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A tropical vegetable, cucumbers thrive when the weather is hot and water is plentiful. Growing cucumbers is for warmer weather: Plants are so frost-tender that they shouldn't be set into the garden until soil temperatures are reliably in the 70-degree range (no less than 2 weeks after the last frost date).
Cucumber plants grow in two forms: vining and bush. Vines scramble along the ground or clamber up trellises, while bush types, such as Burpless Bush Hybrid, form a more compact plant. Generally, vining cucumbers yield more fruit throughout the growing season. Bush selections are especially suited to containers and small gardens. You can increase the season's yield of bush varieties by planting several crops in succession 2 weeks apart.
Whether you want a cucumber for slicing or pickling, Bonnie Plants® has a variety to suit your taste. Lemon cucumber offers smaller fruits perfect for a single serving, while Boston Pickling boasts classic heirloom taste. The long Armenian cucumber is a specialty cucumber prized for taste and the fact that a single cucumber yields so many slices. Whichever cucumber variety you choose, you can rest assured that you'll get a strong start with Bonnie Plants, a company that has been around for over 100 years.
Quick Guide to Growing Cucumbers
- Plant cucumbers when average daily temperatures reach the mid-70s° F.
- Space cucumbers 36 to 60 inches apart (12 inches apart for trellised plants) in an area with abundant sun and fertile, well-drained soil with a pH of 6.0 to 6.8.
- Improve native soil by mixing in several inches of aged compost or other rich organic matter.
- Cucumbers will grow quickly with little care. Be sure they receive an inch of water every week.
- Make the most of your food growing efforts by regularly feeding plants with a water-soluble plant food.
- When soil is warm, add a layer of straw mulch to keep fruit clean and help keep slugs and beetles away.
- Harvest cucumbers when they are big enough to eat.
Soil, Planting, and Care
Cucumbers need warm, fertile soil with a pH of 6.0 to 6.8, although they will tolerate a bit more alkaline soil to 7.6. To improve the soil and help create the root environment needed for a big harvest, work several inches of aged compost-enriched Miracle-Gro® Performance Organics® All Purpose In-Ground Soil into the top few inches of your existing garden soil. (Compost or composted manure will work, too.) Plant seedlings 36 to 60 inches apart, depending on variety (check the stick tag). For vines trained on a trellis, space plants 1 foot apart.
In areas where spring is long and cool, you can warm the soil 3 to 4 degrees by covering the hill or row with black plastic.If you do not plant in black plastic, then mulch with pine straw, wheat straw, chopped leaves, or your favorite organic mulch shortly after planting. If the weather is unseasonably cool, you can wait a while to mulch until the ground is warmed by the sun. Mulch is especially important to keep the fruit clean for bush types and vines not growing on a trellis. Straw mulch is also thought to be uncomfortable for slugs and creates an uneasy footing for cucumber beetles, helping to keep them at bay.
If you can, trellis your vines. This keeps the fruit clean and saves space. A 12- to 18-inch diameter cage made from 4- or 5-foot welded wire fencing or hog wire will support 2 or 3 vines. Wire is easy for the tendrils of climbing cucumbers to grab as the plant grows.
Cucumbers grow fast and don't demand a lot of care. Just keep the soil consistently moist with an inch of water per week (more if temperatures sizzle and rain is scarce). Inadequate or inconsistent moisture causes oddly shaped or poor-tasting fruit. If possible, water your cucumbers with a soaker hose or drip irrigation to keep the foliage dry. This helps prevent leaf diseases that can ruin the plant.
For best results, high quality plant food is just as important as starting with great soil. You can fertilize with a water-soluble food, such as Miracle-Gro® Performance Organics® Edibles Plant Nutrition, applying it directly to soil around plant stems. Or, you can use a continuous-release fertilizer, like Miracle-Gro® Performance Organics® Edibles Plant Nutrition Granules, worked into the soil. Both plant foods feed both your plants and the beneficial microbes in the soil that help them thrive. Either way, be sure to follow label directions.
Troubleshooting
If vines bloom but don't fruit, something is probably interfering with pollination. First, make sure that you see both male and female blooms. Male blooms usually appear first and then drop off, so don't be alarmed if this happens. Within a week or two, female flowers will also appear; each one has a small cucumber-shaped swelling at the base that will become a cucumber. If you're still not seeing those swellings turn into fruit, you may need to do a bit of hand-pollination.
Several pests bother cucumbers. Squash bugs may attack seedlings. Slugs like ripening fruit. Aphids can colonize leaves and buds. Straw mulch helps keep slugs at bay, as can trellising vines to get the fruit off the ground. Vines are also bothered by cucumber beetles, which chew holes in leaves and flowers and scar stems and fruits, but worse than that, they spread a disease that causes the plants to wilt and die. Powdery mildew is a disease that leaves white, mildew-like patches on the leaves. Apply fungicides at the first sign of its presence. To minimize disease spread, avoid harvesting or handling vines when leaves are wet.
Harvest and Storage
You can pick cucumbers whenever they're big enough to use. Check vines daily as the fruit starts to appear because they enlarge quickly. Vines produce more fruit the more you harvest. To remove the fruit, use a knife or clippers, cutting the stem above the fruit. Pulling them may damage the vine. Don't let the cucumbers get oversized or they will be bitter, and will also keep the vine from producing more. Yellowing at the bottom (blossom end) of a cucumber signals overripeness; remove the fruit immediately. Harvest lemon cucumbers just before they begin turning yellow. Although they are called lemon cucumber because the little oblong or round fruits turn yellow and look like a lemon, by the time the fruit turns yellow it may be a little too seedy for most tastes.
You can keep harvested cucumbers in the refrigerator for 7 to 10 days, but use them as soon as possible after picking for best flavor. If you don't eat a slicing cucumber all at once, cover the unused portion in plastic wrap to prevent dehydration in the refrigerator. In fact, it's a good idea to wrap your whole cucumbers in plastic or store them in a zipper bag in the fridge to keep them crisp.
FAQs
I read that cucumbers can be planted in hills. How do I do this?
Make a hill before planting the cucumber. Just a small rise in the ground is adequate. Build the hill, or mound, about a foot in diameter and about three inches high; this is to drain water from around the stem. Plant the cucumber in the mound.
Should you stake cucumbers?
Stakes or cages hold plants up from the ground. Cucumber vines have little tendrils that will grab a string or wire and climb up a wire cage or trellis. Staking makes it easier to pick the cucumbers and keeps them cleaner than if they are on the ground.
Which varieties of cucumbers can be grown in containers?
Use our bush-type cucumber because it is more compact and is bred for containers and small gardens. The vines do not grow as long as standard types.
My cucumbers bloomed but failed to set fruit. Why does this happen?
This is a pollination problem. The flowers must be pollinated to set fruit. Did you use a pesticide that might have killed bees that pollinate the flowers? Look to see if any bees are visiting your plants in the morning. This is when they are most active.
Why do my cucumbers taste bitter?
Some varieties grown under stressful conditions — weather that is too warm or too cool, poor soil fertility, or disease — can develop a bitter flavor. The same thing will happen to fruit that is left on the vine too long and is overmature. To help minimize the potential for bitterness, plant varieties that are not prone to becoming bitter, such as Armenian cucumber, lemon cucumber, small pickling varieties (like Boston pickling), or “burpless” slicing varieties.
It is cold in the spring where I live. How do I protect my cucumbers from the chill?
Cucumbers are sensitive to frost. Plant at least two weeks after all danger of frost has passed. You can use plastic sheeting on the ground to help retain the earth's heat. You can also cover plants with a row cover until they start blooming, if needed. After flowers appear you have to uncover them for the bees.
How often should I water my cucumbers?
Water often enough to keep the soil slightly moist all the time. Cucumbers will be small and can taste bitter if they get stressed for water. Mulch the soil around the plants to keep in moisture. It also keeps the fruit clean.
When should I harvest pickling type cucumbers?
Pickling cucumbers should be harvested when the fruit reaches 3 to 4 inches in length; for big pickles let them get 6 to 7 inches long if they are still tender.
