How to manually pollinate cucumbers at home and is it necessary
Growing crops in a greenhouse involves artificial pollination of cucumbers. There are several ways, each of which works to a certain extent.
How to properly pollinate cucumbers at home
To grow a good crop in a greenhouse, it is imperative to monitor how the plants are pollinated. For the convenience of many summer residents, there are self-pollinated cucumbers. They are called parthenocarpic. But most varieties are insect pollinated. Therefore, you should help them with pollination. In the open ground, insects and the wind do this.
How to pollinate cucumbers in a greenhouse, this question interests many summer residents, because the harvest depends on quality pollination.
There are several ways to pollinate:
- Attracting insects.
- Manual pollination.
Attracting insects
The method is based on attracting bees to the greenhouse. The plants are sprayed with a sweet solution.
For this you will need:
- Warm water 1l.
- Honey, sugar or jam 1 tbsp. the spoon.
- Boric acid 0.1 g
It is necessary not only to attract with the smell, but also to help get into the greenhouse. For this, windows and doors are opened. The main thing is not to the detriment of the room temperature and humidity.
If possible, you can have a whole family of bees. Position the hive so that it stands at a height of 40 cm and gets warm in the morning sun. Insects need to navigate well, first they need to get used to their surroundings. They are released into a warm greenhouse when there is still nothing there. Over time, the bee colony will begin its work.
During the flowering of natural honey plants, they need to ensure that they fly outside the greenhouse. To do this, a small window is made in the lid, it must be whitened around, this will help the bees find their way back to the hive easier.
If cucumbers are grown in early spring, then a house with bees is placed in a greenhouse. If in a warmer time, then the hive is left on the street, closely pressed against the wall of the greenhouse, providing them with an unobstructed entrance. The hole made in the wall is aligned with the entrance to the hive. So insects will fly around the greenhouse, fly out of it into the street, through the window on the roof.
The difference between male and female flowers
If there is no way to attract insects, then the cucumbers are pollinated on their own. The main thing here is to deal with the flowers on the plant. There are male and female. It is not difficult to distinguish them from each other.
The male flower does not have a pistil, but it contains a lot of pollen. If you shake it gently, it forms a whole cloud.They are located closer to the base of the stem and are most often grouped in several pieces.
The female flower contains a pistil. Most often located on lateral shoots. It differs from the inflorescences of the opposite sex in that it contains a slight thickening that resembles a small cucumber.
Conditions for fruitful pollination
To pollinate the plant, you need to comply with certain requirements:
- The percentage of moisture in the greenhouse must be taken into account. Not more and not less than 70%. At higher humidity, pollen sticks together, at low humidity it dries quickly.
- Self-pollination is best done in the early morning or before lunch at the latest.
- Female flowers are ready for pollination on day 2. Therefore, the process is carried out on the second day, so it is more likely that the process will be correct and fruitful.
- If it is supposed to carry out varietal pollination, then the female flowers, before pollination, are closed from unwanted penetration of insects into them.
- Flowers that have been self-pollinated should be marked somehow. To make sure everything went right.
Manual way
Manual pollination of cucumbers in a greenhouse is not an easy method, but effective.
Two important rules for pollination:
- There should be a lot of pollen.
- It is best to take pollen from one plant and pollinate flowers from another bush with it.
Observing all the necessary requirements, success awaits any summer resident.
- The first way, you can pollinate with an ordinary brush. To do this, the pollen is very carefully removed from the male inflorescence and transferred to the female flower immediately on the pistil. Then you should cover the pollinated flower. You can use cotton wool or other materials at hand for this.
The brush must be made of natural bristles, preferably very soft. In order not to damage the delicate cucumber flowers.
- The second way, the male flower. It can be used as a pollinator. To do this, it gently breaks down, petals are removed from it. Then it is placed in a female flower, you can leave it in it until the moment when the ovary grows. Several flowers are used.
It is recommended to pollinate cucumbers by hand several times during the week, then the result will be guaranteed. If the ovaries grow, the flowers are considered pollinated.
Self-pollinated varieties
Many summer residents do not like to grow self-pollinated cucumbers. This is due to the fact that they have a taste uncharacteristic for the culture, light stress can reduce the yield of the bush, the plants are dependent on changes in the external growing conditions.
But, despite this, pollinating the plants themselves is quite laborious, so gardeners buy hybrid varieties. Most often these are:
- Zozulya.
- Emelya.
- Hermann.
- Millionaire.
- Summer resident.
- Dynamite.
Experienced gardeners advise using a specific planting scheme for cucumbers for growing in greenhouse conditions. The very first are planted early hybrids of self-pollinating varieties. Most of the crops in the greenhouse should be plants that are pollinated by insects. The last to be planted are the medium-ripening cucumbers.
Growing cucumbers in this way at home will protect the summer resident from crop loss.
Self-pollination privileges
Although this procedure is not easy, many people use it when growing crops in a greenhouse. Hand-pollinated cucumbers grow as varietal. You can safely collect seeds from them without worrying about the future harvest.
Self-pollination makes it possible to get selected fruits. In terms of taste, they practically do not differ from those cucumbers that were grown in the open field. In addition, plants practically do not react to temperature changes, insufficient lighting and other signs unfavorable for their growth and development.
The presence of a large number of barren flowers
First of all, this is not appropriate agricultural technology, that is, something was done wrong.There may be several reasons:
- The seeds were harvested last year.
- Insufficient heating of seeds before planting.
- Lack of light.
- Plants are too close to each other.
In order to correct the situation, you can pinch the top of the plant. Thus, provoke him to develop lateral shoots. And the subsequent formation of female flowers on them.
Receiving a valid crop from a crop is preceded by a large amount of work with plants. Self-pollination at home is no exception. But the work is worth it, cucumbers will certainly thank the patient summer resident with their yield.
