5 Cucumber Garden Tips: Care, Feeding, Spraying, Transplants & Trellising


Subscribe to my YouTube Channel The Rusted Garden
Over 800 Garden Videos Designed to Quickly Present Information!



5 Cucumber Garden Tips: Care, Feeding, Spraying, Transplants and Trellising

by Gary Pilarchik (The Rusted Gardener)

Cucumbers love the warmth of summer  As the season goes on, your cucumbers can begin to look "beat up" and tired. It may be from the high summer temperatures, insects, diseases or all three.  A lot of times, here in Maryland Zone 7, I get great production from my cucumbers from late June until the end of July. But as August approaches, the plants just get beat down. That leads me to my first and most under utilized cucumber tip.




One key point that I want to stress is that cucumbers needed to be watered consistently from planting.  A well amended planting hole with compost and manures will set your cucumbers up for success. Consistent watering will be needed. At some point in the season, you will have to water daily. Any plant dealing with drought, won't be healthy.

Please visit The Rusted Garden Seed & Garden Shop: www.therustedgarden.com




Please visit The Rusted Garden Seed & Garden Shop: www.therustedgarden.com

Tip One
Start some new cucumber transplants mid July. Select a fast maturing variety and start the seeds outdoors in 16 ounce cups. Replace your old beat up plants with 2 week old transplants, come the end of July. They should be up producing by the end of August. It is easier to replace an insect plagued or diseased plant then to try and save the larger plant. Remove it and replace it.





The smaller plant can be treated much more easily with sprays to manage pests and diseases. Less foliage, means it is easier for you to spray the entire plant, top and bottom. The plant is also disease and insect free which means they sprays will provide maximum protection as the disease or insects try and take hold. You are also removing the older plant that often carries various stages of insect and disease growth.





Tip Two
Your cucumbers might be a bit weathered and worn come mid season. You can use Epsom Salts as a way to green them up and  give them a boost. One time, mid season for your heavy feeding plants, is all you need in the way of Epsom Salts. Despite what you might hear, Epsom Salts work. The key is to use it this way. It is not needed as a weekly ongoing feed.

This is also a great time to good give them a  liquid feeding with a balanced liquid fertilizer that covers N-P-K and micro-nutrients. This is true for both container and ground planted cucumbers. If you are growing cucumbers in containers, you should be feeding them at least 2x's a month when they are producing. However, come mid season, your plants would appreciate a bit more
.



Tips Three
Sometimes you get a lot of flowers and little cucumbers that seem to turn brown (starting at the tip) and die after growing briefly. That is because the female flower with the tiny cucumber wasn't fertilized by a male flower. You can actually hand pollinate cucumbers to increase production.



Learn the difference between male and female cucumber flowers and try your hand at hand pollination. This will help you get more mature cucumbers. A female flower actually bears a tiny cucumber but the cucumber won't grow to maturity if the female flower isn't pollinated. Once you see the difference between the flowers, it easy to... well, see the difference.




Tip Four
Grow your cucumbers vertically. It makes care so much easier! Cucumbers can take up a lot of space in the garden. Trellising cucumbers is a great way to save space and better manage pests and disease. It is a lot easy to spray cucumbers that are growing vertically. You are able to get both sides of the leaves much more easily as well as find mature cucumbers. You will be able to plant many other vegetables in the space the ground sprawling cucumbers once covered.





Tip Five
Start spraying 2 weeks before problems arise in your garden. I use Neem Oil for insects and baking soda at times as an anti-fungal. Make notes when diseases and insects show up in your garden. Make a plan for the following year, to spray early.

Cucumbers are often attacked by cucumber beetles and other insects.  I use Neem Oil and soap to make my spray. They also can get powdery mildew. For that, I use a baking soda spray. Spraying before problems arise is key. Know when problems show up in your garden. Write down the dates and start spraying 2 weeks before they arrive. I stressed this twice, because it is that important and makes a huge difference in managing pests and diseases.



AND.... ALWAYS test spray anytime you make a new spray, it is important to test a few leaves with the spray and wait 48 hours to see if any damage occurs. Don't spray in full sun or when temperatures cause leaves to droop or wilt. The leaf will be damaged.





Good Luck with Your Garden,
Gary (The Rusted Garden)

Visit My Vegetable Garden Shop:The Rusted Garden Vegetable Seed & Product Shop

Join My New YouTube Channel Just for NEW Gardeners: My First Vegetable Garden

Join My FB Garden Group: Grow It Cook It Eat It:Grow It Cook It Eat It

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ten Things About Tomatoes for 2015: Tips for Tomato Success!

Image
Ten Things About Tomatoes for 2015 (Revised) Tomato Thing One: Two Types of Tomatoes Determinate and Indeterminate: There are two types of tomato plants. A tomato plant is either a determinate plant or indeterminate plant. A determinate tomato grows to a set height and stops growing. The fruits mature all at once or relatively close in time and the plant dies shortly after the final fruits mature. This determinate type of tomato is great for getting the first round of tomatoes from your garden (as they mature quickly) and they do well in containers. You might be able to plant two rounds of determinate tomatoes in your gardening zone. You can often plant them in May and again in July. The indeterminate tomato continues to grow and grow until frost. It sets fruit throughout the season. Only frost or disease will stop an indeterminate tomato from producing. Think of it this way, a determinate tomato grows to a pre determin ed size. Indeteriminate tomatoes often need to be staked and prun...
Read more

Understanding Garden Nitrogen: Products, Organic vs. Synthetic, Use and Strategies

Image
Understanding Garden Nitrogen: Products, Organic vs. Synthetic, Use and Strategies Nitrogen is a macro-nutrient which means it is a main element all plants need to grow. Without it, you can't really have a thriving garden. The earth's atmosphere is made up of nearly 80% nitrogen but plants can't use nitrogen in that form. It must be fixed or transformed into a form the plants can absorb and use. Nitrogen can be changed biologically or chemically. Biological forms are often called organic nitrogen. Chemically processed nitrogen is often called synthetic. Ammonia is the basis for chemical fertilizers. Understanding Nitrogen Fertilizer - TRG 2014 I made this video to help you understand the different forms of nitrogen available for your garden. I use both organic and synthetic forms of fertilizers. I also use compost and nitrogen fixing legumes like beans, red clover and peas. I believe is in using garden fertilizers in and educated and purposeful way. My recommendation is you...
Read more

Three Part Series: Growing Cilantro, Basil, Parsley & Chives on a Kitchen Windowsill - Seed Starting

Image
Growing Cilantro, Basil, Parsley & Chives on a Kitchen Windowsill Part 1 of 3: Starting the Seeds Peat pellets are used for this project because they are going to spend most of their time sitting in water mixed with 1/2 strength liquid fertilizer. The design of  a peat pellet is perfect for this. It allows room for root growth and it will allow roots to grow out of the medium and into the water. Cilantro, basil, parsley and chives were selected for this video because they don't mind wet roots and can do well in water. This is a 3 part video series I am doing. This video explains the basic concept of growing herbs in peat pellets and water and how to plant the seeds. The goal is not to grow full sized herbs on your kitchen windowsill but to grow many many leaves. The 1/2 strength nutrient solution will keep the plants happy. You do need a windowsill with at least 8 hours of full sun, if you are germinating them on the sill. If you start them under lights and get them to size, yo...
Read more