The use and types of potash fertilizers for cucumbers
Many gardeners neglect the use of mineral and organic fertilizers when growing crops. Potash fertilizers for cucumbers are a necessary fertilizer, without which it will be impossible to get a good and stable harvest. During the cultivation of crops, the soil becomes thinner and needs to be fertilized regularly.
Characteristics of potash fertilizers
Potash fertilizers are one of the most common mineral fertilizers in agriculture, which are used to enhance plant immunity and accelerate growth during the growing season.
The use of potassium in cucumbers helps to create a protective barrier in the soil that prevents the development of harmful insects. In addition, potassium fertilizer for cucumbers has a beneficial effect on their health. With sudden changes in temperature and prolonged rains, cucumbers are less likely to get sick. Vegetable fruits that have been fertilized with potassium last longer after harvest.
Deficiency of minerals always negatively affects the growth and formation of ovaries in vegetables. Organic matter alone will not be enough to grow a rich crop.
Varieties of potash fertilizers
Potash fertilizers are classified into two main types:
- Simple;
- Complex.
As can be understood from the names, complex dressings contain several minerals, and simple ones - only one.
Varieties of simple dressings:
- Potassium humate liquid
Potassium humate in liquid form is diluted with cool water and watered with cucumber beds. This fertilizer can be used together with organic matter.
Feeding cucumbers with potassium humate helps to increase the yield and the percentage of germination of planting material, stimulates the immune system of plants, and also increases the shelf life of the crop.
One of the main benefits of potassium humate for cucumbers is the ability to remove toxins and nitrates from plants. Cucumbers can be treated with this product before sowing seeds and during the growing season.
- Potassium sulfate
If the cucumbers do not have enough nutrition, then you can use potassium sulfate. It improves the circulation of fluid in plant tissues. This ensures that the nutrients are evenly distributed throughout the plant. Also, potassium sulfate has a beneficial effect on the formation of shoots in cucumbers.
You can apply top dressing to the soil at any time. If the soil on the site is heavy, then you can fertilize it in the fall to prepare for planting the future harvest. If the soil is light, then top dressing is applied in the spring during digging up the soil and during the growing season for cucumbers.
- Potassium salt
The lack of potassium in a cucumber can be replenished by regularly watering the beds with a solution of potassium salt. This fertilizer is obtained by mixing two substances: potassium chloride and sylvinite. To contribute potassium salt it is necessary only in sandy or peaty soils, where there is a lack of potassium. Fertilization affects the growth and development of cucumbers last.
Top dressing is introduced in the fall after harvest.
Complex:
- Monopotassium phosphate
Potassium monophosphate is soluble in water. Feed cucumbers during planting in a permanent place in the spring. Fertilizer improves immunity and promotes active growth. Under the influence of substances, flowering in cucumbers begins earlier, and the ovaries are formed more actively.
- Nitrophoska
If there is not enough potassium, then you need to feed the cucumbers with nitrophos. It is a nitrogenous potassium fertilizer that provides bushes with active flowering of crops, the formation of ovaries and fruits.
- Potassium nitrate
How to feed cucumbers? You can also feed the cucumbers with potassium nitrate. The most favorable period is fruiting. Potash nitrate is especially suitable as a fertilizer for greenhouse cucumbers. It contains potassium and nitrogen.
If crops are fertilized with several substances, then their dosage should be halved. Overfeeding cucumbers is not advisable. Since in this case they will begin to bear fruit worse.
When to apply top dressing
Lack of potassium negatively affects the growth and development of cucumbers. Therefore, it is important to timely fertilize the soil. To ensure positive results, it is important to accurately determine the period when feeding will be most acceptable for cucumbers.
The initial state of the soil is also important. If the soil contains enough nutrients, then fertilization can be dispensed with.
How to feed cucumbers at home?
If the soil contains sufficient potassium, then the cucumbers do not need additional fertilization. If there is a lack of potassium, then it is necessary to apply simple or complex fertilizers, which include it.
It is important to remember that at different stages of the life of cucumbers, they require different substances.
When to feed plants with potash fertilizers:
- During planting in a permanent place, there may be a lack of potassium in cucumbers;
- Plants also suffer from potassium deficiency during the growing season and the formation of shoots;
- It is especially important to feed cucumbers with humic fertilizers during the fruiting period. At this time, potassium is actively absorbed from the soil by bushes.
For greenhouse cucumbers, the potassium solution should be less concentrated. In greenhouses, due to high humidity and high air temperature, the amount of substances only increases.
Potassium fertilization also differs in the method of application to the soil. There are two types:
- Root;
- Foliar.
But with any method, only warm water can be used for dilution.
How to understand that cucumbers need potassium
If there is not enough potassium in the soil, then this will be clear from the appearance of the bushes. To know exactly when the mineral deficiency began, it is important to know the signs of a potassium deficiency.
Potash deficiency symptoms:
- Scourges and leaves begin to grow actively, but practically no ovaries are formed;
- The leaves take on a dark shade;
- A yellow border appears on the leaves, gradually they begin to dry out;
- Zelentsy become pear-shaped.
Another sign by which it is possible to determine the lack of mineral substances in the soil is barren flowers, as well as a strong pulling of the bushes up. If any of these signs are observed, then manure can also be used as organic fertilizer.
How to feed cucumbers with potassium
The first potassium top dressing should also contain phosphorus and nitrogen. It is introduced at the stage of emergence. When the first three leaves appear on the seedlings, then you can start applying mineral fertilizers. Then it should be repeated every 15 days.
It is also not recommended to feed the bushes often. Otherwise, there will be an excess of minerals in the soil and plants will begin to actively grow deciduous mass, and the fruits will stop growing.
In the greenhouse, the application of dressings should not exceed 5 times. Outdoors - 7. Cucumbers fed in this way grow more actively, and the fruits are stored longer.
Many gardeners prefer to alternate organic with non-organic. But this advice should be followed only if the soil is very poor. If during the planting of seedlings, organic fertilizing has already been introduced into the soil, then during the season you need to feed the cucumbers only with minerals.
For feeding with potassium, it is preferable to choose foliar feeding, because in this case, if the bushes are overfed, then the mature vegetables will not taste bitter.
If a ready-made complex fertilizer is used, then it should be prepared according to the instructions.
Before flowering cucumbers:
- 250 gr. mullein (you can take bird droppings);
- 2 tsp superphosphate;
- 2 tsp potassium;
- 10 liters of warm water.
Mix all ingredients and dilute with warm water. Water from a watering can closer to the roots of the bushes. After such feeding, the cucumbers will have more nutrients.
The next time you water the homemade cucumbers by the beginning of the fruiting period, when the formation of ovaries begins.
- 10 liters of warm water;
- 200 gr. mullein;
- 1.5 tbsp. l. nitrophosphate.
Water the cucumbers at the root, being careful not to touch the leaves.
You can also water the bushes with potassium monophosphate. But before using, you need to pay attention to the appearance of zelents. If the shape of the cucumbers is pear-shaped, then top dressing can be applied. If the zelents are of normal form, then there is no need for it.
