The best recipes for feeding cucumbers with milk and iodine

When growing cucumbers, you cannot do without fertilizing and medications for the prevention and treatment of diseases. Although horticultural markets offer a large selection of various chemicals, gardeners are increasingly abandoning them in favor of folk remedies. One of them is a mixture of milk and iodine, which is suitable for both fertilizing and treating plants.

Purposes of processing cucumbers

Milk and iodine are absolutely harmless, suitable for any stage of crop vegetation and allow you to grow environmentally friendly cucumbers. The composition applied to vegetables does not even have to be washed off, as it is safe for humans and plants.

The mixture is used for:

• feeding cucumbers;
• strengthening the immune system;
• increasing the duration of fruiting;
• whip rejuvenation;
• disease prevention;
• pest and infection control.

Instead of milk, some gardeners use whey. This does not reduce the effectiveness of the product.

Action

Treatment of plants with preparations containing milk and iodine components performs several functions. To understand how effective such a remedy is, let’s consider the principle of its action in each case.

Fertilizer

Feeding with iodine and milk saturates cucumbers with microelements and strengthens their immunity. Iodine increases plant metabolism, stimulates the development of bushes and ovaries, and improves the taste of vegetables.

Milk in such feeding is the main nutritional component containing:

• calcium;
• magnesium;
• iron;
• copper;
• manganese;
• phosphorus;
• nitrogen;
• potassium.

Especially valuable for cucumbers phosphorus (responsible for the development of the root system), potassium (promotes fruit set), nitrogen (important for the formation of greenery).

Important! Whole milk contains a large amount of fat, which is harmful to plants. Therefore, it is diluted with water.

Pest Control

The product repels aphids, whiteflies, spider mites, slugs. Milk contains lactose, which insects cannot digest, and iodine causes poisoning in some of them. Cucumbers sprayed with this composition become inedible for pests, so the product is also used as a preventive measure.

Treatment and prevention of diseases

Milk spraying with iodine is effective for preventing diseases in the early stages of development. If a significant part of the bushes is affected, then it will not be possible to do without chemicals.

Iodine in the composition of the drug in this case plays a major role. He has such actions:

• antifungal;
• antimicrobial;
• immunostimulating.

The substance not only destroys infections, but also strengthens plant resistance to diseases and negative environmental factors. It is used both separately from milk and together with it.

Milk enhances the effectiveness of the product and protects against re-infection. The acids in its composition have a detrimental effect on fungi and bacteria; lactose and lipids form a protective film on the surface of the leaves, preventing infection from penetrating inside.

Important! Milk and iodine are effective only against fungal and bacterial diseases. They will not cope with viral infections.

Recipes

The concentration of components depends on the purpose of use. For spraying, the concentration is increased, for irrigation - reduced.

To combat diseases and pests, a more concentrated composition is usedthan for feeding, otherwise the drug simply will not have a disinfecting effect.

Important! The milk is taken raw: when boiled, the product loses most of its nutrients.

For fertilizer

cucumbers feed at the root or by spraying the leaves.

For the first time, the product is used 2 weeks after the formation of 2 true leaves.. Iodine fertilizing strengthens plant immunity and stimulates the formation of the root system.

When grown in open ground The product is applied at the root 1-2 times per season. The rest of the time, other compositions are used.

Foliar fertilizers are used 2 more times. At the flowering stage, boric acid is added to the mixture, which accelerates the formation of ovaries. The bushes are sprayed a second time during fruiting.

Recipes for feeding cucumbers:

1. Yeast: add 2 tbsp to 1 liter of milk. l. yeast and 1 tbsp. l. sugar, leave to ferment for 3 hours. Then pour in 1 liter of milk and 10 drops of iodine. Dilute everything in 8 liters of water at room temperature. 1 liter is poured onto the bush under the root.
2. With ammonia: pour 2 liters of milk into a 10 liter bucket, 1 tbsp. l. ammonia, 10 drops of iodine. The rest of the volume is filled with water. The drug is sprayed on cucumbers during flowering and ovary formation.
3. With urea: for 8 liters of water take 2 liters of milk, 8 drops of iodine, 50 g of urea. Cucumbers are watered with the product no more than once per season, spending 0.5 liters on each plant.
4. Regular: 1 liter of milk is diluted in 6 liters of water, add 6 drops of iodine. The product is well suited for fertilizing seedlings.

To fight diseases

Such formulations easily cope with infections, which have already fallen on the bush, but did not have time to penetrate the plant cells.

Prevention is carried out during epidemics once a week. Antifungal treatments are required during cold spells and after prolonged rainfall, when pathogens are most active.

If the plants are already sick, then at an early stage of the infection they are sprayed with this mixture 2 times a week until the problem resolves. Damaged parts of the bushes are completely removed.

How to treat cucumbers with milk and iodine against diseases:

1. With sour milk: 3 liters of product are mixed with 7 liters of water and 20 drops of iodine. The ingredients are thoroughly mixed and used for preventive spraying of plants.
2. With soap: for 10 liters of water take 2 liters of milk, 30 drops of iodine and 0.5 pieces of laundry soap. All components are thoroughly mixed until the soap is completely dissolved.
3. With hydrogen peroxide: 2 liters of fresh or sour milk, 40 drops of iodine, 1 tbsp. l. hydrogen peroxide is poured into a 10 liter bucket. The rest of the volume is filled with water. All ingredients are mixed.

These funds used for spraying bushes or watering with root rot. In the latter case, dig a ditch at a distance of 5 cm from the bed, into which the solution is poured.

For pest control

Recipes for insect control:

1. With ash and soap: add 1 piece of grated laundry soap, 2 tbsp. to a 10 liter bucket of water. ash, 30 drops of iodine, 2 liters of milk. Soap is used so that the remaining components adhere well to the bush.
2. With urea: pour 1 liter of sour milk or whey, 20 drops of iodine, 15 ml of urea into a 10 liter bucket of water.

Such drugs are used for spraying, not for watering.

Processing rules

For substances to be beneficial, it is important to use them correctly. Basic Tips:

1. Root feeding is applied only after thorough moistening the day before, so that there are no burns on the roots.
2. Water cucumbers with the product early in the morning or at sunset: wet leaves increase the risk of burns.
3. Spray the crop after the appearance of 5 true leaves. If you do this earlier, the plants may die. An exception is a pure milk solution with a small amount of iodine.
4. Plants begin to be sprayed from the lower leaves, consuming more of the drug here and gradually rising to the top.
5. Iodine fertilizer should not be mixed with other ready-made fertilizers and agents for controlling diseases and pests.
6. The solution is used immediately after preparation, otherwise some of the beneficial substances will evaporate and the product will lose its beneficial properties.

Features of processing in greenhouses and open ground

Processing methods in a greenhouse and open ground are generally no different, but there are still a few nuances:

1. During the first 2 hours after treatment, the product made from milk and iodine is washed off with water. After drying, regardless of the weather, the bushes remain protected for a week. Therefore, plantings in open ground are sprayed at least 2 hours before rain or watering.
2. In the greenhouse there is no threat of sudden precipitation, but the air exchange there is weaker than in open ground. Therefore, indoors the product is used less often, once every 2 weeks.
3. Not only the plants themselves are treated against diseases, but also the soil around them. The product is suitable for disinfecting the walls and floor of a greenhouse.

If open bottles of iodine are hung in a greenhouse, then cucumbers will not hit late blight.

Precautionary measures

If used incorrectly, the mixture will harm both the plants and the gardener. To prevent this from happening, implement a number of recommendations:

1. Maintaining proportions. When preparing products, do not deviate from the recipe. Increasing the amount of milk or iodine will cause plant death. Insufficient ingredients will render the solution ineffective.
2. Gardener protection. The treatment is carried out in a protective fabric mask: a large amount of iodine has a negative effect on the condition of the thyroid gland.
3. Preliminary check of the product. First, 1 bush is sprayed with the new composition. If after 2 days there are no signs of deterioration in its condition, the drug is used on the remaining plants.
4. Treatment frequency. Preventive spraying against diseases is carried out no more than once a week. Milk-iodine fertilizers are applied to the roots no more than 2 times per season.

Conclusion

Compositions with iodine and milk are effective folk remedies for treating cucumbers and other plants. They are absolutely harmless to the environment, stimulate the development of bushes and the formation of ovaries, increase productivity, and protect plants from pests and diseases. Substances can harm plants only if used incorrectly.