How to Plant Cucumbers to Fruitful

Cucumber or commonly known as cucumber is a type of fruit that is favored by most people because it gives a fresh sensation when consumed. Cucumber is very easy to find everywhere because this cucumber itself is one type of fruit that is always there at any time. Not only for consumption, cucumber also has considerable benefits in the field of beauty, one of which is a mask made from cucumber extract.

However, this cucumber or cucumber cultivation often fails, especially so that cucumber plants can produce lots of fruit. This is because cucumbers need special treatment so that their productivity is high. Now many also choose to cultivate cucumbers hydroponically. Now especially for you readers of Kutanam, this time we will show you how to grow cucumbers so that they can produce dense fruit.

Land Preparation

Preparing the land is important, and this is the first step in growing cucumbers. You can loosen the soil to make it fertile by hoeing. After doing the loosening, the next step is to make a bed with a size of 1×5 meters with a height of 30cm, and the distance between beds is 50cm. To facilitate maintenance, it is better to use a mulch cover. This is intended so that maintenance can be easier without having to weed weeds.

Next is to make a planting hole that has a depth of about 20 cm, while the distance between the planting holes is 50×60 cm. After inserting compost or manure into each planting hole, then let it sit for up to one week.

Seeding

While waiting one week since the fertilizer is put into the hole, you can first sow the seeds in polybags containing soil and compost/manure with a balanced composition. Seeds usually begin to grow at the age of 14 days. Seeding is intended so that cucumbers can more easily adapt when moving from seedling media to planting media. Make sure you have high-quality seeds so that they can produce good and dense fruit.

Planting

After the seeds are ready, then immediately transfer the seeds from the seedling media to the planting medium without delay. If it is late, the seeds will be very susceptible to pests and diseases so the seeds can die due to being in the seedling medium for too long. To transfer from seedling media to planting media, you only need to open a plastic polybag containing the seeds, then place the seeds along the previously prepared planting hole, then cover again with soil until the plants can stand upright.

Pruning

In order to maximize growth, vegetative growth must be controlled. This can be done by pruning the shoots which aim to leave three shoots that can produce fruit. The more shoots that are maintained, the longer the plant can produce fruit, and if the plant produces fruit, the results will not be optimal. That's why this pruning is quite important to do. Pruning shoots can be started at the age of 1 to 1.5 months after planting and carried out when the plant is not flowering.

Fertilization

This stage is intended so that plants can develop optimally and produce more fruit.

Fertilizer must be carried out from the time the plant is transferred from the seedling medium to the planting medium until it enters the harvest period. At this time you can provide fertilizer with the following types and variations:

1. NPK fertilizer is given when the plant is 7 days old from entering the planting medium, with a frequency of 2 to 3 times a week which is given by pouring it into the plant, with an initial dose of 5 grams per 1 liter of water and can be increased to 20 grams per 1 liter of water. This fertilizer is given until the plants flower.
2. Compost or manure can be added from time to time because the seedbed soil will be eroded by water so the plants need to be filled with holes so that the plants do not fall to the bottom.
3. KCL fertilizer is given by spreading it around the roots at a dose of 5 g per planting hole, and starting when the cucumber plants have started to flower. Fertilizer will help the flowers not fall off or rot before the fruit comes out.
4. Fruit fertilizer is given by spraying which can be done when small fruit begins to appear. This process is done so that the fruit does not fall and does not rot.

Control

What is controlled here is not the fruit that comes out of each plant, but rather the strength of the plant that will support the fruit. If it is too heavy, the plant will fall to the ground.

Therefore, at this phase thinning must be done, namely by selecting the fruit. Discard fruit that is not good or does not meet the requirements such as growing abnormally, small, or deformed due to plant diseases/pests. This way you can get really good quality crops.

Now you have received a good education on how to grow cucumbers correctly from seeding to harvesting. Even though it's not as easy as in harvest moon or other farming games, if you apply it correctly then you have high hopes that you won't fail in growing cucumbers!