The Brutal Truth About Growing Cucumbers from Seed

hey friends welcome to Homegrown Florida I  am Petrina and today we are going to talk   about everything you ever wanted to know about  cucumbers we're going to talk about all things   cucumbers today all the way from the different  kinds of seeds um how to plant them from seed   how to pollinate them what kind of fertilizers  to use how to get rid of those pesky pickle   worms that get at them sometimes and create those  tiny little holes in the Cucumbers that make them   very difficult to eat all the way to when and how  to harvest them I know that's always been like   a big question as to when is the right time to  harvest them so let's get right into it these are   my cucumber plants that I'm growing right now and  I'm going to tell you all about those but let's go   ahead and start at the beginning in the beginning  is seeds so you're gonna have to get yourself a   packet or two of seeds now one packet has a lot  of seeds and for one family I don't know if you   need quite that many seeds so in this particular  one which is MIGardener one that I like to use a   lot but there's plenty of other seed places that  you might be interested in but MIGardener gives   probably the smallest amount of seeds but I find  that good because other seed companies like like   MIGardener's giving me 50 seeds 50 cucumber plants  is way more than I need for one year or even like   three years and the seeds last quite several years  so as long as they're kept in a nice cool uh dry   place but 50 plants is plenty for me so I like  that they have a smaller amount of seed counts but   other seed companies like Burpee for example they  will give you hundreds of seeds in a packet and   you're never going to use it and it feels a little  bit like waste to me but something to consider   when you get your seed packet is how many seeds  are going to be in there so that you know how many   plants that you have the potential for growing  so what we do is just simply we're gonna take   our seeds out of the packet you're going to  want to think about your planting time so here   in Florida I live in a subtropical climate  that means that I plant cucumbers around   August and September and then I can do it again  in February and March they don't grow very well   during our summers here and obviously they  don't grow well in Winters because they they   don't tolerate cold very well if you're in a more  Northern State you're going to want to plant them   looks like here on the seed packet after the last  frost date so if you go on your Farmer's Almanac   or just Google your last frost date with your  ZIP code it will tell you your projected last   frost date based on historical records and so  you'll want to plant these then now these guys   you you can start them in trays I don't recommend  it I don't recommend it at all in fact they do so   much better when you direct seed them and what  that means is when you direct seed them as you   actually take your seed and you place it in its  forever location so for me it's going to be in   this bed right here so I want to show you the  seeds so you can see here that the seeds have   like this oblong shape to them um one side is kind  of rounded the other side is pointy the actual   pointy side of the seed is the one that you want  to go down into the ground so this is very common   with other types of seeds like watermelons corn  you always want to put them with the pointy side   down and so I'm going to show you exactly how  we do that now so we have our seed right here and they both kind of look pointy but the  bottom side right there is actually like   the pointy side it almost has like that  flat appearance in the top is kind of oval   and widest at the center there so I'm  going to take it and I'm going to plant it   I'm going to stick my finger in a little hole  not much just up to like the first knuckle   and I'm going to place that seed down  in there I'm going to kind of press him   down so that he is connecting with the soil   and then I just press the soil on top so this  was one that I planted recently and you're seeing   three parts to this seedling here so it first  popped up and the first thing I saw were these   two leaves right here and these are what we call  seed leaves they are the leaves that come out from   the seed and they're the first ones you always  see on any plants any plant that you do seedlings   from but then what you're starting to notice  is this Leaf right here looks very different   than these two this is called the true Leaf this  is the the leaf texture and shape that the plant   will actually have through the rest of its life  cycle these little seed leaves are going to die   off and then you'll see more and more leaves like  this shape and that's the true Leaf of the plant   you even can see right here in the center a tiny  tiny bit of additional leaves coming out now I   got lucky here I planted two seedlings right here  and only one took which was fine that's fine with   me I wanted one in this particular area but if we  look over here it's a little next door neighbor and this one two of them did well and two of them  sprouted so now I have to make a choice now I'm   not going to make the choice right now because I  do have them separated by what is that probably   about three inches so they're okay for right now  but as they get bigger they're not going to be   okay with just three inches of space they want  a decent amount of space I like to space them   you know four to six inches apart especially  if they're going up a trellis if they're a bush   variety then I like to space them even more you  know but I I err on the side of more space than   less space so I am going to have to take a pick  and from what I can tell between these two right   now my pick is probably going to end up being this  guy but I'm going to give them another week or two   before I make that decision you might be wondering  why that is well take a look at these true leaves   on these guys they're not very healthy which kind  of gives me some cause for concern but this guy   this Leaf right here looks very healthy and that's  why I don't want to make a decision today because   these could just be in the state of dying off  and that's why they look like that seems a little   young to me to be in that state just yet but I'm  going to give them a couple more weeks possibly a   month if if I need to they're going to get kind  of bushy about this size and then I'll have to   make my choice and all you have to do when you're  making your choices come down to the base with a   pair of Clippers and snip them now these guys are  far enough apart that I could just potentially   grab it and pull it straight out but sometimes  your seedlings get very close together and if you   were to grab and just pull it out it could disrupt  the roots of the other seedlings so I always just   airing on the side of caution always clip them  at the base when I'm thinning them next thing is   the types of cucumbers so the ones behind me in  this trellis that you see here this nice giant   trellis of cucumbers which makes my heart Happy  is a pickling variety it's actually the Boston   pickling cucumber and it is a trellising variety  there's lots of different varieties so let's kind   of put them in there in their differences the  first one being the type of cucumber so you have   three types you have a pickling cucumber which  is going to be a smaller cucumber you have a   slicing cucumber which is going to be you know six  seven inches long and then you have a burpless or   seedless these are like your English cucumbers  and they're quite a bit longer I mean I have a   video that I did originally on starting cucumbers  from seed I'll put that right here or down in   the description and they got huge I mean I only  needed two plants I had much more than two plants   I ended up making a bunch of relish with them  but you really have to take into account the   prolific nature of cucumbers along with the size  of cucumbers and how you plan on using them my big   plan for these guys was to actually use them as a  pickling cucumber but my husband has been eating   them all so I haven't had a chance to actually  make pickles with them but that is my goal and   that is my hope if he ever slows down with eating  them all which I'm fine with either way I mean we   grow food so that we can eat it not so that we  can save it the pickling ones are designed for   pickles the slicing ones are designed for fresh  eating and the burpless or seedless varieties   the English style cucumber once again those are  made for fresh eating although I have used them   for Relish in the past because size doesn't  necessarily matter as much when you're making   relish as when you're making pickles another thing  about the types of cucumber is whether they are a   Vining variety or a bush variety so the ones that  we have here is clearly Vining they like to climb   and you can see I don't know if you can see this  right here but they have these little tendrils and   the tendrils are what grabs onto things and so  what they've done is they either grab onto each   other or they grab onto my chicken wire here and  climb the trellis the other ones that you have   the the seedlings that I showed you just a second  ago those are actually a bush style I do like them   they're not as prolific as a trellising variety  but they are good if you have limited space   limited time because they're generally faster or  you know you just don't eat as many cucumbers or   don't have a need to grow so many that you're  pickling them uh the two that I'm growing over   there is the bush champion and the space Master  cucumbers and they're both small cucumbers as   well the next thing to consider with cucumbers is  their pollination style so there's actually three   types of pollination Styles I'm not even going to  attempt to do the names but really I like to lump   them into two one means they need to be pollinated  the other ones mean that they don't need to be   pollinated and pollinated by insects I have a  good amount of Bees Still I'm it's it's fall and   I still have a good amount of bees pollinating  this so I haven't really had to be super   meticulous about hand pollinating my cucumbers  because they've been doing a really great job   I have in the past had problems with not having  enough pollinators in my garden and so what I did   was I went with the par parthentic I can't even  pronounce it I'm not going to try it but it's the   type of cucumber that doesn't need a plant or a  pollinator to pollinate it these are traditionally   cucumbers meant for greenhouses for hydroponic  systems for anything where they're not going to   be in the outside elements where pollinators  can get them so those don't necessarily need   pollination but all the ones I'm growing today  do need pollination and I have a whole video I'll   put right there down in the description about  how to pollinate but today what I'm going to   be doing is I'm going to actually be pollinating  some of these with my little paintbrush here see   my males are all down my male flowers are all at  the bottom now and my female flowers are all at   top so we'll move around a little bit to get  this so this one right here is a male flower   and there's two ways you can tell one you can  see the stem right here let me get in close stem   is just like a regular stem the other way that  you can tell is when you look inside the flower you see I forget what it's called but you see like  something that is like a little poked out Center   that's where the pollen is the male pollen  is now let's take a look at a female and   this guy right here is a female flower and  how you can tell is you have the flower   and then on top of that you have or what would be  the stem is you have this immature piece of fruit   this guy's a little guy so hopefully you can  see here but the center is different too it   has instead of that little Pokey thing that  pokes out with the pollen on it it has this   thing that has these little we're just inside of  it and that is the female part of the flower so   the first thing we're going to do is find  a male flower and we have one right here   and I'm going to take my paintbrush  and I am just going to brush the center   of that flower with my paintbrush and what  I'm trying to do is I'm trying to get all   that pollen that's on the inside of that male  and so that way I can move it over to the female now I'm just going to take that pollen that  was on my paintbrush and brush it on the   inside of that female flower once you've hand  pollinated or your bees have done their job   you're going to know pretty quickly whether it  worked so Within one to two days you'll start   to notice some changes number one here I got  one right here the flower is going to drop off   and the cucumber is actually going to start  getting bigger very fast so it goes from that   little itty bitty tiny immature piece of fruit to  within a day or two it will double in size you'll   see it get longer you'll see it get a little  bit fatter it'll start to resemble less of a   prickly little stem and more like a tiny jerkin  cucumber that's how you know it worked if for   some reason it didn't pollinate properly it will  eventually it won't grow that's the biggest thing   you'll notice is that it's not changing side  size every time you wake up in the morning you   come out and look at it and it is still the  exact same size as it was the day that you   pollinated it it did not get pollinated and what  will eventually happen is the flour will drop   off and the immature piece of fruit will turn  brown or yellow and start to rot and fall off   and so that means it wasn't pollinated there is a  third option so there's pollinated not pollinated   and then there's something called partial  pollination and that's where you're going   to get like weird looking cucumbers where they  might be skinny at the top and then really fat   at the bottom or the or the reverse really fat  at the top and then The Bottom never fills out   and it's really skinny and it might be a little  bit yellow that means that it didn't get pollen   around the entire center of the female part of  the flower and so they will grow and they are   edible they're just not pretty I think that's the  easiest way to say it they're just not going to   be a pretty cucumber nobody's going to know it if  you chop them up and put them in a salad that one   is an immature or incomplete pollination cucumber  and one is a complete pollination cucumber they're   completely edible they taste exactly the same  they just look funny I don't mind funny looking   vegetables in fact I have learned to love funny  looking vegetables because when you grow your own   garden the one thing that I hear so much from so  many gardeners is it doesn't look like the grocery   store you're right it doesn't it will never look  like the grocery store because you're growing it   yourself in the grocery store you know does a lot  of different things that we don't do in our garden   they use a lot of different kinds of varieties  that are meant to be in a specific shape with a   specific type of skin so that that way they are  uniform and it's look and that that way they can   travel for long distances sometimes they're  sprayed with things to help them travel that   distance that makes them look waxy versus Madden  all kinds of stuff happens to our food in the   grocery store that is not natural and isn't what  occurs in your backyard garden so if you're ever   sitting there looking at the things that are being  produced in your garden you're like that doesn't   look as big or that isn't the right shape that's  because nature does not create uniformed fruit   the reason the grocery store has uniform  fruit is because they grow it that way   and anything that doesn't doesn't make the cut or  look like all the other ones is wasted sometimes   they use it in other ways you know as animal feed  or or compost or whatever but you have perfectly   edible food just because it isn't perfect six  to seven inches in size or it might be fatter   than the rest or it might have an incomplete  pollination they say that people won't buy it   in the grocery store and I think that's probably  true so they toss it but in your garden there is   no need to toss it it is edible I cannot say this  enough please please eat your weird looking food   in the vegetable garden they are not all meant to  look uniformed okay I'm gonna get off my soapbox   we're gonna get back to cucumbers so now you have  your seedlings you planted them by seed they came   up they're growing up a trellis they're doing  wonderful and then you start to experience issues   and you're like what do I do okay so there's a few  main things that happen with cucumbers one of them   is going to be a fungal issue or a mold issue or  mildew issue this is very common especially where   I'm at where we have pretty much 100 humidity  all year round and it rains almost every day   subtropical climate we deal with a lot  of powdery mildew but there's other kinds   like downy mildew and there's other type of  fungal issues like wilts and things like that   and so the thing that I like to do is use a  hydrogen peroxide and water spray let me grab it   now you can use a spray bottle reuse a spray  bottle from inside your house but I like to   use these big ones just for ease of use and  then the spray is very uniform I can get it   done really quickly with this sprayer because  it's just sprays very well and so what I do is   a hydrogen peroxide water mixture and I even write  it on here so that I always remember that this is   my hydrogen peroxide mixer and I always put how  many and it's eight tablespoons per gallon so   this is a gallon and so I put eight tablespoons  of five percent hydrogen peroxide it's the stuff   that you see at CVS Walgreens Rite Aid whatever  it's the traditional hydrogen peroxide that   we use for wound care and I mix that up with  the water and then I spray my plants probably   if they're not exhibiting any signs like you know  these rough looking leaves with the discoloration   or you know wiltiness or dying or anything like  that I will probably spray them once a week   if they are exhibiting issues I will probably say  them every two days just to get it under control   what you want to do when you have those issues is  you want to clip these leaves off as soon as you   see them and spray the rest of the plant so that  the disease doesn't spread because that's what   will happen is eventually it will spread through  the whole plants and it will eventually kill the   entire plant and all the surrounding plants like  these guys I think there's four plants here and   this one fungal issue will transfer to all of the  other plants and so you want to get ahead of that   I like to use hydrogen peroxide in the past I have  used copper fungal spray and then there are some   non-organic methods out there that you can use  as well I I try to go very organic in my garden   so for a while there I was using copper copper has  a tendency to build up in the soil from what I've   read my research I might be wrong but from what I  read in my research it has a tendency to build up   in the soil and over time that can harm the soil  life so I've moved to the hydrogen peroxide spray   which is much more able for the plants to handle  the next thing that you might experiences is so   you've gotten through your fungal issues now you  have these beautiful cucumbers growing and then   all of a sudden you take a look at the cucumber  and there are these little pin prick holes in them   with what looks like clear gunky stuff  coming out of it and you're like what is that   that is a pickle worm there's actually many  different kinds of worms or squash bugs or all   kinds of things that are going to go after your  cucumbers and so what I like to use for those is this other guy this is a mixture of Spinosad  and water and I can't remember the measurements   but it's on the bottle so really stick to the  bottle that you get I get a concentrated bottle   on Amazon all the things that we talked  about today I'm going to put down into the   description the links to all of these so that you  can find them very easily and get them if you want   but I mixed this with the water and at  the rate that the the bottle tells me to   and then I spray this Spinosad once a month your  other option is BT BT is great I love BT but BT   doesn't work very well in my environment because  BT washes off with rain Spinosad does not Spinosad   is a bit of a stronger type thing it's going to  kill a lot more than maybe what BT would do it's   a little indiscriminate and it's and it's killing  so I have to be very careful that I only spray my   spine aside at night or when I know that my bees  are not around because it can harm them well BT is   a little more forgiving now the the problem I have  with BT is the rain washes away BT Spinosad on the   other hand once it has been put on the plants and  dries it adheres to the plant and so the rains   that I get every single day don't wash it off and  it lasts quite a bit longer BT on the other hand   will wash off if you get a lot of rains which is  a problem for me here which is why I use Spinosad   and it won't last as long so it's fine side lasts  like a month I only have to get in there and   spray it once a month whereas BT you're probably  going to want to be on a weekly spraying schedule   because it does wear off fairly quickly that is  what's going to kill the the eggs and the small   worms or I think they're actually caterpillars  that turn into a moth it's a moth that that does   that you'll see them at night if you come  out and you take a look at your cucumbers   or your squashes at night you're going to see  these little like white moths flying around   or grayish grayish white Moss flying around  those are the guys that are laying the eggs   that eventually become the pickle worm and then  the pickle worm will eat up the leaves that's the   way you'll actually see them first is they'll have  the leaves and the leaves will have like a fold   and when you peel that fold open you're going  to find them inside that fold hiding during the   day and then at night they remove from their  fold and they go and they eat your cucumbers   all right so let's talk about the um the gross  aspect okay so now you have all these beautiful   cucumbers you didn't know that you had moths  and pickle worms going on and all of a sudden   you have all these pin Pricks and all your  cucumbers can you eat them yes you can eat them   you can eat the pickle worm I don't encourage  that I I'm not telling you to eat worms but if   it's only like one or two or they've uh you  know decided to hang out on the bottom part   um and so you have the pin Pricks here they don't  go very far in and they don't travel around a lot   inside of here if you catch them early what you  do at that point is you take the Cucumber off and   the easiest way to deal with this is cut the part  that has the pickle worm in it I'm I'm like super   curious so I always cut them open and look at them  to see if they're still alive and stuff but you   don't have to do all that all you have to do is  cut that piece off throw it in your compost and   and eat the rest of the Cucumber the rest of the  Cucumber is good it was not touched by the pickle   worm it is fine just throw it in your refrigerator  it'll be good with your larger vegetables like   winter squash if you still want to use that fruit  which I always do just gonna throw it out there   I'm the lady that will actually eat fruit that has  been damaged by pickle worms it does not bother me   but if you want to and it's a larger sized fruit  and they burrowed in quite a bit a really good   way to get them to come out is to put them push  the fruit down into a bowl of water and they will   naturally pull themselves out and then they'll  come out and you can get rid of that now they   have eaten and kind of pooped in that area where  they have burrowed so you definitely might want to   avoid eating that part when you're opening up that  squash find the hole and just core that little bit   of the hole out and you're good to go to use  the rest of the squash so we've talked about   fungal issues we've talked about bugs let's talk  about fertilizer cucumbers are a flowering plant   so they're going to want more of a potassium and  phosphorus fertilizer then they're going to want   a nitrogen fertilizer I have enough nitrogen in my  beds that I don't really fuss with nitrogen when   it comes to cucumber plants but if I notice that  they're not flowering very well or you know have   a bunch of male flowers let me just say right  here mail a bunch of male flowers as normal you   are always going to have way more males and you  are going to have females and you're going to see   your male flowers come in first they always do  it's just Nature's way of saying hey bees come   take a look at us we have a bunch of flowers and  then that way when a female comes along the bee is   you know hanging out and doing its job amongst  all the males and then a female shows up and   he just does that one too it's a way of attracting  those pollinators so they push out huge flushes of   males to you know entice the pollinators to come  and pollinate the flowers before you ever see a   female flower and this could be weeks but once you  do start to see female flowers and all of a sudden   you stop seeing female flowers or your male flower  flushes start to decline considerably I strongly   encourage you to pick up some liquid fertilizer  I like this one Neptune's hardest Harvest and   it's a tomato and veg and it has the three numbers  down here this is nitrogen potassium phosphorus I   sometimes get those two numbers backwards nitrogen  phosphorus potassium I'll have to look at that   anyway so the first number is nitrogen here I can  look back here nitrogen phosphorus okay nitrogen   phosphorus and potassium so the first one says  it has a two-part nitrogen four part potassium phosphate I always do this and then  two-part potassium the potassium and   the phosphate help with like root development  and flower production and the health of the   plant where nitrogen is that green agent  nitrogen you want on things like lettuce   collards cabbage broccoli those kale brussels  sprouts the green vegetables they love nitrogen   they don't really care about the flowering  part because we're not eating them for the   flowers we're eating them for your greens  but cucumbers Tomatoes squash peppers   all have this flowering part of the process  that we need them to do and we need them to do   well so that we can eat the the product of that  flowering part of the plant and so that is the   phosphate in the in the potassium and so I always  take a liquid fertilizer about halfway through   and I will mix it with water and I will water  the plants with that and that's usually all it   needs if you start to see the flower production  reduce hit it with a little fertilizer and let   it keep going now I want to preface that  my beds I spend a lot of time and effort   focused on the health of the soil in my beds I  have a whole video that is like a whole nother   is I could probably do hour-long videos on how  to make your beds healthy the soil healthy and   that is what feeds your plants so you really  need to focus on soil health and I know it's   not the sexiest of subjects it's not the most fun  of subjects but once you really start to do that   and you realize you don't need as much fertilizer  and you know you don't have to do much for your   plants to grow and Thrive and be healthy and happy  and not be pressured by bugs and issues and stuff   you'll really start to find that soil health is is  an actual sexy subject but I've really focused a   lot on that and if you have not or your your bed  is brand new you are going to have to consider   that when you first plant your seed you'll want  to make sure that you lay down some sort of slow   release fertilizer and the one I like to use is  Garden tone or tomato tone granular fertilizer now   I would use tomato tone with this because it is  more for flowering plants and garden tone is more   of a catch-all for all different kinds of plants  but tomato tone has a lot more of that potassium   and phosphorus that you need for the fruiting  plants and so I will lay that down scratch that   in really good probably a week or two before I  plant the seed but if you've been working on your   soil you don't have to do that you just plant your  seed it will come up it will be happy and healthy   now let's talk about harvesting okay so when can  you harvest a cucumber you can Harvest a cucumber   at any size can you see this guy way up here  he's tiny he's uh what is that three inches I   could Harvest him now I could Harvest him when  he has not even been like this one right here   they're they're itty bitty tinies right they're I  don't even know if these are pollinated yet that's   how tiny they are I could Harvest those you can  Harvest a cucumber at any size small size wise   the problem you're going to run into is when you  want to harvest a cucumber and it's larger so this   guy that I keep pointing out he's starting to  get a little bit too big for this type this is   a pickling cucumber he should not be this fat  and he should not start to have this yellowing   you really want to kind of get him when he's all  green I don't mind this because I know that my   husband's eating them for fresh eating and I'm  not using them for pickling but if I was using   them for pickling this wouldn't be the best  candidate because when you cut this open or cut   it into Spears it's going to have a lot of seeds  the reason why it's getting fat around here is   because it's producing more and more mature in fat  seeds in there and seeds when it comes to pickles   are your enemy because they get mushy and not  appealing to eat once you've pickled them and can   them so you want to pick them in between the two  that I just showed you that one's a little bit too   big that one is probably a little bit too small so  there is a is a nice size and really what you're   looking for is at what point does it look good  that you want to eat it they all taste the same   they all taste like cucumbers now if you wait for  this big guy right here to turn completely yellow   and for the spiky skin to fall completely off  it really has become inedible at that point wow   you could still eat it it's not appealing  it's bitter it's seedy it has less flesh   to it it really just has an awful taste  I think so you really want to get them   before that yellowing starts if you have a  little bit of yellowing you probably won't   even notice but if it has a considerable amount  of yellowing what I would encourage you to do   is just leave it on there like that guy I might  just leave him on there and he will eventually   get really big and really yellow and kind of nasty  looking and Squishy that is the perfect time to   harvest him to save his seeds for next season  so that I don't have to buy them again you can   take those ones that have gotten away from you  or you didn't notice and just let them stay on   the plants and you can cut them open once they've  gotten that big ugly yellow size and you can save   the seeds from those and then you'll never have to  buy seeds again so there is a use for cucumbers at   all sizes but edible cucumbers can go from the  tiny little ones that you see in the grocery   store pickle Isles the little jerkin ones all  the way up to this guy right here and these are   pickling cucumbers so slicing cucumbers get much  larger and much thicker and still stay green and   then English or burpless I'm going to show you  a picture right here mine got enormous and they   were still green and they hadn't changed color to  yellow and they still had somewhat of a prickly   skin so they were they were great they tasted  amazing what I usually do is I let them go until   I start to see the Everest hint of yellow showing  up on the cucumber and then I pick it right away   but if you're anxious to eat some cucumbers and  your plant is full of green ones and they're   small by all means grab a couple off there bring  them inside and eat them they will still taste   exactly the same why wait you can have fresh  cucumbers today so that is everything about   cucumbers from seed to harvest I hope you enjoyed  the episode head down in the description check out   some of those other videos I mentioned as  well as all of the items that I used today

Channel: Homegrown Florida

Views: 30,929

Keywords: outdoor grow, central florida gardening, florida garden tour, florida, vegetable, vegetable garden, zone 9, zone 9a, zone 9b, garden, harvest, plants, raised bed, inground, container, pots, soil, crops, leaves, grow, your, own, food, homegrown, organic, veggies, how to grow, cucumber, growing cucumbers, sweet success, fertilize, cucamelon, pickling, slicing, english, parthenocarpic, gynoecious, monoecious, powdery mildew

Id: u8iK8Qw5tVc

Length: 36min 2sec (2162 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 15 2022