Learn How to Grow Cucumbers and Zucchini
Cucumbers
Growing Cucumbers: Feeding, Planting, Disease Control, Trellising and Pollinating
Seed Starting
Cucumbers really enjoy the warm weather. As your garden is transitioning from cool weather crops to warm season crops... you might not have the room cleared for your cucumbers. I highly recommend starting your cucumber seeds in 8-ounce or larger cups. It is true that cucumbers don't like to be transplanted, but that is more about starting them in little seed cells, like you probably used to start your tomatoes. Cucumbers will outgrow those little cells too fast, but larger cups are effective.
Creating Cucumber Transplants
You can save yourself a couple of weeks of time by letting your cucumbers germinate and grow in cups. Not only will you have nice transplants for your garden when space opens up... you don't have to worry about the seeds germinating in the ground. There is no risk of losing time and having to replant because the seeds don't come up.
Planting
Cucumbers are heavy feeders, and they need a lot of moisture. There are several products you can use to amend your soil. In general, it is a good idea to dig out a 1 foot wide and 1 foot deep hole or larger to prepare the planting hole. There is no exact recipe and you can use what you like, but here is the basic idea.
- Mix in 2 large shovel fulls of organic matter like peat moss or compost
- Add a small handful of lime if you are using peat moss for PH balance
- Add 1 or 2 tables spoons of 10-10-10 fertilizer or your organic equal
- Add in 1 tablespoon of Epsom Salts to help prevent yellow-leafing
- Add back in the soil you dug out and mix it in well and deep
Not only are you amending the hole with nutrients and elements to hold water, but you are also loosening the soil for deep root development. Epsom Salts help keep your plants green.
Curing Yellow Cucumber Leaves with Epsom Salts
Cucumbers need good soil to start and grow, but they also need a mid-season side dressing of fertilizer and some liquid fertilizer while they grow. Cucumbers really take the nutrients out of the soil. Around mid-season or when the cucumbers are bigger and have set some fruit, they will need a nutrient boost. Scatter 1-2 tablespoons of 10-10-10 fertilizer around the base of the plants and give them a 2-gallon drink of liquid fertilizer.
Your choice of products is fine. That will give them what they need to continue fruiting and finish out the season. Here is what mid-season cucumbers look like and how you can save them.
Saving Yellow Beat-Up Mid-Season Cucumber Plants
Pests and Diseases
Cucumbers are very susceptible to powdery mildew, mites and white-flies. The best way to address these problems is by using a baking soda spray on the leaves to control powdery mildew and a soapy water spray on the undersides of the leaves and stems to manage mites, white-flies and other soft body insects.
- Spray your plants 1x weekly to prevent powder mildew and address soft-bodied pests
- Spray your plants daily for 3 days if you notice powdery mildew or pests
Identifying and Treating Cucumber Powdery Mildew
Getting Cucumbers or Hand Pollinating
You don't have to hand pollinate your cucumbers but in some cases you may want to increase the plant's yield by hand pollination. The best way to see how to do this is in the video. Female plants have a small cucumber below the flower. Male plants do not. If the female plant is not pollinated, the tiny cucumber yellows and dies out.
Hand Pollination Cucumbers: Male & Female Flowers
Trellising
Cucumbers are vines that love to grow. Trellising is the best way to grow your cucumbers. You give them a way to grow vertically. This not only saves you space in your garden, it also cuts down on pests and diseases by getting the vines and fruit off the ground. There are many methods of trellising. The video shows you several ways to trellis your cucumbers.
3 Vertical Ways to Grow Cucumbers
Building a Cucumber and Vine Trellis
Cucumber Varieties
There are many kinds of cucumbers beyond the basic 8-inch variety. I encourage you to grow a couple different varieties. Taste does vary a bit, but more importantly, they will mature at different times, and you will get to pick them steadily over the season. I highly recommend the 'Armenian' cucumber. It has a great color and shape. You can eat the skin. It tastes like a cucumber. And it is very, very prolific. The four plants that took down my trellis in the above video were 'Armenian' cucumbers.
Growing Armenian Cucumbers
Zucchini
One way to tame your zucchini is to grow it in a large tomato cage. You do have to secure the cage down with posts. The idea is to help the plant manage disease and pests. The leaves of zucchini and squash are large, and if any part of the plant touches the ground, the squash bug can get on it and lay its eggs. Large leaves on the ground also block airflow.
Growing zucchini up in the cage gets a majority of the leaves off the ground, and it improves airflow and leaf drying after rain. Once the plant grows up in the cage, you can put Sevin Dust on the stem. This is a targeted use of an insecticide. The squash bugs and beetles will have to walk up the stem and into the dust to get to the leaves. Here is a video on how to target the use of insecticide dust: Â Controlling Squash Bugs with Dust.
The white stuff is Epsom Salts. It is waiting for rain to melt and wash into the soil. It help provide a boost of magnesium to the plants and that prevents yellowing leaves. Zucchini and squash are heavy feeders.
