Growing Organic Vegetables: Growing Cucumbers

Latest Update 3rd April 2020

Cucumbers

I grow a single row (4 plants) of cucumbers in an Ecobed which is plenty for 2 people.
They can be planted in our climate from September to February, so succession crops can be grown if required.
They are self pollinating with male and female flowers on each plant. They depend on bees for pollination, but to ensure a good harvest you can hand pollinate them.
We start to harvest them in January taking care not to damage the vines. I use clean sharp secateurs.
This is a vegetable best eaten raw in salads, sliced with skin on, but its good baked, pickled or in a vegetable soup.

Details

Nutrition

This food is low in saturated fat, and very low in cholesterol and sodium.
It is a good source of vitamin A, pantothenic acid, magnesium, phosphorus and manganese, and a very good source of vitamin C, vitamin K and potassium.
More from nutrition data.self.com.

This blogpage explains how I maintain healthy plants. It describes how soil is prepared prior to planting, how to regulate the sun's intensity and how to help protect and feed plants through their leaves.

This blogpage tells you when to make compost and plan other garden/household related activities.

Growing Instructions.

Sow cucumber seeds individually in 4 small fibre pots in organic seed raising mixture. Soak them in a tray containing 15mm of dilute seaweed extract.
After about 15 minutes transplant the pots into an EcoPropagator, and using a large dibber to make a planting hole in the wicking medium, plant the pots up to their rims.
Provide support for the growing seedlings using 1500mm long stakes, driven into the soil, at each planting position
When the seedlings are big enough, plant them out in an Ecobed. They must be evenly spaced along the 1500mm long row and still in their fibre pots. (The pots decompose quickly in the biologically active soil).
To plant the seedlings, make a 50mm wide hole for each pot using a large dibber. Make it deep enough so 15mm of each pot is in contact with the soil, and the rest buried up to the pots rim in compost. Water the seedlings in with captured rainwater. Keep the straw mulch well away from the seedlings' stems until they mature, and then return it to cover any exposed soil or compost.

Pollination.

Cucumbers produce both male and female flowers on the same plant. They are dependent on bees to pollinate them, and will not set fruit if bees are not regular visitors to your garden. Herbs and other plants flowering at the same time as your cucumbers and grown nearby will encourage bees to visit and pollinate your crop.
In warm climates you should grow cucumbers as early as possible in the season because pollination is affected by high temperatures, and the balance of male to female flowers swings towards all male flowers when temperatures rise above 30 deg C.
To compensate for poor pollination by bees, you can hand pollinate your cucumbers see video by taking pollen from the male flower using a small paintbrush and depositing it on the stamen of the female flower.

Harvesting and storage.

Harvest cucumbers from January. This video shows you the different stages of development of cucumbers, and when its best to harvest them.
Its important to keep on top of harvesting them, because leaving fruit to grow too large stops the setting of new fruit and reduces your overall harvest. They don't taste as good as smaller ones either.
I use sliced cucumbers on salads, in vegetable soup and in a relish with carrots.
Pickled cucumber is very nice using whole baby ones, and larger cucumbers can be sliced and pickled as well.

Organic Pest Control.

Cucumbers, like most vegetables, are vulnerable to attack from certain pests in my garden. My blog on "Controlling Garden Pests" explains a little about these pests and what to do to protect plants from them. For details click on the appropriate link below.

Growing Organic Vegetables