Spacing of cucumbers

lisaphoto 5/7/2012, 10:33 am

I was reading a post on mysquarefootgarden.com, where she said that she plants cucumbers 8 per square. She puts a trellis in the middle of the square, with a row of 4 seeds on either side. Some people questioned her, but she said she never had a problem other than having too many cucumbers to harvest. I am growing 2 squares of japanese cucumbers and 2 squares of a pickling cucumber. I transplanted 3 of each into the squares, and put seeds in to make it 4 to a square. I didn't want to do 8 to a square until I made sure on here it would work, plus I have limited seed and we aren't quite at out last frost date. So should I leave it 4 to a square, or add some seeds after the originals come up? BTW, my trellis is 5 foot wide, and will extend over the squares a bit, and is 10 foot tall.

elliephant 5/7/2012, 10:35 am

Have you seen the cucumber pics Acara posted? I can't imagine that many to a square.

ETA: This thread https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t12091-cucumber-confusion#11873

littlesapphire 5/7/2012, 10:39 am

Do the cucumbers have any neighbors that also need to climb? If so, I would say planting more than two per square is a bad idea. They're space hogs to the max. I had real trouble keeping my cucs from overrunning my poor peas last year!

However, if the cucumbers are the only vining plant on your 5 ft wide trellis, I say give it a shot. It might work out well.

lisaphoto 5/7/2012, 1:37 pm

Yep, they would be the only ones in a 4 foot wide row to the north

lisaphoto 5/7/2012, 1:40 pm

It does seem like a lot. Maybe with the staggered planting, it will work out better? I guess I can always pull some. I think I'll base it off of how much seed I have left. If I have enough to save for next year, then I will plant some more.

acara 5/7/2012, 3:02 pm

If you've got the time to trim & train, it can be done. Even 1 per square gets kinda rough if the plant takes off though.

With multiples in a sqaure, finding yr cukes is gonna be like an Easter-egg hunt though ....just to warn ya Very Happy

...btw, the birds, squirrels & garden critters don't have the same problem noted above Rolling Eyes

floyd1440 5/7/2012, 8:17 pm

This is my first year using a trelis and cukes. Is two cukes per square to many????

cucumbers per square - Spacing of cucumbers 3170584802

**camprn** 5/7/2012, 8:31 pm

floyd1440 wrote:This is my first year using a trelis and cukes. Is two cukes per square to many????

OH Floyd, certainly not! I sow about 8 seeds per square, in the event some of them do not make it. Then depending on you trellis space and you inclination, thin as necessary. I did not and there was plenty of room.
Here are mine from last year; on the right, at the north side of the box are the cukes, then in the middle, yellow pear tomatoes in a Florida weave trellis, then on the left poblano peppers that were staked. As the plants grow they will need minimal pruning of the leaves and some fols say the side vines as well. can you see all the blossoms? i tend to take the larger lower leaves off to allow for bee acess and better ventilation through the trellis. Also it makes it easier to water at soil level with all those lower leaves gone.
cucumbers per square - Spacing of cucumbers 02215

cucumbers per square - Spacing of cucumbers 02215

floyd1440 5/7/2012, 8:46 pm

Het Camp.....

thanks for the pictures as last year as I had nothing so I bought those cone shaped cages and they were uncontrollable. My trellis is of 7x7 netting and still was a little concerned about how containable they are on a trellis?

So my theory was train each cuke up a 7x7, which is one per plant, and I figured that 2 plants are the max per square.

Sounds like I still am not grasping something simple....

cucumbers per square - Spacing of cucumbers 3170584802

**RoOsTeR** 5/26/2012, 9:52 am

I can't help but keep coming back to look at camps cucumber forest Shocked

snowpea 6/2/2012, 6:03 pm

so 3 cuke plants in 1 square is ok then? sorry this kind of gardening is confusing to me since I am new Smile

I have 3 small plants to put in and they will go along the ground for now.

Thanks !

**camprn** 6/2/2012, 6:15 pm

RoOsTeR wrote:I can't help but keep coming back to look at camps cucumber forest

Yup 8 per square. I got a lot of pickles out of that 4 square feet.

floyd1440 6/3/2012, 8:57 pm

Mel suggests 2 per square but if you can do more better, than let me know how it goes.

I have only two per square and will increase them next year if necessary. I like how some have pruned the bottom part of the plant to perhaps get better ventilation and maybe keep bugs down.

People always thinking............ Shocked

Weedless_ 6/4/2012, 10:14 am

I do 2 per square, and that covers three of us with pickles, seedless cukes and the third variety that was found in the seed box. I have three squares total. I like cucumbers to have some breathing room, so I prune them also. It seems to encourage flowering and fruiting.

floyd1440 6/4/2012, 7:53 pm

camprn wrote:
RoOsTeR wrote:I can't help but keep coming back to look at camps cucumber forest
Yup 8 per square. I got a lot of pickles out of that 4 square feet.

I will keep an eye on my cukes and trim them as you have done as this seems to give more room for more plants but an guessing if you didn't prune them you wouldn't be able to find you cucumbers..

**camprn** 6/4/2012, 7:59 pm

floyd1440 wrote:
camprn wrote:
RoOsTeR wrote:I can't help but keep coming back to look at camps cucumber forest
Yup 8 per square. I got a lot of pickles out of that 4 square feet.

I will keep an eye on my cukes and trim them as you have done as this seems to give more room for more plants but an guessing if you didn't prune them you wouldn't be able to find you cucumbers..

Correctomundo! I prune the lower leaves so I can water at the roots, and then when the mildew hits I prune again, and when the leaves got so big I cannot find the cukes, those come off as well. Wink

floyd1440 6/5/2012, 7:55 pm

Hey Camprn

This is only my second year growing cukes and like your idea of how to trim up the plant as you take cucumbers off. It makes sense to me and will try it on the ones I planted and let you know how it turns out,

cucumbers per square - Spacing of cucumbers 3170584802

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