How to Grow Cucumbers
Instruction & Advice for Growing Cucumber Plants
in Your Vegetable Garden
| Nutrition | Watering Instructions | Harvesting |
| Climate | Fertilizing Instructions | Storage |
| Soil | Challenges | Tips |
| Planting |
Cucumbers are a popular vegetable garden crop, but they can be difficult to grow. They tend to be succeptible to diseases and pests that require additional attention from the gardener.
There are many varieties of cucumber plants available. Bush varieties work well for container gardening. In your in-ground garden, you can grow either a bush or vine variety.
Gardening Advice Tip: Cucumbers will not grow well if planted near (or with) sage or other aromatic herbs, or potatoes. For more information on planning your garden, review the companion planting guide.
Keep your cucumber garden well weeded, as they can carry troublesome plant diseases and pests.
Nutrition Information: (back to top)
Cucumbers provide: Chromium, Manganese, Vitamin A, C, K, Pantothenic Acid, Magnesium, Phosphorus, and Potassium.
Climate & Growing Conditions: (back to top)
Cucumber gardening is at it's best in warm zones. They will grow in most other climates. Colder areas cause this vegetable to have a shorter growing season.
They prefers warm garden beds with a soil temperature over 60 degrees (F).
Gardening Advice Tip: If you're using a vine variety, use structure (trellis, fence, etc.) to train the vine to save space and provide better quality fruit.
How to Prepare the Garden Soil: (back to top)
For cucumbers, prepare garden beds a few weeks before planting with compost and animal manures. The garden soil pH should be between 5.5 and 7.0 for your cucumber patch. (Instructions: How to test your garden soil pH level.)
If you're in an area that gets a lot of rain, add lime to the soil (or if your soil is acidic). This will help prevent curling leaves on your cucumber plants (which is a sign of a molybdenum deficiency).
It's a good idea to mulch the soil around your cucumber plants, to help keep the soil moist and prevent it from getting too compact.
How to Plant: (back to top)
Sow cucumber seed directly into the garden bed. Plant the seeds 2/3” deep. There are several planting methods:
- Sow seeds 20” apart and in rows 1 yard apart.
- Sow several seeds in shallow craters spaced 20” apart.
- Sow seeds so that they're grown on mounds of dirt about 8” tall, and 6 feet apart. Plant a handful of seeds per hill, and later thin the sprouts to 3 plants per hill.
- Start seeds indoors, for a head-start on the season. For more information on starting seeds indoors, click here.
How to Water: (back to top)
Gardening cucumbers requires application of regular waterings. This vegetable needs a lot of water, so make sure you keep a careful eye on the moisture level of the ground.
You may see the leaves droop during the heat of the day. If the groud is not dry, it is just a temporary affect from the extreme heat and the plant will likely recover when the temperature cools for the evening.
How to Fertilize: (back to top)
Proper garden preparation is the key to avoiding problems with cucumbers. Prepare cucumber garden beds one week before planting. Add a complete fertilizer, and mix it in well with the soil.
Give your plants a boost (once the vines begin to grow aggressively) by adding a dose of fertilizer to each plant. Water the fertilizer in to the ground.
Once the vine starts to produce fruit, apply additional doses of urea (watered in to the soil immediately afterwards) monthly.
Gardening Challenges: (back to top)
Banded pumpkin beetles, aphids, and red spider mites can be problems for cucumber leaves and flowers.
Powdery and downy mildew are common plant diseases for this vegetable.
To help your seedlings get established without providing a feast for the local insect community, try covering your cucumber bed (after planting) with cheesecloth, supported off the ground by a frame and enclosed on the sides to keep the bugs out. When the cucumber plants start to flower, remove the cheesecloth.
Gardening Advice Tip:Practice good vegetable gardening by rotating your crops within your garden space with each new season. This will prevent many plant diseases.
How to Harvest: (back to top)
There are optimum times to pick fruit, depending on the cucumber variety and climate.
The "rule of thumb" is that if you can easily brush off the tiny spines on the cucumber fruit, it is ripe and ready to be picked. At this stage, the seeds are not large and the taste has not become bitter. It is always best not to let the fruit become old, bitter and tough.
Do not allow cucumbers to ripen on the vine, or they’ll stunt your crop. The smaller the cucumbers are when you pick them, the higher yield of crop you’ll have. So, if you want a long and very productive harvest of cucumbers, pick the fruit often. (This encourages the plant to make more flowers/fruit... whereas, if it has plenty of cucumbers on the vine, it doesn't feel a need to make any more.)
How to store cucumbers: (back to top)
Pickling is the traditional way to store cucumbers, often with other garden vegetables. See recipe list for just a few of the many options available.
Gardening Advice Tips (back to top)
Have a helpful gardening tip (or even a fun story) to share about your cucumber growing experience? Share it with us at: gardeningtips@howtogardenadvice.com
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