Everything you wanted to know about cucumbers but were afraid to ask. We dig into the history of the cucumber, it's botanical curiosities and why you should start succession planting them.
HOW TO LISTEN:
Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or any of your favorite podcast players to have new episodes sent directly to your device.
Listen right now in your browser by clicking above.
Show Notes and Terms:
Cucumbers / Cucumis sativus
Part of the plant you eat: The fruit. Officially, the cucumber is classified as a pepo, which a type of berry.
Days to maturity: 45-65
How to plant: Sow seeds indoors as transplants 2-3 weeks before planting out. Wait until the temperatures are 65°-70° before planting out. Cucumbers can be direct sown when soil temperatures reach 70°. Plants should be spaced 12-18” apart. If you’re direct sowing, place seeds every 6” and thin once seedlings germinate.
Ideal germination temp: 70°
Hardiness: Hard frost will kill cucumber plants
Cucumber growth habit: Cucumbers varieties come in both bush and trailing growth habits.
Fertilization needs: Fertilize at planting and every 2-3 weeks with a liquid fertilizer.
Main categories of cucumbers:
Slicing
Pickling
Burpless
Also mentioned in this episode:
Linnaean taxonomy
Parthenocarpic plants
String trellising cucumbers:
In addition to a new season of the podcast, we also have a new book coming out soon called “Grow More Food.” It’s a revised version of our earlier book “High-Yield Vegetable Gardening” but with over 200 new photos, updated illustrations and loads of new information, it’s available for preorder now everywhere you buy books online.
The survey…! In order to keep making this podcast, we need your support. In the past, we had some incredible Patreon and Kickstarter contributors - thank you 1000x to any past contributors who may be listening, you are amazing!!! However, going forward, we think it’ll be more manageable to take advantage of the ads platform our hosting service provides to help make this podcast sustainable. The only thing we need is for some of you wonderful listeners is to take a quick survey for our podcast hosting platform. This survey should only take about 30 seconds and will help make it possible for us to continue start creating episodes again.
Have a topic you’d like to see us dig into on the podcast? Send us an email at eb@seattleurbanfarmco.com
More resources From the Seattle Urban Farm Co:
Past podcast episodes and recent blog posts:
Like what you hear? Please share our podcast with a friend. Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player so you never miss an episode. And we'd really appreciate you showing us some love by leaving a rating and review!
Have a topic you'd like see us dig in to? Send us a note at eb@seattleurbanfarmco.com
About the Hosts: