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(Best months for planting Cucumber in Australia - cool/mountain regions)

October: After risk of frost

• Harvest in 60-70 days
• Sow in garden. Sow seed at a depth approximately three times the diameter of the seed.
• Best planted at soil temperatures between 16°C and 35°C.
• Space plants: 40-60cm

Cucumbers are frost tender. A trailing plant which will grow tendrils as it gets bigger. Lebanese cucumbers are best picked about 10 -12 cm (4 - 5 in) and eaten whole. Gherkins are usually picked 5 or 6 cm (2 - 3 in) long and pickled. They have a prickly skin. Apple cucumbers are round with a pale, almost white, smooth skin.

Grow in full sun. Grow up a trellis or framework to save space and keep the fruit clean. Needs ties to support it at first. Water regularly and fertilise to encourage growth.

Culinary hints - cooking and eating Cucumber

Pick frequently before the fruit become too big.
Use raw in salads, peeled if preferred.

Your comments and tips

01 Jan 10 Matthew (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

My lebanese cucumber plant is growing beautifully and flowering well. However I seem to have only got two great cucumbers from it. The other cucumber leaves go yellow and die off. Is there anything I can do?

01 Jan 10 mand01 (Australia - temperate climate)

fezz you need to rotate your crop - planting the same plant in the same place each season increases the likelihood of a soil borne disease, or exhausting the soil of the nutrients preferred by that particular plant. Try growing something from a different family (not a curcubit) in that spot next season, and grow your cukes elsewhere.

02 Jan 10 Barb (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

Hi Matthew, Keep you cucumber plants well watered and well fed - hopefully they'll start fruiting again. Cuc's don't like drying out. They respond well to a complete organic liquid fertilizer like fish emulsion and/or good compost. They're very susceptible to powdery mildew so spraying with milk and/or chamomile tea helps. Are you getting female flowers or just male flowers?

04 Jan 10 Matthew (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

Barb, thanks for the advice. I am getting both female and male however I just seem to lose the cucumber before it is pollinated. I think there are a few about to go now.

19 Jan 10 Karen (Australia - temperate climate)

I have tried growing cucumber, there were a lot of cucumbers on the vine. A few at the start were nice but but then the rest had a really horrible sour taste so they couldn't be eaten. Any ideas?

26 Jan 10 Chris (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

Karen, some cucumber varieties turn bitter immediately they get short of water. I would cut off any currently growing, and keep up the water while new ones come on. Try picking them smaller, too. You could try the Armenien variety (Yates have seed) as it doesn't seem to turn bitter so fast when stressed.

30 Jan 10 Ben R (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

My cucumbers have been weird this year. They are similar to John D's - they have grown in the shape of a butternut pumpkin from early on and they are now about 30 cm and yellow/brown. They have good sunlight, were watered regularly, in mushroom compost. They did not at any stage go dark green, just from light green to yellow. They probably weigh about 2 kilo's each. I have not cut one open yet - i think the whole crop may be headed to the chickens... any ideas to avoid the same next year would be appreciated.

02 Feb 10 noel (Australia - temperate climate)

how do you stop cucumbers going soft after you pick them

05 Feb 10 Suzanne (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

Do you need to cut back cucumber plants after they have stopped producing fruit?

15 Feb 10 Kellie (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

hi there, I am a new gardener, growing cucumber in pots on my verandah. I get to the stage where a couple of fruit are produced and then the leaves turn yellow and brittle and the whole plant seems to die back. Any ideas? Many thanks!