Growing Cucumbers in Containers: 9 Tips On Pruning, Feeding, Pests, and More!

In this video, we're going to show you how to grow tons of cucumbers in containers at home the easy way! By following our 9+ cucumber grow tips, you'll be able to produce bumper crops of cucumbers in no time!

Cucumbers are a great way to add freshness and flavor to your meals, and this easy container cucumber growing tutorial will help you get started in no time! By following our tips, you'll be able to produce sweeter cucumbers even in a small space.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
01:18 Grow Parthenocarpic, Gynoecious, Multi-Pistillate Varieties
04:16 Don’t Prune Off the Suckers
06:43 Water Like Crazy (And Add Extra Peat Moss/Coco Coir)
09:44 Fertilize Early. Fertilize Often.
12:30 Trellis Your Plants
13:28 Don’t Settle For “Bush Type” Determinate Varieties
14:28 Transplanting Cucumbers Works Great!
16:49 Use Non-Toxic Sticky Fly Traps to Reduce Whitefly Damage
18:06 Plant in Full Sun (Even Strong Summer Sun)

Written article version of this video if you'd rather read than watch: https://nextdoorhomestead.com/blog/9-...

The tips at a glance:

1. Choose a Gynoecious, Parthenocarpic, Multi-Pistillate Variety

Container plants are smaller, generally have fewer pollinators available, and possess smaller root systems to draw nutrients from.

Luckily, there's a really easy solution to working around all those limitations and it’s tip number one: grow a variety that is parthenocarpic which means it doesn’t require pollination to set fruit, gynoecious which means it produces all or almost all female flowers for a way bigger harvest, and multi pistillate for clusters of fruit rather than just one cucumber per node.

2. Don’t prune the suckers
If you’ve got at least a solid 3 feet worth of horizontal space on your trellis to dedicate for 2each plant or if you don’t mind allowing the suckers to trail onto the ground, and you’re carefully watering from below, don’t worry about pruning off the suckers from your cucumbers.

3. Use Extra Peat Moss or Coco Coir & Water Like Crazy
Everyone says that cucumbers are a thirsty plant. Well I’m here to tell you they’re 100% right. Applying that more infrequent, conservative tomato watering schedule to a container cucumber is convenient but results in sad plants and more importantly bitter fruit.

4. Fertilize and fertilize often
I’ve done a fair bit of testing with my cucumbers, both in ground, and in containers and have found pretty conclusively that they do better with a generous pre-plant fertilizer and regular side dressing.

5. Trellis Container Cucumbers
One of the benefits of a container garden is we get just a little bit of separation from soil diseases and pests. We might as well take advantage of that benefit by growing the vines up a nice clean trellis. Make the container an advantage!

6. Skip Bush Varieties
Bush varieties of cucumbers are often marketed as appropriate for containers. However, you really don’t need to limit yourself to those smaller plants, a 7 or ten gallon grow bag can definitely support a full size vining cucumber.

7. Transplanting is just fine
Cucumber seeds are generally direct sown in the ground or directly in their container rather than started from seed and then transplanted. But don’t worry about transplanting if direct sowing isn’t a good option for whatever reason.

8. Do Use Non Toxic Sticky Traps for Whiteflys
I’ve found that white flys absolutely love, love, love a healthy cucumber plant. Putting up a couple cheap, nontoxic sticky traps helps keep their population down without any work.

9. Do Place Containers in Full Sun
This year, I started resorting to placing my cucumbers in partial shade because my plants were just frying. It turns out that was a mistake, even in my hot climate. Our cucumber containers are back in full sun and much happier for it.