed in a moist hole with the root down, carefully sprinkled with soil. The tip of the seed is left visible from above, then the soil around it is lightly moistened.

To retain moisture and prevent the soil from drying out, garden film is placed on top of the pots. For seedlings, place the containers in a warm place (25 degrees), not forgetting to ventilate, and in 3-4 days green leaves will appear.

After this, the containers are transferred to a bright place where the temperature is kept at 21-23 degrees.

How to properly transplant cucumber seedlings

If the seeds were sown in small containers, then with 3-4 leaves, the seedlings need to be transplanted into larger containers.

Transplant rules:

1. Moist soil is poured into the pots.
2. The plants are not watered the day before transplanting.
3. The height of the holes is made equal to the height of the root ball.
4. To remove a bush from an old container, pour water into it and lightly squeeze the pot in several places.
5. Carefully take out a clod of earth with roots and lower it into the hole.
6. Water, cover with soil and water again.
7. Place in a shaded place, watering is allowed for 6-7 days.