I have cucumber plants about an inch high, set in a raised bed. They are to grow up a tee-pee pole set-up. Living in Reno, NV with unusual cool whether until recently had my cucumber plants in near hybernation. We finally had a week of 80-90's, which have helped them grow minutely. They get 8 hours of light per day. My questions are: Now that our summer warmth goes until late September. Will the cucumber plants grow profusely now with this warming? I feed them a tea solution every two weeks, and will do so until flowering, is this right too? Thank you.
Hey acoma, I grow a lot of cukes and watermelons in tennessee. I believe the key to them taking off is the soil temperature. I can plant in april and my cucumbers will come up to about 3-4 inches and then just sit in the hibernation you speak of. But come about mid may to june when the soil gets good and warm and stays that way they take off like crazy. I'd say a couple more weeks of 80-90 degree days and you'll start getting covered up in cucumbers. Mine stay partially shaded and do very well. I usually start a second crop about now so that I'll have some later in the summer as the cucumbers seem to be a relatively short lived plant. (of course our growing season here is quite long) Sorry, don't know much about tea, but I think your plants will take off here before long
Acoma, was wondering how the plants were doing. If they've took off. I started my second set of cucumbers last week as my first planting is about played out now.
Here in Vancouver... Waay up north for you guys... We had a muggy, cloudy, rainless and sunless June... I was away for 2 weeks right after I sowed my 6 cucumber seeds... When I got back late June... only one sprouted... and within 48 hours I lost it to a grey shell snail the size of a small rock... after waiting another 10 days (which mades more than 3 weeks already while the package says 10-15 days... Very discouraging... Then I gave up and replanted 6 more seeds during last week's sunny streak... indeed there was nothing in the pots... and the second one sprouted today !! While I am still working on another patch of my backyard wilderness for their bedroom... the other seeds haven't any sign of stirring yet... Wondering how long will I have for growing these babies... Any tip for cukes... Please share... It's my first time, and I am trying to go organic... Thanks !!
Hey, comradea. I think that like many other plants the cukes have to have a certain soil temperature to get going. They'll sit there in hibernation until they get a couple weeks of sustained temperature to fire them up. My second set, that I just planted last week came up in about 4 days. of course, it's been in the mid to high 90's for most of the last month. I'm no expert, just going on my personal experiences, but I think that your cukes will start to do good as you get into mid july-august. I used to live in the cascades in Washington and seasonal temps and growing times I think are quite similar to yours. I believe you should have the sustained sunshine and warm temps for those two months that the cukes need. The good thing about cucumbers is they don't really need a long season like watermelon for example with 80-90 days till harvest. My cucumbers typically last a month at the most. (that's a month of good sustained fruit bearing) My first planting that's dying out now put out maybe 50 good cukes from 6 plants. So, between july and august you should get plenty. Here in Tennessee, I never have problems with pests on my cucumbers. I've never had problems with insects eating the leaves even though they will ravage my tomatillos right next to them. Field rats and chipmunks will bite my watermelon vines in half but leave the cuks alone, so I've never had any reason to use any sort of pesticide on them. They seem to be very disease resistant also. In my experience cukes are a very low mantainance vegetable and really trouble free. I would think that as long as you have good sun and temperature and decent soil, you should have no problem organically growing them. Hopefully someone from the Vancouver area will have some thoughts to share.
O monkeydog... Thank you so much for sharing... and reassuring me... Looks like I should try to seed a few more... since the success rate seems kinda low... But am really grateful for your tips... Have a terrific day !!
Hello, I'm in the Shuswap area, the only time I've had troubles with cukes is were the soil was poor. They don't like heavy clay unless you add LOTS of organic material. This year I added LOTS and they were doing alright...I made some tea in the wheel barrow, using 2 good shovels of horse manure and topped it up with water and let it sit for 2 days...they are going nuts! Manure tea seemed to be the ticket for me a couple of years ago too. I had a 4x4 patch with 15 cuke plants in it to experiment with. It was a mid June planting. I fertilized with this mix about every 2 weeks and made sure there was LOTS of water. By the end of the season I had taken 50 cukes out of there! I hope this helps...give the manure tea a shot, see what happens.
Sorry for not responding so quickly. I had a devistating virus on my computer. Someone from Europe was attempting to get all my information. I had to take it in for a major rehall to get him out. Now back to the question, seems our high nineties for daytime is giving us long lasting evening heat, with a minimum rest of 60's during the night. The cucumbers are showing great results with nice growth over the week. I even have my first bloom. I will be excited when I say Wow.....more :) . I decided to throw 9 more small tomato plants out. I figure I can have the kids pick them as they mature, or make sauces to store. This is finally getting exciting. Still plan to redo the garden next year. Should be able to triple output next year. How's your garden doing?
I always start my cucumbers in 5 inch pots, about three to a pot about the first of May indoors. They are not put out until the first of June in Zone 5. The roots are not disturbed, when planting, since I put a large coffee filter in the bottom of the pot to contain the soil and roots. Cucumbers like a lot of heat to thrive. I find by utilizing this method my yield is early, and the plants thrive. Germination takes from 4 to 8 days,depending upon the temperature. I now, seldom direct seed, since I don't have sufficient control over the germination time. On the first of June I plant another few in five inch pots for a later harvest. It takes about a month in the five inch pots before they are large enough to transplant in the garden. The 2008 crop s almost ready to harvest; in fact, I picked a few small cucumbers today (8 July 2008) whilst walking by the plants. 7 July 2007 Cuccumbers Producing This is the 2007 effort. http://eenge.notlong.com/ 7 July 2007 Cuccumbers Producing. http://ahvoh.notlong.com/ 9 July 2007 These few vines produce many cuccumbers, about 15 per day. There are six hills total about 15 plant in both beds. National Pickling and Country Cross are the types. They are good eating and pickling cuccumbers. http://teeyu.notlong.com/ 11 July 2007 Prolific producers. The Country Cross is producing slightly more than the National Picking at this time. http://engae.notlong.com Cucumbers are still producing. The cuccumbers are on a trellis to contain spreading. There are two types being grown National Pickling and Cross Country. I have found National Pickling is a suitable cultivar in my Zone 5. Last year (2006) Downy Mildew destroyed my cuccumbers just as they started to produce in quantity. When watering never wet the foliage- I learned my lesson the hard way. There is no sign of the mildew this year to date. I notice one more corncumber was produced. It is always an interesting conversation subject.
Durgan, when you say three to a 5" pot, do you then separate upon them going outdoors, or do you keep the root system of the 3 as is, transplanted into the ground? I will try this, but I fear that I am too late for a second harvest, being that my first is just starting to grow well. Thoughts?
I simply leave the three plants undisturbed, and find they are not too close. Sometimes I pinch one off and leave two, but three seems ideal. I don't think you are too late to try the method. The plants will now thrive with the summer heat coming on. Three pots of three plants will give a lot of cucumbers. Each trellis area shown in my pictures has 8 or 9 plants in three "hills" about 30 inches apart.
Acoma, Definately agree with Durgan in that you are probably not too late to set out a second batch of plants. With the coming couple months of heat you should be fine. Glad your first ones are coming on!
I will start the seeding today. I may have to pick up some soil though, but I like the enthusiasm. Heat really does the trick, all plants starting to take off, all except my strawberry plants that are young and new. Those little guys just don't like things right now.. May have to do something to help or wait to for next year to address it. It's as though they are still hybernating or have slight leaf burning, even though there is perferctly moist soil where they are.
If you can seed now, and have enough summer to harvest, you're awfully lucky! Wish we had longer summers up here - each time I see a cloudy morning I fear our week-long summer may be over! Would it be heresy to suggest jump-starting the next crop by just buying a pack of seedlings? At least around here it seems there's always some nursery still selling stuff off...
Hi, wf1992, I have not seen cucumber seedling in the last 2 weeks... in fact the places I pass by (not exactly big places except for Southlands) are kind of done with their vegetable seedlings with a few exceptions... Think it has something to do with their anticipation of a typical Vancouver summer... O well... BTW, I am looking for a Yellow Pear tomato seedling... kind of hard at this point in time... If you come across any, please let me know... Thanks !!
We have enough heat, light to last until late September. After that, all grows dark and cooler quickly. Durgan, I was checking out a site on zones and our area gets on average between 0-10 during the coldest parts of winter, but some rare winters getting to -10 making us a zone 6, correct?
