How to grow Cucumbers 🥒

📣 At a glance

- 🥒**Cucumber plants**
  - 🌞 **Sun** Full 
  - 🌧️ **Water** Every other day, if leaves
      are wilting = add water
  - 🥫 **Fertilize** Weekly with 20-20-20 at 
          ~150-200 ppm or 33.5g, 9g, 8g
          (calc nitrate, triple super phosphate, potash)
          per 100 SF  
  - 🧪 **PH** 6.0 to 6.8
  - 📏 **Spacing** at least 1.5-2 Feet between cucumber plant
  - 🧹 **Maintenance** Trellis and guide vines to safe position,
            harvest cucumbers at picking size which avoids plant
            deterioration

Introduction

Starting 🏁

First step, determine your Zone. Click here to access the zone map 🗺 or click the link on the left to access zone information. The dates below are mere guidelines as to the best time of year to start cucumber seeds. If seeds are started indoors too early, may outgrow the space and lighting available to continue growth in larger containers. If started too late, may not have enough time to obtain successful yields due to weather cooling or the young plants may not manage well under the hot summer sun.

Guidelines for start dates

Sizing

Cucumber seeds should be started in 32 or 50 count trays. A tray is roughly about 21¼" x 11¼" x 2¼" or 19.6" x 9.75". Each cell within this tray has dimensions: 1¾" x 1¾-2.72". 32 inch size tray are typically around 2" inch square. This will provide each cucumber seedling with ~3-4 weeks of growth. Also, try not to plant cucumber seeds in smaller containers. They will out grow the space quickly which would requiring transferring the young seedlings to larger size pots. More handling of the young fragile seedlings = greater risk of damage, resulting in slow wilt, then eventual trip to the compost bin.

Soil and seeding

Utilize potting soil that can be purchased from major retailers like lowes/home depot/walmart/aldis/target. The bagged soil should be labeled potting soil. Potting soil is most suitable for seed germination due to its drainage capacity. Bags labeled garden soil or dirt will not allow good drainage in containers. Water drainage in containers are required to prevent water stagnation. Stagnated water can eventually suffocate and rot plant roots.

Within each cell/container plant a single cucumber seed. If you only have a few containers and many seeds, go ahead and plant 2 seeds per small container. If/When all the seeds sprout, cut the extra weaker looking seedlings and leave a single plant to continue to grow.

During this stage, ensure the top soil area is kept moist. Use a spray bottle to water the top or gently pour water being careful not to wash away the seeds and disrupt the soil. A plastic dome works well in keeping a moist environment.

A heating mat is recommended. Temperatures around 75-80 helps with speeding up germination, otherwise lower temps in the 60s will prolong it. Light is also not as important for germination at this stage. However, a strong light source IS required as soon as the seeds sprout. Without a suitable light source that provides what plants require, will result in leggy stretched seedlings. From my experience, leggy/stretched seedlings eventually tip over and wither.

Seedling stage

When the plant first emerges from seed, the first leaves are called ‘false’ leaves known as Cotyledons. The picture below is about 18 days from initial planting of the cucumber seed:

The young plant will continue to grow and produce ’true’ leaves. See below of true leaves of cucumber plants. The is how fast they can grow after ~3 weeks:

During this time, it is recommended to provide 14-16 hours of light. Keep with watering via bottom tray such that soil is moist and not overly saturated. If watering with no bottom access, simply pour water carefully without disturbing the soil. Fertilize at this stage by applying 50 PPM of general fertilizer 20-20-20 once a week ¹

Transferring and Maintenance

❄️ ⛄ Before transplanting, ensure the dangers of frost are over and temperatures are consistently around 60 F degrees or higher. ⛄ ❄️

After about a month of growth, the cucumber plants will begin to look as pictured below. I simply kept with fertilizing, exposure to lights, and watering. At this stage, tomatoes may be prepped for transfer into the ground.

If for some reason, planting needs to be delayed due to busy schedule, temperatures are colder than expected, raining for weeks, etc… the young plants can be transferred to larger pots for more growth and time.

Below is a picture of some cucumber plants transferred to 4 inch pots. It was a cold/rainy spring in 2023 zone 7.

💡 Prior to transferring the cucumber plants into the ground, ensure the cucumber plants are acclimated to sun exposure for at least a few days. Plants can be placed under direct ☀️ sunlight for 1-3 hours (start with less and gradually increase the time) and then returned under shade or back indoors. Pay attention to any changes. If the cucumber plants are wilting, check the soil moisture and return to under shade. However, if there are no signs of stress after a few days, they can be transplanted.

Plants should be spaced 1.5-2 feet apart. This spacing ensures adequate air flow and space for the cucumber plants to grow and produce. Continue to maintain watering and fertilizing.

Fertilizing 💪

In this section, I will show how I calculated each fertilizer for use in my garden. Fertilizing is real important for healthy plants and consistent high quality cucumbers and yields.

📚 According to Cornell University the following rates are recommended for cucumber plants: ²

• For Nitrogen (N), (100 lbs) per acre.

For Phosphorus (P):

For Potassium (K):

Taking average values for P and K we can use, per acre (i.e. 43560 square feet).:

• N 100 lbs
• P 80 lbs
• K 80 lbs

Now that we know the weight required of each NPK value, we now determine the amount of fertilizer equivalent.

📚 Utilize this tool and input your fertilizer and NPK values required (i.e. the table above) https://aesl.ces.uga.edu/soil/fertcalc/

The required fertilizers for 1 acre are now listed below:

• 667 lbs of 15-0-0 calcium nitrate
• 174 lbs of 0-46-0 triple super phosphate
• 160 lbs of 0-0-50 potash

Lets now convert lbs to grams to allow for easier division of square feet:

• 302546 grams of 15-0-0 calcium nitrate
• 78925 grams of 0-46-0 triple super phosphate
• 72574 grams of 0-0-50 potash

Now convert to square feet by dividing the grams by 43560

• 6.7 grams of 15-0-0 calcium nitrate
• 1.8 grams of 0-46-0 triple super phosphate
• 1.6 grams of 0-0-50 potash

In other words, for a 100 sf garden, total fertilizer required for the lifespan of the plants are:

• 670 grams of 15-0-0 calcium nitrate
• 180 grams of 0-46-0 triple super phosphate
• 160 grams of 0-0-50 potash

With these values, we can now determine the weekly serving size by dividing the amount of fertilizer by the number of weeks the plant may grow.

Over 20 weeks, you can apply the following weekly for a 100 SF garden of cucumbers

• 670/20 = 33.5 grams of calcium nitrate weekly
• 180/20 = 9 grams of triple super phosphate
• 160/20 = 8 grams of potash

These fertilizers can simply be placed near the stem of each plant. As they get watered, the fertilizer will break down and make its way down to the roots.

In the ground

Here are the Cucumber plants growing in the garden bed. Once the weather starts to warm above 80 degrees, growth rate increases and they really start to take off. Other than watering and the weekly fertilizing, cucumbers plants are a low maintenance plant especially for the amount of veggies they produce. I will update the docs in the future to share with the trellising options I found worked best for my garden.

Harvest 🥒

The first cucumber harvest started beginning of July (Zone 7b). Plants continued to grow and produce fruit until late September.

Harvest cucumbers at the recommended length below. If harvesting is delayed and cucumber over ripens, the plant will slow production and result in a cucumber with larger seeds and bitterness. Furthermore, frequent harvesting influences the plant to continue reproducing by pushing out flowers and growing more cucumbers. Allowing a cucumber to ripen fully slows flower/veggie production since the plant assumes end of life stage. ³

(P) = Pickling; (S) = Slicing ⁴

References