How to Grow a Cucumber From a Seed

Grow your own cucumbers at home.

Instead of purchasing cucumbers from the grocery store, grow them at home from seeds. You can grow your own cucumbers with a little dedicated space in your home garden. Harvest cucumbers 55 to 65 days after they ripen to encourage the plants to continue to produce cucumbers.

Things You'll Need

• Shovel
• Compost
• Garden stakes
• Cucumber seeds
• Fertilizer
• Plant ties

Instructions

1. Find a location for the cucumbers. They grow best in full sunlight with well-drained soil.

2. Loosen the soil in the garden bed with a shovel. The soil should be loosened to a depth of 10 inches. Add a shovel of compost for every square foot of space to feed the cucumbers.

3. Make mounds that are 10 inches tall and 16 inches across. Keep these mounds four to six feet apart. Each mound will hold two to three cucumber plants. Make a basin at the bottom of each mound with your hands to collect water to keep the soil moist.

4. Place a garden stake close to the center of each mound.

5. Plant four cucumber seeds one inch deep in each mound. Keep the seeds two inches apart. Cover the cucumber seeds with soil and press down the soil.

6. Water the mounds to keep the soil moist. Continue to keep the soil damp for a month to germinate the cucumber seeds.

7. Add an all-purpose fertilizer to the cucumbers. Fertilize the cucumbers every two to three weeks with a 1-2-1 ratio. Follow the instructions on the fertilizer package carefully.

8. Train the cucumbers to grow on the stakes. Secure them to the stakes with plant ties.

References

• National Gardening Association: Cucumber
• Mother Earth News: The Great Cucumber Challenge
• Gardener's Network: How to Grow Cucumbers