Vegetable / Warm season
Cucumber
Climbs fast, fruits hard, and hides its best ones
Plant out byJun 1zone 6
- Family
- Gourd (Cucurbitaceae)
- Sun
- Full sun (6+ h)
- Difficulty
- Some care
- Days to harvest
- 50-70 days
- Spacing
- 12 in apart, rows 36 in
- Pot size
- 5 gal pot (fine in pots)
- Frost
- Tender
- Start
- Either
- Water
When to plant
Showing .
Averages for a typical garden in the region. Your local frost dates may differ by 2-3 weeks, check a local source.Too late this year (try fall)
In zone 6, start seeds indoors Apr 6 to Apr 13; plant out May 4 to Jun 1. Average last frost Apr 20, first fall frost Oct 20.
Units
Cucumbers are the crop that teaches you to look under leaves. One morning there is a finger-sized fruit, and three days later it is a fat yellow club you somehow missed. Pick slicers around 6 to 8 inches and pickling types at 2 to 3, and check every day once they start. Regular picking also keeps the vine setting new fruit.
Cucumber beetles are the big watch-out. These small yellow beetles with black stripes or spots chew leaves and flowers, and they can carry bacterial wilt, which makes a healthy vine collapse within days. Row cover on young plants helps a lot. Pull it off when flowers open, because bees have to reach them. Squash bugs show up too, mostly as bronze egg clusters you can crush.
That pollination part trips people up. The first flowers are all male, so a plant can bloom for a week with no fruit at all, and that is normal. Sow outdoors once the soil is near 70 degrees F, usually about two weeks after your last frost. A trellis saves bed space and keeps fruit straight and clean. In a pot of 5 gallons or more, a bush or trellised type does fine as long as the mix never fully dries out. Uneven water is one cause of bitter fruit. On a hot balcony, that can mean watering twice a day.
Things to consider
- Cold soil rots seed. Sowing a couple of weeks late, into warm ground, often catches up with an early planting and misses the first wave of beetles. Patience in May pays off in July.
- Bitterness tends to follow dry spells, big temperature swings, or fruit left on the vine too long. Most of it sits near the stem end, so trim that bit off and peel. Burpless varieties are bred to carry less of it.
- Where bees are scarce, such as a high balcony, pick a parthenocarpic hybrid that sets fruit without pollination. Or move pollen yourself with a small brush in the morning. Each flower opens for only one day.
Good neighbours
Keep apart
Pests to watch for
Cucumber beetlesSquash bugsAphids
Questions about growing cucumber
Can cucumbers grow up a trellis?
Yes, vining types climb well once you guide the first tendrils. On a trellis, plants can sit 9 to 12 inches apart, and the fruit hangs clean instead of lying in the dirt. Put the support in at planting so you do not tear roots later. A cattle panel or a simple string net both work. Heavy slicing types may need a sling of old cloth once the fruit gets big.
Why do my cucumber flowers fall off without making fruit?
Those are almost always male flowers, which open first and drop after a day. Female flowers have a tiny cucumber at the base. If the females wither too, pollinators are not visiting, and hand-pollinating early in the day can fix it. Avoid spraying anything while flowers are open.
When should I start cucumber seeds indoors?
Only about 3 weeks before they go outside, since the seedlings grow fast and do not like their roots disturbed. Most growers find direct sowing into warm soil simpler. Wait for nights that stay above 50 degrees F before planting out, and harden the seedlings off first so they do not sulk.
Save this crop
Pin it to a garden board so it is there when planting time comes round.
Similar crops
Sources
General guidance for home gardens. Frost dates are averages for a zone or region; check a local source (in the US your county extension office) for local timing.