All about cucumbers

Cucumbers are grown by almost all owners of personal plots. The culture is unpretentious in care, gives a good harvest from mid-summer to autumn. Currently, many varieties have been developed that are suitable for growing in a greenhouse or in the open field. In order to get a good harvest, several important nuances must be taken into account.

There is a lot of controversy about what a cucumber is: a vegetable, fruit or berry. In fact, the cucumber belongs to the berries, although many are used to calling it a vegetable. From the point of view of botany, this question is explained quite simply. Initially, a flower is formed, which is fertilized, and a cucumber is born in its place.

All vegetables come from plant synthesis. This process forms nutrients. Initially, a seed is laid, then it germinates and the vegetable itself is formed directly. Cucumbers come from a flower, so they are berries, despite their appearance.

The homeland of cucumbers is India, mainly tropical and subtropical regions of this country. The vegetable appeared there about 6 thousand years ago. The exact year of their origin is unknown. First, the culture appeared among the ancient Greeks, then it passed into cultivation to the Romans. The ubiquitous distribution of cucumbers across Europe began during the reign of Charlemagne, that is, in the period from 768 to 814 AD. NS.

Baron Sigismund von Herberstein traveled around the Russian state, came to Muscovy. In his records, dating back to 1528, there is a mention of cucumbers growing in this area. Nowadays, cucumbers are often consumed fresh, salted or pickled. In Russia, the most popular dish was black fish soup, where cucumber pickle was used as a broth. Meat was cooked in it with the addition of various seasonings and spices.

Cucumbers belong to the Pumpkin family, a group of dicotyledonous cultivated plants. The stem is straight at first, then passes into the creeping stage. The surface is rough, at the ends of the shoot there are specific curls with which the cucumber is able to cling to the established supports or stems of other plants. The length is different, depending on the variety, varies from 100 to 200 cm. It has a sufficiently developed and strong root system.

Leaves are heart-shaped. Usually dark green in color, but can change color to a lighter and even yellow, depending on the abundance of watering and the presence of sunlight. Characteristics of the fruits of common cucumbers: polyspermous, green-emerald green, have a pimpled surface, some are even covered with thorns. The shape in the classic version is cylindrical, the dimensions depend directly on the varietal accessory.

If we consider the chemical structure of a vegetable, then 95-96% of it consists of water. The remaining percentages are for glucose, fructose and fiber. Cucumbers are useful for the human body, since they contain a large amount of trace elements: phosphorus, sulfur, magnesium, ascorbic acid, vitamins of groups A, B, C.

There are many varieties of cucumbers. The fruits of each of them look different.At the moment, about 1500 different varieties have been registered in Russia. They can be conditionally divided into categories by purpose.

• Salad: Orlik, Makar, Athlete. They are recommended to be consumed mainly fresh.
• Intended for salting: "Magnificent", "Crunchy", "Muromsky", "Far East". They show their best taste mainly in salty form.
• Universal, which are hybrid, since they are intended both for canning and for fresh consumption. The most prominent representatives of this category are the following: "Zozulya", "Prestige", "Kid", "Zyatek" and some others.

According to the rate of maturation, all varieties are also divided into three large categories.

• Early ripening - ripening period varies from 35 to 45 days after planting. The most popular varieties in this category are "April", "Amur", "Orpheus".
• Mid-ripening - here the ripening period is a little longer - from 45 to 55 days. The following varieties are most suitable for this category: "Delicacy", "Athlete", "Salting".
• Late cucumbers, the ripening period of which lasts up to 90 days: "Cascade", "Courage", "Regal", "Abundant" and some others.

In addition, cucumbers are decorative and feminine flowering - that is, flowers with an ovary and a small cucumber. Vegetables can be grown both outdoors and in greenhouses (greenhouses). For each of these options, it is recommended to use special varieties.

For this option, cucumbers are suitable, which require insect pollination for fruiting. They can be early or late. The following varieties are most suitable for open ground.

• "Herman F1" belongs to the category of early maturing hybrids. For good fruiting, this variety requires a developed root system, therefore it is recommended to form it into one stem.
• "Kustovoy" - early ripe varietal cucumber, ideal for pickling. Differs in high productivity.
• "Baby" - an ultra early variety and very prolific. Suitable for both salting and fresh consumption.
• Phoenix Plus - late maturing, high-yielding, does not require special care. It shows the best taste in the form of a component for salads, as well as in salting.
• "Winner" - late grade. A distinctive feature is drought tolerance. Even with a prolonged absence of watering, the fruits practically do not lose their taste.

Self-pollinated cucumber varieties are more suitable for greenhouses and greenhouses. No insects are required for fruit to appear. The inflorescences are pollinated on their own, if for some reason this does not happen, it is recommended to spray the plant with a special composition, which is popularly called the ovary.

The most common representatives of self-pollinated cucumbers are the following varieties:

• "Zozulya";
• "Garland";
• "Courage";
• "Harmonist";
• Emerald Stream.

Cucumbers can be planted both through seedlings and directly into open ground. If we talk about the latter method, then it is recommended to do this only at the beginning of June, when the weather is relatively warm. Seeds need to be deepened 1-2 cm into the ground, and watering should be carried out regularly.

Seedlings should be prepared as early as late April or early May. For this, the seeds are planted in peat pots filled with fertile soil. It is also recommended to transfer them at the beginning of summer. In this case, the seedlings should not be too large. In the presence of ovaries, the culture will hurt for a long time when transferred to open ground or a greenhouse.

Cucumbers are a crop that is easy to care for. The only condition is that it must be complex:

• watering - moderately abundant and regular, with insufficient irrigation, the fruits have a bitter taste;
• loosening of the soil - moderate;
• top dressing is possible before the fruiting period, slurry or complex mineral fertilizers are suitable.

The most common disease that affects cucumbers is powdery mildew. When the disease attacks, a specific white bloom appears on the leaves. Since most of the harmful substances are absorbed by the fruits, experts strongly discourage the use of chemical compounds for the treatment of this disease. The affected areas must be removed and burned in a timely manner, stop watering and weed the garden bed, since the ailment most often appears due to an excess of moisture. Pests are bear, slugs, caterpillars. The latter are recommended to be collected periodically by hand.

There are many interesting facts about cucumbers. The first of them is associated with the homeland of the vegetable. In Russia, they are used to cultivating this plant in personal plots, but at the foot of the Himalayan mountains, cucumbers grow without human intervention. In most cases, wild cucumbers are inedible due to the bitter taste that comes from the presence of cucurbitacins. But this is far from the only interesting fact.

There are many others.

• In the Bible, cucumbers were mentioned as vegetables of Egypt, depicted on the same plate with grapes.
• In Greece, at the time of the poet-narrator Homer, there was a city called Sikion, which literally means "the city of cucumbers".
• The name "cucumber" came from Ancient Greece, where these vegetables were called "aguros", which means "unripe" in translation.
• Cucumbers are eaten unripe, because when they reach maturity, the peel becomes yellow, becomes very rough.
• On remote islands in the Pacific Ocean, cucumbers are considered an expensive delicacy.
• Cleopatra claimed that her beauty is created by cucumbers. She ate them in large quantities, and also used them for cosmetic purposes.
• In order to protect sailors from scurvy, Christopher Columbus included fresh and salted cucumbers in their mandatory diet.

Cucumbers are an unpretentious crop that can provide crops from mid-summer to autumn. In Russia, cucumbers are salted and pickled, and all kinds of snacks and salads are made on their basis. It is safe to say that this vegetable is present in the diet of most people almost daily.