Pear-shaped cucumbers than to feed. Irregular cucumbers: what are they missing and how to treat? Growing conditions and care for cucumbers

Without exception, all gardeners had to deal with such a problem as crooked cucumbers. How to feed so that the greens do not grow bent from now on? First of all, potash dressings. However, the lack of nutrients may not necessarily be the cause of crooked cucumbers.

About such a common problem as gnarled cucumbers, we propose to talk today.

Why do cucumbers grow crooked? Main reasons

Lack of elements, mainly potassium

Potassium is a macronutrient responsible for the formation of fruits, be it cucumber, raspberry or carrot. The complex fertilizers that you apply (if you apply) during planting, such a powerful plant consumes even before the formation of fruits, and at the time of filling the greens it requires new, shock doses of potassium. There is nowhere to take them to a cucumber, except from dressings.

These are the greens that grow with a lack of potassium

With potassium starvation, cucumbers most often have a narrow "bottom" and a wide lower part, where there was a flower. But this is not a mandatory indicator - it may simply be severe twisting or other deformation. Also, the lack of this element will be indicated by a yellow border along the edge of the leaves. It is curious that the lack of potassium in tomatoes is manifested in a violation of pigmentation: it slowly ripens near the "bottom", sometimes in spots, unevenly. If there are such tomatoes on your site, at the same time feed them with potash fertilizers.

Lack of potassium appears on the leaves of cucumbers with a yellow border

Cucumbers lack potassium: how to feed?

-root top dressing - ash... Yes, ordinary ash, and preferably herbal, obtained after burning grasses and weeds. There is more calcium in wood ash, which also does not harm, but in this case it will be slightly off. Moderately lazy gardeners can simply close up the ash in the root zone of the plant, but it will be more useless, there is to prepare the so-called. mother liquor. A bucket of water is added to one and one and a half liter cans of ash, they insist for several days and a concentrate is obtained. One liter of such an ash concentrate is again diluted with a bucket of water and a gorgeous potash dressing is obtained. Potassium sulfate is also sold in stores - half a liter of solution (3-4 tablespoons per bucket of water) under each bush will help fix the problem.

- foliar feeding."Align" the cucumbers will turn out faster if, in addition to the root, foliar feeding is also carried out. You can take the same ash solution or potassium sulfate, but in a concentration that is two times lower. In cold, gloomy weather, foliar feeding should be preferred.

However, if you have calculated that squiggling cucumbers grow precisely because of a lack of potassium, it is not a fact that there is little potassium in the soil. At low temperatures, as well as temperatures over 30-35 ° C, potassium is simply not assimilated by plants. Therefore, in the heat, the greenhouses are regularly ventilated, the roofs are whitened, and in the cold season, on the contrary, barrels of water are installed, which collect heat during the day and give it back at night. For open field cucumbers in cold weather, you can build a mini-greenhouse.

Crop rotation plays a significant role here. Naturally, cucumbers should not be planted after pumpkin seeds. But even after strawberries, eggplants, tomatoes and other crops that need high doses of potassium, the cucumber will be uncomfortable. Therefore, fertilize the plants not only when the cucumbers are curled up, but regularly. Fertilizers for cucumbers are given every one and a half to two weeks during watering or after rain, alternately using either organic matter or mineral fertilizers. And since the seedlings of cucumbers are planted rather late, you can easily manage to enrich the soil with siderates - for example, oats, the most "potash" of green fertilizers.

But if the plant itself is pale, and the fruits have a wide "bottom" and a narrow end where the flower was, then the cucumbers lack nitrogen. In this case, it is best to fertilize with chicken droppings or herbal infusions - that's where the real cocktail of organics and microelements is.

Nitrogen-deficient cucumbers

Other reasons why cucumbers grow uneven:

- Improper watering ... Due to the rare watering of cucumbers, when the ground remains dry for a long period, the cucumbers are arched.

Cucumber not getting enough moisture

And if you water the cucumbers with cold water, or when a rather cold night comes to replace the still warm day, the cucumbers get a kind of screeds in the middle, the greens take the form of a crooked barrel. Do not forget to mulch the soil - this will preserve moisture and smooth out the temperature difference.

- Unsuitable variety ... It happens that cucumbers do not have the opportunity to develop normally due to the fact that the length of daylight hours does not suit them. You need to follow the manufacturer's recommendations on the packaging

- Remove ripe cucumbers regularly ... The presence of overgrowths on the lash, especially the yellow ones, gives the command "stop" to the development of further fruits, the supply of nutrients is disrupted, and you are provided with crochet cucumbers. If you can't regularly visit the dacha, cut off the harvest at the gherkin stage, from 4 cm.

As you have seen, the main reason why cucumbers grow curves is a bias in mineral nutrition, a lack of certain elements. Therefore, you need to feed the cucumbers from the very beginning of their growing season, using both mineral and organic dressings. And correct watering and smoothing of night temperatures will reduce the possibility of the appearance of gnarled cucumbers to zero.

Throughout the season, many environmental factors affect the growth and development of cucumbers. The combination of their effects determines the shape, size, taste of the fruit. With insufficient care of the plant at the end of the season, you can get crooked cucumbers. And here it is worth asking the question: “What are they missing? Why do cucumbers crochet? ” The reasons and options for solving the problem of the appearance of cucumbers growing in a greenhouse will be discussed in this article.

Watering

A large number of problems with the growth and fruiting of cucumbers lies in the simplest procedure - watering. It is incredible, but true: often even experienced gardeners do not know how to properly water plants in a greenhouse, and as a result, they get a bunch of diseases in the grown plants or their death.

There are several options for improper watering:

• Watering with cold water. Given that the temperature of the air and soil in the greenhouse is relatively stable, a certain microclimate is created that is favorable for the growth of cucumbers. Therefore, it is so important to monitor the temperature of the water. If it is much lower than the soil temperature, you will chill the roots of the plant. This, in turn, will force them to redistribute the accumulated resources so as to neutralize the resulting damage.
• Insufficient watering. Cucumbers love moisture, withering during dry periods. Dry soil leads to a slowdown in vegetative processes, which affects the development of fruits. In fact, the plant goes into a saving mode, spending a minimum of resource on the formation of fruits, which is why they are deformed and become smaller.
• Excessive watering. Just like the lack of moisture, its excess leads to deformation of the fruit. This is due to decay of the root system and the inability to absorb useful trace elements from the soil, since they are washed out by an abundance of water.

Lack of light and heat

It sounds a little strange, but crooked cucumbers grow in a greenhouse from a lack of heat and light. Comfortable air temperature for normal growth of cucumbers is + 23-26 degrees. If it is higher, the cucumbers become withered, rapidly turn yellow and wither, and if it is lower, they get sick and carry crooked fruits. Even when growing them in a greenhouse, carefully monitor the weather forecast and insulate them if frost is promised. It is especially important to monitor the temperature regime in the last phase of flowering, just before the beginning of fruiting.

Insufficient lighting is another scourge of cucumbers. This happens for various reasons: cloudy weather, thickening, improperly built greenhouse. Be that as it may, the lack of light adversely affects the vegetation and photosynthesis of the plant, which leads to deformation of the fruit into a hook-shaped shape.

Excessive planting density leads to the fact that cucumbers fade. It is imperative to carry out pinching and pinching of bushes in order to thin out thick leaves and make life easier for the plant.

Fertilizers

The question of fertilizing the soil in the greenhouse is always acute. Is what is brought in during the preparation of the land enough or is more needed? The ratio of different mineral and organic fertilizers has a huge impact on the growth of cucumbers. Both a shortage and an excess of them in the soil can lead to deformation of the fruit. With a lack of phosphorus, potassium, iron, copper, nitrogen, the leaves of the plant turn yellow, and the fruits lose their taste and grow small. At the same time, with an excess of any of these elements, about the same happens - the plant behaves strangely, does not bear fruit or does not bear fruit well.

Hooked fruits grow with a lack of potassium. It is known for certain that fertilization with yeast, herbal infusions, chicken droppings or mullein leads to the leaching of potassium from the soil. And without this, the proper formation of fruits will not take place. As a result, you have spreading bushes of cucumbers with small, ugly fruits in your beds.

If the predecessors of cucumbers in this place were zucchini, dill, pumpkins, then the soil became depleted in nutrient micro- and macroelements, so that it leads to dystonia of plants, totally inhibiting their growth and fruiting. Try not to allow such a cultivation sequence, and also carry out timely complex fertilizing and fertilization of the soil. Thus, you will get rid of the problem of ugly, small or crooked cucumbers.

Parthenocarpic neighbors

Parthenocarpic, that is, forming fruits without pollination, cucumber varieties do not get along very well in a greenhouse with other varieties, conventional or hybrid. Try to delimit them by placing them at different ends of the greenhouse or even seating them in different rooms. If you nevertheless decide to plant parthenocapic cucumbers with pollinated insects, then separate them from each other with a dense cloth to reduce the interaction with airborne droplets. Why is this necessary? Pollen from hybrid varieties, falling on parthenocarpic ones, pollinates the inflorescences, disrupting the program of the formation and development of the fetus laid down in them. Thus, crooked fruits can be obtained.

Late harvest

When growing any plants in a greenhouse, it is important to harvest the ripening crop on time. First of all, this will preserve the quality and taste of the fruit, prevent it from rotting or being damaged by insects. In addition, this way you will help the cucumbers to form the following fruits without unnecessary problems. Leaving ripe cucumbers on the bush for a long time, with your own hands, you will deprive the bush of the chance to re-form the ovaries.

Harvest fresh fruits every 2-3 days to ensure long-term fruit production in the greenhouse.

Another reason for the formation of crooked fruits is planting cucumbers in the same place for several years in a row. First, it increases the risk of fungal diseases (root rot, gray rot, downy mildew, copperhead). Secondly, during growth, a toxin, colin, accumulates in the soil. Its excess affects the shape and size of the fruit.

When it comes time to harvest, most gardeners complain that cucumbers are irregular in shape.

The aesthetic unattractiveness of the grown fruits lowers their market value and, therefore, makes transportation and processing more difficult. As practice has shown, the harvest of irregularly shaped cucumbers is quite difficult to roll up.

They can only be useful for pickling in wooden barrels or for vegetable salads. So why are cucumbers so irregular? Let's try to figure it out.

Undesirable proportions of cucumbers, which appear in the form of a crooked fruit, in most cases are observed if the rules of the cultivation technique of the named crop are not followed. Today there are errors such as:

• non-compliance with the recommendations of the crop rotation of cucumbers;
• illiterate choice of varieties and their subsequent planting in the ground;
• shortcomings during watering;
• violation of the temperature regime;
• feeding that was not performed properly;
• late collection.

As a result of non-observance of certain rules, cucumbers become hooked. This moment can be explained by the imbalance in the earth of certain elements and the accumulation of toxins.

Cucumbers are quite sensitive to nutrients. If cucumber fruits are grown all the time in the same area, the concentration of the toxin reaches its climax. That is, the plant stops growing due to a negative impact on its quality.

Cucumbers will grow beautiful, provided that last year the harvest of such crops as potatoes, tomatoes, onions for turnips, greens, legumes, cabbage, and root crops grew in the cucumber planting area. Poor soil cannot provide cucumber plants with the required amounts of nutrients.

Illiterate choice of varieties

Of fundamental importance for the correct formation of the fruit is the purchase of the desired variety and the subsequent planting of seedlings. Growing seeds and further planting seedlings in the ground, almost all gardeners assure that they performed all actions strictly according to the rules. That is, there were no deviations from the norm in the scheme. However, the cucumbers grew irregularly shaped - crocheted. Why?

Bee-pollinated and parthenocarpic varieties

If you look in detail, it turns out that at the time of planting cucumbers, gardeners made mistakes when planning the arrangement of varieties relative to each other. Simply put, the bee-pollinated and parthenocarpic varieties were planted closely.

In order for parthenocarp cucumbers to appear, there is absolutely no need for pollination in order for ovaries to appear. Insufficient pollination of bee-pollinated varieties contributes to the formation of hooked fruits. For full-fledged pollination of bee-pollinated varieties or hybrids, one should try to select varieties suitable for pollination, attract bees and bumblebees, and in the absence of the latter, carry out artificial pollination of cucumber ovaries.

Timely collection

Observing the above recommendations, many gardeners continue to ask the question: "Why do cucumbers of an irregular shape grow crooked?" In this case, it is strongly recommended to pay close attention to the timeliness of picking cucumbers. As practice shows, irregular harvesting leads to the fact that nutrients will be distributed incorrectly, which means that cucumbers will grow irregularly shaped.

The presence of overgrown greens on the stems will necessarily cause a delay in the ripening of new fruits. Typically, the fruit ripens every two days. If you pick cucumbers less often, overripe cucumbers will not be as tasty, tender and beautiful.

A few words about watering cucumbers

Asking why the cucumbers are not quite the right shape, summer residents should provide the cucumbers with proper watering.

In this case, you need to know that the reason for the growth of irregular cucumbers may be, on the one hand, insufficient moisture in the earth, on the other, ice water.

If the soil begins to dry out, there is a cessation of the growth of cucumbers as a result of the plant's redistribution of the elements vital for development, which are contained in the stem. As a result, cucumbers lose their usual shape.

Some are also surprised that hooked cucumbers also grow with constant watering. Cold water is the most common cause. As practice shows, as well as pumpkin crops, cucumbers do not tolerate cold well. That is, we can say with all confidence that it is cold watering that is a kind of obstacle to the full formation of the cucumber crop.

Temperature violation

When talking about the irregular shape of cucumbers, it is important to say that a fairly common cause is lack of heat. In the event of a decrease in temperature, the culture stops its growth, which affects the formation of the fruit itself. In this case, the plant cannot assimilate those trace elements that the earth is rich in.

If the temperature regime fluctuates, in most cases, constrictions are observed in fruits. When the weather is too hot outside, plant leaves have all the risks of getting burned, becoming the source of the development of numerous diseases.

Incorrect composition of dressings

A common cause of fruit curvature is a phosphorus deficiency or the predominance of nitrogen in soil and plants over phosphorus and potassium as a result of an unbalanced diet. If there is no predominance of nitrogen, then you can feed the plants with a solution of Solution. In any case, you can feed with a solution of potassium monophosphate or superphosphate. The first fertilizer is more expensive, but it dissolves more easily in water.

Moreover, some think that the matter can be corrected with nitrogen-based fertilizing, and therefore they begin to actively apply only such types of fertilizers. The result of such actions is the deformation of the fruit. An increased amount of nitrogen in the soil against the background of a lack of phosphorus and potassium causes the ovary to fall off.

How to deal with the curved shape of cucumbers

Most cases of a curved shape are observed when thickening of the planting and lack of light occurs. Fruits become crooked also at low temperatures at night (below +12 degrees), as well as when thrips and aphids are affected.

Treatment in this case is reduced to planting seedlings in accordance with the required nutritional area. If this is an open soil, there should be no more than five pieces per square meter, but if greenhouse cultivation is planned, two or three seedlings.

We must also remember about the formation of lashes of cucumbers, timely pinching of shoots from the side, arrangement of a vegetable garden in well-lit areas, away from buildings and trees.

Barrel and pear-shaped cucumbers: how to ensure proper treatment?

As for constrictions, they can occur on cucumbers due to watering with ice water or drying the soil. It is these two factors that influence the formation of a barrel-shaped fruit. Many such greens can also be obtained with irregular harvests, when many overgrown fruits can be found on the plant. In this case, one cannot but recall the lack of moisture.

Pear-shaped cucumbers are observed in the fruits of bee-pollinated varieties with a lack of insects - pollinators on the site. And in parthenocarpic hybrids, when transferring pollen to flowers from crops of other varieties, as well as in the case of an insufficient amount of potassium.

It is advisable to open bee-pollinated varieties and hybrids of cucumber to insects, growing near them plants of the melliferous type - lemon balm, catnip, oregano, mint, phacelia, sunflower, buckwheat to attract bees and bumblebees.

It is advisable to cover parthenocarpic ones at the time of flowering with a thin non-woven fabric. If potassium deficiency is a problem, fertilizers based on potassium and ash can be of great help.

Pointed fruits and "Siamese twins": how to treat?

Sharpened cucumbers are the result of a lack of nitrogen. If we talk about the drying out of the tips, it is provoked by a lack of calcium. For high-quality treatment and prevention, fertilizing with fertilizers that contain calcium and nitrogen can be considered.

Accreted fruits, or as they are also called "Siamese twins", can be the result of stressful situations, improper use of funds that stimulate the growth of seedlings.

Here, the genetic predisposition of certain varieties to such behavior is of no small importance. It is possible to grow good fruits, provided that agrotechnical rules are observed, maintaining a constant temperature and humidity without drops, and using high-quality growth stimulants.

When we plant any vegetables in our gardens, we expect that in the end they will grow the same as in the picture with seeds. But, to such "beauty" they often simply do not hold out, and look much less attractive. This applies to many vegetables, the same tomatoes, which often just burst right on the bushes. Cucumbers often do not please us with their correct shapes either. They take various forms, just not the way we would like to see. Ugly cucumbers quite often lie in our beds and they do not decorate them at all. Somehow I don't even want to pick such cucumbers. That is why many of them are left to lie down until the garden is cleaned. And how offensive it can be, coming to the market to see that all the cucumbers are even and practically of the same shape. How do people manage to grow such beauty? Let's try to figure out what your cucumbers lacked, since they grew up so "handsome".

If the cucumbers grow in irregular shapes. The reasons for this phenomenon

So, why do your cucumbers do not meet "beauty standards" and differ greatly from them for the worse? Cucumbers are vegetables that must be eaten well, that is, the soil must provide them with all the necessary substances. There should be enough of them. But, at the same time, they love the norm, that is, the concentration of such substances should not be exceeded. So, based on this, you need to feed them more often when compared to other vegetables. Once a week, for example. But, here it is necessary to do this only in small portions, and apply mineral fertilizers for this. If something important is missing in the soil, or you seriously overdid it with the introduction of some fertilizers, then the fruit itself will surely "tell you" about this, your task is to learn to understand this difficult language of cucumbers. Now we are just going to study this "cucumber" language.

If you have added little nitrogen to the soil, then the fruits of the cucumbers will be light green. This color does not depend on the variety. With this color, where there was a flower, that is, the top of the cucumber, usually narrows and sharpens. Often, this upper part of the cucumber also bends, and often reminds us of the beak of some exotic bird. The very same shape of the cucumber is close to the shape that resembles a conical carrot. The lack of this rather important element is reflected not only in the shape of the cucumbers, but also in the leaves of the plant itself. The leaves just turn yellow from below, the side stems and shoots seriously slow down their growth.

It happens that, on the contrary, we overdid it with nitrogen. Then, accordingly, the cucumbers become dark green in color, and the leaves themselves and all the whips grow very rapidly. Here the situation needs to be straightened out. For this, cucumbers will need another feeding - superphosphate or an even simpler option, wood ash. There is no need to hesitate here, otherwise you will not get any fruits at all, even an irregular shape. But there will be a lot of tops.

There are potassium problems. When there is little of it, the fruits are narrowed, and this narrowing occurs towards the stalk. But the top, on the contrary, expands and takes on a spherical shape. As a result, the cucumber itself, as a whole, looks like a light bulb or a pear. The leaves are also deficient in potassium. A light-colored border appears on them, along the edges, starting right from the lower leaves. In case of heat, such a plant may also wither slightly.

Cucumbers have received less phosphorus, then expect their general slowdown in growth. The whips themselves almost stop growing, the leaves become very small (dark green in color), and often dry up very quickly.

It happens that fertilizers have nothing to do with it. Often the fruits taper in the middle, and acquire a "wasp" waist when the temperature differs significantly between night and day, or when you watered them with very cold water. When the cucumbers are bent and resemble a kind of arc in shape, it means that the soil is very dry, or you watered them extremely unevenly

Try to remember these signs, then it will be easier for you to figure out what exactly your cucumbers are missing at the moment. How to feed them or what to change when caring for them.

And here is a good video, where they will tell you again why cucumbers grow irregularly shaped. We look.

Share this important information with your friends on social networks!

READ ALSO

Evgeny Sedov

When hands grow from the right place, life is more fun :)

Content

Among gardeners, cucumbers are considered the most unassuming, non-capricious vegetables. They are actually easy to grow if you follow certain care rules. Otherwise, they can grow irregular and unattractive to the taste. Such vegetables are difficult to roll; they can only be used for pickling or for salad.

Why do cucumbers curl in a greenhouse

The main sign of the quality of vegetables is their appearance. The flatter and greener the cucumbers are, the better for and for fresh consumption. However, it happens that people plant the same variety, take care of the fruits in about the same way, but get a different harvest. So why are jagged cucumbers growing? Many factors influence the formation of fruits, so it is impossible to give a definite answer. Much depends on the degree of illumination of the greenhouse, moisture, nutrition, the selected variety.

Lack of potassium in the soil

During the fruiting of cucumbers, it is necessary to give priority to potassium. If there is not enough of this mineral, the fruits begin to grow in a crochet, the leaves turn dark green. In addition, you can notice such characteristic signs as stretching of plants and a large number of barren flowers. Often this happens due to the fault of gardeners who like to process cucumbers with nitrogen-containing fertilizers, which leads to a violation of potassium metabolism.

Why do cucumbers crochet in the second half of summer? The fact is that from the end of July the temperature decreases at night and because of the cold it is difficult for plants to absorb potassium. If before that there was a lack of minerals, the situation becomes even worse - the cucumbers are deformed even in the greenhouse. Active root feeding with potassium-containing substances will help to solve the problem.

Different varieties of cucumbers in one greenhouse

Another reason for the formation of crooked fruits is the proximity of different varieties. Although all cucumbers love humid air, frequent watering, there are differences between them. For example, some varieties are bee-pollinated, others are hybrids that do not require pollination. For this reason, you should know the biological characteristics of cucumbers in order to avoid the appearance of an irregularly shaped cucumber. You can not grow together unsuitable varieties within the same greenhouse. At a minimum, you can try to isolate the plants with non-woven material, gauze.

Watering cucumbers with cold water

Why are cucumbers uneven? Perhaps they are being watered incorrectly. Both cucumber seedlings and adult plants love room temperature of water in the range of 18-23 degrees. If watering is carried out with colder water, vegetables react painfully: their development is inhibited, diseases appear, fruits begin to grow in a crochet. To prevent this, cucumbers must be watered with water at room temperature. This should be done carefully so as not to blur the roots and break the stems. It is advisable to water not with a hose, but with an ordinary garden watering can.

Features of the variety

Irregularly shaped cucumbers can grow as a result of the wrong variety. If the gardener has planted light-loving, heat-loving species of hybrids, at the end of summer they will definitely respond to a decrease in temperature and a decrease in daylight hours by changing their shape. These types of cucumbers must be planted early and harvested before fall (late August).

Found a mistake in the text? Select it, press Ctrl + Enter and we'll fix it!