Deformed fruits, an unpleasant bitter taste and a large number of empty flowers indicate that cucumbers do not have enough nutrients. During fruiting, the crop needs special fertilizing based on potassium and nitrogen. Such fertilizers affect the growth and number of fruits. But not all summer residents want to use chemicals on their property; many prefer to use proven folk remedies, the safety of which you don’t have to worry about.
Ash-based fertilizer
To increase the number of fruits, cucumbers need potassium. The natural source of this chemical element is ash. To create fertilizer you will need water and wood ash:
- For 5 liters of warm water, take a heaped glass of ash;
- mix all ingredients thoroughly;
- Water the bushes with the resulting solution.
This fertilizing not only increases the number of fruits, but also affects their taste, eliminating bitterness and voids in cucumbers.
Onion peel fertilizer
Nutritional food for cucumbers is made from dried onion peels. Such fertilizer not only saturates plants with nutrients, but also helps prevent the appearance of pests and diseases.
To prepare the solution you will need:
- for 10 liters of warm liquid take 50 g of onion peels;
- Leave the solution for 5–7 days, wait until fermentation begins;
- pour the resulting liquid under each bush, 1000-1500 ml.
You can prepare a decoction from onion peels. For 30 g of husk, take 2 liters of water, the resulting solution is boiled over low heat for 2 hours. The decoction will be more concentrated. It is used at the rate of 500 ml per 1 liter of clean water. The diluted decoction is poured over the cucumbers at the root and the leaves of the bushes are sprayed.
Yeast feeding
Yeast is a natural product that is used not only to create baked goods and drinks; it can be successfully used to increase the fruiting of cucumbers. This fertilizer can be prepared 2-3 times per season.
Required:
- 0.5 kg of fresh yeast;
- 5 liters of water;
- half a glass of sugar.
Dissolve yeast in warm water, add sugar. Mix the ingredients. Place the resulting liquid in a warm place for 2-3 days. Periodically monitor the fermentation process and stir the liquid. After the solution has infused, take 1 glass of concentrate and dilute with 1 liter of water. Plants are watered with this liquid. Yeast has a beneficial effect on plant growth and fruit quality.
Eggshell
This type of fertilizer is effective on acidic soils. Calcium helps reduce soil acidity and provides additional nutrition to plants.
- Dry the eggshells in a warm place.
- Grind finely, you can use a coffee grinder.
- Pour boiling water over the resulting egg dust at the rate of 10 eggs per 2 liters of water.
- Leave the resulting solution for a week.
- The liquid is diluted with clean water in a ratio of 1 to 5 and the plants are watered.
As a supplement to feeding, you can use herbal infusions.
Getting a rich harvest of cucumbers is not difficult.To do this, you should take care of a sufficient amount of nutrients for the crop being grown.
