Cucumber Seeds

Are you looking to plant cucumber seeds? Cucumbers are a warm weather crop, very sensitive to frost. In the Northeast, plant cucumber slicers from late May to mid-June and pickles up to mid-July. If planting earlier in cooler weather, protect plants with row covers or plastic tunnels. Pick cucumber fruit regularly for a continuous yield. Some of our varieties are gynoecious (mostly female), and have been carefully blended with enough pollinator seed to provide ample pollen for good production.

The vining varieties of cucumber seeds can easily be trained to grow up a trellis. This method not only takes up less space, it generally produces greater yields. Anchor the trellis at planting so roots will not be disturbed. Space plants 6 apart in a straight row. When about 1/3 grown, the tendrils on the vines will grasp the trellis and vines will climb without assistance. Cucumbers grow long and straight, getting better air circulation and more even sunlight. And, damage to the vines during harvesting is minimized. We recommend Burpless 26, Sweet Success, Diva and Sweet Slice for trellis growing.

Cucumbers are easy to grow, quick to mature, a garden favorite, and familiar to customers, so they help to generate cash flow throughout the summer season. While straight, shiny, dark green slicing cucumbers are still a staple at farm markets, customers are expanding their tastes to include long, tender-skinned Asian cucumbers. Other customers visit farm stands seeking pickling cucumbers for home canning. When choosing which cucumber seed varieties to grow, consider the variety’s disease resistance and fruit set habit. Gynoecious cucumber seed varieties produce mainly female flowers, which brings heavy production over a short time span, while monoecious varieties bear both male and female flowers and spread their fruit set over a longer period of time. If you grow in a greenhouse or in an area with few pollinators, choose a parthenocarpic (self-pollinating) variety, which needs no insects for pollination. Wherever you grow, plant several plantings in succession to ensure a steady supply from early summer until frost.

Cucumber plants are quite tender, and early spring plantings should be protected from frost and wind. Since cucumber plants also prefer warm temperatures, Hot Kaps, row covers or the plastic tunnels can serve both purposes. All plantings benefit from plastic mulch, and supplemental water is helpful if fruits approach harvest during a dry season. Cucumbers are insect pollinated crops; yields are enhanced by adding bee hives.

There are a few reasons cucumbers might not produce fruit. First is that the plant is too vegetative so all the energy is going into growing leaves and not flowers. This can happen if plants have too much fertilizer or not the right types. In particular, high levels of Nitrogen will encourage leaves, but Phosphorus can encourage blooming. Another reason for low fruit set is lack of pollination. If you see blooms from your fruit but they don't grow into fruit or they fall of the plant, that implies they have not been pollinated. This can be caused by very high temperatures or low pollinator activity. You can encourage wild pollinator populations, add a beehive to your property, or pollinate by hand if you only have a few plants.