In this quick guide, we walk you through the cucumber plant stages, we will also go through some basic cucumber plant care to hopefully get you on your way to having a healthy and successful cucumber crop. We will first go through some basic preparations and then go through the 5 cucumber plant stages that we will walkthrough.
The 5 cucumber plant stages:
- Stage 1: Planting
- Stage 2: Caring for seedlings
- Stage 3: Training your new cucumber vines
- Stage 4: Regular maintenance
- Stage 5: Harvesting
The ideal site
Soil: When growing cucumber, it is important for the soil has high water infiltration rates, it is also important for the soil to have good moisture-holding capacities, with PH levels of around 5.8-6.6.
Environment: As cucumbers are a fruit that grows in the warmer months means that the plant is very sensitive to any cold weather. The ideal temperature for the growing process is between 65F and 95F.
Stage 1 – Planting
Start the planting of your seedlings when the soil temperature is 70F. Make sure the period for frost has passed before planting as the temperature of the soil will not allow the seeds to properly germinate.
It is common to first grow your seeds indoors for a few weeks before planting them outdoors.
The cucumber seedlings should be planted around 8-10 inches apart. The germination period should be complete after 13 days.
Stage 2 – Caring for seedlings
Roughly after a week has passed and the seeds have germinated, the plant should be around 2cm in height. If you notice some weak stems then it would be best to remove them from the other stems.
It is essential for cucumber plant care to keep your new plant moist and it would also be beneficial to provide support for the new stems.
When the plants are around 5 inches high then it would be beneficial to thin the stem a little.
Stage 3 – Training your new cucumber vines
After a while, you will notice that your new plant vines will be growing very quickly and we will now be at a point where the vines will need to be trained. At this stage, you will want to use a trellis or fence.
Stage 4 – Regular maintenance
As cucumber roots are shallow, it can become a problem for good irrigation so it is important to keep the soil moistened to at least 6 inches deep – a good rule of thumb would be to give your soil good soaking once a week.
For better soil moisture conservation, it would help to use mulch. Another idea for cucumber plant care during this period would be to use black plastic mulch as it will add an additional benefit of keeping the heat in the soil.
Stage 5 – Harvesting
After around 2 months it will be time to harvest your cucumbers. You will want to harvest your cucumbers when they are still green – if you allow the cucumbers to grow to a yellow color, then your produce will be tough.
It is important to harvest frequently as this will avoid oversized fruit. As you keep pickling cucumbers from the plants, the vines will continue to produce more. When you start to harvest your plant, you will need to come back every few days for the next produce.
Continued cucumber plant care should be essential during this period.
It is common for both female and male flowers to grow on the same plant. If you growing your plant outside then both male and female flowers should be left on, however, if you are growing your cucumber plant inside then you will need to remove the male flowers in order to get the best results from your cucumbers.
If you want pickling then you will be looking to harvest the fruit at 2 inches.
To prevent damaging the vines you will need to harvest your produce with a sharpened knife or pruners.
Conclusion
Above we have covered cucumber plant stages along with some basic but important cucumber plant care