From sowing at the beginning of March to harvest in summer, several months pass, during which cucumbers are separated from time to time. What should you consider when cutting cucumbers? And why pinch at all? Good answers to these questions can be found here.

There are 5 reasons to cut cucumbers:

  • Pruning the cucumber plants
  • Cut back for a 2nd harvest
  • Pinch out the side shoots
  • Pinch off the first flowers
  • Cutting off ripe cucumbers

If you want to harvest as many cucumbers as possible, you can only leave one main shoot. The first flowers can also be removed. This encourages the plant to produce more flowers and fruit.

Cut back once - harvest twice

Cutting back cucumbers after the first harvest also works well. In climatically good years, the fruits of these varieties ripen by the end of June. After pruning, they quickly form new flowers again. In this way, you can effortlessly harvest delicious cucumbers twice a year.

Cutting out the side shoots makes sense or not?

It is not necessary to pinch out the side shoots on the leaf axils of cucumber plants. You can remove the side shoots up to a height of 60 centimeters and only keep up to 6 fruit sets from the other ones. With the side shoots, the shoot is cut off after the first leaf and fruit set. As soon as the main shoot reaches the greenhouse roof, it is pulled over the last tension wire, tied down and only pinched after about 30 centimetres.

If there is a good supply of nutrients, there will then be more side shoots with more fruit. Limit future cucumber prune to occasionally trimming the shoot tips, pruning too many shoots, and removing yellow leaves. It is disputed whether the stinging brings a higher yield overall. Many organic gardeners bristle at the exhaustion!

Properly cut off the ripe cucumber pods

Whether it's cucumbers, cucumbers, preserving cucumbers or mustard cucumbers - always use a sharp and clean knife to harvest cucumbers. The fruits cannot simply be torn off by hand without injuring the entire tendril. Those who harvest in the morning get cucumbers with the highest vitamin content. In addition, the plant has more time to dry the cut.

tips and tricks

If cucumber plants don't want to branch out but only aim high, there may be a lack of sun. Don't just cut off the top, move the plants to a sunnier spot.

Category:

Vegetable garden