Cucumbers

Material on this page is summarized from

The Bountiful Container by McGee & Stuckey

unless otherwise noted.

Interesting Facts:

• There are bush and vine varieties of cucumber plants
• Training cucumbers on a trellis can mean straighter fruit

Advice on Planting and Growing:

Care

• Make sure that cucumber soil never dries out especially when plant begins producing fruit (or else bitter, hollow fruit will result)
• Fertilize once per week especially when plant is producing fruit
• Harvest cucumbers while they are smaller and tender. Plant will stop producing fruit if any one cucumber grows long enough to produce viable seeds. The goal of the plant is to reproduce, and if these seeds are made, the plant will stop making more fruit since it has achieved its goal of propagation.
• Cucumber plants produce male and female flowers; female flowers have a bulge between the base of the flower and the stem. Only female flowers directly result in fruit.

Common Diseases and Problems

• If cucumbers develop lopsidedly, it might be necessary to hand-pollinate. Use a soft paintbrush to gather pollen from a male flower and brush it into a female flower and so on.  [Update:  hand-pollination may also be necessary if the tiny baby cucumbers behind the female flowers shrivel and die before maturing.  I have written a separate post about hand-pollinating cucumbers, complete with photos.]
• Cucumbers can get many different kinds of diseases, but most of them are soil-borne and therefore are largely avoided when using sterilized potting soil in containers
• Powdery mildew: occurs when weather is hot and humid. Patches of mildew appear on leaves. Treat by cutting off the most severely affected leaves, then spraying the rest of the plant with 1 tsp baking soda dissolved into 1 qt water. Repeat sprayings may be necessary to ensure the mildew does not spread.