Cucumbers have some a long way. If you
grew them twenty years ago and gave because you got a lot scabby, pulpy,
disease ridden fruits, or the fruit never set, or they turned out great but
gave you indigestion, try again? But these days there are several good disease
resistant varieties, seedless ones, less bitter ones, even burpless ones that
you don't have to peel. There are also ones with new shapes, such as the skinny
yard long cucumbers and the little yellow ones shaped like lemons. The sexual
problem has been even solved, cucumber yields used to be diminished by the fact
that each plant has separate male and female flowers. The males bloom first but
near no fruit; the females bloom about a week later. New gynoecious varieties
produce more predominantly female flowers than male for a bigger yield, but are
sold with a few male bearing seeds to insure pollination. Some varieties do not
even need to be pollinated at all.
Select a Site:
Native to the tropics, cucumbers like
warm weather but not intense, dry heat. They are not frost hardy, but since
they grow and mature quickly 55 to 60 days usually. It is easy to get a crop
even with a short season as long as you plant them in full sun. Well, before
you decide where to put cucumbers, you need to think about how they are going
to grow. The plants have long vines that take up a lot of room. They can be
allowed to sprawl on the ground as they grow, but this way you will need to
allow about 9 square feet per plant that's six foot by nine foot plot if you
grow six plants an ample number unless you are doing a lot pickling; one
cucumber plant can produce a lot of cucumbers.
Therefore, a nice way to grow them is to
let them climb up the garden fence. Getting cucumbers off the ground not only
saves space, but it gives me healthier, cleaner fruits. Also, with the fence
method, normally do not have to erect a whole separate support structure. Some
people grow them up stakes or up string or wire trellises, pinching the growing
tip when it reaches the top and pruning side shoots to reduce the weight of the
vine. Wire circular help up by metal stakes are a good method. Moreover, please
be in mind that you will have big, heavy vine so whatever support you provide
must be a very strong one.
Select a Soil and Planting
Well, clay soils with plenty of humus in
them give the highest cucumber yields, but sandy loam that warms up quickly
will produce an earlier faster crop. You need to prepare the soil by adding
plenty of organic matter, preferably a rich compost of well rotted manure,
because cucumbers like fertile soil. The pH can be anywhere from 5.5 to 7.0 and
add lime to raise the pH if it is lower that.
Therefore, cucumbers are often started
indoors to extend the season, but don't bother unless you can keep your seeds
at 70 to 80 degrees by day and no colder than 60 degrees at night. Otherwise it
is better to wait until the soil has warmed up. If you do sow indoors, keep the
planting medium moistened but well drained. It is suggested to use peat pots
work best because i can later set them out in the garden without even having to
disturb the roots something cucumbers particularly dislike. Sow a seeds to a pot
without firming the soil and thin to the tallest seedling snipping, pot pulling
the discards. They should be started about five weeks before planting time,
which is usually the last average frost date. But if the ground and the air are
still cold, harden them off for a while before you plant. Hence, presoaking the
seeds will help them to germinate.
If you sow directly in the garden, you
can either plant in hills or rows. Therefore, rows work better if you're using
a vertical support. Moreover, when the seedlings are a few inches tall thin to
a foot apart in the row, or to three plants in a one foot hill. Make sure, you
enrich the hill or row before you plant. A nice way to do this is to dig a
trench, put a few inches of rotted manure in the bottom, and then cover the
manure with an inch or two of soil so it cannot come in contact with the seeds.
One other planting note, if the cucumber you are planting is a gynoecious
variety, the seed packet will tell you so, and you will find that the seeds
producing male flower plants are dyed a distinct color. Moreover, set aside 2
or 3 peat pots and plant them with only male seeds. Hence, then mark the pots
containing them, and tie a colored string to the plants when you set them out.
You need only one or two plants with male flowers for pollination, but yon
don’t want to neglect to plant those or destroy them by mistake when thinning.
Growing
Cucumber
Well, you need to mulch is particularly
worthwhile for cucumbers and for many reasons. Any that lie on the ground are
better protected from disease and rot if there is mulch for them to lie on.
Also since the fruits are mostly water the plants need an extra big water
supply and mulch will support keep the soil evenly moist. Thus, mulch will also
keep down the weeds. This is really an important because weeding can damage
cucumber roots to the point where the whole plant dies. Moreover, you should be
carefully weeding and cultivating are fine when the plant is small, but when it
gets to the about a foot high give it a good top dressing of fertilizer of
manure, and then mulch it.
You will still need to soak the plants in
dry weather. If you have planted in hills, you might like to try the coffee
method, putting a can in the center of each hill. For rows try a soaker hose
along the row. But try not to brush against the plants when they are wet either
from watering or from rain this is how disease spreads. And do not confuse
steady moisture with standing water. The plants need good drainage.
Pests and Disease
The worst cucumber pest is also the
culprit behind some of the cucumber diseases. The cucumber beetle striped in
the east, spotted in the west can damage the plants by chewing but does even
more harm by spreading bacterial wilt and mosaic. Pick off any beetles you
find, checking for them inside the flowers. You can also try hosing them off,
covering plants with fine mesh netting, or spraying both sides of the leaves
with a mixture of one handful of wood ashes, one handful or hydrated lime and
two gallons of water. If this fails, dust with rotenone. Moreover, another
safeguard is to make many plantings several weeks apart in case one whole planting
is destroyed. If all the plants make it then you will just have an extra large
harvest. Cucumbers are generally prone to certain fungus diseases such as
anthracnose, downy mildew and powdery mildew. Fungicides will help but the best
defense is to buy resistant varieties. However, do not use sulfur with
cucumbers because it is toxic to this exclusive crop.
Harvest
Well, cucumbers are one of those
vegetables that have to be picked, whether you have so many of them or not.
However, feed them to the animals or the neighbors or the compost pile, but
don't stop picking. If they yellow on the vine the plant will stop producing
altogether. Check the seed packet to see how big each variety is supposed to
get, and harvest them when they reach that size. Twist them off the vines
gently or snip them off with clippers, but use two hands, and be very careful
not to break the fragile vines.
Varieties
Most cucumbers are either slicing types
for salads or cooking or pickling types. The pickling ones are smaller, faster
producing and have little knobs all over them. Thus, good slicing varieties are
open pollinated, Marketmore 70 and Burpee Hybrid. Supersett and Slicemaster are
gynoecious, Sweet Success is said to be seedless, burpless, disease resistant
and delicious as well, and it doesn't need pollinating. I haven't tried it but
would like to. Moreover, some good pickling cucumbers are Wisconsin SMR 18,
Ohio MR17 and West India Gherkin, Some bush cukes for small spaces are Bush
Champion, Spacemaster and Bush Pickle, Patio Pik and Pot Luck are good for
containers. Moreover, extra early express is a quick crop and a good producer.
Victory is a disease resistant gynoecious variety that is good for northern
climates. Thus, try the Armenian Yard Long and Lemon. And among the burpless,
Burpless, Tastygreen Burpless and Sweet Slice Hybrid are good bets.
