How to grow cucumbers picture tutorial How to grow cucumbers

As long as you successfully sow seeds in your garden, cucumbers can be a low-input, high-yielding vegetable. Read the section below to learn how to grow delicious cucumbers in your home garden.

Picture tutorial on growing cucumbers. This DIY tutorial includes: preparation, planting, care and harvesting stages. If you want to learn how to grow cucumbers, see this picture of growing cucumbers in the production department. Learn the tutorial!

Preparation

1. 1Wait for the soil to warm up. Cucumbers are very sensitive to low temperatures, and even a thin layer of frost can kill them. This is especially true when plants are in their most vulnerable stage.
   • Generally speaking, cucumbers should be planted in April or May, depending on where you live and when the weather starts to warm up. A way to make a more definite decision is to note the date of last frost. To be safe, wait until at least two weeks after the last frost to plant.
   • Soil temperature cannot fall below 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18.3 degrees Celsius). Note that the soil temperature may be slightly cooler than the air temperature.
2. 2Choose a location with good lighting. During the entire growing season, cucumbers grow best if they are given adequate sunlight.
   • Cucumbers can make full use of photosynthesis, and sunlight is one of the important sources of nutrients for cucumbers.
   • Sunlight is also important for temperature management. Steady sunlight means rising soil temperatures, a must for seeds to germinate.
3. 3Weeding. Kill the weeds in your garden before you plant cucumbers. In addition to being an eyesore, these weeds also rob your plants of limited valuable nutrients.
   • For best results, pull weeds by hand, pulling out as many roots as possible. If you leave the grass roots intact, chances are the same weeds will continue to grow.
   • Avoid using herbicides. Both chemical and organic herbicides can make the soil unsuitable for plant growth, just as they can for weeds, which can be equally detrimental to cucumber growth.
4. 4Fertilize the soil. Before you plant cucumbers, spread a granular fertilizer over your garden to improve overall soil quality.
   • Rake the ground with a shovel or small rake before applying fertilizer. By loosening the soil, you can allow these additions to be more thoroughly incorporated into the soil while creating good rooting conditions for your cucumbers.
   • Fertile or relatively long-lasting manure is the most natural fertilizer for cucumber growth. Mix them into the soil to a depth of about 5cm, and then gradually let it penetrate to 15~20cm.
   • If you use an inorganic fertilizer, choose a slow-release granular fertilizer and follow the label instructions for dosage.
5. 5Balance the pH of the soil. Ideally, soil pH should be between neutral and slightly alkaline, so the pH should be as close to 7 as possible.
   • Test the pH of the soil using a pH tester, which can be purchased at a garden supply center or hardware store.
   • If you want to raise the pH of your soil, add agricultural lime.
   • If you want to lower the pH of the soil, add sulfur or alum.
6. 6Improve soil quality .If the soil is too thick or sandy, the cucumber plant will struggle with its roots and will either fail to survive or produce very little, barely producing any edible cucumbers at maturity.
   • The ideal soil for cucumber plants is loose, sunny soil with a little sand, which warms faster and maintains temperature more easily.
   • Improve clay soils by adding organic material, and improve dense, heavy soils by adding peat or well-rotted manure.

Planting

1. 1Choose the best variety. Generally speaking, cucumbers come in climbing and shrub varieties. The former is more common, but if you have limited planting space, the latter is easier to control. Of course, cucumbers are also available in raw and pickled varieties. If you plan to eat the cucumbers as soon as they are ripe, you can choose the former. But if you want to marinate, choose the latter.
   • Creeping raw food varieties include burpless, marketmore 76 and straight 8.
   • Bush raw food varieties include bush crop, fanfare and salad bush.
   • Pickled varieties include Bush Pickle and Carolina, the latter of which should be considered a vine.
2. 2Start from a seed. Cucumber rhizomes are fragile, so direct sowing in the garden is preferable to transplanting.
   • Transplant cucumbers only when necessary. If you want to plant cucumbers before planting season, you can do that, butThe prerequisite is that you must start your seeds indoors and be very careful when transplanting.
   • Sow seeds indoors on a heat mat or in small pots in the sun and wait four weeks before transplanting the seedlings.
   • When transplanting cucumber plants, remove the entire structure from the starting pot, including the soil. The soil protects the cucumber plants fragile rhizome when you transplant it. If you plan to transplant a bare-rooted cucumber, it will definitely not survive.
3. 3Moisten the soil. If the soil is very dry, water it with a bottle before you plant.
   • Adequate water is especially important during the growth stage of cucumber plants. Regardless, watering before sowing reduces the risk of water washing away the seeds.
   • If the soil is very dry, use a bottle or water pipe to water each small piece of soil about 2.5cm.
4. 4Gently push the seeds into the soil. Push one or two grains to a depth of about 1-2.5cm on the surface of the soil.
   • Whether you plant seeds or seedlings, the spacing should be maintained at 45.7-91.4cm. The spacing between shrub varieties can be closer than that of climbing vines.
   • Also, you can control the distance between seeds to 15.2-25.4 cm, and then pull out the thin seedlings when they grow to a height of about 10cm. At that time, pulling out the thin seedlings can expand the distance between the seedlings to 45.7cm.
5. 5Prepare a scaffolding. Most cucumbers are climbing species. During the growth period,Some vertical supports are required. Preparing your trellis after sowing your seeds can save you a lot of trouble later.
   • Cucumbers grow horizontally, but growing them vertically allows them to receive more airflow and sunlight, which can increase your harvest.
   • You can use a cage-shaped trellis, fence, or any vertical structure.
   • Let the cucumber seedlings climb onto the trellis. As the seedlings grow larger, gently wrap the vines around the trellis.

Care and Harvest Phase

1. 1Once the seedlings sprout, they need to be covered with mulch. Laying mulch can maintain good soil quality and maintain soil temperature for cucumber seedlings while inhibiting the growth of nutrient-deficient weeds.
   • Organic films, such as straw and wood chips, must be applied after the plants have fully germinated and the land has sufficiently warmed. But plastic wrap can be used immediately after you plant the seeds.
   • Dark mulches are particularly effective at maintaining soil temperature and moisture.
2. 2Water regularly. Cucumbers require a lot of water throughout their life cycle.
   • Water with a watering hose or watering can at least once a week. Each watering must ensure a depth of at least 2.5cm.
   • Alternatively, install a drip irrigation system to regulate water flow. This is particularly beneficial because it keeps the plant dry, thus curbing the danger of fungal diseases.
   • Note that once fruit appears, adequate moisture is particularly important.
3. 3Apply fertilizer every two weeks or so. Use a liquid fertilizer every two weeks to provide good soil quality for your hungry plants.
   • If you did not spread granular fertilizer when you tilled the soil, you should fertilize directly with liquid fertilizer within two weeks. Don't let the fertilizer stick to the leaves and fruits of your plants.
   • If you have fertilized before planting cucumbers, you should fertilize again once the canes and flowers appear. If you prefer organic fertilizer, use compost or farmyard manure.
   • If the branches and leaves turn yellow, you need to apply a high-nitrogen fertilizer.
4. 4Use netting to protect plants. .In addition to you wanting to enjoy these homegrown cucumbers, the wildlife that lives near you may also be interested in them. Netting and fencing can prevent many problems caused by large insects.
   • To effectively prevent small animals like rabbits and chipmunks from entering, you should use fine-mesh mesh.
   • Netting is especially important in the early stages because animals will dig the seeds or buds out of the soil, so you should also use small baskets to cover the seeds at this stage.
   • Note that you will need to remove the netting once the plants grow too tall or too large to cover.
5. 5Beware of pests and diseases. For insects, fungi, small pests and diseases, you may need to use some organic pesticides or fungicides.
   • Common pests include:
     • Cucumber leaf beetle
     • Mealybug
     • Aphids
     • Starscream
   • Common diseases include:
     • Bacterial wilt
     • Mosaic virus
     • Anthrax
     • Downy mildew
     • Powdery mildew
     • Scab
6. 6Pick cucumbers at the early stages of fruiting. Sliced ??cucumber varieties should grow to about 15.24cm to 20.32cm long. You don’t need to use scissors when picking cucumbers. You can pick them by just rotating the cucumber handle.
   • Pickle varieties of cucumbers should be picked when they are about 5cm in length. Dill is picked when it is 10-15.24cm tall.
   • Cucumbers that are too large or too yellow will become astringent. So don’t wait until the cucumbers turn yellow on the trellis before picking them.
   • During the peak picking period, you need to pick every few days.

You need to prepare

• Fertilizer
• Small trowel
• Acid-base balancer (agricultural lime, sulfur)
• Acid-base tester
• Cucumber seeds
• Garden watering hose or watering can
• Scaffolding
• Pesticides and herbicides (on demand)
• Cover
• Net

Tips

• If you have done all of the above and still want to get a bigger yield, you will need to attract more bees to pollinate your cucumbers. Try sprinkling some sugar water on the vines to attract bees.

Extended reading:

1. How to grow beans. Illustrated tutorial on growing beans and peas

2. Illustrated tutorial on growing cabbage: How to grow cabbage

3. How to grow sunflowers yourself. Illustrated tutorial on growing sunflowers

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