Grow Cucumbers, Planting Cucumbers, How to Grow Cucumbers in Containers

Learn how to grow cucumbers in a backyard vegetable garden or in a container garden.

We offer easy tips for planting cucumber from seeds or transplants, and the best methods of growing cucumbers using a cage or trellis for support.

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When to Plant Cucumbers

If an unexpected frost arrives after your cucumber plants are in the garden, cover them with an overturned bucket or other container to protect the plants from frost damage.

Growing Cucumbers from Transplants

To start cucumbers from transplants, plant the seedlings inside the black plastic mulch you have laid down in the enriched vegetable garden bed.

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Using a spade or garden knife, make a slit in the ground cutting through the plastic. I usually cut an "X" with my knife, as it makes a larger hole that is easier to work with. Cut the plastic and push the edges of the plastic into the slit. Gently peel back the top of the peat pot that holds the seedling below the soil line. Plant the pot directly in the soil under the plastic mulch. For rapid growth, water the transplants with a mixture of water and foliar fertilizer.

Grow Cucumbers Using a Trellis

Set the cucumber plants out at two to three feet spacing between plants.

Just before setting out the seedlings, you peel the lip back on the peat pots to prevent the pot from drawing vital moisture away from the plants.

When two seedlings are growing in the individual containers, cut off the weaker seedling in each pot. Cut rather than pull because the root systems of the seedlings are usually intertwined and plants dislike root disturbance.

Cucumber Plants Love Compost

If you decide in July to plant a second cop of Burpless Hybrid or another favorite variety, try to grow cucumbers from seeds planted at the base of the compost pile.

Depending on growing conditions and your local frost dates, you could grow cucumbers through September and October using this method.

Favorite Cucumber Varieties

Typically most gardeners change their gardens a little each year, add a plant here, take away a planting there. We hope you do the same to spice up your plantings. To give you some idea of favorite varieties we have listed a few that are suitable throughout the country as a guideline.

The main requirements when purchasing seeds is that the plants suit your soil, family's taste, and local weather conditions. Favorites include: Sweet Slice, Victory Hybrid, Burpless Hybrid, and for pickling Bravo Hybrid.

How to Grow Cucumbers in Containers

Suggested cucumber varieties for container gardens:

* Salad Bush Hybrid

* Bush Champion

* Picklebush

* Spacemaster

* Hybrid Bush Crop

* Midget Bush Pickler

If ground space is unavailable, container grown vegetables have quite a bit to offer the vegetable gardener in the way of fresh grown produce.

The benefits include portability, attractiveness, and low maintenance compared to traditional gardens. It is possible to grow some varieties of cucumbers successfully in containers.

There are no differences in the timing of ground planted crops and those raised in pots on decks or patios.

While the same information we share on growing cucumbers in the outdoor garden pertains to container vegetable gardening as well, special attention does need to be paid to the size pot chosen.

Tips for Growing Cucumbers in Containers

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