Cucumber and pickle is easy to grow as long as a few basic practices are followed.
Core cucumber facts
Name – Cucumis sativus
Family – Cucurbitaceae or gourd family
Type – vegetable, annual
Height – 1 ½ to 6 ½ feet (0.5 to 2 m)
Exposure – full sun
Soil – ordinary but well drained
Harvest – 3 to 4 months after sowing, from May to October.
Caring for your cucumber from seed to harvest requires several mandatory steps for them to develop well.
Sowing and planting cucumber
Sowing cucumber seeds
Sow in seed holes with 3 seeds per hole from March to June.
Transplant to the growing bed in May at the earliest, since freezing still occurs before that.
- Space plants 32 inches (80 cm) apart.
Planting cucumber seedlings
If you purchase cucumber seedlings from a nursery, plant them directly in the ground when the last frosts are past, after the middle of May.
Pruning and caring for cucumber
Growing and caring for cucumbers is quite easy if adequate growing conditions are set up.
The trickiest step is pruning. If well pruned, a cucumber plant will grow well and the harvest will be plentiful.
Pruning for sprawling cucumber along the ground
This is for cucumber plants grown directly in the ground.
- Pinch just above the second leaf, and wait for two new stems to form.
- Pinch each of these two stems just after the 4th leaf, and then prune all following branches one leaf after each fruit.
Pruning for cucumber along a single stem
Often the case for cucumber plants grown vertically in greenhouses.
- Let the main stem grow up to about 6 ½ feet (2 meters), then pinch it at the tip.
- Side shoots will form between each leaf, called “suckers”.
- Along the lower 28 inches (0.70 cm), remove suckers regularly, as well as any fruits that develop directly on the stem.
Pruning for pickles
- Nothing special is needed other than pinching the head off just after the second leaf.
- Harvest fruits more regularly because leaving them on the plant will lower productivity.
Common cucumber diseases
To avoid this, avoid wetting leaves. Cucumber is very vulnerable to diseases, especially powdery mildew.
In order to avoid such illnesses, water directly at the base of the plants to keep them from catching it.
Learn more about cucumber
Native to Asia, running along the ground or climbing to great heights, this exact same plant produces both pickles and cucumbers.
Cucumber likes heat and requires regular but reduced watering.
Smart tip about cucumber
Planting cucumber in hot weather will stimulate growth.
Credits for images shared to Nature & Garden (all edits by Gaspard Lorthiois):
Ripe cucumber on vine by Julia Schwab under Pixabay license
Young cucumber by Irina under Pixabay license
Cucumber on treillis by Monika Bohr under Pixabay license
Three cucumbers by Peter Sitte under © CC BY 2.0
On Instagram : young cucumber bunch by Andy under Pixabay license
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