Growing and preserving cucumbers is a great way to venture into homesteading or gardening. Cucumbers are pretty straightforward to grow in your backyard and to preserve in your kitchen. Read on to learn how to grow cucumbers and what varieties to try in your garden and how to preserve cucumbers you harvest.
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Growing Cucumbers
Cucumbers are a vine which matures pretty quickly and can produce a lot of fruit in a small space. Cucumbers grow well up a trellis making better use of the space you have available and easier picking. You can also grow cucumbers in containers and have them drape over the side.
I’ve been blown away about how easy cucumbers have been to grow, in fact, I think I have have planted to many. I have about 30 cucumber plants rambling through the cold frame, greenhouse, trial garden and the main garden. I think it is down to the variety of cucumbers I’m growing, that’s really the only thing I have done differently this year and if you haven’t had any luck growing cucumbers then consider trying a different variety before you throw in the cucumber growing towel (or should that be trowel :D).
Varieties Of Cucumbers To Grow
What do you love about eating cucumbers? Is it the pickles you can make or is it the fresh slicing cucumbers in a simple salad? Grow what you love is my advice and we don’t eat that many fresh cucumbers at home anymore (sorry Mum!) but since moving to the USA I have developed a love of dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, relish and more and as such we plant a lot of preserving cucumbers for pickling.
Cucumbers For Slicing
If you are are partial to cucumber and tuna sandwiches with your tea then these cucumber varieties are great for slicing and eating fresh:
- Marketmore 76 (70 days to maturity)
- English Chelsea Prize (60 days to matruity)
- Tendergreen (64 days to maturity)
- Straight Eight (62 days to maturity)
- Muncher (65 days to maturity)
- Suyo Long (70 days to maturity)
Marketmore 76 are a reliable cropper which has grown well in a variety of climates from the UK to the USA.
Preserving Cucumbers
Preserving cucumbers are usually small and uniform making them great for canning and making into delicious pickles:
- Double Yield (60 days to maturity)
- Boston Pickling (52 days to maturity)
- Chicago Pickling (55 days to maturity)
- Dar (60 days to maturity)
- Early Fortune (55 days to maturity)
- Parisian Pickling Gherkin (60 days to maturity)
- Monika (55 days to maturity)
I particularly love Monika cucumbers because they are parthenocarpic which means that they don’t need pollination to set fruit, This makes them ideal for polytunnel and greenhouse gardening where there are fewer pollinators. I also love Boston Pickling cucumbers as they are reliable growers and make wonderful pickles.
How To Grow Cucumbers
Cucumbers are a warm weather crop. In England, you likely need to grow cucumbers in a greenhouse or conservatory to keep the temperatures up. Here in the USA, once the soil is at 60F you can sow the cucumber seeds outside. Work in some well rotted compost into the ground where you plan to grow your cucumbers as these plants like fertile soil.
Related Post: Composting Is A Super-Frugal Goldmine: How To Get Started
Cucumbers need well trained soil and regular watering to keep any bitterness at bay. You should water the soil at the base of the plant, not the leaves so that you reduce powdery mildew on your plants. To help with watering, many people like to make a 12 inch mound or hill to plant about 3-5 seeds in each hill. Your hills want to be about 6 feet apart. You can also just pop the seeds in the ground without a mound or into a container and sow your cucumber seeds every foot to encourage airflow around the plants.
Cucumbers grow really well with a trellis
Once your cucumbers are growing you will need to check them daily for ripe fruit to harvest. Slicing cucumbers need harvesting at 8 to 10 inches, whilst pickling cucumbers need harvesting at 4 to 6 inches. If you keep the plants harvested, they will keep producing throughout the growing season. If your cucumbers get too big, them will be bitter tasting and the plant will stop producing more fruit and will concentrate its energy into producing seeds. To harvest, snip the little stalk with scissors, pruning shears or secateurs.
If your cucumber plants do not set fruit it is probably a pollination issue. When they grow, the first flowers are all male and to set fruit for most varieties, both female and male flowers must be blooming at the same time. This may not happen early in the season and you will need to be patient. If you do not have many pollinators in your garden, try the Monika cucumbers.
Cucumber beetles just love your cucumber plants and can be very destructive. Try growing radishes around your cucumbers to deter them or pick any off by hand and place them in soapy water to kill them. Trellising your cucumbers
Preserving Cucumbers
There are so many ways to preserve cucumbers that I can try a new cucumber recipe each time I harvest them! I use the Better Homes and Gardens Complete Canning Guide
To make the Honey Beer Pickles you will need:
- 7 pint jars and lids
- 1 water bath canner
- canning salt
- apple cider vinegar (I use Bragg’s
but you can use your favorite)
- white vinegar
- raw honey
- your favorite beer (I used Hell’s Keep (TM) a Belgian style beer by Squatters Brewery here in Utah)
but you can use your favorite)The recipe is below:
- 3 1/2 lbs of pickling cucumbers
- 12 fl oz of beer (Belgian, pale ale, IPA and strong ale all work well)
- 1 3/4 cups water
- 1 3/4 cups apple cider vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups white vinegar
- 1 cup raw honey
- 1/4 cup pickling salt
- 7 gloves garlic, smashed or crushed lightly (Bogatyr, Spanish Roja or Music varieties of garlic work well)
- 7 teaspoons whole mustard seed
- 7 teaspoons of picking spice or 7 teaspoons peppercorns
- 7 small chili peppers (Cherry Hot or Lemon Drop peppers work great)
- Scrub cucumbers using a soft vegetable brush and slice off the ends.
- Slice cucumbers into 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch slices.
- In a large, non-reactive saucepan, combine the water, vinegar, beer, honey and salt. Bring to the boil whilst stirring to dissolve honey and salt. Skim off any foam from the honey.
- Sterilize 7 pint jars and lids.
- Pack the cucumber slices into the hot jars. Be sure to leave 1/2 inch headspace in the jar.
- Add in each jar 1 clove of garlic, 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds, 1 teaspoon of picking spice or whole peppercorns and 1 chili pepper if using.
- Fill the jars with the hot vinegar mixture leaving 1/4 inch headspace.
- Wipe the jar rims, place on lids and screw on bands to fingertip tight.
- Process the filled jars in a waterbath canner for 10 minutes and start timing once the water has started boiling. Adjust your canning time accordingly if you live at altitude.
- Remove jars from canner and allow to cool.
- These pickles need to mingle for at least a week at room temperature before eating.
- Granny’s Bread and Butter Pickles via Grow A Good Life
- Volcano Pickles via Homestead Acres
- Fermented Pickles via The Prairie Homestead
- Crispy Dill Pickles via The 104 Homestead
- Sweet Cucumber Relish via Hidden Springs Homestead
- Lacto-fermented Pickles via Homestead Honey
- Cucumber Relish Via One Acre Vintage
If you want to eat your cucumbers fresh, take a look at these ideas over at Owning Burton Farm with cucumber sorbet to gazpacho soup, there’s likely to be something you will want to try in your kitchen!
You don’t just have to can your cucumbers or eat them fresh. How about dehydrating slices of them after tossing them in apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper? A great low calorie snack to satisfy those crunchy tangy and salty cravings. Get creative and try them sweet or savory and experiment with the spices you have on hand!
You can also juice cucumbers or add slices to pitchers of iced water to mildly flavor the water. These look especially refreshing for garden parties and I love serving a big pitcher of Pimms and Lemonade when I can get Pimms this side of the Atlantic. Pimms and Lemonade is an alcoholic cocktail popular in England which is garnished with cucumber slices, strawberries and mint; perfect for summers in the garden!
Growing And Preserving Cucumbers Summary
Start your cucumbers in the garden after all risk of frost has passed. You can start your cucumbers indoors 3 weeks before your last frost date to get a head start on the season! Choose a variety of cucumber to grow which you will eat the most and if you have trouble will pollination in your garden, grow a parthenocarpic variety like Monika which does not require pollination to set fruit.
Grow your cucumbers on a trellis to improve airflow around the plants reducing disease and making it easier to pick. Always keep your cucumbers moist but not soggy soil. Harvest regularly to keep production of fruit going from your plants during the growing season.
Preserve cucumbers by canning or dehydrating and eating fresh.
What is your favorite way to preserve cucumbers and which is your favorite variety of cucumbers to grow? Let me know in the comments.
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