One of my favorite garden vegetables to grow is the cucumber. Technically, I think it’s a fruit, but I’m not here to rock the boat! I just want to grow them, harvest them and eat them.

Growing Cucumbers by Seed or from Starter Plants?

Harvesting cucumbers is one of my favorite summer tasks, but we need to grow them first! Cucumbers are incredibly easy to start from seeds. If you want to get a head start on their growth, plant seeds in starter trays under grow lights a few weeks before your last frost date.

Personally, I find it easiest to direct sow in the garden once the weather and soil is warm. They grow fast in WARM weather.

*Ginger Tip: Be patient and only plant when it’s warm out. Cool weather will stunt growth and make young plants more susceptible to diseases.

This season I had a late start to everything, so I picked up some cucumber plants at the nursery and a packet of seeds. I planted the seeds in a different raised bed from the starter plants I purchased, and they caught up pretty quickly. I actually liked having a staggered crop and found it to be very bountiful!

The purchased starter plants took off very quickly climbing a bamboo trellis and producing cucumbers. This was definitely a plus for me since I started my garden late.

Here in garden zone 8a, I have had great success with Heirloom Boston Pickling cucumbers. They grow and produce quickly.

*Ginger Tip: Grow plenty of plants that attract pollinators near your cucumbers! Without pollinators, cucumbers will be scarce and malformed.

I always feel like an intruder checking on my cucumber plants during my morning rounds through the garden because there are so many bees pollinating the little yellow blossoms! I love to sit quietly under the vine-covered trellis and just observe. They are incredibly busy and make so much noise!

Once these little guys do their thing, cucumbers begin growing and mature fast! I like to push and pull the vines through the bamboo trellis to train them upwards. Their tendrils are strong and will grab onto anything nearby including neighboring plants. So be careful where you plant them. Before you know it, you will be harvesting cucumbers!

Mine were a bit too close to the tomato plants this season, and became very crowded. Thankfully, I planted the cucumbers in raised beds where I can tend to them better. I can find the mature cucumbers more easily as well.

Fertilizing Cucumber Plants

Cucumbers are hungry growers and need to be fed to grow vigorously, to be productive and to remain free of diseases.

• I like to add worm castings to the compost rich soil at the time of planting.
• Then I sprinkle a slow release granular around the established plants.
• Every two weeks I add a liquid fertilizer to plants to give them a boost.

Harvesting Cucumbers!

Finally! It’s time to harvest your first crop of cucumbers!

When to Harvest: Are they ready??

• Pick earlier rather than later. Young/smaller cukes are sweeter and good for pickling.
• They will not continue to ripen after picking.
• Extremely large/yellowing ones will be bitter.
• Look EVERY day to pick them at the right size.
• Pick them! Don’t leave them on the vine or the plant will stop producing.

Harvesting Cucumbers:

Depending on the variety, the cucumber and leaves can be prickly so I wear light gardening gloves (sometimes even only on one hand).

Since the bees are busier in the morning, I try to wait until late afternoon or evening to start harvesting. I pick mature cucumbers when they are almost the length of my hand or roughly 6 inches. Keep in mind which variety you planted, of course.

*Ginger Tip: Avoid pulling the cucumber directly when harvesting cucumbers; it can damage the vines.

I find that a couple twists of the cucumber while it’s still on the vine makes it easier to snap it off. However, if there are more than just a few to harvest, I use tiny snippers and collect them quickly.

*Ginger Tip: Waiting too long to pick leads to bigger yellowing cucumbers that have lots of seeds and less flavor. The overgrown ones are great for the chickens, though.

Using Fresh Cucumbers

After harvesting fresh cucumbers, you need to get them prepared quickly. My garden basket works well to carry them back to the house and rinse. If they’re prickly, I use a vegetable scrubber and scrub them smooth.

The key is to dry them thoroughly before storing to avoid moisture loss and limpness. Once the cucumbers are prepared, I use/store them right away.

The short ones go into salads or are pickled. They do not last long in the fridge like the waxy ones from the grocery store. I believe that’s a good problem to have!

Remember: good gardeners make good neighbors. I love to share my harvests with mine!

*Ginger Tip: Wrap fresh cucumbers individually in a paper towel and then store in a plastic bag for longer keeping in the refrigerator.

 Check out my homemade pickle recipe here!

Update: This most recent season, I tried a different trellis system for growing my cucumbers and love how it created a tunnel. I can walk under it easily and pick the ones that are ready. If I missed your phone call it was probably because I was sitting under the tunnel listening to the bees and searching for cucumbers!

Pests and Diseases

Growing your own food means dealing with pests and diseases. There’s no way to avoid them, but you can be prepared.

Remember what I said about fertilizer? Strong plants equal healthy resistant plants. That being said, eventually many will succumb to powdery mildew or mosaic virus towards the end of the season in our area. At that point, I rip them out and dispose of them.

If the leaves are wilting/turning yellow or brown, it’s probably time. Some gardeners have good luck with homemade remedies, but I never do. The struggle takes the fun out of gardening for me, so I just remove them and move on to the next vegetable!

Cucumber beetles and pickle worms were really aggressive this past season (2024), and I lost most of my cucumbers. The chickens loved them, though! Pests are difficult to control without spraying chemicals which I don’t love to do.

However, I do recommend spraying BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) an organic method of disrupting the digestive system of damaging worms/beetles. Read more about its use and effectiveness in Fine Gardening.

In the meantime, check your cucumbers carefully for tiny green caterpillars that drill into the flesh. Put on your glasses!! You will see a small hole with ‘sawdust’ around the opening. Somebody’s hiding in that cucumber!

*Ginger Tip: Add birdhouses and birdbaths near your garden and let them help control the insects.

Growing and harvesting cucumbers is simple and rewarding. I hope your harvest bountiful and rewarding. Happy Gardening!

Interested in more garden to table info? Read From Garden to Table: Homemade Recipes Using Fresh Herbs, Fruits and Vegetables.

Ready to grow some more vegetables? Let’s try carrots! Read Harvesting Carrots!