How to grow cucumber?

How to grow cucumbers?

To know the incomparable taste of the cucumber from the garden, fresh, extra crunchy and more digestible, it must be cultivated. The cucumber plant is productive, compact et easy to grow.

If you’ve never tasted a freshly picked cucumber from the garden, you don’t know what a great cucumber is! In a smoothie with mint, plain or in a salad, this garden cucumber is a treat, sweeter, crunchier, and more digestible too.

The growing cucumber is very easy and ask only little space. It is within the reach of any beginner gardener.

When to sow and plant cucumber?

Plante gélive, the cucumber only settles in the garden when it no longer freezes. And even better, when the earth is warm enough. SO between mid-May and end of June.

Cucumber seedlings can be purchased or sown at home.

Some also advocate direct sowing on well-heated soil.

How to make your own cucumber plants?

plan 2 to 3 weeks to produce your own cucumber plants.

If you have to buy all your plants, it can get expensive; sowing allows them to be obtained in large numbers and cheaply. The seeds are not expensive and it is better to buy some every year, so that they are fresh. Indeed, the speed of germination depends on it. : the drier the seed, the slower it takes to germinate.

• soak seeds 24 hours in a glass of water, at about 20°C (in the house). Soaking saves several days. They swell and sometimes, if they are very fresh, are already in the water the next day.

• The swollen seeds are sown each in their little pot, point down. If you put more than one per pot, the seedlings should be divided as soon as possible after germination.
  Do not hesitate to do a few extra plantsfor safety: they break slightly when handled, and slugs are very fond of them when they have just been transplanted into the vegetable garden.
  do not forget label your seedlings if you sow different kinds of cucurbits: once germinated, they look very similar.

• until the seed is germinated, the potting soil sowing must remain very moist ; the seed must absolutely not dry out, otherwise its seed coat will harden and imprison the developing embryo. Cover with a plastic wrap or a starch bag if you’re worried about forgetting to water. The seedling is uncovered as soon as the cotyledons are freed from the seed coat.

• THE seedlings are kept warm in the house, taking advantage of a window with maximum brightness. : 2 weeks later, the cotyledons are well developed and a first true sheet expands. Your plant is ready to be transplanted, but it can also wait another week or two if necessary, continuing to develop.

Prepare the vegetable garden for transplanting

Cucumber needs a sunny place, if possible that accumulates heat, and sheltered from the wind. He is very gourmand in water and nutrients. He needs a soil rich in organic mattertherefore amended with a fertilizer naturel.

The soil will be loosened in depth so that the roots find their way easily and quickly. At the bottom of the planting hole (think big!), mix the earth with compost or well-rotted manure, or both.

There is manure in granules, which is all the more practical as it is odorless and keeps very well in a dry place.

Plant the cucumber seedling

The motte of land is gently unmolded, but left whole so as not to damage the roots. The block of potting soil containing the cucumber plant is installed whole in the soil of the vegetable garden: the soil, lightened with planting soil if necessary (heavy soil and/or too wet by the rain), is gently brought around with the hands so as not to not break the tender young stem, then lightly packed. Water immediately, even if it rains, to finish hunting expel air pockets possible.

Slug control

Slugs can be a problem for these seedlings which give off an irresistible odor to them when just transplanted.

So even though the cucumber greatly appreciates a mulch afterwards, we will wait for this young plant to harden off before putting it in (the mulch is favorable to the slug).

Other ways to control the voracity of slugs:

• put a forcing bell on the seedling for a week.
• fine-tune the soil of the surrounding vegetable garden.
• plant more seedlings than necessary and accept a little loss.

Growth and production

From the moment the cucumber makes a few flowers, one of which fleur female, it will soon produce, it’s rather fast, provided you keep the soil always cool, so water as soon as it’s too dry. Mulching becomes very interesting then to maintain the humidity in the soil and to water less often, and also to protect the cucumbers from contact with the earth.

The cucumber plant spreads 60 to 80 cm wide. But if you run out of space, it also climbs very easily on a support vertical : it develops tendrils to hang on. Choose a solid support, because the plant gains weight with the fruits.

On a vertical support, it takes up little space and can therefore also be container grown on a balcony. Then plan a pot at least 30 cm deep, and plan a solid amendment.

As soon as the first cucumber appears, the others follow fairly quickly. They are so good that you eat a lot more of them than you could buy at the store. Pick your cucumber before it gets too thick, and eat it if possible without leaving it lying around in the fridge for too long.

If you let a cucumber grow too big, pick it, even if you don’t eat it: on the one hand, it exhausts the plant by producing seeds and on the other hand, since it finally manages to produce its seeds, it will stop flowering, hence making new cucumbers.

From one year to another, systematically change the location of your cucumbers or the soil of your balcony pots.

Cucumber-mint verrines for the aperitif!

Delicious, refreshing and low calorie

• 1 peeled cucumber
• 1 natural yoghurt
• a few mint leaves
• a few ice cubes
• salt pepper

Blend in a blender and serve chilled.