Cucumber

Sun

Full sun, ideally at least 6-8 hours daily; light afternoon shade can help in very hot climates.

Water

Keep soil evenly moist, especially during flowering and fruit development. Water deeply at soil level before the root zone dries out, but avoid waterlogging.

Soil

Fertile, well-drained soil enriched with compost; slightly acidic to neutral, ideally pH 6.0-7.0.

Height

1-2 ft (0.3-0.6 m) when trailing; 4-6 ft (1.2-1.8 m) or more on a trellis

Spread

3-6 ft (0.9-1.8 m) for typical vining varieties; compact bush varieties need less room

Flowers

Yellow flowers from late spring through summer, continuing into early autumn in warm conditions.

Foliage

Large, rough, green leaves with shallow pointed lobes, carried on bristly stems with curling tendrils.

Growth

Fast in warm weather.

Care needed

Medium

• Pollinators
• Low allergen
• Edible

Northern hemisphere months. In Australia, shift them by six.

Difficulty

Moderate

Toughness

Needs looking after

Pick your zone, country, light and whether you have pets.

1. Planting day

   0.5 ft (0.15 m)

2. After 1 year

   1.5 ft (0.45 m)

   full size

Full size in one season.

From a typical nursery size, at an average rate for this kind of plant. A rule of thumb, not a forecast.

Cats and dogs

Safe

Growth rate

Fast

• Plant out only after frost risk has passed and soil has warmed to at least 16°C (61°F); harden off indoor-raised plants first.
• Water at the base and check containers daily during hot weather.
• Mulch once the soil is warm to retain moisture and keep trailing fruit off bare soil.
• Feed container plants regularly with a tomato fertiliser once fruit begins forming, following the label rate.
• Provide a sturdy trellis for vining types and guide young stems onto it with loose ties.
• Harvest frequently while fruits are young and firm; remove oversized fruit to keep plants cropping.

Pruning. Outdoor trailing plants usually need no pruning beyond removing damaged or diseased leaves. For greenhouse or trellis-grown plants, train a main stem and shorten side shoots as directed for the variety, avoiding heavy leaf removal.

Start picking cucumbers about 8–12 weeks after sowing, depending on the variety and weather. Pick firm fruits at the size recommended for the variety—typically 15–20 cm (6–8 in) for slicing or 5–10 cm (2–4 in) for pickling—before they yellow and the seeds harden. Check every day or two and cut the stalk with scissors or secateurs rather than pulling, to avoid damaging the vine.

Early spring

Choose outdoor or greenhouse varieties suited to your climate and prepare beds with mature compost.

Mid to late spring

Sow indoors about 3-4 weeks before the expected planting-out date, using individual pots and warm conditions.

Late spring to early summer

After frost and once soil is warm, plant out hardened-off seedlings or sow directly; install supports.

Summer

Water consistently, mulch warm soil, feed container plants and guide vines onto their supports.

Summer to early autumn

Pick fruit frequently and check leaves for mildew, mites and other pests.

Autumn

Remove plants when cropping ends or frost kills them; clean supports and keep diseased material out of home compost.

• Train up a trellis along the sunny edge of a vegetable bed to save ground space and make harvesting easier.
• Use compact varieties in large patio containers with a support for accessible picking.
• Grow on obelisks in a potager, with low lettuces or calendulas around the bed edges.
• Train over a sturdy mesh panel as a temporary leafy screen in an edible garden.

Garden styles it suits: Potager (kitchen garden), Edible landscape, Homestead, Cottage garden, Small-space and Family-friendly.

Plant it with: Lettuce, Radishes, Dill, Nasturtiums and Calendulas.

Wildlife: Flowers provide pollen and nectar for bees and other insects. Most outdoor varieties depend on insect pollination, while many greenhouse varieties set fruit without it.

• Powdery mildew: white powdery patches develop on leaves. Choose resistant varieties, allow good airflow, maintain watering and remove badly affected leaves.
• Cucumber beetles and bacterial wilt, especially in North America: protect young plants with insect mesh, removing it at flowering if pollination is needed. Remove wilted, infected plants; there is no cure for bacterial wilt.
• Red spider mites under cover: look for fine webbing and pale stippling on leaves. Inspect leaf undersides, avoid very dry conditions and introduce suitable predatory mites early.
• Poor fruit set or misshapen fruit: bee-pollinated varieties need insects to reach flowers. Avoid insecticides during flowering, hand-pollinate if needed and keep watering consistent; seedless greenhouse varieties may require different pollination management.

Ordinary cultivated cucumber fruit and foliage are not known to be toxic to cats, dogs, horses or people. Unusually bitter fruit can contain high levels of cucurbitacins and cause serious stomach upset; discard it rather than eating it or feeding it to animals. Cooking does not reliably remove these toxins.

• Courgette or zucchini (Cucurbita pepo)

  Usually forms a bushier plant with thicker, often angular stems, much larger flowers and fruits with stout stalks; cucumber typically has slender climbing stems and smaller flowers.

• Cucamelon (Melothria scabra)

  Has smaller leaves and grape-sized oval fruits marked like miniature watermelons, rather than typical cucumber-sized fruits.

• Armenian cucumber (Cucumis melo)

  A type of melon with long, often curved, pale green, ridged fruit; cucumber leaves are generally more pointed and angular.

Cucumber comes through French from Latin cucumis, meaning cucumber, while sativus means cultivated or sown.

Propagation. Grow from seed, sown directly into warm soil or started indoors in individual pots. Transplant gently before roots become crowded. Saved seed may not come true from hybrids, and varieties can cross with other cucumbers.

Accepted botanical name

Cucumis sativus

In the US and Canada

Introduced in Hawaii, the lower 48 states, Pacific Basin and Puerto Rico.

Native range

Assam, Bangladesh, China South-Central, China Southeast, East Himalaya, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and West Himalaya.

Measured

Average height 200 cm.

Sources: GBIF (CC BY 4.0), USDA PLANTS and Trefle (CC BY 4.0). The care and design notes are LandscapeGPT's own.