Choosing a greenhouse for cucumbers

Cucumbers are considered the most popular crop among gardeners, which, unfortunately, is not easy to grow, as the vegetable requires not only good care, but also certain climatic conditions. Therefore, in order to properly grow cucumbers and get a high yield, most farmers prefer to put greenhouses on their land plots.

Greenhouse for cucumbers is a unique design that allows you to comfortably grow a culture, reliably protecting it from the negative influence of the external environment. In addition, the cucumber greenhouse provides plants with sufficient heat for their rapid growth, formation and maturation.The main feature of this structure is that it can independently regulate the duration and intensity of illumination.

Since direct sunlight sometimes damages the vegetable, greenhouses need to be placed so that the light penetrates well inside, evenly distributed throughout the site. In order to improve the quality of lighting, it is desirable to clean the film or glass of the structure once a season from accumulated dirt and dust.

Arrogant or insufficient humidity can adversely affect the development of culture, therefore, it is recommended to additionally equip structures with several window vents and try to open airing doors more often.

In addition, the facility must meet the following requirements:

• have a constant temperature regime - in the daytime from +22 to 30 and at night from +14 to 18 degrees;
• the ability to maintain soil temperature not lower than +20;
• preservation of necessary humidity at the level from 75 to 80%;
• total absence of drafts;
• good lighting;
• convenient access of insects during pollination;
• internal provision of the structure with nets, tapestries and fasteners for the formation of bushes in an upright position.

Before you install a greenhouse, it is also important to consider such a feature as its location. It is best to install the facility in open areas that are distant from tall buildings, which can create shading and reduce the maximum level of illumination. Many gardeners prefer installing greenhouses in the west-east direction.

If the installation is located in the south side, you will have to use the designs of buildings with the upper variant of ventilation, making the end face south face darkened. This will protect the cucumbers from burning rays at lunchtime.

Today, growing cucumbers at home has become much easier thanks to installations such as greenhouses. They allow you to plant a vegetable from early spring to late autumn or winter.Depending on the conditions of planting and varieties of cucumbers, different types of constructions are used, which differ not only in the internal climatic conditions, but also in appearance and size.

At the moment, the most popular and widely used installation types are:

• Arched buildings. They are assembled from several arcs, which are placed in one line and covered with a special film on top.
• Single greenhouses. They are made, as a rule, from sheets of polycarbonate. Such structures are characterized by the presence of a common wall with the main building, already located on the land plot.

• Gable greenhouse. It is warm and is a tall, separately located building with an end door. There are projects of a stationary version of a greenhouse, for the construction of which a strong foundation is needed with a minimum width of 3 m. For areas where harsh climatic conditions, the foundation of the structure is deepened by 50 cm.
• Simple mini-greenhouse. It is often called the attic, as it has the appearance of a large box filled with soil inside. Suitable for installation in the attic, and in any other room.

• Vertical film greenhouse. The installation consists of metal arcs, which are fastened in one row and covered with polyethylene on top. Thanks to the mobile look and easy installation, this option is often used as portable. In order to provide cucumbers with a favorable climate inside the greenhouse, the edges of the film are fixed to the ground with boards or bricks.
• Russian greenhouse (butterfly). This is a folding type of construction that provides access not only for planting plants, but also for caring for them. Such a structure is considered durable, as it has a rounded shape that can withstand hailstorms, wind gusts and layers of snow up to 10 cm thick. In addition, the sliding walls allow you to regularly ventilate the room.

• Polycarbonate greenhouse. It is installed from a metal frame, covered with polycarbonate. The plates of this material are characterized by transparency of 85%, they have an insignificant coefficient of heat loss and a high resistance to environmental influences (snow cover, hail). After warming up for the day in the sun, polycarbonate is able to maintain the temperature inside the greenhouse throughout the night.
• Winter greenhouses.They are fixed structures, often assembled in regions with a cold climate or long winters. The design is heated, quickly assembled and complemented by a good lighting system. To build it, it is enough to have on hand a metal frame, glass or polycarbonate sheets.

An important point when planning a cucumber greenhouse is the choice of the material from which it was installed. Frameworks are usually made of planks, wood or metal and mounted once for several seasons. Ideal for frame and PVC pipes, they are easily connected using a soldering iron or fittings. They are characterized by excellent resistance to temperature extremes, small in weight and durable. Many gardeners also collect the basis of the construction of metal profiles, but it needs pre-treatment, without which the material can quickly rust.

As for the wooden beam, it is affordable and has a low thermal conductivity. It is easy to work with wood, as pine trees are chosen for greenhouses, which are easy to finish. The only drawback of such frames is that they look rough.

To cover cucumber greenhouses use the following material:

• Polyethylene film. Suitable for small buildings and is considered an economical option for the price. The film surface transmits light well, but often deteriorates under the influence of ultraviolet rays, after a year it begins to break and becomes brittle. The formation of holes in the skin of the greenhouse leads to internal acclimatization and all the work on the cultivation of cucumbers may be in vain, as the plant will die.
• Polycarbonate. It is an excellent substitute for the film, because it is not afraid of either light, or heat, or cold. Greenhouse can only be spoiled due to strong hail, but such phenomena are infrequent. Polycarbonate sheets are durable, lightweight,they are characterized by high light transmission ability and rigidity. To protect the material from bacteria and fungus, it is recommended to close its edges.
• Glass. Greenhouses for cucumbers are rarely covered with glass because it is too expensive and fragile. Most often, during installation, old window frames are used, remaining after replacing the glass in the house.

Since cucumbers in greenhouses form with vertical growth, the internal area of ​​the building can be used to the maximum. Therefore, small and narrow greenhouses are often installed, in which the optimum height reaches 2.5 m.

In that case, if the building has a gable roof, then the height is made at least 2 m. This allows you to work comfortably and not bend down, planting crops.

Equally important is the width of the greenhouse. If it is small, it will cause a lot of inconvenience. The optimal width indicator is considered to be at least 3 m. With such parameters, it will be possible to equip the center walkway, and plant cucumbers on three sides in three rows.

Sometimes gardeners get ready-made or prefabricated arched structures, but they have a mini-width. It should be noted that the construction will be as strong as possible only with a small width, especially with regard to greenhouses made of glass.

In many greenhouses, a standard width of 1.8 to 2.4 m is established. Accordingly, the shelves are made 91 or 94 cm wide. In order to make it convenient to move around the greenhouse during work, experts recommend choosing a width of at least 2.4 m and install shelves 90 cm wide at the sides of the aisle. If this figure is more than 4 m, then a central bed and two passes are formed.

But at will the length can be made different. To do this, as a rule, take into account the number of plants and pallets, which are planned to be placed on the racks. Polycarbonate structures made of 1.22 m wide panels increase the length of the greenhouse by a step of 1.22 m. In the case when the structure is put on the foundation, then its length and width are calculated immediately, paying attention to the thickness of the end walls.

The final touch after installing a greenhouse is considered its internal arrangement. There are certain rules for this. Usually one track is laid out in the middle, and the beds are located on the sides. If borage is spacious, then two such paths can be made in it, providing convenient access to the plants. It is best to install a track with a width of up to 50 cm and to choose an anti-slip material to cover it, since the climate inside the building is humid. Good for such greenhouses, crushed stone and rubber mats.

The bed should be high and covered with a thick layer of fertile soil. To raise the beds, apply special borders, which reduce the cost of land and simplifies the care of vegetables. In the glass greenhouses optionally carried out drip irrigation. It fully fills the earth with water and does not form huge puddles.

Before you start installing a greenhouse for cucumbers, you should first prepare materials.For novice gardeners who plan to install the structure with their own hands, the simplest version of the project is suitable, where wooden bars will be used for the frame, and the skin will be made of polycarbonate.

Construction work in this case is divided into several stages:

• Build the frame. First, the bars section of 40 × 50 cleaned with a planer to their surface turned out as smooth as possible. Attach the parts best on the screws size 55 × 4. Installation of elements is carried out vertically, they are attached to each other. To do everything correctly, it is recommended to pre-assemble the parts in the workshop, and then transfer it to the frame in finished form to the place where the greenhouse will stand. In the case when the frame structure turned out to be unstable, it can be strengthened with an additional block along the lower perimeter.
• Installation of the roof and side walls. For their plating, polycarbonate sheets with a thickness of at least 10 mm are used. Building material is fixed to the frame with screws. For reliability, you can twist the screws into aluminum plates, and not directly to the polycarbonate.When a homemade greenhouse is built, many try to save money and acquire low-quality finishing materials at a low price. But this can not be done, since such a polycarbonate will not withstand the effects of temperature fluctuations and ultraviolet rays, after which it will quickly burst and crumble.

Under the ground dig a small depression and lay insulating materials. Arches are best to buy ready-made. They are placed on the site, and then cover the assembled frame in several layers of the film. The roof in this case, it is desirable to press heavy objects.

If you need to make a good greenhouse, then before beginning its construction, you must carefully level the site and check the level of groundwater flow under it. Then a layer is removed from the ground at 0.5 m and crushed stone is poured into the recess, it is well rammed and covered for compaction with river sand.

At the initial stage of installation, a cable is also used, which is useful for connecting electricity, since an additional lighting system will be installed in the greenhouse. Then the box is placed under the base and the foundation is poured.

The supports for the frame need to be made of wooden bars, and the arcs are made of ordinary wire. As for the greenhouse cover, they will serve as a reinforced film. It is durable and does not need dismantling in winter.

Growing cucumbers is considered to be a rather laborious, but productive process. Thanks to a well-constructed greenhouse and good plant care, every gardener can count on a bountiful harvest. Of course, ready-made structures are better, they have all the parameters of the structure, but you can also assemble the greenhouse with your own hands from scrap materials. The most important thing is to make it convenient for growing vegetables.

To avoid mistakes in the construction of borage greenhouses, it is worth considering the following recommendations of experts:

• If the frame is made of wood, then prior to its installation, the bars must be impregnated with special antiseptic agents. This also applies to metal parts. They are treated with anti-corrosion substances. With such an action, it is possible to protect the material from the negative impact of the external environment and extend its useful life.

• During construction, it is important to maintain the accuracy of contour lines. In the case when the diagonals are transferred, the structure will be fragile and will require repair work in the near future.
• Greenhouse should be spacious. Saving on the material and installing an inconvenient close structure, in the future we will have to face such a problem as a reduction in yield and the development of various diseases in plants. Large greenhouses, on the other hand, will reliably protect cucumbers from adverse effects and provide all the necessary conditions for normal growth.

• In greenhouses it is necessary to provide a good ventilation system. To do this, choose models in which it is possible to open the walls for ventilation.
• Plays a huge role in greenhouses and their internal arrangement. Therefore, special attention is paid to irrigation systems and lighting. For winter designs will not interfere with the installation of heating. It is also necessary to properly plan the plantings. If cucumbers are planted thickly, fungal diseases can occur that affect the vegetable and the crop will spoil.
• To save space in the building, it is recommended to form cucumbers with vertical enjoyment.

• Portable and collapsible greenhouses are well suited for small land plots. They are easy to install and can be moved to a convenient place at any time.
• Before you build a greenhouse, you need to carefully study the property of the soil. If groundwater is located close, it can cause flooding.

To learn how to properly form cucumbers, see the following video.