Want to grow crisp, straight, and incredibly productive cucumbers? In this Cucumber Growing Masterclass, you'll discover the simple but powerful techniques experienced gardeners use to grow healthier plants and harvest baskets of perfect cucumbers all season long.
In this video, you'll learn the secrets to preparing your soil, watering correctly, feeding cucumber plants, preventing common diseases, training vines for maximum production, and avoiding the mistakes that ruin harvests. Whether you're growing in raised beds, containers, or a traditional garden, these proven tips will help you produce bigger, tastier cucumbers with less effort.
If you want a garden full of fresh cucumbers this season, don't miss these essential growing secrets!
👍 If you enjoyed this video, please Like, Subscribe, and turn on notifications for more gardening tips every week!
#Cucumbers #Gardening #VegetableGarden #GrowCucumbers #GardenTips #OrganicGardening #HomeGarden #GrowingVegetables #GardenHarvest #GardeningMasterclass
In this video, you'll learn the secrets to preparing your soil, watering correctly, feeding cucumber plants, preventing common diseases, training vines for maximum production, and avoiding the mistakes that ruin harvests. Whether you're growing in raised beds, containers, or a traditional garden, these proven tips will help you produce bigger, tastier cucumbers with less effort.
If you want a garden full of fresh cucumbers this season, don't miss these essential growing secrets!
👍 If you enjoyed this video, please Like, Subscribe, and turn on notifications for more gardening tips every week!
#Cucumbers #Gardening #VegetableGarden #GrowCucumbers #GardenTips #OrganicGardening #HomeGarden #GrowingVegetables #GardenHarvest #GardeningMasterclass
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00There is hardly a thing that comes out of a garden more satisfying than a cucumber you grew yourself,
00:06picked cool off the vine of a summer morning, crisp and juicy and green all the way through,
00:13so far above the tired, waxed, bitter things from the store that you would scarcely call them the
00:20same vegetable. And here is the wonder of it. A cucumber is one of the most generous plants there
00:26is. Give it what it wants and it will bury you in fruit, more than one family can eat, right
00:33through
00:34the summer. Most folks who fail at cucumbers fail for the want of two or three plain things, and once
00:42you know them, you will have all the cucumbers you can pick and pickle and give away besides. Let me
00:48take you through the whole of it, from the seed to the harvest. Here is the thing to understand before
00:54we begin. The plain truth of a cucumber. It is a warm weather plant, through and through. It hates
01:02the cold and loves the heat and the sun and plenty of water. And it is fast, going from a
01:09seed to a fruit
01:10on your plate in about two months. So the whole of growing them well is only this, keep them warm,
01:17keep them watered, hold them up off the ground and pick them often. Get those right and the plant does
01:23the rest, for it wants to give you fruit. That is the whole of what it lives to do. Quick
01:29word before
01:30we go further. My name is Esther Yoder, and the old household ways handed down to me, the kind I
01:36am
01:37sharing today, and a great many more besides, are far more than I could ever fit into one video.
01:43I have gathered the whole of them into a book, and you will find it at EliasYoder.com.
01:49If today's tips serve you, that is where the rest of what my mother and grandmother taught
01:54me lives, all in the one place. Now, to the cucumbers. My grandmother grew cucumbers by the
02:01row, and put up crocks of pickles every summer that lasted us the winter. And she taught me
02:06at her own garden gate. She would say, a cucumber is a thirsty, hungry, tender thing, like a growing
02:13child in the heat of July. And if you keep it warm and fed and watered, it will never stop
02:19giving.
02:20But let it go cold or dry or hungry, and it will sulk and turn bitter on you. Keep it
02:26happy, she said,
02:27and it keeps you fed. That is the heart of everything I am about to show you, and it begins
02:33before you
02:34even sow, with the choosing of what to grow. For here is the first thing, and it saves you trouble
02:40all season.
02:41Choose your variety well. There are many kinds, the small firm gherkins for pickling, the long slicing
02:48kinds for salads, and vining kinds that climb and compact bushy kinds for a tub on the porch.
02:55But two things are worth looking for above all. The first is a kind with some resistance to the
03:01diseases that trouble cucumbers, the powdery mildew chief among them. For a plant bred to shrug off the
03:08trouble is half the battle won. And the second, if you can find it, is a kind that sets its
03:14fruit
03:14without needing a bee. Some modern kinds do just that. They bear mostly the fruiting flowers, set on
03:21their own, and give a heavy, near-seedless crop for it. You need not know the long science words.
03:27Look on the packet for a kind that is all female and sets without pollination, and choose that.
03:34These improved kinds cost a bit more for the seed, but the reliability more than pays you back.
03:40Now to the sowing. A cucumber grows so fast that there is no rush to start it early,
03:45and starting it too early only leaves it shivering in the cold, which it hates.
03:50So I sow mine about three or four weeks before the last frost is due in my country, no sooner.
03:56If you do not know your own last frost date, ask an older gardener near you, or your county
04:01extension folk, for it differs everywhere. Before I sow, I like to soak the seeds overnight
04:07in lukewarm water, which wakes them and primes them and buys a little head start. In the morning,
04:13you drain them and give them a quick rinse and sow them straight away while they are primed and ready.
04:18Sow them in small pots, one seed to a pot. Push down about half an inch into the soil and
04:25cover
04:26them over and water them and label them so you know what you have. And here is a thing that
04:32matters
04:32greatly with cucumbers. They want warmth to come up. They will sit and sulk in cold soil,
04:39but give them warmth and they leap up in days. So set your pot somewhere warm to sprout,
04:45a warm sunny windowsill indoors. And for those of you who have a heat mat, the gentle bottom warmth of
04:52one brings them up in record time, two or three days even. Warmth is the whole secret of quick,
04:59strong seedlings. Keep them on the warm sunny sill as they grow, and if a seedling fills its pot before
05:05it
05:05is warm enough to plant out, just pot it on into a slightly bigger pot and keep it growing. In
05:12the warm south,
05:13or once high summer is truly in, you can sow your cucumbers straight into the ground where they are to
05:19grow,
05:19the simplest way of all. But sowing into pots first, as I do, buys you an earlier start in a
05:26cool country and keeps the tender
05:28seedlings safe from the slugs and the cucumber beetles while they are small, so it is worth the extra step.
05:34Now we plant them out only after the frost is well past and the weather has turned mild, for a
05:41frost
05:41will kill a cucumber dead. And before they go out, you must harden them off, which only means getting
05:47them used to the outdoors a little at a time so the change does not shock them. You set the
05:53pots outside
05:54somewhere sheltered for an hour or two the first day, a few hours the next, a little longer each day
06:00over a week or so, until they are used to the open air and ready to plant. And where they
06:05go must be
06:06made rich, for a cucumber is a hungry plant that puts on a great deal of growth. So before planting,
06:12I work in plenty of good, well-rotted manure or finished compost. The older and more crumbly,
06:18the better, never fresh, for fresh manure is too strong. A year old and gone to sweet,
06:24crumbly compost is just right. Work that into the bed good and deep, for that richness is the
06:30larder the plant will feed from all summer. Now here is a thing that makes all the difference,
06:35and it is one of my grandmother's firmest rules. Grow your vining cucumbers up, off the ground.
06:42Give them something to climb. This does three good things at once. It keeps the fruit up off the damp
06:48soil where it would rot, and where the bugs would find it. It lets the air move all through the
06:53plant so the disease cannot settle. And it lifts the leaves up into the sunshine that fuels all that
06:59growth. The simplest support is a stout string run down from a wire or a beam above, for the vine
07:05to
07:06climb. You may use a trellis or an A-frame of poles as well, but a good string is cheap
07:11and easy,
07:12and I love it. Set your supports before you plant so you do not disturb the roots later.
07:17When you plant, soak the root balls an hour first, then dig your holes and set the plants in gently,
07:23for the roots and stems are tender and snap easily, so handle them soft. Set them about a foot to
07:30a foot
07:30and a half apart, which is close, but so long as they are held up and pruned and watered well,
07:36they do fine
07:37at that spacing and make the most of your room. Tie the string loosely to the base of each, or
07:43loop it under the root
07:44ball as you plant so it holds, and lead the vine up as it grows. Now the single biggest thing
07:49you can do
07:50for a cucumber, the tip above all others, and it is this, water, thoroughly and often. A cucumber is nearly
07:58all water, the fruit almost entirely so, and it cannot make all that juicy fruit out of dry ground. So
08:05check
08:05your soil often, push a finger down an inch or two, and the moment it is nearing dry, give everything
08:11a
08:11good deep soaking. Not a little sprinkle, but a real drink down to the roots. In the heat of summer,
08:17that may be every day, but water low at the base, and try not to splash the lowest leaves, for
08:23wet leaves
08:24in the warm damp invite the disease. And once the plants are growing well, lay down a good mulch around
08:30them,
08:30dried grass clippings, or straw, or hay, or more compost. Anything to shade the soil and hold that
08:37precious moisture in, and save you some of the watering. The rich soil carries them at the start,
08:43but once they begin to fruit, they want feeding to keep it up. And a cucumber in fruit wants potash
08:49above all, the same as a tomato does, for that is what drives the flowers and the fruit. My own
08:55way is a
08:56feeding of comfrey tea or a good manure tea every week or two, once they are fruiting, which is rich
09:01in just what they want, made from what I have on the place and costing nothing. Feed them along like
09:07that through the fruiting, and they will keep pouring out cucumbers. Now the pruning, which sounds a
09:13fearsome thing, but is simple, much like a vining tomato. All along the main stem, where the leaves join it,
09:19the plant makes side shoots, little suckers. When your plants are close together as mine are, the
09:26simplest way is just to pinch off every side shoot as it appears, and keep the plant to one clean
09:31climbing stem. And I cut off the lowest leaves as they grow old and tattered, and thin any crowded
09:37leaves higher up, which keeps the air moving and keeps the leaves off the soil, both of which hold the
09:43disease back. When the vine reaches the top of its support, you can pinch out the growing tip to stop
09:48it,
09:49or let it flop back down and make more side shoots for more fruit. And now the harvest,
09:54which is the joy of it, and the one rule that matters most. Pick often, and pick them young.
10:00Pick your cucumbers while they are still young and firm and lovely green, cutting them from the vine with
10:06a bit of stock left on rather than yanking, for a yank can tear the whole plant. Pick in the
10:11cool of the
10:12morning while they are firm from the night if you can. And here is the thing you must understand,
10:16for it is the secret to a heavy crop. The more you pick, the more you get. Check the plants
10:23every
10:23single day and pick every fruit that is ready. For if you let a cucumber grow too big, or you
10:29miss
10:29one and it turns yellow, the plant takes that as its work being done. It begins to make its seed
10:35and to
10:35shut down, and your crop falls off. So be meticulous. Hunt out every last fruit, keep them coming young,
10:42and the plant keeps giving all summer long. Now a few troubles and they are plain cures,
10:47for every gardener meets them. First, bitterness. Now and then a cucumber comes out bitter,
10:53and that is the plant telling you it was stressed, most often from going dry, or from cold, or from
11:00want
11:00of food. So the cure is prevention. Keep it watered and fed, and it seldom turns bitter. And on the
11:06all
11:07female kinds, a stray male flower now and then can pollinate a fruit and make it bitter. So if you
11:12see
11:13the odd male flower on such a plant, just pick it off. If a fruit does come bitter, cut off
11:18the end
11:18nearest the stalk and peel it, and most of the bitterness goes with it. Then the cucumber beetles,
11:24a real plague in some parts, that chew the plants, and worse, carry disease from one to another. If they
11:31trouble you, start your seedlings under cover where they are protected, and keep the young plants under a
11:36fine insect netting as long as you can, until the flowers need reaching, by which time the plants
11:42are sturdy enough to bear them better. A yellow sticky card helps you watch for them, and you can
11:47pick and knock them off by hand. And the powdery mildew, that white fuzz that covers the leaves and
11:53stalls the plant, which is my own chief trouble in a damp climate. You hold it off by choosing a
11:59resistant
12:00kind, by watering well, and above all by keeping good air moving through the plant, which is why we grow
12:06them up and prune them open. But if it strikes, here is an old trick worth knowing. Pick off the
12:12worst leaves,
12:13and then make a spray of one part milk, and it must be animal milk, to about three parts water,
12:18and mist it
12:19all over the plant at the very first sign, the tops and the undersides of the leaves both. It is
12:25thought the
12:25milk works with the sunlight, to make things hard for the fungus. It does not last, so you spray it
12:32again every
12:33ten days or so, to keep the mildew off. It will not work a miracle on a plant far gone,
12:39but caught early
12:40and kept up, it holds the mildew back, and it costs you a splash of milk. Now think a moment
12:47about why so
12:48few folks grow their own cucumbers anymore, and buy the sad waxed things from the store instead. It is
12:55worse than a plot, for no one had to arrange it. There is money in selling you cucumbers the year
13:01round,
13:02and in the seed and the feeds and the sprays, and none at all in teaching you that a few
13:07cheap seeds,
13:09some rich soil, a string to climb, and a faithful watering, will bury a family in cucumbers all summer
13:16for pennies. So the old knowing of it just stopped being handed down, garden to garden, because no one
13:23profits by the telling. My grandmother grew more than we could eat and put up the rest, and somewhere
13:30between her garden and ours, we were taught to buy what she grew for almost nothing. The mending of it
13:37is a packet of seed and a summer's tending. You choose a good easy kind, you sow it warm and
13:43plant it out
13:44after the frost into rich soil. You grow it up a string, you water it deep and feed it and
13:50pick it
13:51every day, and you deal with the few troubles the plain old ways. And a plant or two gives you
13:57all
13:57the cucumbers you can eat and pickle and share. That is how it comes home, one climbing vine, one
14:05morning's picking at a time, the growing of your own food back in your own hands. So here is what
14:12I would
14:12ask of you. This season, grow yourself a cucumber or two up a string the way I showed you, and
14:18then
14:19come back and tell me in the comments how they did, how many you picked, and what you made of
14:24the glut,
14:25for I do love to hear of a good crop. And tell me too, while you are there, your county
14:31and the age of
14:32your house, for the growing seasons and the troubles differ so from place to place, and the old places so
14:38often have the good ground and the room for a proper garden. And I learn from every one of you
14:44how the growing goes where you live. And if your family had a way with cucumbers I have not named
14:50here, tell me that most of all, for that is how this goes. We share what we were given. I
14:56read every
14:57comment, and I learn from you the way the old women learned from one another across the fence line,
15:02one garden and one season at a time. Next time I will show you how to put up your glut
15:09of cucumbers
15:09into good crock pickles the old way, so that a summer's cucumbers feed you clear through the winter,
15:16for that is where a real crop ends, not in the eating alone, but in the putting by. There is
15:22a right and an
15:23old way to grow and to keep near everything a garden gives, and almost none of it comes from a
15:29store. But this
15:30season you start with the seed. You choose an easy kind and sow it warm. You plant it into rich
15:36soil
15:37after the frost and grow it up a string. You water it deep and feed it well and pick it
15:42young every
15:43single morning. And you watch a plant or two bury you in crisp green cucumbers all summer long. And you
15:50will understand, as my grandmother did at her own garden gate, that a cucumber asks only to be kept warm
15:57and watered and picked often, and that it pays you back a hundredfold for so little. The garden tended
16:03the plain old way is the one that remembers how the old women grew and put up a summer's worth
16:09of
16:09cucumbers from a packet of seed and a patch of good ground. And that is a thing we are only
16:15just starting
16:15to remember.
Comments