Cultivation, characteristics and description of the cucumber variety Parisian gherkin
Cucumber "Parisian gherkin" refers to varieties of hybrid type with a short growing season (within forty days). Since the plant produces mainly female flowers, cultivation of the Parisian Gherkin variety in a greenhouse must provide for the access of bees. The yield of this variety of cucumbers, given their small size, subject to agricultural standards is very high - within 3.5 kg from 1 m2 landing area.
Description of the variety
In all sources, the description of the "Parisian Gherkin" variety emphasizes the high taste of gherkins, which significantly benefit from preservation as a whole.
In a mature state, cucumbers have a neutral taste, do not taste bitter and, according to reviews, do not form hollow cavities in the pulp even with delayed collection. Other advantages of the Parisian Gherkin variety include:
- small size of cucumbers (up to 10 cm with a weight of about 80 g);
- resistance of the variety to a lack of moisture;
- the immunity of the cucumber variety to certain diseases, for example, cladosporium disease, mosaic virus;
- excellent "keeping quality" of the harvested cucumber crop, which allows even long-distance transportation of fruits;
- a small amount of seeds inside gherkins;
- simultaneous germination of cucumbers;
- the possibility of artificial pollination of cucumbers, which significantly increases the yield of the variety.
For people who do not have their own land, the lack of a vegetable garden is not an obstacle to agronomic experiments with short cucumbers, because growing gherkins is possible even on the balcony.
As in a greenhouse, the microclimate of the glazed balcony allows picking cucumbers until October and the description of this technology will hardly differ from the standard one. There are even reviews calling the main advantage of such an outgoing cultivation, very small neat gherkins dotting the stem in abundance.
Agrotechnics for growing gherkins
When buying gherkin seeds, you need to pay attention to the degree of their readiness for immediate germination, that is, the presence or absence of factory seed treatment.
Information about this must be on the bag with planting material in the section "characteristics of seeds".
Planting by seeds
The highest germination and fruiting rate are possessed by cucumber seeds that have been glazed in special disinfecting compositions and growth activators. Such cucumber seeds can be sown directly into the ground, however, the timing of planting seeds will depend on the technical equipment of the garden:
- in the presence of capital greenhouses, gherkin seeds are introduced into the soil in early May;
- if it is planned to fix cellophane protection over the plantings, then the planting dates for cucumbers of this variety are shifted to mid-May;
- the absence of any shelters implies the late sowing of gherkins, in the last days of May.
French cucumbers of this variety are not too sprawling, therefore 1 m2 the formation of three bushes is allowed. Seeds of gherkins sit to a depth of no more than 2 cm, and the location of each seed is noted.
It is better to start up untreated cucumber seeds for germination at home, having previously held them in saline or a pale pink solution of manganese crystals. A characteristic of healthy seeds of gherkins will be their flooding - floating seeds must be collected from the surface of the water and thrown away.
Seedling cultivation
After selection of healthy full-fledged seeds of cucumbers, they need to be disinfected within an hour with an infusion of crushed small part of garlic (pulp), at the rate of 30 g of gruel per 0.5 cups of tap water.
Then the seeds are washed well and laid out on a moistened gauze pad for 48 hours. In this case, the germination of cucumber seeds is not required - they should only swell and be activated for further growth. At the end of the preparation, it is required to harden the planting material a little, for which a saucer with gherkin seeds laid out in one layer is put on the upper shelf of the refrigerator for 16-20 hours.
According to the recommendations of those experienced gardeners who planted gherkins repeatedly, the period for planting cucumber seeds for seedlings should be determined in accordance with the geographical latitude of residence. In central Russia, this is approximately in mid-April, and accordingly, it will be possible to grow cucumber seedlings only in mid-May.
For germination of gherkin seeds, a mixture of old sawdust, humus and peat (1: 2: 2) is prepared in advance and containers from 8-11 cm high with a drainage hole in the bottom. One prepared cucumber seed is dropped into one container, crushed with a soil mixture and watered.
After a month, in each pot a seedling of gherkins with 2-3 true leaves, ready to continue to develop in the open field, should rise. At this stage, a single feeding of the plant with nitrophos is required, added in the amount of 1 tbsp. spoons into a 3-liter can of heated water.
Proper care of gherkins
It is necessary to form a landing area for the beds 24 hours before the planting of cucumbers of this variety. Immediately follows watering with a solution of copper sulfate (on a bucket of hot water - 0.5 tablespoons of the substance) with a liquid consumption per 1 m2 - 3-3.5 l, and just before deepening the holes - light loosening.
Wells of the required size can be easily obtained by slightly pressing the handle of a shovel into the soil - the depth of each hole should be 3-4 cm, with a distance of 50-55 cm between seedlings. If planting is carried out with seedlings, then it is necessary to ensure that the cucumber bushes do not lie on the ground and are not tilted.
Despite the fact that there are reviews about the futility of loosening in the first two weeks after planting gherkins, the rules of agricultural technology call for the procedure to be performed at least 1 time in 3 days in the first month of seedlings or seeds engraftment, and subsequently, to push the soil at least once every 7 8 days. You also need to be careful about watering, since their regularity will certainly affect the grown cucumbers. Before the flowers appear, the beds are watered once a week and twice as often - during the period of ovary formation. It should be remembered that the cucumber variety "Parisian Gherkin" does not tolerate moisture - only the soil around the bushes is moistened.
As a feeding base, gherkin cucumbers tolerate both ready-made mixtures, for example: "Ideal" or "Breadwinner", and homemade humic formulations.
Cultivation of cucumbers "Parisian gherkins" can be a worthy replacement for the usual varieties of cucumber and salad fruits, especially since the procedure for forming a bush does not require special skills and consists only in pinching the top of the plant once and tying the cucumber stalk in time. Even a novice gardener will be able to master the process, and the result in the form of a bountiful harvest of cucumbers will pay off all the hassle associated with obtaining the first agricultural experience.
For the second year I have been growing this variety of cucumber, my family and I really like it. The cucumbers are quite large and the skin is not bitter. There were no problems with growing, although I did everything differently from what is written in the article, next year I will take this information into account when growing and nursing.