Soda for cucumbers is an affordable remedy that has the effects of both a fungicide and an insecticide. Using it for natural top dressing, the vegetable grower makes the garden fruitful and environmentally friendly. Processing cucumbers with baking soda can strengthen the plant's immunity. And if you spray the solution with bushes during fruiting, you can significantly extend it, slowing down the aging of shoots by maintaining the acidity of the soil.
Content
- 1 Pros and cons of using soda for cucumber
- 2 Soda seed disinfection
- 3 Application dates as fertilizer
- 4 Spray technology
- 5 How often to introduce soda lure
- 6 Folk recipes for dressing with soda for cucumbers
- 7 The use of soda solution for diseases
- 8 The use of soda solution from pests
- 9 Precautionary measures
Pros and cons of using soda for cucumber
Despite the numerous reviews of gardeners about the positive effect that the food supplement has on vegetable and fruit crops, it can cause fruiting to cease. This happens if the cucumbers are often watered with a working solution of sodium bicarbonate. A rare mention of this drawback is due to the compliance with the feeding schedule, which avoids the negative consequences.
Otherwise, spraying with soda for cucumbers can be characterized only on the positive side. Main advantages:
- environmental friendliness;
- availability;
- preventing the development of diseases and pest attacks;
- acceleration of fruiting;
- slowing down the aging of shoots and prolonging the period of return of cucumbers;
- protection against harmful organisms after emergence.
Soda seed disinfection
The food supplement, which can be found in almost any kitchen, falls into place not only during the growing season of the crop, but also during the pre-sowing preparation of seed material. Gardeners emit several positive effects from applying soda for disinfecting seeds:
- Increase in germination by 30%.
- Reducing the risk of infection of the Senti at the initial stage of development.
To soak the seeds, prepare a solution by taking 1 liter of purified water, 10 g of a food supplement. The working fluid is thoroughly mixed, waiting until the soda is completely dissolved. After that, the cucumber seeds are lowered into the resulting solution. Instances that are not drowned are deleted. The remaining germinating seeds are wrapped in moistened gauze, placed on a flat plate. Withstand seed in this form, systematically wetting with water, 12-24 hours. Before sowing, the seeds are dried on a paper towel.
Application dates as fertilizer
Soda solution is effective as a nutrient mixture: it increases the resistance of plants to adverse environmental conditions, reduces the time between emergence and fruiting, increases the yield and quality of greenhouses. However, in order to realize all these qualities of a nutritional supplement, the timing of making the working fluid should be observed.
You can feed the cucumber bushes with a 5 percent soda solution. The nutrient mixture is applied in the morning or in the evening, watering the plants under the root (as in the video) and avoiding getting on the foliage, since the product in such a concentration can burn it when it comes into contact with the foliage. With foliar top dressing, a 1 percent solution is used. The optimal time to spray the plantings is after 6 pm, when the sun's rays are already inactive.This treatment is carried out weekly. If the grower noticed the wilting of the shoots, top dressing with soda composition is stopped.
Spray technology
An effective method of applying the solution is foliar. Since the working fluid gets on the shoots, in order to avoid negative effects on the green mass, you should adhere to a certain technology. First, prepare the mixture: take filtered or well-settled water and carefully dissolve soda in it so that no precipitate remains.
Use boiling water for spraying a vegetable crop is not worth it. When soda is added to water with a temperature above 60 ° C, sodium bicarbonate changes its properties. The spray solution is poured into a finely dispersed spray gun to treat shoots against diseases and pests: the liquid will reach all parts of the shoots without leaving dry areas on the sheets.
How often to introduce soda lure
The frequency of application of fertilizing is influenced by the features of the development of a vegetable crop. If the vegetable grower uses a soda mixture as an immunity-enhancing agent that helps to resist the development of diseases, pest attacks, he should water the cucumbers three times during the growing season:
- after the development of 3-4 true leaves;
- at the beginning of flowering;
- during fruiting.
Supporters of natural farming who do not use chemicals based on chemicals to ensure the sustainability of vegetable crops to harmful organisms, use a different schedule of soda top dressing. Interval between applications:
- 14 days after germination;
- 20 days after the first feeding;
- further, every 10 days until the end of the growing season.
Folk recipes for dressing with soda for cucumbers
Cucumbers are treated with a soda solution of different concentrations. More often, for foliar top dressing, a 1 percent liquid is prepared, and for irrigation, 3-5 percent. The solution is also effective in slowing the growth of weeds. In this case, the concentration is 0.5%. However, to compensate for the lack of nutrients for cucumbers, additional funds should be introduced into the soda solution - a source of macro- and microelements.
With ash
With this combination, a folk remedy allows not only to strengthen the plant's immunity, but also to defeat the aphid colony on the shoots.
It is advisable to top-dress during the fruiting phase, since ash is a source of phosphorus and potassium, which make green leaves crispy, sweet and light. To complete the recipe you will need:
- wood ash and soda - 50 g each;
- laundry soap - 40 g;
- water - 10 l.
With iodine
An alternative prescription with the addition of a drug to the soda solution is effective for the treatment of late blight. In addition, it increases the resistance of cucumbers in a greenhouse, with a characteristic high humidity. Use the product in protected ground and in the garden can not be more than 6 times. Preparing dressing from the following components:
- soda - 50 g;
- laundry soap - 30 g;
- iodine - 5 ml;
- water - 10 l.
With laundry soap
A common and effective folk remedy that slows down powdery mildew and destroys microscopic insects - aphids. Adding an adhesive, which acts as a soap, allows you to extend the protective effect. The composition of the mixture:
- soda - 50 g;
- laundry soap - 40 g;
- water - 10 l.
The use of soda solution for diseases
The value of a nutritional supplement for a vegetable crop is protection against diseases of fungal origin. They develop for many reasons: poor seed preparation, disturbance of crop rotation, bad weather, violation of care measures. And an affordable tool in the form of soda often helps to rectify the situation and prevent a shortage of cucumbers in the greenhouse and garden.
Powdery mildew and gray rot
The most common diseases on cucumber plantations in regions with foci of their development sometimes even affect stable hybrids. To protect plants, vegetable growers use an effective folk remedy - soda solution with potassium permanganate. Take a liter of water, dissolve 30 g of a food additive in it. A pinch of potassium permanganate is added to the mixture so that the liquid acquires a light pink hue.
White rot
The disease characteristic of greenhouses is caused by a fungus. As a result, the shoots are covered with white coating. If development is not stopped in time, culture will perish. Every 3-4 days of planting are sprayed with a mixture of water and soda prepared from 10 l and 75 g, respectively. Treatment is stopped immediately after the onset of signs of the disease in unaffected areas.
Yellow spots
A complex of internal as well as external factors leads to the development of spotting, starting from bad weather and ending with weakened immunity due to seedling transplantation. The development of the disease begins with leaf plates, which gradually brighten, dry out. To protect plants, trunks are shed with a weak soda solution, additionally treating them with the bottom of the central shoot and feeding cucumbers with superphosphate.
Empty flowers
Abundant flowering and lack of ovary is a common problem encountered by vegetable growers when cultivating cucumbers. As a prophylaxis, a strengthening solution should be used. Prepare it from 50 g of soda, 10 liters of water. A mixture of spray from the sprayer plants three times: in the flowering phase, fruit formation, the return of greenhouses.
The use of soda solution from pests
Sodium bicarbonate is an alkali. This is due to the negative attitude of small insects to it, especially those common on cucumber shoots, such as aphids, spider mites. As a prophylaxis with soda solution, plants are watered or sprayed every week after the formation of 3-4 true leaves. At the first signs of the activity of harmful insects, additional components are introduced into the composition.
Spider mite
A pest that feeds on the shoots of cucumbers more often populates the lashes in arid conditions with a deficiency of air moisture. The presence of a harmful insect can be recognized by cobwebs in the leaf sinuses. If you do not take protective measures, he completely sucks the juice from the shoots that die. As protection, weekly treatment with a 1% soda solution helps.
Soda on cucumbers from aphids
A microscopic insect populates the inside of the shoots, feeds on the juice, because of which the leaves begin to curl and dry. The pest multiplies very quickly. Fight against gourds aphids must be done immediately. For protection use 60 g of soda, a similar amount of wood ash, 10 l of water with a small addition of liquid soap as an adhesive.
Other insects
In addition to the described pests, plantings of cucumbers can be attacked by others: thrips, white-winged, bear, slugs. Against the first two, regular spraying on the leaves helps. But gastropod pests and the polyphagous bear are scared away like this: in the trunk circles around the perimeter, a little food supplement is scattered. Due to the alkaline nature of soda, this technique demonstrates an excellent result.
Precautionary measures
Soda as a fungicide, insecticide or fertilizer is often used in open and closed ground. But because of its sodium content, the food supplement requires careful handling. If you make it wrong, the ripening of the fruit, on the contrary, will stop. With a high concentration of alkali, calcium absorption is impaired - Zelentsy grows curved, hooked.
If treatment with a soda solution does not give a pronounced effect, it is replaced with another agent, since an excessively frequent treatment with the first one can cause the death of the plant. It is also important to choose the right proportion, taking into account the object of processing that the vegetable grower is fighting: 1% solutions are suitable for prophylaxis, 3-5% for treatment.
Baking soda for cucumbers is a means of effective protection. When applied three times in combination with the observance of the agricultural technique of growing cucumbers, the crop will be rich and of high quality.