About Cucumber

Cucumbers are extremely easy to grow especially the marketmore variety of cucumbers. Once you have tried growing your own cucumbers you will never look back as homegrown cucumbers are a lot tastier, fresher and juicer than the shop bought ones. There are two main types of cucumbers that you can grow these are the ones that you see in shops or you can grow the slightly prickly ones (marketmore) these are much easier to grow.Find out how to grow cucumbers here.

When to sow, plant and harvest cucumber

Find out when the best times are to grow cucumbers in the UK.

Sow	March to May
Plant	May to July
Harvest	July to October

Choosing the best site to grow Cucumber

When choosing the best site and soil for growing cucumbers in it is important as it will help get better cucumber crops. Cucumbers need to be grown somewhere that is in full sun. So the cucumber plants need to be outside in a sunny position or in a warm sunny greenhouse or polytunnel. Cucumber plants are best grown in pots that can at least hold ten litres of compost. The cucumbers should be planted in potting multipurpose compost to get the best results from the cucumber plants. If you are growing cucumbers outside make sure that you grow them in a different spot each year.

How to sow Cucumber

The time of year when you want to sow your cucumber seeds is either late winter or early spring. This will give you a longer cropping season and you will gain a lot more cucumbers. You need to start these off somewhere warm to get them to germinate either in a greenhouse, polytunnel or a windowsill.

How to grow Cucumbers from seed

When you are ready to sow your cucumber seeds you will need a seed tray/ plant pots, compost and your cucumber seeds. First fill a seed tray with compost and position the seeds on there sides this will prevent the seed from rotting and loosing your chance at germination.Cover the seeds with a layer of compost and finely water them. Cover the seed tray or plant pot with cling film or a propagator – this will keep them warm and moist which will help with the cucumber seeds germinating.

How to plant cucumbers

When your cucumber plants have grown big enough for you to handle easily now is the time to transfer them over to small plant pots to keep growing bigger – do not over water or they will rot. When the cucumber plants have got big enough you can transplant them to your 10 litre pots – make sure their is drainage holes in the bottom.

Check out our video on transplanting the cucumbers to plant pots

How to care for cucumber plants

To look after your cucumber plants once they are in the 10 litre pots water them regularly. When the fruit starts to set feed them around once a week with tomato fertiliser. If the weather is hot water the floor round the cucumbers as this will boost humidity which the cucumbers and plants will like.

How often do you water cucumber plants?

When the cucumber plants have got established and are in their final destination you are looking at watering the cucumbers ever couple of days.

Harvesting Cucumber

When harvesting cucumbers you want to pick them when they have reached maturity. The more you pick them the more will grow. Not picking them will slow down the production of other cucumbers. Having a few plants growing you could be picking 2-3 a week.

We hope you have found our tips and advice on how to grow cucumbers in the UK and the rest of the world. with tips on how to plant cucumbers and how often do you water cucumber plants. Make sure you subscribe below to keep upto date with the latest tips and advice.

You can find out more information on Cucumbers here. You can also learn about growing other vegetables here. Why not try growing your own flowers with our tips here.