Growing Cucumbers

Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Cucumbers

Pixabay

An easy-care vegetable that loves sun and water, cucumbers grow quickly as long as they receive consistent watering and warmth. Most varieties will grow in any amount of space, thanks to the plant’s ability to climb. Of course, these prolific veggies are perfect for pickling!

There are two types of cucumber plants: vining cucumbers and bush cucumbers.

Vining cucumbers grow on vigorous vines shaded by large leaves. The growth of these plants is fast, and the crop yield is abundant if you care for them properly. Vining varieties grow best when trained up a trellis or fence. They will be cleaner—versus those that grow directly atop soil—often more prolific, and easier to pick.
Bush cucumbers, however, are nicely suited to containers and small gardens.

Make successive plantings (every two weeks for continued harvests). In already-warm soil, cucumbers will grow quickly and ripen in about six weeks!

If you’re interested in making pickles, we recommend several prolific varieties below that are bred especially for pickling, such as heirloom ‘Boston Pickling’. For crispy pickles, be sure to prepare them within a few hours of harvesting!

Planting

When to Plant Cucumbers

Cucumber plants should be seeded or transplanted outside in the ground no earlier than 2 weeks after the last frost date. Cucumbers are extremely susceptible to frost and cold damage; the soil must be at least 70ºF for germination. Do not plant outside too soon!
To get a head start, sow cucumber seeds indoors about 3 weeks before you plan to transplant them in the ground. They like bottom heat of about 70ºF (21ºC). If you don’t have a heat mat, put the seed flat on top of the refrigerator or perch a few on top of the water heater.

Choosing and Preparing a Planting Site

Select a site with full sun. Cucumbers need warmth and lots of light.
Cucumbers require fertile soil. Mix in compost and/or aged manure before planting to a depth of 2 inches and work into the soil 6 to 8 inches deep. Make sure that soil is moist and well-drained, not soggy and compacted.
Soil should be neutral or slightly acidic with a pH of around 6.5 to 7.0.
Improve clay soil by adding organic matter. Improve dense, heavy soil by adding peat, compost, or rotted manure. (Get a soil test if you are unsure of your soil type; contact your local county cooperative extension.) Light, sandy soils are preferred for northern gardens, as they warm quickly in the spring. See our guide to soil amendments.

How to Plant Cucumbers

Plant seeds 1 inch deep and about 2 to 3 feet apart in a row, depending on variety (see seed packet for details). For vines trained on a trellis, space plants 1 foot apart.
Cucumbers can also be planted in mounds (or “hills”) that are spaced 1 to 2 feet apart, with 2 to 3 seeds planted in each mound. Once plants reach 4 inches in height, thin them to one plant per mound.
If you live in the cooler climates, you can help warm the soil by covering the hill or row with black plastic.
After planting, mulch around the area with straw, chopped leaves, or another organic mulch to keep pests at bay, and also keep bush types off the ground to avoid disease.
A trellis is a good idea if you want the vine to climb, or if you have limited space. Trellising also protects the fruit from damage from lying on the moist ground. See how to build a trellis and support for vining vegetables.
Cover freshly planted cucumber seeds with netting or a berry basket if you have pests; this will keep them from digging out the seeds.

Check out this video to learn more about how to plant cucumbers.

Care

How to Grow Cucumbers

The main care requirement for cucumbers is water—consistent watering! They need at least one inch of water per week (or more, if temperatures are sky-high). Put your finger in the soil and when it is dry past the first joint of your finger, it is time to water. Inconsistent watering leads to bitter-tasting fruit.
Water slowly in the morning or early afternoon, avoiding the leaves so that you don’t encourage leaf diseases that can ruin the plant. If possible, water your cucumbers with a soaker hose or drip irrigation to keep the foliage dry.
Mulch to hold in soil moisture.
When seedlings emerge, begin to water frequently, and increase to a gallon per week after fruit forms.
When seedlings reach 4 inches tall, thin plants so that they are at least 1½ feet apart.
If you’ve worked organic matter into the soil before planting, you may only need to side-dress your plants with compost or well-rotted manure.
If you wish, use a liquid fertilizer from your garden store such as vegetable plant food which is low nitrogen/high potassium and phosphorus formula. Apply at planting, 1 week after bloom, and every 3 weeks, directly to the soil around the plants. Or, you can work a granular fertilizer into the soil. Do not over-fertilize or the fruits will get stunted.
If you have limited space or would prefer vertical vines, set up trellises early to avoid damage to seedlings and vines.
Spray vines with sugar water to attract bees and set more fruit.

Pests/Diseases

Little or No Fruit:
- If your cucumber plants do not set fruit, it’s not usually a disease. There is probably a pollination issue. The first flowers were all male. Both female and male flowers must be blooming at the same time. This may not happen early in the plant’s life, so be patient. (Female flowers are the ones with a small cucumber-shaped swelling at the base that will become the fruit.)
- Lack of fruit may also be due to poor pollination by bees, especially due to rain or cold temperatures, or insecticides. To rest assured, you could always hand pollinate. (Dip a Q-tip into the male pollen and transfer it to the center of the female flower.)
- Remember, gynoecious hybrids require companion pollinator plants.
Squash bugs may attack seedlings.
Aphids are always a nuisance for any vegetable plant but easily managed.
Powdery mildew can be a problem if the leaves get wet (water at the soil level). Apply fungicides at the first sign of its presence.
Cucumber Beetles may attack the vines and can cause disease.

Harvest/Storage

How to Harvest Cucumbers

Don’t let cucumbers get too large or they will taste bitter.
At peak harvesting time, you should be picking cucumbers every couple of days. They’ll grow quickly!
- Harvest regular slicing cucumbers when they about 6 to 8 inches long (slicing varieties).
- Harvest dills at 4 to 6 inches long and pickling cucumbers at 2 inches long.
- The large burpless cucumbers can be up to 10 inches long and some types are even larger.
Cucumbers are best picked before their seeds become hard and are eaten when immature. Do not let them get yellow. A cucumber is of highest quality when it is uniformly green, firm, and crisp.
Any cucumbers left on the vine too long will also get tough skins and lower plant productivity.
How to pick? Using a knife or clippers, cut the stem above the fruit. Pulling the fruit may damage the vine.
Keep them picked. If you don’t, as plants mature, they will stop producing.

How to Store Cucumbers

Cucumbers are over 90 percent water. Store wrapped tightly in plastic wrap to retain moisture.
They will keep for a week to 10 days when stored properly in the refrigerator.

Recommended Varieties

‘Burpless Bush Hybrid’ is a popular bush form of cucumber.
‘Boston Pickling’ is our favorite heirloom variety bred especially for pickling.
We also recommend disease-resistant ‘Sassy’ or ‘Calypso’ for early yields.
Long, thin ‘Parisian Pickling’ is great for making gherkins or cornichons.
Lemon cucumber is a smaller cucumber many folks find reliable.

Wit & Wisdom

Plant cucumbers while you are wearing your pajamas, on the first day of May, before sunrise, and no bugs will eat them.
If you’re pickling, consider growing dill, a favorite pickling herb! Plant every few weeks into midsummer to ensure a constant supply. See our Growing Guide for Dill.
Don’t forget that cucumbers aren’t just for eating. When puréed in the blender, cucumbers make a great summer facial for toning the skin. Check out other great and unexpected uses for cucumbers.
With special molds, you can grow cucumbers in different shapes like hearts and stars!

Recipes

Cooking Notes

See our section on pickling with lots of recipes and ideas.
Enjoy our fun video on How to Make Easy Refrigerator Dill Pickles!

Reader Comments

form.antibot { display: none !important; } You must have JavaScript enabled to use this form.

Cucumber Leaf Coloring

I recently wanted to try my hand at growing cucumbers. I bought a relatively young plant from a garden store( no flowers/cukes). Some of my cucumbers leaves turned a white-ish color and then started drying (turning brown),curled, and can now be "crumbled" due to its dryness.

Can you help me understand what I am doing wrong?
Am I overwatering? Is it a fungus?

Any and all help is appreciated!

whitish and dried

It sounds like powdery mildew. See above and for much more detail, here https://www.almanac.com/news/gardening/gardening-advice/powdery-mildew-remedies-plants

Young Cucumber Plants

Planted young cucumber plants a week ago and now the plants show like something choking them in the middle of the plant. What doing this?

shriveled seeding stems

That sounds like dampening off disease, a fungal condition that usually occurs on plant seedlings indoors, when they do not have good air flow (are too close) or are too wet or both. If they are doing that outdoors, they may have brought the condition with them. Reduce water and increase ventilation, if they are still viable. You could try a fungicidal drench…or get new seedlings; the season is young…but coming on strong.

Bitter Tasting Cucumbers

What would cause the entire crop of cucumbers to be bitter? I have been growing cucumbers my entire life and realize that larger ones will taste bitter, but why did the entire crop taste that way? Bought these plants at a local Lowes where I had bought them in years past.

why a bitter harvest

It’s highly likely that your crop of cukes was stressed during the growing season. The stress could have been caused by lack of water, too hot or too cold temps, low fertility, or foliage disease. One source advises removing any plants that produce bitter-tasting cukes because all subsequent fruit on that plant will be affected.

Hope you have a better harvest this year!

Cucumber Seedling Leaves Are Curling

We just planted cucumbers inside. They are in 2.5 containers in a tray on a heat mat and under a T5 4 bulb light that has 20,000 lumens. We can’t figure out why the leaves are curling. They look stressed. We have the light 6 inches up from them. Are they overwatered? We have them in coconut coir. It does not seem too wet. What do you think?

Cukes like to be left alone

No one has mentioned at all the tender leaves and vines of cukes. My father planted a half acre of them every year for our own use. He himself only picked them. Never move the vines around a lot or they will wither. Never step on a vine if they are spread out on the ground or they will die. When picking cukes he always used a small set of clippers. Do not yank on the vines or they will wither. Being careful with the plant will give you plenty of cukes for the season.

Cukes Like To Be Left Alone

Linda Bender, Thank you so much! Every year I watch and guard my cucumber vines against disease, spraying with copper fungicide to ward off mildew and fungus, but every year no matter how hard I try my plants turn ugly brown, wither, and die after a few weeks of production. I do guide the vines, moving them a bit so they don't grow over a nearby fence. I will try next time to give them a free rein and let them do their thing without interference.

Cucumber Worms

Last year my cukes started having very small worm holes on the skin and ugly worms inside. What can I do to avoid this problem this year? Thanks!

Mealybugs in Cucumber leafs

I am growing cucumber in a pot(medium size pot), The plant is growing well ,it is now 3-4 inch tall, however when I was watering my plant I observe mealybugs under the leafs. Can I use neem oil to remove mealynugs from cucmber or will it destroy the plant.

Mealy Bugs

If you don’t see many mealybugs, it would be better to simply pick them off by hand and squish them. Check everyday until they’re no longer appearing on the plant.

Mealybugs

Neem oil with peppermint oil. Will clear problem with bugs

Seed processing

I am growing cucumber, but want to know how to process seed.
Thank you.

Gardening

I love gardening, and I always come here for plant help! Thank you Old Farmers Almanac!

Cucumbers!

My cucumbers have really ‘pulled me out of the ground’, as it were, in terms of getting what I want out of life. They inspire me every day! I love tending to and nurturing them, it’s a real sense of cylindrical responsibility. They are my green friends. Would anyone like to form a friendly research group into the mass production of our verdant vegetable violins? If so, please contact me ASAP via any means you see fit.

James

Yellow Cucumbers

Last year my cucumbers were growing great. Then they turned yellow then died. I researched it and I believe I found that they developed Mosiac Virus. I pulled all my cucumber plants then. But every year I plant in the same area (it’s a small garden) so I need to know if there is a natural way to treat the ground so I can plant again in the same general area? Also would this have occurred from compost that I put on my garden or would it have been in the plant from the beginning? Since I was late in starting my seeds I purchased plants from a local superstore and I was wondering if it is safe to do in the future. And I live in Penna where my garden freezes every year so I was also wondering if that kills the virus as well. Any help would be appreciated on this. Thank you

Best Guide To Growing and Harvesting Cucumber

Thanks for this awesome article on how to grow a cucumbers, I will have to bookmark this site for further more experiments.

Cucumber Tips

Here are some of the cucumber tips one should always adhere to ..
Plant where they will get full sun but in hot climate afternoon shade is best.

Space plants 3’ apart and rows 4-5’ apart.

Add plenty of compost and aged manure to soil when planting. After vines and first flowers develop follow with side dressing of compost and manure.

If yellow leaves appear, your plant may need more nitrogen.

Trellising helps to keep fruit available for quick harvesting.

They need between 1 and 2 inches of water per week, keep the soil slightly moist at all times. Water deeply about once or twice a week and more often if you’re gardening in sandy soil.

Cucumber beetles will attack plants and spread wilt. Cover plants early with row covers, but once flowers for you must remove for pollinators.

Your soil should have a pH between 6.0 and 7.0.

The more you pick cucumbers, the longer they will produce.

Better to pick these types of Planting pots for your cucumber (sijigreenhouse)

Production slowdown

I am in East TN, with a cucumber i bought as a seedling (I forget the variety and lost the label). It's been producing enough to nearly overwhelm the two of us, but has now slowed down dramatically. While I appreciate the respite, I'm concerned because most of the leaves have died off. There are yards and yards of vine wound around two tomato cages, and the vines mostly seem healthy and still have flowers, but there are hardly any leaves, and no obvious new leaf growth. Any ideas?

dying cucumber leaves

Dying leaves on cucumbers can be caused by several things, including just the age of the plant as it winds down for the season. Make sure that the plant has enough water; cucumbers like about an inch of water per week–if the soil is dry about an inch below in the soil, it is time to water. There are also several diseases (such as powdery or downy mildew, anthracnose, bacterial wilt) and insects that can cause wilting/browning/yellowing/dying of leaves–check for spots or holes in the leaves, or whitish patches. Be sure to provide good ventilation among the leaves; trellising cucumbers can help increase air flow to discourage disease. Remove any plant debris, which may harbor diseases or insects. Water in the morning so that the leaves have a chance to dry out before evening; watering at ground level is preferable than by overhead.

dying cucumber leaves update

Thanks, it was probably the erratic watering (travel-interruptus). And since I wrote in, there is new growth on a few of the vines, so I am reassured :-)

Watering

To avoid wetting the leaves I now place a 3/4 inch, 4 foot long piece of PVC pipe into the hill before planting. I drill 10 holes in the part that goes into the soil. I start an inch from bottom and go up 3 inches with the holes. Then when the plants need watering I put a funnel in the top of the pipe and pour in a quart. It goes directly into the compost. I also plant much of my garden through discarded rugs. Put them over the soil upside down. No weeding...

Cucumber and watermelon farming

Please, am interested in the above for farming. I reside in Lagos,Nigeria.

Cucumber

I am interested in planting cucumber, teach me how to plant and this is my first time. Though I went through the explanation, but I need proper clarification on to go about it. Thank you.

Cucumber

Is it possible to harvest cucumber in two or four days? Or what is the appropriate time of harvest of it. What is the minimum of harvest and maximum of harvest?

Harvesting Cucumbers

We’re not sure we understand your question. From planting to harvest, cucumbers take anywhere from 40 to 60 days to develop. Once they are ready to be harvested, you will want to harvest them every couple of days to make sure that none of them become overripe. The number of cucumbers you get from each cucumber plant depends on the variety and the health of the plant, but most produce quite a lot of cucumbers per season.

Prickly Cucumbers

I tried growing cucumbers this past season for the first time in about two decades. I bought a Bonnie burpless variety at the store which did well for awhile. My question is (and pardon my ignorance) why was the skin on the cukes all prickly? I don't remember ever having that with prior cukes. They were prickly to the point where it hurt to touch them. I assumed they were immature so I let them grow and grow until they were overripe. They lost SOME of the prickliness (is that even a word?) as they got really big but it never went away. I ended up not eating any of my crop because the cukes were all overripe and bitter and then the plant was decimated by some bug. Perhaps all cukes are prickly and I just don't remember that?!

spiny cukes

Many cucumbers have spines, but some varieties may be spinier than others. You can also get spineless types. As I understand it, the spines (also called trichomes in botanical terms), act as defense by the plant, protecting the developing cucumber from insects. The base of the spiny hairs contain compounds that taste bitter, to also deter hungry pests. As the cucumber matures, the spines become less or disappear. (Cucumbers at the supermarket often have had the spines removed.) Pickling cucumber varieties tend to be more prickly than slicing types. With some varieties, the spines are sparse and easily rubbed off before eating. However, with other types, it is best to peel the cucumber to remove the spiny skin before eating the interior. To check ripeness, carefully check the firmness of the cuke, the color, and size–follow recommendations on the seed packet or plant label, if you have it, for the variety that you are growing. Hope this helps!

Trellising cucumbers

I am planting tomatoes in a raised wooden garden & want to plant cucumbers in the same garden. I purchased a bush cucumber hybrid & a non-bush hybrid plant at least 4-5 inches tall. My question is can I use a large tomato cage as a trellis or can I leave them on the ground. I don’t want to block sun to the tomatoes. I live at the seashore & I do get a lot of wind so I thought leaving them low would benefit them as opposed to being higher & in the wind.