The harvest of zucchini is similarly faster. And here you can use perforated foil covers for individual plants (better with seedlings). They are planted every 60-100 cm.
Melon has the same soil and fertilization requirements as cucumber, on the other hand, it needs more light and warmth. The optimum temperature is 26 ° C, so it is not planted until the end of March for the warm inspection, and from May – for cold and under a foil tunnel. The production of seedlings in pots continues 4-5 weeks. You must ventilate very carefully. In the second half of summer, windows need to be installed overnight in the frames, and after the onset of night colds, still cover them with mats. The distances between melon plants in foil tunnels should be 60-80 cm. The plants are watered abundantly until the beginning of flowering; later we limit watering.
Melons bear fruit only on the second or even third row side shoots, that's why we prune the seedling above the second leaf. Side shoots of the 1st row are cut after the sixth leaf. When the shoot has one more leaf, than we want to leave, its top is peeled off. The cut should not be delayed, to prevent the plant from growing too much. No pruning is performed during flowering and fruit setting. When the fruit buds grow to the size of a walnut, the tops of these shoots are pinched off, on which they are located, leaving two leaves behind the bud. Shoots, on which there are no buds, cropped short too 3-4 a leaf. When the buds reach the size of an average apple, is going 4 evenly distributed, if one plant has been planted under the inspection window, a 6-7, if two are planted. Remove the remaining buds. Place a glass or plastic plate under each fruit, so that it does not come into contact with moist soil, which causes discoloration of the rind, and even rot. Yield from 1 windows can be approx 10 kg.
Watermelon is very unreliable in cultivation and can only be successful under warm inspection. It has a long growing season, so you need it - just like a melon – protect against autumn chill. It requires a temperature of 24-30 ° C. Prepare seedlings by at least 4 leaves takes approx 6 weeks. So you need to sow the seeds in the pots in the apartment at the end of February. Because the watermelon grows strongly, we plant 1 plant under the window. It is grown in the same way, jak melon, With this difference, that the watermelon shoots are not pruned. Coffee beans bear fruit at the tops, therefore only after being elected 4-5 fruitlets, which we leave on the plant, we pinch off the tops of the shoots, leaving two leaves above the bud. We also remove non-fruiting and weak shoots, if there are too many of them.
TOMATOES, Peppers and eggplants
Tomatoes are grown in Belgians, in greenhouses and for early harvesting, mainly in foil tunnels. The seedlings for Belgians are planted at the end of April, after harvesting the forecrop, spaced 40X40 cm. The optimal temperature is 18-24 ° C during the day and 16-18 ° C at night. Avoid excessive air humidity (condensation on the windows). When the night temperature is above 15 ° C, windows should be removed. The tomatoes are kept on 2-3 shoots.
Tomatoes are planted in the tunnels at the beginning of May, remembering, that the foil protects against frosts only to a limited extent. Early dwarf varieties are suitable for growing in low tunnels (Tempo, landmark, Gem, Sycamore and limbo: Alfa, Chord F „Presto Ft, Answer), which we plant what 50-60 cm (in a typical tunnel – in two rows). In the higher tunnels, usually two rows of streaks are planted, leaving wider transitions. In these tunnels we plant high-growing varieties, choosing some of the greenhouse varieties, like for example. zealand, Potentate, V-548. The tomatoes are cut and led by supports or strings attached to the structure (O
how much the structure is adequately strong).
Tomato in the tunnel, just like in the glasshouse, we lead to one shoot, so all shoots emerging from the leaf axils should be broken as early as possible. It is not recommended to cut them with a knife, viruses may be transmitted from infected plants to healthy ones. The next element of cutting is topping the plants, that is, removing the top of the shoot above a certain number of flower clusters. The number of left clusters depends on the method and date of cultivation as well as the number of plants per unit area. The fewer clusters, the faster the harvest, but also a lower yield. By cultivating under cover, it is worth carrying out hormonization of tomatoes with Betokson (1 teaspoon per 1 And water, unless the instruction on the package specifies a different proportion). This treatment is used twice – during flowering of the first and second clusters. The foil from the tunnel is not completely removed, and in periods of cool and rainy weather, the foil should be stretched, thus protecting fruiting tomatoes.
When growing peppers in foil tunnels, seedlings are prepared in a similar way to tomato seedlings. The period of its preparation continues 7-8 weeks, that is, the seeds are sown in a box at the end of March and then dived into pots with a diameter 8-10 cm. Hardened pepper seedlings are planted in the second half of May with a spacing of 50X40 cm or 50X30 cm, relatively strand-row – 5-6 plant on 1 m2. Pepper does not require cutting and hormonization, and no staking is necessary. Harvesting begins at the end of July. From sweet peppers you can grow: Shumen Rotund, Poznańska Słodka and Remi.
Eggplant, even in Poland, the Rodo variety has been bred, in our climate due to high thermal requirements, yields poorly. Therefore, it is advisable to plant it in a foil tunnel. It succeeds in fertile soils, humus with a high content of nutrients and neutral reaction. The seeds are sown two months before planting, i.e.. in the second half of March. Seedlings, just like paprika, tilts into pots with a diameter 8-10 cm. They are planted in the third decade of May, spaced 50-60X60-70 cm. They require temperatures that are 2-3 ° C higher than the tomato. Airing the eggplant tunnel should be less intense than with tomatoes.
The fruit is harvested, when the skin is shiny and purple in color, but not overripe, usually after approx 40 days from flowering, that is in the second half of July.