Growing Cucumbers: Top Tips to Grow Plenty of Cucumbers
What is better than a fresh cucumber sprinkled with a little bit of salt, pepper, and apple cider vinegar?
Cucumbers are lovely in salads, plain or pickled. We love to make Hot dill, garlic pickles. All of our ingredients come from our very own homestead garden.
To achieve this task, you will need to grow tons of Cucumbers. Okay, maybe not tons but a substantial amount. If you accumulate too many, give them to your friends, family, or livestock.
Here are our 4 tips to growing excellent cucumbers
#1 Cucumbers love the sun.
They need lots of sunshine. Each plant needs at least 8 hours of sun a day.
Cucumbers need a substantial amount of sun to go through the photosynthesis process. Your plant needs a healthy root system and vines. By doing all of this, you will have a hearty plant that can produce many cucumbers per plant.
Cucumbers are susceptible to mold and other plant fungi. Placing the plant in the sun will allow any excess water to dry off, preventing disease.
#2 Well-drained soil and composts in your soil
Cucumbers need fertile soil just like your other plants. By adding compost, the organic matter will add much-needed nutrients to your soil.
A few handfuls of compost at the bottom of your planting hole will work wonders for each plant.
When planting in garden rows, plant in hills about 18″ wide and, 3″ to 4″ high. This will help keep the plant stems out of sitting water.
We plant transplanted cucumbers instead of seeds. Like our tomatoes, the headstart will give each little plant a better chance of survival.
We add two transplanted plants per hole.
(Note: If you are into container gardening, we recommend using the bushy variety of cucumber. In our earlier gardening years, these types always performed better.)
#3 They Need Support
After planting, we will add a runner for the plants. We use cattle panel fencing now. In the past, we have used corn stalks, hog wire, and tomato baskets.
Once the plants are tall enough, you can hand weave them through your support or let the plant find the support on their own
We are in our garden multiple times a day, so we like to help the plant find support. (I also talk to the plants.)
#4 Harvest Them Frequently
Once they start producing, you will need to harvest fast. Check each plant thoroughly daily.
By checking daily, you can catch them at your perfect size. You will also be able to identify harmful insects or fungi growing on the plants.
If we leave one on too long and it starts to get big, we will identify that cucumber as a doner for next year’s seeds. Let it grow to pick it to let it dry and harvest the seeds.
Cucumbers can grow fast and depending on how much rain they can grow exceptionally fast, from a few inches to huge in a day or two.
Related Post: Gardening Ideas for Beginners
Things You Might Need to Grow Cucumbers
The Family Garden Plan by Melissa K. Norris
We have this book and absolutely love how helpful it is with planning your garden out each and every year.
These are great for growing cucumbers as it will allow the cucumber vines to grow up the trellis and provide stability for them.
If you're not wanting to till up your ground or build a raised bed garden then these are a wonderful option.
They're not expensive and you can reuse them each year!
Jobe’s Organics Vegetable Fertilizer
We try to use organic fertilizer or even chicken poo for fertilizer as best we can.
This fertilizer is a really good option for you to try and is great for growing cucumbers. They have over 1900 reviews on Amazon also!