The COVID-19 crisis has turned many people onto gardening and producing their own food. A container garden is a great way to start and one of the vegetables that you can plant is a cucumber.
Container Grown Pickling Cucumbers
Cucumbers are vining plants, and it doesn’t require any particular skill to grow them. Cucumbers will grow effectively on a cucumber trellis or any fence. Pickling cucumbers are also fun to grow, just like a regular cucumber. They are also great for making refrigerator pickles or as a garnish for your salad. Pickling cucumbers vary in size, texture, and taste. You can also pickle any ordinary cucumber.
Cucumbers may taste different, depending on how you plant and take care of them. If you grow this vegetable in containers, it will be rewarding and effortless to do. Here are the things to remember on how to grow pickling cucumbers in a container.
Selecting Your Container
If you are growing your pickling cucumbers in a container, it would be best to choose a large container. Like most fruits and vegetables, growing in a bigger container is better because it can hold enough soil for your plants. More soil means it can hold a good level of moisture, which cucumbers are dependent on for growing.
More Sun
Growing your pickling cucumber in a container will require at least six to eight hours of sunlight per day. Choose a spot in your yard that gets the right amount of sunlight.
Potting Soil
Get a high standard potting mix. Identify whether your potting mix has already been mixed with fertilizer, so you won’t need to add your own. If it doesn’t have any fertilizer, then you may want to use fertilizer to condition your soil for growing your cucumbers.
Fertilizing
Note that cucumbers are considered heavy feeders. As such, it is important to consistently feed or to use a slow-release fertilizer mix to give you the best crop and the plant will grow consistently.
Temperature
You need to maintain warm soil for cucumbers to grow. Cucumbers grow best between 21°C (70ºF) and 35ºC (95°F) temperature. You should know that the type of pot you use can impact how your cucumbers grow. Note that some pots heat up faster. The black plastic pot can reach the preferred temperature quicker than other pots made from different materials.
Starting the Seeds
Starting cucumbers from seeds is very easy. But you will have problems growing them if you live in an area with a colder temperature. Although there are ways to grow your cucumbers in a cold climate, you will need to make sure your lighting is adequate. Cucumber seeds should be a ½ inch to 1 inch deep, and you should handle them carefully. The seeds need to be in a hard state before you plant them and be sure to place them with adequate distance from each other. Ideally, you should plant two plants for every square foot of soil.
Trellising
Trellising your cucumbers will prevent them from covering most of the ground. Once cucumbers become dirty they are targeted by insects who like to eat off the fruit. Growing your cucumbers on a trellis makes it easier to locate and harvest them in time. Cucumbers allowed to climb tend to grow more leaves and get more sun exposure.
Watering
Most plants depend on the consistency of watering. You have to make sure that the soil is moist all the time, but not wet.
Cucumbers can grow fast, and they tend to become bitter and have more seeds when they overripen. There are also small varieties of cucumbers, which are the tastiest, so make sure to harvest them at the right time.
This article was sent in from the USA by Marcus Davison. Thanks!
More on Growing Cucumbers
How to Feed Cucumbers – Best Feed to Use, NPK Etc.
Causes & Prevention of Bitter Tasting Cucumbers
