Chinese cucumber is a great alternative to our "greens"

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Chinese cucumber is not a new selection, but a variety of the indicated vegetable, which speaks of the true origin.

Its distinguishing features:

• long-fruited (from 40 cm to 1 m, depending on the variety);
• small seeds that do not grow for a long time, despite the growth of the fruit itself;
• the skin is thin and bubbly;
• great taste without bitterness;
• pulp is dense, tender;
• no spaces;
• beautiful aroma that spreads throughout the room when cutting a vegetable.

Dishes (salads, rolls) that use Chinese cucumber are very tasty. You can see a photo of one of them below. It makes you want to take a mini-roll and put it in your mouth. By the way, in China, cucumbers are usually fried, such as zucchini and squash.

Chinese cucumber is preferably grown in greenhouses, but it also feels good in open ground, only fruiting is not so long, and the number of fruits is less. To obtain early production, it is necessary to grow seedlings. Seeds are preferably pickled in a solution of potassium permanganate, and then kept in a growth stimulator. Then place them in a damp cloth. After about 3 days, quality seeds will show small roots.

When they germinate, you need to plant them in peat pots with disinfected soil (you can use purchased for seedlings or prepare a mixture of humus, peat, sand and ash). Stems with cotyledon leaves appear quickly - after 3 days. After about 10 days, when 3, and preferably 4 true leaves are formed on the plants, they need to be transplanted to a permanent place.

A bed or a place in a greenhouse must be prepared a week before: add humus and ash and spill it with a hot solution of copper sulphate. After such a procedure, it is advisable to cover this place with a film for several hours.

Chinese cucumber must be grown vertically so that all plants are well lit by the sun. When planting seedlings, it is not worth thickening, it is optimal to leave 0.5 m between plants. After 10 days, you need to start shaping. In the axils of the first four leaves, you need to pluck out all the flowers and shoots. You can’t regret it, with the correct formation of the main stem, there will be many more of them. The next 6 side shoots should be pinched when they reach 25 cm. The next can be left 40 cm, 50 cm. The main shoot should be pinched as soon as it reaches the maximum height of the trellis or greenhouse roof.

Chinese cucumber should be watered only under the root with warm water. Its leaves should not touch the ground. Plants need goodventilation. From sowing seeds to fruiting, it does not take long to wait - about a month. It is realistic to collect 30 kg or more fruits from one plant, depending on the size of the cucumbers.

Care is needed throughout the season: weeding, shallow loosening, watering is desirable in the morning. Top dressing is obligatory, you can infusion of weeds after fermentation and 10-fold dilution with water. With the same tool it is good to handle the whips. All dried and suspicious leaves should be removed in the morning in dry weather. After 1.5 months from the start of fruiting, the lower leaves must be removed.

Try growing Chinese cucumbers. Varieties Kui Ming, Ii Jinn, Lifent Senyus and others are rarely found on sale, and there are almost always hybrids. The series "Chinese snakes" is remarkable in that the plants are green and bear fruit until late autumn, which means that fragrant and tasty cucumbers will be on your table for a long time.