Broadfork™

Crop guide

Cucumbers

Cucumbers go in once the frost is past and the soil is warm. Then pick every two or three days, or the plant slows down.

Grown in Ohio, zone 6a. Your frost dates move the calendar; the signals don't. Broadfork goes by where your garden is, not its zone: frost dates for your ZIP code in the US, or the ones you type in anywhere else.

Nine minutes to read. Each section stands on its own.

A cucumber vine climbing a twine trellis between two wooden posts, with broad lobed leaves, yellow flowers and dark green fruit hanging, its roots in the soil below.
What you plant
Seed sown where it will grow, or a transplant in a pot planted with it.
When
After the last frost, once the soil is at least 60 °F; some data waits for 70.
How deep
1/2 to 1 inch; the data splits between the two.
How far apart
8 to 12 inches apart in the row, the data running to 18, and rows 4 to 6 feet apart, some data as close as 2. In hills, 2 or 3 plants, hills 3 to 6 feet apart. On a trellis, 9 to 12 inches. The app plants 2 per square foot, 8 inches apart.
Sun and soil
Full sun, at least 6 hours and 8 to 10 if you can, in well-drained soil rich in organic matter.
Frost
Tender: a light frost kills it. It grows best at 75 to 85 °F.
Family
Cucurbitaceae, the gourd family, with squash, pumpkins and melons. It doesn't cross with any of them.
Harvest
By size, dark green and firm, before it yellows: slicers at 6 to 8 inches, picklers at 2 to 4. The first come 50 to 70 days from sowing.
Soil pH
6.0 to 6.5; one source runs from 5.8 to 6.8.
winterspringsummerfall last frost sowsoil at 60 °F covers offat the first flowers first picking50 to 70 days pick every 2 to 3 days sow againabout July 1 first fall frostends it
  1. springSow after the last frost, once the soil reaches 60 °F.
  2. summerTake the covers off at the first flowers.
  3. summerFirst picking 50 to 70 days from sowing, then every 2 to 3 days.
  4. summerSow again about July 1.
  5. fallThe first frost ends it.
The cucumber's year. It runs from the last frost to the first, so your frost dates set it, not the month. The green bar is the picking.

Planting#

Wait for warm soil: at least 60 °F, and some data waits for 70 at 1 inch down. Sow 1/2 to 1 inch deep, a few seeds together, and keep the bed moist; seedlings come up in 7 to 14 days. Thin with scissors, not by pulling.

The data splits on seed or transplants. One source recommends sowing in place; others say transplants can cut the young plants' exposure to cucumber beetles, and bear about 2 weeks sooner.

For transplants, sow 2 or 3 seeds in a plantable pot 3 to 4 weeks before the last frost; the data runs from 10 days to 6 weeks. Thin to one, plant the whole pot at 2 to 4 true leaves, and harden them off first, never below 55 °F.

Black plastic mulch warms the soil for an earlier crop, more so under a row cover. Hold straw or compost mulch until the soil passes 75 °F: it slows warming.

Sow again around July 1: plantings made after mid-June meet fewer beetles. The last practical sowing given is July 10.

In Broadfork On a cucumber row, Plant again opens the add form for the same cucumber, dated three weeks on.

Short season Where the season is short, the soil may not reach 70 °F until late May. Plastic mulch and a row cover let seed or plants go out 2 to 3 weeks before the last frost.

Mild winter Where winters are mild, cucumbers get a spring and a fall season, the fall one sown from mid-July into September. The warmest places grow them September through February.

1/2 to 1 insoil surfacea few seeds together,thinned to 8 to 12 in 9 to 12 in3 to 4 ft tall;the data runsto about 6
In the ground. Sow 1/2 to 1 inch deep and thin to 8 to 12 inches. On a trellis, thin to 9 to 12; the data puts the trellis 3 to 4 feet tall, or about 6.

The season in between#

Give them about 1 inch of water a week, the data running to 2, and keep it steady while the fruit sets: short water makes bitter, misshapen fruit. Water at the soil. A morning wilt means they're dry; an afternoon wilt in heat is normal.

Keep out of wet vines, since handling them spreads disease, and don't move the vines: they root at the joints.

With no soil test, work in 1 to 2 pounds of 10-10-10 per 100 square feet. Side-dress with nitrogen; the data puts it anywhere from before the vines run to a week after the first flowers. Too much gives vine, not fruit.

A trellis gives straighter, cleaner fruit, more of it per square foot, and easier picking. Make it 3 to 4 feet tall; some data goes to about 6. Sow 4 to 5 seeds a foot along it and thin to 9 to 12 inches.

A row cover keeps cucumber beetles off young plants. Take it off when the flowers open, so bees can reach them, or once the air under it passes 90 °F. A seedless, parthenocarpic kind needs no bees, so its cover can stay on.

The first 10 to 20 flowers are male and drop, and fruit follows within a few weeks. Spray nothing but soap or oil during bloom. Above 90 °F by day and 70 at night, the flowers run male and the bees slow down.

In Broadfork Where a hot stretch is likely to reach a cucumber row, the app says so ahead of time, with the likely dates, and that picking may thin after it.

Harvest#

Pick by size: slicers at 6 to 8 inches, picklers at 2 to 4, burpless up to 10, dark green and firm.

Pick every 2 to 3 days; some data says every other day, and daily in heat or for picklers. Take the oversized ones too: one left on the vine stops the plant setting more.

Cut the stem 1/4 inch above the fruit; some data snaps it off along the vine instead. Pick early in the morning, once the dew is off.

Plan on 2 to 3 plants a person to eat fresh and 3 to 5 more for pickles.

Storing#

Store them at 50 to 55 °F and 90 to 95 percent humidity for 10 to 14 days; some data says 45 to 50 °F, for about a week. In the refrigerator they keep about a week; one source says 3 days.

Colder hurts them: several days at refrigerator temperature brings sunken spots. In one trial, cucumbers held at 41 °F pitted from 9 days on.

Keep them away from apples, which yellow them.

For fermented dills, pick at about 4 inches, figure 4 pounds to a gallon crock, and slice 1/16 inch off the blossom end. Slicers can turn out mushy as pickles.

For seed, leave a fruit on the vine until it turns yellow or orange, then several weeks more. Save your own seed has the rest.

Which cucumbers#

Slicers are long and dark green; picklers are short and blocky, with bumpy, spiny skin. Burpless slicers are thin-skinned and bred without the bitterness behind the burp, 10 to 12 inches long and curved unless they climb.

Bush kinds, such as Salad Bush and Spacemaster, fit a small garden, in hills 2 to 3 feet apart.

Gynoecious hybrids, such as General Lee and Calypso, bear mostly female flowers and fruit early and heavily, but need pollen: the packet holds seed of a standard variety to plant with them. Parthenocarpic kinds, such as Diva, need none.

Sweet Slice, Sweet Success and Marketmore 76 rarely turn bitter. County Fair and Little Leaf H-19 resist bacterial wilt.

In the app's catalog, among others: Marketmore 76, Straight Eight, Diva, Sweet Success, County Fair and Boston Pickling.

Short season Where the season is short, grow them through clear plastic mulch and choose kinds that take cool weather, such as Corinto.

Mild winter Where winters are mild, the mildews are worst in the warmest months, so grow a kind bred to resist them.

What goes wrong#

In Broadfork When a cucumber goes in, the app puts bug netting on your list for that day, and asks you to take it off at bloom.

Mild winter Where winters are mild, pickleworms bore into the fruit, and the mildews are at their worst in the warmest months.

From the beds in OhioCucumber beetles are the worst pest here, for the wilt they carry. What works best is sowing small blocks of cucumbers in different spots through early summer. Once the beetles' early rush passes, the pressure drops, and the later plantings come through with few of them.

Where it goes next year#

After cucumbers, keep the family, squash, pumpkins and melons included, out of the bed for 3 to 4 years: rotation helps against leaf spots and anthracnose. Bacterial wilt lives in the beetle, not the soil.

At season's end, clear the vines, debris and mulch, where striped beetles winter. Mildewed vines go in the trash; the data splits on wilted ones.

Once the bed is empty, cover the soil.

Every number on this page comes from a published extension source.

Sources for this guide: University of Maryland Extension, University of Minnesota Extension, Ohio State University Extension, Clemson Cooperative Extension, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, NDSU Extension, University of Georgia Extension, University of Illinois Extension, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Extension, Utah State University Extension, Virginia Cooperative Extension, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Cornell Cooperative Extension, SDSU Extension, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, UMass Extension, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Colorado State University Extension, Mississippi State University Extension, Montana State, Penn State Extension, Purdue Extension, University of California, University of Connecticut, University of Florida, University of Missouri Extension.

The documents behind this guide (69)

Updated 11/11/2026 · Checked against our sources 11/12/2026

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