To assess the profitability of the enterprise, we will draw up a detailed business plan for growing cucumbers with calculations. It will reflect all the costs at the stage of preparation for entering the consumer market and evaluate our position in the conditions of competition with large vegetable growing complexes. It is planned to develop vegetable growing by growing cucumbers, which are less demanding to climatic conditions and various diseases, unlike tomatoes and peppers. To implement the plan, the following conditions will be required:

• A plot of land with an area of ​​6 acres (600 sq. m). The plot is located in a rural area and is related to a personal farm under a certificate of ownership.
• There are outbuildings on the territory that can be converted into technical and storage rooms (40 sq. m.).
• The premises require redevelopment, minor repairs, and equipment for a warehouse.
• Form of activity: peasant farm (peasant farm). Family business involving family members in the work.
• Taxation: Unified Agricultural Tax (6% of income).

Service list

• Sale of fresh cucumbers to private buyers directly from the farm.
• Wholesale sales of products to the city market and vegetable market.
• Transfer of cucumbers for sale to a rural store.
• Independent sale of products on the market.
• Conservation of surplus and sale to the public.

Work schedule: irregular; all year round.

Type of activity according to OKVED: 01.13.12 “Growing vegetables in protected soil.”

Paper question

Peasant farms have the right to sell products without issuing a quality certificate and declaration for cucumbers, if the goods are not supplied to chain stores. To trade on the market, it is enough to obtain a permit from the market administration by testing the cucumbers in their laboratory. No documents are needed for the private sale of vegetables from the farmstead.

To register a peasant farm you will need:

• Passport of the head of the household and companions.
• The decision to create a farm.
• Certificate from the settlement administration notifying the start of activities.
• Certificate of ownership of the land plot.

The listed documents are enough to start in the vegetable growing business.

Material base of the project

The main investment will be required to purchase equipment that will allow you to grow cucumbers all year round. Even in summer, the crop will grow in a greenhouse to reduce the risk of climatic changes. We indicate the costs in the table:

The cost of equipment and related items may change because market prices are volatile. In winter, additional discounts are possible, which will allow you to save on the greenhouse.

Additional funds will be required to equip the warehouse and supply water and electricity to the greenhouses. Water and electricity are supplied only to the house, so the services of plumbing and electrical cable installers will be required. Let's take into account another 100 thousand rubles. Pulling gas to the greenhouse complex is time-consuming and costly; projects coordinated with the gas service will be required. Therefore, we choose firewood as fuel, which can be purchased at the local forestry department. We will replenish the stock as we use it up. During the warm season, there is no need to heat the greenhouse, so there is no point in making large supplies of firewood.

The size of the initial investment can be adjusted if you start a business in the spring. A heating system and artificial daylight can be installed later, earning funds from the summer sale of the first harvest.

HR decision

The peasant farm form provides for the use of family members as labor. The main work will be performed by adults (2 people):

Children (14 and 16 years old) can collect cucumbers and ship them. No outside help will be required. For husband and wife, this is the main place of work and income, so contributions to the funds are made independently at the established rates of the Pension Fund and the Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund. The income of family members depends on the harvest and the profitability of selling cucumbers. The contributions that the head of the peasant farm will make will be reflected in the table:

These are the main costs for participants' income. Wages are not set because a vegetable grower's income is affected by profits from the sale of produce and costs.

How long will it take for the greenhouse complex to start operating?

Receipt of the first income is planned for the summer season. We will start preparing for it in the spring. At this stage, less investment in equipment will be required because heating and additional lighting are not needed in summer. Daylight hours from May to September are sufficient for a full harvest.

The table gives an example of timing planning for the summer harvest. But the scheme may be different if material resources appear later. Then the work will shift and will require more time to install heating and additional light sources.

Productivity and income

• Summer season is from May to September.
• Autumn harvest from October to late January.
• Spring period from February to May.

Over the course of a year, a greenhouse can produce a harvest of up to 70 kg per 1 square meter. m. In our case, 200 square meters will be occupied for growing cucumbers. m. The yield from the complex will be 14 tons per year under good conditions.

Let's evaluate the material side by indicating in the table the cost of cucumbers in different seasons. Let's take the average price as a basis, taking into account that cucumbers can be sold on the market independently at retail prices and sold in bulk to a vegetable base.

If unforeseen circumstances do not arise, the annual profitability from growing cucumbers will be about 1 million rubles. To determine net profit, it is necessary to take into account investments, taxes, utilities and monthly expenses for fertilizers, crop treatment products against diseases and pests. Let's put all the indicators in the table:

Annual profit from two greenhouses with a volume of 200 sq. m can be 658,000 rubles. Investments at the stage of equipping the land plot amounted to about 550,000 thousand rubles. This indicates that the peasant farm will achieve payback in one year and receive a net profit of 100,000 rubles. The next annual turnover will bring the family a profit of 600-700 thousand rubles. This will allow us to expand the greenhouse complex and introduce greens, radishes and other vegetable crops into the assortment.

Where to get initial capital

The investment required to implement a business idea is considerable. For a rural resident, this may be an unaffordable amount if you rely only on personal savings. But for agriculture there are preferential lending conditions and subsidies from the state. Therefore, funds for equipment are expected to be obtained with the support of a government subsidy or through loans from Rosselkhozbank.

Personal funds will be used for seeds, fertilizers, communications. Payment of contributions is also expected from income from the cucumber business.

We will look for the main sales channels for cucumbers before we begin preparations for the launch of the cucumber complex. The main partners will be vegetable bases, markets, and direct buyers.

• To attract consumers, it is necessary to prepare advertisements in local media (print and electronic format), on Internet sites, and thematic forums.
• You can compete with cucumber suppliers from other regions by reducing costs and focusing on the freshness of the product. Cucumbers do not require long transportation, because the farm is located a few kilometers from the central market.
• Monitor new selections in order to buy varieties of cucumbers that bring greater yields. Due to this, it is possible to increase the harvest of vegetables from one greenhouse.
• Agree on the supply of cucumbers to local restaurants, canteens, children's institutions, hospitals, and sanatoriums.
• Prepare for the fact that there may be a surplus crop that cannot be sold. Then you will have to start conservation and search for channels for selling finished products.

Eventually

A cucumber business on a peasant farm scale can bring a family a stable income. The advantages are that investments can be made gradually, starting with the installation of industrial greenhouses and the first harvest. Equipping a heat source and a light source in winter can be done gradually. The business will bring not only income, but also the opportunity to always have fresh vegetables and herbs on your table. In the future there are prospects for expanding the profile and territory.

Cucumber is a tasty and healthy vegetable that is easy to cultivate in open ground or in a greenhouse. Growing cucumbers as a business: profitable or not, reviews and advice from farmers on doing business.

Outdoor beds are cheap, but have one big drawback - the period of operation is limited by the warm season. Therefore, the greenhouse method is used to grow vegetables year-round.

Features of the greenhouse method

Compared to the traditional method, growing cucumbers in a greenhouse as a business has a number of features:

Large-scale agricultural production should be planned near a big city, since small settlements provide summer cottages with fresh vegetables.

Business plan

To organize your own farming business, you need to draw up a business plan for growing cucumbers:

1. Studying technology.
2. Site selection and greenhouse placement.
3. Equipment supply.
4. Purchase of seedlings.
5. Registration of an enterprise.
6. Sales organization.
7. Financial calculations.

Step-by-step planning allows you to avoid mistakes and unnecessary costs. You can download a ready-made business plan with calculations at.

Cucumber growing technology

Successful cultivation of cucumbers is based on 3 basic principles:

• Selecting suitable varieties. For closed ground conditions, hybrid varieties that do not require pollination are best suited. To increase productivity, you need to choose vegetables with a short ripening period, a large amount of ovary, and high resistance to diseases and pests. In large areas it is convenient to plant cucumbers of different types - salad, pickles, for canning. Seeds for planting are purchased from seed farms, where they guarantee high-quality material and provide advice on growing vegetables. The most popular varieties are Nezhinsky, Emelya, Hercules, Dynamite, Santana, Kapelka. Experienced vegetable growers advise giving preference to domestic varieties.
• Delivery of quality soil. Cucumbers produce a rich harvest in fertile black soil, which needs to be fertilized. If the land on the site is not very good, you will have to purchase it. There are alternative options: lumpy turf, which is prepared in advance for sowing; hydroponics - more often used by large farms; a mixture of turf and peat, into which fertilizers, sawdust, husks, and straw are added.
• Care and creation of a microclimate in a greenhouse. The optimal temperature for ripening vegetables is 20-25°C with a humidity of 80%, since cucumber is a very moisture-loving plant. Watering is carried out with warm water through a drip system. Every week the soil is loosened and fertilized with superphosphate, potassium chloride, and ammonium nitrate. In summer, it is necessary to protect seedlings from the scorching sun, and in winter, heat the premises. Cucumbers are grown on vertical vines, which are shaped in such a way as not to block the light and produce maximum yield. Some varieties need to be pinched and pinched, some not. To prevent the death of plants from diseases and pests, it is necessary to carry out regular inspections and treatment with special means.
• Typically, a three-rotation method is used to grow cucumbers all year round - the cycle begins in early spring, one crop is harvested in the summer and two in the rest of the year. In the warm months, a “financial cushion” is created to pay for electricity during the cold season.

Construction of a greenhouse

A cucumber growing business can be organized on your own personal plot or you can rent land for these purposes. The location for agriculture is chosen as far as possible from the industrial zone. Although this will increase transportation costs, the vegetables will grow in clean air and will not cause illness to consumers.

It is advisable that the greenhouse be installed on a flat area, without slopes or uneven areas. You can start with one greenhouse, and then add more structures. On an area of ​​35 sq. m., equipped with modern equipment, harvest up to 100 tons per year.

You can build a greenhouse yourself or purchase a ready-made structure made of light metal and polycarbonate. For regions with different weather and climatic conditions, various types of greenhouses are produced:

1. In the south, it is convenient to use a structure with a gable roof and a large number of opening windows to ventilate the room on warm winter days.
2. In areas with a more severe climate, greenhouses are built with a domed roof and a vestibule that serves as an air partition and a warehouse for equipment.

Large greenhouses are the most economical to use, although they are more expensive to build. When working in several greenhouses, it is necessary to purchase a separate set of equipment for heating, lighting and watering. And for one large area, one boiler and humidification system are enough. In addition, the large surface area allows a lot of light to pass through, which saves energy costs.

Equipment

For year-round cultivation of cucumbers, the greenhouse is equipped with heating, watering and additional lighting systems. Moreover, it is necessary to heat not only the air, but also the soil.

Heating is mainly installed from a boiler and water pipes connected to it, located throughout the entire area of ​​the greenhouse. The boiler runs on solid, liquid or gas fuel, and can be universal. Heating of the soil is provided by the “warm floor” technological method, which is safe and reliable for plant growth.

Plants need additional lighting in winter. For these purposes, phytolamps and LED lamps are used, which sufficiently replace sunlight, are durable, and do not consume a lot of electricity.

Cucumbers are composed mainly of water and desperately need plenty of watering. High humidity is qualitatively maintained by automated drip irrigation systems, consisting of a water tank, hoses and a liquid supply control device. Fertilizers and minerals are added to the irrigation system to increase productivity.

Growing cucumbers requires equipment and other materials for forming vines, caring for plants, and harvesting.

Seedling

Seedlings for growing cucumbers can be purchased or grown on your own farm. Self-cultivation occurs as follows:

• Seeds are sown in containers with a diameter of about 8 cm.
• For two to three days, the room with future seedlings is maintained at a temperature of 25-30°C and a humidity of 75%.
• Watering is carried out daily with warm water.
• For the first two weeks, fertilizing and fertilizers are applied to the soil in accordance with the sown variety.
• When the seedlings have 4-6 leaves (usually this takes a month), they are planted in the beds.

High-quality seedlings are sold to other farms, which provides additional income to the cucumber farm.

Business registration

A cucumber business can be registered in several ways:

1. Personal subsidiary farming, which, according to the law, is not an enterprise and is not subject to taxes. This option is suitable for owners or tenants of agricultural land with an area of ​​up to 2.5 hectares. The registration of private household plots is carried out by local government bodies, for which a certificate is issued indicating the type of products produced. In this case, the sale of vegetables is possible only to end consumers in markets or small retail outlets.
2. It makes sense for the owner of a large farm to register an individual entrepreneurship in order to sell a large harvest through a retail chain. Individual entrepreneurs have the right to hire workers, have no restrictions on land area and can pay a single agricultural tax at a rate of 6%.
3. A peasant farm is a legal entity and is registered if a family or several partners participate in the activity. The state provides peasant farms with benefits for renting land and the opportunity to pay the Unified Agricultural Tax.

Growing cucumbers is not a licensed activity; when exporting products outside the region, it is necessary to undergo certification and issue a declaration of conformity.

Sales organization

As greenhouse products mature, they are collected and placed in wooden, plastic or cardboard boxes. Cucumbers have a dense structure, are stored for a long time and tolerate transportation well.

Harvest sales depend on volumes:

• in markets;
• through the retail network;
• through the wholesale network;
• to catering establishments, hospitals, schools.

Individual entrepreneurs and peasant farms enter into agreements with legal entities, private farmers sell cucumbers to end consumers.

An established and well-organized sales network guarantees the sale of the entire harvest. To do this, you need to study the level of prices, demand, delivery conditions and trading fees in advance.

Economic calculations

How beneficial and profitable the business idea of ​​growing cucumbers in a greenhouse is can be assessed by calculating the starting investments, expenses and planned income.

The farm has an area of ​​400 sq. m. on your own site you need to invest:

Operating expenses for the year are:

Market prices for cucumbers vary depending on the season: in summer there is mass trade and the price is low, in winter and spring fresh vegetables become 3-4 times more expensive. On average, a kilogram of cucumbers costs 80 rubles. An annual harvest of 37 tons brings the farmer:

Profit will be: RUB 2,960,000. – 906,000 rub. = 2,054,000 rub. This amount covers the initial investment in the business, and the entrepreneur’s net income in the first year of operation is 404,000 rubles.

Video: rural business - cucumber millionaire from Arsky district.

Contents of a business plan for cucumbers in a greenhouse:

1. Project summary.
2. Market analysis, including competitors and potential consumers, logistics.
3. Investment project.
4. Greenhouse construction project.
5. Cucumber sales plan and income calculation.
6. Plan of fixed and variable costs.
7. Calculation of final indicators, their evaluation.
8. Assessing the risk factors of a cucumber growing project.

Why do you need a business plan for growing cucumbers in a greenhouse?

1. A bank loan, grant, subsidies and other benefits from the state are in your pocket if you have a business plan for the project.
2. A successful start in business, quick achievement of planned indicators - all this is possible if you have a business plan.
3. You will not make unnecessary mistakes and take unnecessary steps if you have a business plan.

Example of a business plan for growing cucumbers in a greenhouse

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suitable option

This kit is ideal for those who need a business plan to obtain a loan or attract investment.

Description

The extended business plan includes a financial model for growing cucumbers in a greenhouse in Excel format.

The business plan was developed taking into account the practice of evaluating projects in Russian banks, as well as taking into account the requirements of investors and funds for supporting entrepreneurship in the Russian Federation. It will allow you to justify management decisions on investing in the creation and development of growing cucumbers in a greenhouse, predict its financial results and assess risks.

A full description of the business plan can be downloaded from the link:

To view the content, download the file:

To see the list of tables, graphs and diagrams, look at the file:

You can pay in the following ways:

• Bank cards (Russia)
• Electronic money
• Terminals and communication salons
• Money transfers
• Bank cards (International)

Submitting a business plan and financial model:

Dispatch is carried out within 24 hours after payment to your email address.

Business organization

Cucumber is the oldest vegetable, native to India. Cucumber consists of 95-98% water, is a dietary product, contains a considerable amount of useful microelements, and, most importantly, is one of the most favorite vegetables of Russians. Demand for it does not decrease throughout the year, and the price remains at a fairly high level for most of the year. To get started successfully, you will definitely need a business plan for growing cucumbers in a greenhouse.

Stages of entering a business:

1. Formation of the project concept.
2. Search for investors, collection of necessary funds.
3. Construction of greenhouses and utility rooms for growing cucumbers in the planned volume.
4. Conducting communications.
5. Acquisition of necessary equipment, machinery and supplies.
6. Attracting personnel.
7. Purchase of soil, planting material, fertilizers, plant protection products.
8. Preparing to start work.
9. Start of business.

When organizing a business, you should keep in mind that cucumbers are very demanding vegetables. For good yield you will need black soil, good fertilizers, acceptable temperature conditions and light. Therefore, when equipping greenhouses, think carefully about the heating and lighting systems of greenhouses using energy-saving technologies.

Market analysis and description of a greenhouse project for growing cucumbers in a greenhouse

Employees of the Ministry of Agriculture have developed a program according to which the population will be fully supplied with greenhouse vegetables, including cucumbers, by 2020. Currently, the market saturation of domestically produced greenhouse products is no more than 40%. Considering these prerequisites, growing cucumbers is a current business area.

Produced goods/services

Fresh cucumbers, canned cucumbers.

Potential clients

Retail chains, markets, fairs, vegetable warehouses, grocery stores, etc.

Below are calculations for an example of a ready-made business plan for the industrial cultivation of cucumbers in a greenhouse.

The financial part of the business plan for cucumbers in a greenhouse

Investments:

According to the business plan of a small greenhouse complex for growing cucumbers, the required investment will be about 10 - 15 million rubles.

Income:

Average revenue will be about 12 - 18 million rubles annually (production capacity for 100 - 120 tons of vegetables).

Expenses:

Annual expenses average 8 - 13 million rubles.

Profit, payback and profitability of the business:

The payback period of the project is about 4 years, the profit is on average 2.5 - 5 million rubles, and the profitability is 25%.

Conclusions:

Growing cucumbers in a greenhouse is a business area that is currently gaining particular relevance. Demand for cucumbers is at a consistently high level and there is no reason to assume that it may decrease. The domestic market needs additional vegetable producers, which means you have a great opportunity to enter this market with your offer. Therefore, if cucumbers in a greenhouse are your topic, then you need to prepare a business plan.

Download a business plan template for the industrial cultivation of cucumbers, and you will be able to:

• Independently calculate a list of key performance indicators and current activities of a cucumber growing farm.
• Receive guaranteed financing from banks, investment companies and the state, since your business plan will reflect the real state of things, and this will be noticeable.
• Structure your work in accordance with the developed strategy and established plans.
• Save up to 150,000 rubles on developing a business plan.

To start your own business, you will need self-confidence, decisive action and a good business plan. Don't wait, start acting right now.

Other ready-made business plans.

Growing cucumbers is a fairly profitable business, but it is expensive and labor-intensive. Although the demand for this product does not fall all year round. As with any endeavor, you will need to draw up a business plan for growing cucumbers in a greenhouse. Let's look at an example for reference, but every novice entrepreneur needs his own plan in accordance with his capabilities.

Features of the activity

Growing cucumbers as a business has excellent prospects. Although prices decrease in the summer and competition increases, in winter, on the contrary, the price of cucumbers in many regions becomes more than 200 rubles per kilogram.

Advantages of growing cucumbers in a greenhouse:

• Russian buyers try to choose domestically produced products.
• Modern greenhouses have a long service life.
• To grow this product you do not need to know any special technologies.
• A small area is enough to install a greenhouse. On 5 acres of land you can get a harvest of 37 tons annually.
• Cucumbers can be grown year-round if the conditions are correct indoors.

Registration

When planning to grow cucumbers and greenhouses, you should first decide on the registration form. An entrepreneur has the opportunity to choose one of three options:

• Personal subsidiary farming is an ideal option for a novice entrepreneur. Although private household plots are not considered a business activity, it does not prohibit the sale of products of its own production and is not exempt from taxes. To register it, you do not need to collect a lot of documents; it is enough to have a plot of land of no more than 2 hectares in lease or ownership and contact the local administration for a certificate of the availability of this land plot.
• has a more complex registration process, but with this registration form it is more realistic to find wholesale buyers.
• has the same scheme as private household plots, but is suitable if there are several co-founders of the business.

Equipment

First of all, this is a greenhouse. When planning a greenhouse business on cucumbers and drawing up a business plan, you need to decide on the choice of the greenhouse itself. There are several options:

You also need to take care of heating the air and soil. If a business plan for growing cucumbers involves producing vegetables all year round, then you need to pay attention to specialized equipment. To maintain the temperature inside the greenhouse, boilers that can operate on solid or gaseous fuel are suitable. It is not economically feasible to use electricity.

To heat the soil, there are specialized systems that are similar in design and operating principle to heated floors. They, unlike other heating methods, do not harm plants.

Lighting must be provided at least 12 hours a day. Even in a greenhouse, plants will not have enough natural light, so additional artificial light should be created. Ordinary incandescent lamps will not work - you need to buy LED lamps.

The last condition for the normal growth of vegetables is careful care. Given the large scale of production, it is necessary to take care of an automatic or semi-automatic irrigation system. You can do without it, but manual watering is a labor-intensive and ineffective process.

Sales market

This needs to be thought out in advance at the stage when a business plan for growing cucumbers will be planned. Your business will bring in approximately three tons of finished products per month (with a land plot of five acres). Accordingly, such a large volume of products will need to be sold immediately, since the goods are perishable.

There are several options for selling cucumbers:

• Retail Stores;
• Network shops;
• wholesale warehouses;
• city ​​markets;
• canning factories.

The most profitable option for an entrepreneur is a retail store or local market. You can also sell your products yourself if you rent a retail space on the market, which will significantly increase your profits.

Financial plan

• construction of a greenhouse – 640,000;
• ground heating system – 121000;
• heating of greenhouses – 70,000;
• lighting – 570,000;
• irrigation system – 30,000;
• other expenses for the purchase of seeds and fertilizers - 150,000.

The approximate amount of starting capital is 1,581,000 rubles. This does not include the costs of renting or purchasing land. Also, the amount may vary significantly depending on the region.

Cucumber appeared in human culture more than 6 thousand years ago. The first mention in Russia of this vegetable dates back to the first half of the sixteenth century. Today, this vegetable is used not only in cooking, but also in cosmetics and medicine.

The total territory of Russia occupied by the cultivation of cucumbers is about 90 thousand hectares, and more than 90% of this area is occupied by household farms. The remaining 10% of the territory is distributed among small enterprises, agricultural organizations, and peasant farms.

It is worth noting that most of the territory of Russia belongs to the category of lands with an increased risk for agriculture. Any vegetable growing here faces rather unstable summer weather, as well as a long winter period. Negative natural factors also include poor soils, as well as unstable amounts of moisture. All this leads to the fact that even unpretentious crops do not grow very well. Cucumbers, eggplants and tomatoes are well represented in the southern regions of the country, but even there the volumes of industrially grown cucumbers are significantly inferior to the volume of cucumbers grown on private farms.

During the winter and off-season period, store shelves contain mainly imported cucumbers, the taste of which quite often does not correspond to the prices. Nevertheless, people have to buy them, because during this period there are practically no domestic cucumbers on the shelves. It is worth noting that one of today’s trends is the revival of a healthy lifestyle, which is naturally accompanied by an increase in consumer demand for natural food products, including cucumbers.

Thus, the cucumber growing business is good because:
during the year the demand for cucumbers does not fall;
in winter, competition between domestic producers becomes very low;
Compared to imported cucumbers, which are transported still unripe, domestic cucumbers are in an advantageous position.

1. Personal subsidiary farming;
2. Individual entrepreneur;
3. Peasant farm.

Each of the forms has its own characteristics, but the simplest of them is personal subsidiary farming. Such farming is recognized as a form of non-entrepreneurial activity. Thus, growing cucumbers in the form of private household plots frees the entrepreneur from many taxes. However, personal income tax will still need to be paid when selling grown goods.

One of the restrictions is the establishment of a maximum plot area. Art. 5. Federal Law dated 07/07/2003 N 112-FZ (as amended on 06/21/2011) “On personal subsidiary plots” sets its maximum area at 0.5 hectares. It is worth noting that according to the legislation of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation, the area can be increased, but not more than 5 times.

Thus, personal subsidiary farming is best managed by those who plan to grow cucumbers on their own, without hiring additional workers. If you plan to hire workers or open a small retail chain for selling products, then it is more advisable to start a business as an individual entrepreneur.

If you want to start a business growing cucumbers on a partnership basis, then it is best to register a peasant farm. KHF is a full-fledged legal entity, but at the same time it receives a number of tax benefits.

It is better to choose a single agricultural tax as a taxation system for vegetable growing. In this case, you will not need to pay VAT, as well as property and profit taxes. Under the Unified Agricultural Tax, the tax is 6% and is levied directly on net income.

Growing cucumbers in open ground

This growing method is available to everyone who has their own garden.

Cucumbers have one peculiarity - they do not like soil that is too oily. Therefore, their seeds are often sown in areas already used, for example, for growing cabbage. If the soil prepared for cucumbers is fertilized with fresh manure, this will lead to spotting and a bitter taste in the fruit. That is why it is best to apply fertilizers for cucumbers in the fall.

Due to the fact that cucumbers love warmth, you should start sowing seeds no earlier than May. You can sow either dry seeds or already sprouted ones. In steppe areas, dry seeds are usually used. In areas where a humid climate predominates, sprouted seeds are used. By the way, this allows you to get an early harvest of cucumbers. Propagation with germinated seeds involves first sowing them in pots or special bowls, and then waiting until the third leaf develops in the plants. After this, the sprouts are transplanted into the ground at a distance of 3-4 inches from each other. After the final development of the third leaf, the shoots are pinched, as a result of which two to four new shoots appear, which subsequently provide the basis for fruitful branches.

Near the roots, it is necessary to periodically loosen the soil and cover it with straw - this helps prevent it from drying out quickly. Before the development of the third leaf, seedlings need to be watered frequently, after emergence - no more than three times a week, while evening watering remains mandatory.

Growing cucumbers in open ground is used mainly to satisfy personal needs. It is more expedient to organize industrial cultivation in greenhouses, since in this case there will be no dependence on climate change. Of course, greenhouse cultivation involves a relatively large amount of investment.

Equipment for greenhouse cultivation

Literally 10-15 years ago, the construction of one’s own greenhouse facility was accompanied by multimillion-dollar expenses, which were spent on the construction of huge complexes. However, much has changed with the introduction of polycarbonate and lightweight metal structures, thanks to which it is possible to build good greenhouses in a short time.

The second problem for vegetable growers planning to grow cucumbers in winter is heating the air and soil. To heat the air in the greenhouse itself, it is advisable to use a traditional pipe system closed to the boiler. It is better to purchase a boiler with the ability to work not only on solid, but also on liquid and gaseous fuel.

Several years ago, the problem of heating the soil was solved by installing pipes with air or water heating. The big disadvantage of such pipes was the likelihood of overheating the soil, which led to the death of seedlings. Today, special soil heating systems are available on the market, with which you can maintain the best temperature conditions.

For lighting, it is more advisable to use LED lamps. Thanks to them, you can significantly speed up the process of photosynthesis. It is worth noting the efficiency of LED lamps, as well as the duration of their operation.

Automatic watering systems save time required to care for seedlings. In addition to saving time, such systems allow the use of water-soluble fertilizers, which can be added to water containers.

Thus, to organize winter greenhouse cultivation of cucumbers with an area of ​​400 square meters. m. you need to purchase:

• 2 Polycarbonate greenhouses – 20-40 thousand dollars;
• 8 automatic watering systems – 1.0 thousand dollars;
• 80 lamps for lighting plants - 18.4-20.0 thousand dollars.
• 2-3 boilers – 2.3-3.5 thousand dollars;
• 30 sets for heating the soil - 4.3 thousand dollars.

Costs and payback

The volume of investment for year-round cultivation is 91-111.8 thousand dollars.

1. Purchase of land – 15-20 thousand dollars;
2. Purchase of equipment – ​​46-68.8 thousand dollars;
3. Construction of general utility buildings – 5-6 thousand dollars;
4. Purchase of transport – 10-12 thousand dollars;
5. Other expenses (purchase of electrical wiring, pipes, fertilizers) – $5 thousand.

Annual expenses:

1. Electricity – 0.6 thousand dollars;
2. Purchase of seeds – 0.5 thousand dollars;
3. Purchase of fertilizers – 1.0 thousand dollars;
4. Purchase of firewood, coal – 4.8 thousand dollars;
5. Workers' wages are 10-12 thousand dollars.

Total: 16.9-18.9 thousand dollars.

Taking into account annual expenses, the estimated profit of a cucumber growing business will be approximately 43.1-46.1 thousand dollars. Thus, the return period for the initial investment will be 2-2.5 years.

The large volume of grown products entails the problem of finding new distribution channels. As a rule, large quantities of cucumbers are needed by large vegetable warehouses and markets, as well as grocery store chains. To organize your own channel in the form of direct sales of products, it is not enough to grow only one type of vegetables, so initially it makes more sense to cooperate with wholesale buyers. In the future, you can expand the range of vegetables and start selling them through your own network or directly from the place of production. It is worth noting that it is necessary to conclude new contracts with buyers even before the start of the mass harvest, otherwise the risk of product loss significantly increases.