Cucumbers are one of my favorite vegetables to grow in the garden for several reasons. First, I love to grow cucumbers because cucumbers are easy to grow.
First, they don’t require a lot so it makes them fun to grow. Second, they’re prolific, you’re almost guaranteed to get a bumper crop harvest off of them. Third, fresh cucumbers are delicious.
Fourth, Pickles…. need I say more? I’m ready to tell you exactly how to grow cucumbers.
Without further ado, let’s get down to how it’s done.
How to Grow Cucumbers
You’ll need to decide if you want to start seeds and transplant or just direct sow in the ground. We prefer to direct sow cucumbers because cucumbers don’t do well with root disturbance for transplanting.
Peat pots are a good option if you want to start seeds indoor to get a jump start on the season because they can be planted straight in the ground without messing with the roots of the plant.
I’d like to add that in an area free of fire ants, direct sowing worked great. In our time in Florida, we found out the hard way that fire ants will feast on your planted seeds before they germinate in the ground.
In order to have a successful crop, we had to start our cucumbers in peat pots and transplant when we lived in Florida where fire ants are trying to dominate the world a major problem.
You need to wait until at least 2 weeks after risk of frost to transplant or direct sow. Cucumber plants do not tolerate frost at all. The soil temperature needs to be 70° F or warmer.
Believe me, you’ll be so sad if you plant too early and your plants die. Don’t ask me how I know. I mean, I do know how to grow cucumbers, I just get a little anxious sometimes and plant early. Don’t do it, just don’t.
Plant seeds 6″ apart and thin to 12″ apart after first true leaves appear for vining cucumber varieties, for bush cucumber varieties, thin to 18″-24″ apart. Transplants can be planted every 12″.
Choose an area with full sun, they love the sun! Cucumbers also love water, and need to be kept moist. If your soil is dry past the first joint in your finger, you need to water your plants.
Soil rich in organic matter with a ph between 6.5-7.0 is best for growing cucumbers in. For vining types, they do best when trellised. We’ve built teepee type structures, used pieces of fencing, cattle panels, branches, and long sticks, they just need something to grow up.
We love growing cucumbers vertically.
Harvest time will depend on the type of cucumber you grow- around 55-65 days for most types. Be sure to pick them before they get too large, lest they may become tough and bitter.
Picking often will also cause your plant to produce even more cucumbers. You’ll have cucumbers for days and hopefully stored for months.
Once you harvest, you can enjoy eating your cucumbers fresh, dipped in ranch dip, as cucumber sandwiches, in salads, or any other way you like to enjoy fresh cucumbers. They are also delicious as pickles.
Our favorites are dill and bread and butter pickles. I’ve also recently learned that you can fry cucumber slices just like fried green tomatoes. I haven’t tried it yet but plan to soon. You can thank Patara at Appalachia’s Homestead for that little tidbit.
You can definitely expect a large harvest of cucumbers. It is likely you’ll have more than enough to eat, preserve, share with friends, family, and neighbors. There will probably even be enough leftover to share with your chickens and other livestock.
There are also some very cool varieties to pick from. We always grow a pickling type and a slicing type. The coolest variety that we’ve gown is the lemon cucumber. Such a yummy and neat vegetable!
Buy your cucumber seeds here:
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I live in a real hot climate. A cool thing I’ve figured out is if you put an overripe cucumber bought from the market on the ground and cover it with a little chicken wire to keep the birds off. You just let it fester in the sun t hen when it looks real nasty bust it open and water it. Tons of cucumber plants in like 2-3 days. Downside is all in one little area because you need to let them use the festering cucumber for fertiliser. However, in hot climates transferring is easy. You might have to provide partial shade w hen you transfer for a day or two but often times you don’t even have to do that depending on the weather.
First time we review site enjoyed it very much looking forward to reading more I like you cucumber article
Very good info! Haven’t tried the fried cubes, from Patara, but have hope of doing so to surprise my grands. I’m in Middle Georgia.
That’s awesome! I’m glad you are here. 🙂
How can I print this article without printing all those pictures?
Nice article! Planted cucumbers for the first time ever. I used eggshells to start my seedlings and transplanted…hope they make it. I would love some cucumbers that haven’t been sprayed with a ton of pesticide.
Cornmeal will kill those ants, and worms love it.
So it does double duty.