Cucumbers are a refreshing addition to the summer salad. You cut them into slices and place over the eyes for a moisturizing mask or mash them for a face mask, which moisturizes the skin.
Growing cucumbers in the garden are not as difficult as you might think. It is easy provided they receive adequate water, sun, and regular maintenance and care throughout the season. After that, you will expect a bountiful harvest.
Many varieties of cucumbers can grow in the gardens, and the growing area’s size is not a significant factor. These plants love climbing, and supporting them with a trellis will protect the cucumbers and leaves from rotting.
When growing them, you need to consider the amount of sun that reaches them to ensure a maximum harvest.
How Much Sun Do Cucumbers Need?
All plants need light to grow, and cucumbers are among them. If you have a shaded garden, wondering how much sun the cucumber plants need is natural.
These plants love full sun and do best in direct sun, ideally 8 to 10 hours a day. Also, they can produce fruit with a smaller amount of sunlight but produce less. Cucumbers can be grown indoors with indirect sunlight, provided you offer the right kind of artificial light.
A lot of direct sunlight during the drought period makes cucumber plants slow down fruit production and can make them dry. In other cases, too much of it can even cause the cucumber to ripen prematurely. So, it is good to provide cucumbers with the right amount of sun.
How To Protect Cucumbers from Extreme Heat And Sun
Don’t worry if you are concerned about exposure to strong sunlight from the recent transplanted or established cucumbers. There are various ways to protect them from the heat and sun, and this includes:
1. Rig up an umbrella shade cloth
Place a shade cloth on a cage or trellis that will support the cucumber plants. This blocks sunlight and lowers the temperature by about ten °F. The type of fabric you use depends on how much shade you require to provide.
2. Build a shady structure
If you’re a DIY enthusiast, you can build a shady structure to offer shade and relief heat to the cucumber plants. Typically, this structure offers shade, but the vine plants that keep growing can block more sun.
3. Prune very carefully
Avoid pruning cucumber plants too much. It may be a good idea to remove the lower leaves of a cucumber plant to prevent diseases from splashing onto the ground when it rains.
However, if you remove any leaves from the top of the plant, the fruit will be exposed to intense sunlight.
4. Choose disease-resistant varieties
If the cucumber plants remain healthy, the root system will strengthen, and the leaves will be many. Many roots assist them in finding water in the drought period, and more leaves protect them from strong sunlight.
Can Cucumbers Grow in The Shade?
Essentially, cucumbers can grow in the partial shade but do not do well in the full shade. They need full sun to thrive and produce the best crop.
Now, when planning cucumbers in the garden, try to give them a sunny spot if possible. Leave some shade for more shade-tolerant plants like spinach or lettuce.
If sunny space in your yard is limited, try creating more by pruning the branches of the nearby trees. If this is impossible, plant cucumbers are facing the sun. Likewise, those plants in front of larger plants (green beans or tomatoes) can block sunlight late in the season.
How to Grow Cucumber
1. Select a location
If the cucumber plants remain healthy, the root system will strengthen, and the leaves will be many. Many roots assist them in finding water in the drought period, and more leaves protect them from strong sunlight.
2. Soil preparation
Remove large sticks, trash, and rocks before you prepare the soil. Leave the delicate parts of the plant materials, like small weeds and dead grass, to enrich the soil after turning.
Dig the soil to a depth of 20-30 centimeters. This is the depth that many shovels or forks reach. Turn every shovel around the soil to cover all the plant materials on the ground.
Push the soil into the bed 4-6 inches high and about 36 inches apart. Ridges are crucial in poorly drained areas and heavy soils because cucumbers need good drainage.
3. Planting
Cucumbers need mild temperatures and cannot withstand frost. Don’t plant them until all frost danger has passed away and the soil starts to warm up.
Cucumbers are climbing plants that take up more space. Vines can be 6 to 8 feet or longer. In big yards, cucumbers can spread to the ground.
It would be best if you plant them in a row, previously prepared on the ridges. Make a small furrow with a stick or hoe to a depth of about one inch in the center of every ridge.
Place about three to four seeds in groups at 30-35 cm in the row. If you plant more than one seed, you are likely to get the stand. Remove other plants immediately after emergence.
Just cover the seeds with at least one inch of the fine soil. Firm the soil with the flat side of the hoe over the seeds, but do not compact it. In the small gardens, train cucumbers on the fence, cage, or trellis if the wire is present.
You can plant fast-growing plants like radish and lettuce between cucumbers to save space. These fast-growing plants are harvested before the vines of cucumbers grow very large.
4. Fertilizing
Cucumbers need a lot of fertilizer. Apply 1 cup of complete fertilizer, for example, 10-20-10 or 10-10-10, on a row of 10 feet. Cove the fertilizer with the soil and then leave the smooth surface.
When the cucumber vines are between 10 and 12 inches long, scatter around ½ cup of fertilizer at ten feet in a row.
5. Watering
Cucumbers should be watered moderately before flowering. Watering abundantly from flowering to harvesting can lead to a better harvest. Also, it would be best if you avoid overhead watering.
6. Harvest and storage
Cucumbers can be harvested once they are big enough for use. Check the vines every day as the fruits will begin to appear quickly. If there are more fruits, you are going to get more harvest.
Remove the fruits with a clipper or knife and cut the stems above the fruits. Pulling them can damage the vines. Do not allow the cucumbers to be too big, for they will prevent the vines from producing more.
The yellow color at the base indicates the fruits have overripe and need to be removed immediately. For the lemon cucumbers, harvest them before they start to turn yellow.
Harvested cucumbers can be refrigerated for between 7 and 10 days; however, use them immediately after harvesting for the best flavor.
If you do not eat a sliced cucumber immediately, cover the unused portion with plastic wrap to keep it out from drying in the refrigerator. It is best to wrap the whole cucumbers in plastic wrap or store them in the zippered bag.
Conclusion
Whether you like sliced cucumbers to prepare salads or just a crunchy and healthy snack, growing cucumbers is the best way to get fresh and tasty veggies.
Before planting them, it is paramount to know that they enjoy the sun, and preferably 8 to 10 hours a day is good for them. Also, they are supposed to be planted when the risk of frost has passed.