Grow Cucumbers

Cucumbers are low-maintenance, high-yielding vegetables, once you successfully get them started in your garden. Keep reading to learn how to grow plump, delicious cucumbers in your own garden.

Steps

Preparation

1. Wait until the soil warms up. Cucumbers are exceedingly sensitive to cold temperatures, and even a mild frost can kill them. This is especially true when the plants are in their most vulnerable stages.
   • Generally, cucumbers should be planted in April or May, depending on the region you live in and when the weather begins warming up. A more specific way to determine when to plant your cucumbers would be to pay attention to the date of the last frost. To be on the safe side, wait until at least two weeks after the last frost date.
   • The temperature of the soil should be at least 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18.3 degrees Celsius). Note that the soil temperature can be a little cooler than the air temperature.
2. Choose a sunny location. Cucumbers grow best when given full sun for the entirety of their growing process.
   • Sunlight is important as a source of nutrition for cucumber plants, which make full use of the process of photosynthesis.
   • Sunlight is also important for the sake of temperature regulation. Steady sunlight will mean consistently warm soil, which the seeds need in order to germinate.
3. Remove any weeds. Dig weeds out of your garden before you plant your cucumbers. Aside from being unpleasant to look at, weeds rob the plants of valuable and limited nutrients.
   • For best results, pull the weeds up by hand, yanking up as much of the root as possible. If you leave the root of a weed behind, there is a strong likelihood that the same weed will continue to grow.
   • Avoid the use of herbicides. Chemical and organic herbicides alike can make the soil unsuitable for plant growth overall, thereby making it as inhabitable for cucumbers as it is for weeds.
4. Fertilize the soil. Spread and dig some granular fertilizer into the soil of your garden to improve its overall quality before you begin planting cucumbers there.
   • Use a trowel or small rake to chop up the soil before adding fertilizer or anything else to it. By loosening the soil, you allow these additives to mix in more thoroughly while also creating ideal conditions for your cucumbers to take root in.
   • Rich compost or aged manures are the best natural fertilizers for the use of cucumbers. Mix them into the soil to a depth of 2 inches (about 5 cm), and gradually cut and work them into the soil to a depth of 6 to 8 inches (15.24 to 20.32 cm).
   • If you use an inorganic fertilizer, choose a slow-release granular fertilizer and follow the label instructions to determine how much to add to the soil.
5. Balance the pH of the soil. Ideally, the pH of your soil should be fairly neutral to slightly alkaline, so it should have a pH level as close to 7.0 as possible.
   • Test the pH of the soil with a pH testing kit, available through many garden supply centers and hardware stores.
   • If you need to increase the pH of your soil, add agricultural lime.
   • If you need to decrease the pH of you soil, add sulfur or aluminum sulfate.
6. Improve the soil quality. If the soil is too dense or too sandy, the cucumber plants could struggle at the root level, causing the plant to die or, at the very least, fail to produce any edible cucumbers for the season.
   • The ideal soil of cucumbers is loose, light, and sandy, since these soils get warmer quicker and stay warm more easily.
   • Improve clay soil by adding organic material. Improve dense, heavy soil with peat, compose, or rotted manure.

Planting

1. Choose the best variety for your garden. In general, there are vine and bush varieties. The former is more common, but the latter may be easier to confine if you have limited space to work with. There are also slicing or pickling varieties. The slicing cucumbers should be used if you plan on eating the cucumbers after harvesting them, but the latter should be used if you plan to pickle them.
   • Vine slicing varieties include the burpless, marketmore 76, and straight 8.
   • Bush slicing varieties include the bush crop, fanfare, and salad bush.
   • Pickling varieties include the bush pickle and the Carolina, the latter of which should be treated as a vine plant.
2. Start from a seed. Cucumbers have very fragile root systems, so seeding the garden directly is much more preferable than transplanting previously started plants.
   • Transplant seedlings only when necessary. If you want to start your cucumbers earlier in the season, you may do so, but you will need to start them indoors and be extremely careful about how the plants are handled during transplanting.
   • Start seedlings indoors in small starter pots placed on heat mats or under grow lights. Seedlings should be started about 4 weeks before you intend to transplant them.
   • When transplanting the cucumber plants, wiggle the entire structure out of the starter pot, soil and all. The soil will protect the sensitive roots as you transplant the cucumber seedling. If you attempt to transplant a cucumber that is bare-rooted, the plant will not likely survive.
3. Moisten the soil. If the soil is dry, use a watering can or hose to moisten it before you add the seeds.
   • Ample moisture is vital at all stages of growth. By wetting the soil before you plant the seeds, however, you reduce the risk of washing the seeds away with the force of the water.
   • If the soil is completely dry, add about 1 inch (2.5 cm) of water to the soil patch using a watering can or gentle hose.
4. Push seeds slightly into the soil. Push one or two seeds 1/2 inch to 1 inch into the top of the soil (1.25 to 2.5 ml).
   • The plantings should be about 18 to 36 inches (45.72 to 91.44 cm) apart, regardless of whether you are planting seeds or seedlings. Note that bush varieties can be spaced a little closer together than vine varieties.
   • Alternatively, you can space the seeds 6 to 10 inches (15.24 to 25.4 cm) apart and thin your seedlings out once they reach 4 inches (10 cm) tall. At that point, you should consider thinning them out so that they are 18 inches (45.72 cm) apart.
5. Prepare a trellis. Most cucumbers, especially vine varieties, will need some sort of vertical support as they grow. Getting this ready after planting the seeds may save you trouble later on.
   • Cucumbers will grow horizontally, but growing cucumbers vertically will improve the airflow and sunlight exposure, thereby increasing your overall yield.
   • You can use a cage trellis, stake, fence, or nearly any other vertical structure.
   • Guide the vines onto your trellis. As the plants get bigger, guide it onto your prepared trellis by gently wrapping the vine tendrils along the trellis.

Care and Harvest

1. Add mulch once seedlings sprout up. Covering the soil will limit the number of nutrient-depriving weeds that can return while also keeping the soil nice and warm for the cucumbers.
   • Organic mulches, like straw and wood chips, must be applied after the plants have already sprouted and the soil has sufficiently warmed up. Plastic mulches can technically be applied immediately after you plant the seeds, though.
   • Dark mulch is especially good at keeping the soil warm and moist.
2. Water regularly. Cucumbers need plenty of moisture throughout their entire life cycle.
   • Water deeply at least once a week using a gently hose or watering can. You should provide at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) of water each time.
   • Alternatively, install a drip irrigation system to regulate the water flow more consistently. This is especially beneficial because it keeps the foliage dry, thereby limiting the risk of fungal diseases.
   • Note that adequate moisture is especially important once the fruit begins to set.
3. Fertilize every two weeks or so. Use a mild liquid fertilizer every couple of weeks to maintain good soil quality for your hungry plants.
   • If you did not use a granular fertilizer when preparing the soil, you should directly fertilize the soil with a liquid feed every two weeks. Do not get inorganic fertilizer on plant leaves or fruits.
   • If you fertilized before planting your cucumbers, you should fertilize again once runners appear on vines and flowers begin to bud. If you prefer organic fertilizers, use compost or ages manure.
   • If the leaves turn yellow, you need a high-nitrogen fertilizer.
   • Note, however, that you should not over-fertilize your plants. Doing so can stunt the growth of your fruits and limit your yield.
4. Protect the plants with netting. You are not the only one hoping to enjoy a batch of home-grown cucumbers; wild animals living in your areas might get interested once they catch a whiff, too. Netting and fences can prevent many of these larger pests from causing problems.
   • The netting should be made from a fine mesh in order to effectively keep out small critters like rabbits and chipmunks.
   • Netting is especially important during the early stages, when animals might be tempted to dig seeds and sprouts out of the soil. At this stage, you could also cover the plants with a small berry basket.
   • Note that you should remove the netting once the plants get too tall or large to stay closed in.
5. Watch out for pests and disease. For insects, fungi, and other small pests and diseases, you may need to use some type of organic insecticide or fungicide.
   • Common pests include:
     • Cucumber beetles
     • White flies
     • Aphids
     • Spider mites
   • Common diseases include:
     • Bacterial wilt
     • Mosaic viruses
     • Anthracnose
     • Downy
     • Powdery mildew
     • Mosaic
     • Scab disease
6. Harvest the cucumbers when young. Slicing cucumbers should be about 6 to 8 inches (15.24 to 20.32 cm) long. Cucumbers can usually be twisted off the vine without the use of shears.
   • Pickling cucumbers should be harvested at 2 inches (5 cm) and dills should be harvested at 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15.24 cm).
   • Cucumbers that get too large or too yellow can become bitter. You should not allow a cucumber to turn yellow on the vine.
   • At peak harvesting time, you will likely end up picking cucumbers every few days.

Things You'll Need

• Fertilizer
• Small trowel
• pH stabilizers (agricultural lime, sulfur)
• pH testing kit
• Cucumber seeds
• Garden hose or watering can
• Cucumber seeds
• Trellis
• Insecticide or herbicide (as needed)
• Mulch
• Netting

Tips

• If you have done everything right but still want a larger yield, you need to attract more bees to pollinate your cucumber plants. Try spraying the vines with sugar water to attract bees.

Sources and Citations

See also

• Grow Cucumbers to Pickle
• Grow Cucumbers Indoors
• Grow Cucumbers in Pots
• Trellis Cucumbers

What links here

• Slice a Cucumber