The Grow Your Own Food Handbook by Monte Burch

The Grow Your Own Food Handbook by Monte Burch

Author:Monte Burch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2013-01-01T05:00:00+00:00


Cucumbers are easy to grow and are a must for garnishing summer salads.

G. Depth: ½ in.

H. How much per person: fresh, 2 to 3 hills; processed, 3 to 6 hills

I. Days from planting to eating stage: 65 to 70

Requirements

Soil type: a rich, deep soil

pH: 6.5 to 7.0

Fertilizer: a general-purpose fertilizer, chemical, or organic

Growing tips. Cucumbers need lots of water and lots of fertilizer. In most instances, cucumbers are grown in hills rather than rows, unless you’re market gardening. You’ll usually get fifteen to thirty seeds of many hybrids and one hundred or more seeds of most standard varieties in a packet. Space hills about five feet apart. Dig deep holes where the hills will be. Fill in the hole with plenty of well-rotted manure or compost. Then add about three inches of garden soil to create the hill. Place about five to six seeds to a hill. Cultivate shallowly until the vines begin to grow. Heavy mulch can prevent a lot of weeding problems, but it will take quite a bit to mulch the entire space. Cucumbers do extremely well grown on trellises or vertically, and they don’t take up nearly as much space. Growing on black plastic keeps down the weeds, but they take up a lot of garden space in this manner. My cucumber tactics have been refined over a number of years, growing them more intensively. I have a permanent trellis made from a section of cattle panel supported by steel posts and centered in a raised bed. I plant three hills on each side of the fifteen-foot panel, spacing closer than conventional spacing. As soon as the plants are up, I mulch the bed heavily. Cucumbers need lots of water as well as food. The latter can be in the form of chemical or organic fertilizer, using a general fertilizer mix. My method is even simpler. I bury a plastic food container, with the bottom perforated, in the center of the hill and plant the seeds around the container. Once a day during the growing season, I fill the containers with water. About once a week, I fill the containers with manure tea. Any liquid fertilizer will do.

Pests. There are lots of bugs and beetles that like cucumber plants, especially the striped cucumber beetle. Remove by hand or shake on Sevin dust or wood ashes.



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