Refining cucumbers – not only professionals can do this, but also recreational gardeners. With a little sensitivity and knowing how, every garden owner can increase yields and extend the harvest. The right finishing technique, the most important tools and what else you should pay attention to.
Why and how should you refine cucumbers?
Refining cucumbers means allowing a delicate cucumber plant to grow together with a robust pumpkin base. Countertongue grafting creates vigorous, high-yielding and resilient cucumber plants that produce better quality and earlier fruit.
Fresh organic cucumbers from your own garden are delicious and he althy. In commercial cucumber cultivation, it has long been known that sensitive cucumber plants that are refined with a robust pumpkin rootstock complement each other in their positive properties. The advantages of grafted cucumber plants are:
- more vigorous and strong
- more powerful
- more resilient
- mildew resistant
- more profitable
They produce more fruit sooner and produce better quality. Refining cucumbers - there's a lot to be said for it. With the necessary patience, care and a green thumb, anyone can refine cucumbers themselves.
Why refine cucumbers and how does it work?
If you graft fruit vegetables like cucumbers, you let a young plant of a cucumber and a pumpkin grow together. To do this, cucumber varieties with positive properties are placed on pest and disease-resistant pumpkin rootstocks.
Cucumbers are refined using counter-tonguing. The most important requirement for this is that the stems of the cucumber and the pumpkin base are the same thickness and that the cut surfaces fit together.
First sow cucumbers and then pumpkin before grafting
Sow cucumbers before grafting. As soon as the first green sprouts emerge from the soil after a week, sow the pumpkin seeds. After three to four weeks, when both young plants have grown to ten centimeters, you can graft the cucumbers with the pumpkins.
Counter-tongue refinement of cucumbers – step by step
The most important grafting tool: a sharp knife for cutting into the plant stems. Carry out the finishing as follows:
- Cut three quarters of the cucumber stem from bottom to top under the cotyledon
- Cut three quarters of the pumpkin stem from top to bottom under the cotyledon
- Place both cut leaf tongues together
- Wrap the finishing area with foil tape or secure it with a clip
- Spray the grafted plant and plant it in a pot with potting soil
In order to grow together successfully, the plants need brightness, around 25° degrees of warmth with high humidity and regular watering. These growing conditions can be found under a growing hood or plastic film on the windowsill or in the greenhouse.
Protect the plants from direct sun. After one to two weeks in the warm, humid climate, the grafting area has grown over. Now you can cut the roots of the cucumber and the top of the pumpkin and plant the new plant in the garden.
Documents for refining cucumbers
Traders offer special sets for simple finishing. Ripe, tasty fruits and fast, he althy growth - all the good qualities in a cucumber variety - that's why it's worth refining cucumbers.
Tips & Tricks
Depending on the type of cucumber, you can also use another cucumber plant as a base for refinement. However, this should be very robust, otherwise the results will leave something to be desired.