Today, the variety of cucumber varieties is so great that the summer residents just run up their eyes. A worthy place in this huge list is occupied by the fruitful hybrid "True Colonel", which has excellent taste and is versatile to use.
Variety description
Cucumbers "This Colonel" can be attributed to the medium-early hybrids with high yields and give them the following description:
- Within 45 days after the emergence of full-fledged shoots, they begin to bear fruit, and the fruits ripen together.
- The plant has a powerful srednevetvistvy stalk with green, slightly wrinkled, slightly wrinkled leaves of medium size at the edges.
- Fruits grow bundles, have a cylindrical shape and are covered with small spikes.
Did you know? Spikes cucumbers are needed for a reason - in the morning there is excess moisture.
- The peel is bright green and thin.
- The diameter of the fruit rarely exceeds 4.5 cm, the length can reach a maximum of 15 cm, and the average weight is 115 g.
Advantages and disadvantages
This variety has earned the respect of gardeners thanks to a number of significant advantages:
- Thanks to the female type of flowering, it shows good yield of the crop - up to 4 kg from 1 m².
- Under favorable climatic conditions and proper care, up to 10 kg can be collected from 1 m².
- High resistance to cladosporia, root rot, brown spot and powdery mildew.
- Friendly ripening of fruit that is valued when grown for sale.
- The average branching allows you to easily harvest.
- Fruits do not outgrow and do not mumble.
- Suitable for both fresh salads and canning.
- Perfectly proved at cultivation and in the greenhouse, and in an open ground.
- Can bear fruit before the first frost.
There are fewer disadvantages of a hybrid than advantages, but they are:
- The plants grown in the greenhouse, the fruits are larger than in open ground.
- If the temperature is not suitable, a void will form inside the cucumber.
- Seeds of cucumbers "This Colonel" germinate for a long time and rarely have 100% germination.
Features of growing
Although the cucumbers of this hybrid are not too capricious, they have certain requirements for the landing site and the lighting.
Did you know? The biggest cucumber was grown in Israel. Its length was 1.18 meters!
Lighting and location
Cucumbers need bright sunlight, but it must be scattered. So this plant is arranged that the leaves love the light, and the fruit is hidden in the shadows. 
In the garden between cucumbers on the south side, you can plant a row of corn, which will slightly shade it from the scorching rays. At the summer cottage is fully justified using the tapestry. Thereby three hares are killed:
- Cucumber lashes get the support that they are always looking for by nature.
- The plant is less sick, because there is no contact with the ground.
- The leaves will receive enough light, and the fruits are the desired shadow.
The most suitable site for growing a "Real Colonel" will be the one where tomatoes, cabbage, pepper, potatoes, onions, carrots used to grow. The beds should receive enough solar heat and be protected from drafts.
Soil type
This variety, like all cucumbers, however, is suitable for loose, fertile soil with low acidity. Reduce the amount of nitrogen in the soil by liming.
The site is recommended to be prepared in the autumn, as in the spring organic matter causes the development of fungal infections. To increase fertility, manure or compost, ash or inorganic fertilizers such as superphosphate, ammonium nitrate are added to the soil. 
Landing rules of the "Real Colonel"
Cucumbers variety "This Colonel" can be grown through seedlings, and direct sowing in the ground. For direct sowing, it is important to provide for the possibility of returning frost.
In the villages, people are guided by May 6 - the Orthodox Church of St. George the Victorious. Earlier sowing seeds in the ground can only be in the southern regions. The seedling method is good for obtaining an earlier harvest - usually this difference is two weeks.
Direct seeding
Before sowing seeds into the soil, it is recommended to rinse in a weak solution of potassium permanganate and soak overnight, and pour the beds the day before with warm water and cover with a film for heating.
Many gardeners spend pre-hardening of seeds: the treated seeds are wrapped in a bandage and placed in a refrigerator for 1.5 days.
Seeds are sprinkled with a layer of earth no more than 4 cm, and the distance between them should be up to 10 cm. Between the rows leave a distance of 70 cm to 1 meter.
Growing seedlings
Sowing seeds for seedlings provides a number of activities for the preparation of seeds, land and packaging for sowing. As previously mentioned, the seeds of this variety do not sprout all, so before sowing you can reject unsuitable by placing them in a saline solution.
It is prepared by dissolving half a teaspoon of salt in 100 g of water at room temperature. Good seeds will be on the bottom, and bad ones will come up. Next, the seeds are treated with potassium permanganate and germinated, wrapped in a damp cloth and left in the room for 2-3 days.
The fabric must be periodically moistened to prevent drying. Sprouted seeds are sown in individual cups or in cassettes for seedlings to a depth of 1 cm. Peat tablets are also convenient to use, which are pre-filled with water for swelling.
Crops are watered from a spoon with warm water and covered with film or glass to preserve moisture and heat. 
Care features
Caring for a hybrid, according to reviews of gardeners, is not a big deal. It consists in timely weeding, proper watering, loosening of the soil and proper feeding.
Important! Also, “Real Colonel” variety cucumbers in the open field do not require the formation of a bush, and pinching is carried out without affecting the main lash and side shoots.
Watering
In the greenhouse it is enough to water the plants once a week or with the help of a drip system. In open ground, rainfall affects the frequency of irrigation. If there is a drought, then water will have a day.
Water for this should warm up in the sun, and watering is better to spend 1-1.5 hours before sunset. It is impossible to water on the leaf, since water together with a cool temperature at night causes the development of fungal diseases. With the trellis growing method, it is much more convenient to water under the root. 
Top dressing
Plant nutrition is carried out when the air temperature is not below 20 ° C. It is considered more effective to apply fertilizer per sheet. At the initial stage of growth, cucumbers need nitrogenous fertilizers for fast growth of greenery, while phosphate fertilizers are needed during flowering and formation of the ovary.
At the stage of fruiting make nitrogen and potash supplements. From improvised means for dressing, you can use the infusion of ash, yeast, weak infusion of mullein. Cucumbers respond well to spraying with an extract of onion peel, which serves as a top dressing and prevention of diseases.
An aqueous solution with iodine and serum is also used as foliar nutrition. If the soil was well fertilized with organic matter in the fall, then you can not do top dressing, as an excess of mineral substances negatively affects the development of the bush and the quality of the fruits.
Important! Excessive fertilization with nitrogen fertilizers provokes a lack of potassium, and the fruits are shaped like a pear.
Protection against diseases and pests
Although the "True Colonel" is resistant to a number of fungal diseases, their prevention should not be neglected. Fruits of cucumbers ripen very quickly, so applying chemicals for processing is not safe for health.
In order to prevent powdery mildew, gray mold, bacteriosis, you can use harmless means at hand. A well-proven solution with iodine, milk and soap.
On a 10-liter bucket of water heated to the sun, add 30 drops of iodine, a liter jar of milk and 1 tablespoon of soap to adhere the solution to the sheet. Spray the beds every 10 days for this prophylaxis. Milk can be replaced by whey or kefir.
Baking soda helps to fight with gray mold; 75 g of it is necessary to dissolve in 10 liters of water and spray the plants every three days.
In case of bacteriosis, spraying and watering with a solution of Trichopol helps well. When spraying it is necessary to dissolve two tablets in 1 liter, and for irrigation - five tablets of the drug per 10 l. It is possible when planting seedlings to put in each well on the tablet Trihopol for prevention.
The most common pests of cucumbers are slugs, ants and spider mites, whiteflies and melon aphids. 
Fight against uninvited guests begin in the fall, digging the soil for the winter. In the open ground it is easier to fight with pests than in the greenhouse.
To fight the ants, it is necessary to loosen the soil regularly, and the nests found should be filled with kerosene or just boiling water. Do not like the ants, ash and hydrated lime, which powdered the earth. The same method is used to deal with slugs.
A spider mite appears if the soil is too dry, so it is important to maintain the desired moisture. The tick is afraid of the smell of onions and garlic, with the infusions of which it is necessary to treat the beds 4-5 times per season. Dill can be sown between the rows, the smell of which scares off these insects.
It is very difficult to remove the whitefly from the site. During the harvest, you can try to sprinkle cucumbers with tobacco - it will scare away the pest. And when the harvest is gathered, it is better to treat the site with a chemical preparation, for example, “Inta-Vir”.
The growing conditions of the “Real Colonel” are no different from the conditions for other hybrids. With proper care and prophylaxis against diseases, this variety will delight you with crispy, tasty fruits and a rich harvest.
