Cucumber: Garden Update, Growing Tips, Uses + First Harvest

The cucumber plants are doing well this summer and are trying to take over the garden. They have already produced enough fruit to start the pickling process to preserve and shelf store the cucumbers for the year - as pickles. Cucumber is native to South Asia, but is now grown all over the world. Although there are bush varieties of cucumber, most grow as a vine. Cucumber is an annual vegetable in the Cucurbitaceae family - along with squash and melon.

Culinary Uses and Nutritional Information

Cucumbers have a mild and refreshing taste. They are usually eaten raw, sliced on top of salads, or with veggie platters, but they are sometimes an ingredient in cooked or cold soups. Cucumbers are also well known as pickles after they have been preserved in vinegar or fermented. Cucumbers contain small amounts of magnesium, vitamin A, B, C, D, and E, along with a decent amount of vitamin K and potassium.

Therapeutic Uses

Cucumbers are a great way to cool off in the summer. They mostly contain water and have a hydrating and cooling effect on the body. For this reason they can be beneficial to relieving dry conditions like constipation, and should be avoided for damp conditions like diarrhea. Cucumbers have many potential health benefits including hydration, bone health, cancer avoidance, cardiovascular health, blood sugar control, and skin care.

Cucumbers are believed to have anti-inflammatory benefits.

Used directly on the skin, sliced cucumber has a cooling and soothing effect that decreases swelling, irritation, and inflammation. It can alleviate sunburn. Placed on the eyes, they can help decrease morning puffiness.

Medical News Today - Cucumber: Health benefits, nutritional content, and uses

Cucumber Garden Progress

This year I am growing two varieties of cucumber. The organic Marketmore cucumber variety is well known around the world for large cucumber growing operations. It produces a large amount of fruit that is over 8 inches in length. The Marketmore variety is also disease resistant. It is resistant to Scab, Mosaic Virus, Downy Mildew, and Powdery Mildew. I am also growing a Pickling variety of cucumber. Pickling cucumber plants grow smaller size cucumbers and produce a lot of them over a three week period - perfect for pickling many at once.

In the before and after set of pictures below you can see how quickly the cucumber plants grew in 20 days. They had to be re-directed so they did not take over the garden.

Growing Cucumbers

Cucumbers enjoy full sun and regular watering. If they are not watered every couple days, then the cucumbers may have a bitter taste. It is best to water first thing in the morning so there is plenty of time for them to dry during the heat of the day. It is best to water the cucumber plants at the ground and avoid getting the leaves wet. If cucumber plants are in damp conditions there risk of destructive white powdery mildew destroying the entire plant. Planting cucumbers on top of a mound, hill, or raised row can help water quickly drain into the soil and away from the cucumber where it could cause damp conditions. Growing cucumber vines on a rope and off the ground can help provide air flow and keep the cucumbers off the ground. If a cucumber grows on the ground, the cucumber skin will be white in color, and possibly turn mushy enough for pests to invade.

Stringing up the Vines

Cucumbers grow better when they are grown off the ground. Another advantage is that when grown vertical they also use less ground space in the garden. In the picture below you can see how I set up rope netting and have the cucumber vines climbing them. Cucumbers can also be grown vertically up a rope using the same method used with the cherry tomatoes (Gardening: Stringing the Cherry Tomato Varieties up to the Trellis).

To help the cucumber vine climb, cucumbers have tendrils. Tendrils are like tentacles that wrap around whatever they come in contact with. When the cucumber vine is long enough, it is moved above and rested on top of the rope. I also like to wrap the tendril around the rope a few times to be sure the vine gets a good grip and is aimed in the direction that I would like it to grow.

Bees Pollinate the Cucumber Flowers

The cucumber fruit grows out of the pollinated cucumber flower. Cucumber flowers have to be pollinated or no fruit will grow. Hard working bees to the rescue.

If there are no bees available to pollinate the cucumber flowers, the flowers would each have to be pollinated by hand. This can easily be done with a small paint brush by gently brushing the yellow pollen from the stamen of the male flowers onto the pistil of the female flowers. Not difficult to do, just get it in there. It could become tedious work with a large crop, pollinating with bees is much easier.

Male Flower

Female Flower

Only female flowers produce fruit. Female flowers are easily differentiated from the male flowers because they have what looks like a tiny cucumber fruit just before the flower and after the stem. The male flowers only have the regular stem before the flower.

First Cucumber Harvest

Most of these cucumbers will be preserved by pasteurizing them in mason jars so they can be safely stored on the shelf without refrigeration until opened, so I will be harvesting these cucumbers when they are small.

You can see the first harvest below. One cucumber was a little larger than we wanted for pickling - could turn it into pickle spears, but instead we will eat that one fresh.

After a few more days of harvest we'll start the pickling process.

Have a great day!

Support this project on Fundition.io