Permapotes

Cucumber

Cucumber: Sowing, planting and harvest calendar

The cucumber, Cucumis sativus, is an annual plant in the cucurbit family, alongside melons, courgettes and squashes. The part we eat is botanically a fruit, although it takes the role of a vegetable in the kitchen. Its identity combines flesh with a high water content, a crisp texture and a generally mild flavour. These characteristics explain its place in many fresh dishes, where it offers a different sensation from vegetables that are firmer or sweeter.

The diversity of varieties is most immediately visible in their fruits. There are long cucumbers with smooth skin, shorter types with a rough surface and mini cucumbers. The proportions, appearance of the skin and size of an individual portion therefore vary between varieties. The familiar salad cucumber represents only part of this diversity. A description of the species brings together these shared features, while the variety name gives a clearer idea of the fruit you can expect and the way it looks.

In a cross section, the green outer layer surrounds a paler interior, with a central area containing the seeds. This structure gives cucumber rounds their recognisable pattern. In cold preparations, its fairly subtle flavour pairs with tomatoes, culinary herbs, yoghurt and other vegetables. Mixed salads, sandwiches and chilled soups are common uses. Its crunch also creates contrast with tender or creamy ingredients, without necessarily dominating the flavour of the whole dish. These combinations give cucumber several roles in an everyday meal.

The plant has long stems, broad green leaves and slender tendrils that can attach themselves to a support. Its habit is trailing or climbing: the foliage takes up a noticeable amount of space in a vegetable garden, even when the stems extend upwards. The yellow flowers are smaller than the leaves and appear among the greenery. This flexible, spreading silhouette distinguishes cucumber from a low plant with a rosette of leaves, and makes the combination of broad foliage and elongated fruits visually interesting.

Cucumber is frost tender and belongs to the warm season in temperate gardens. Some varieties are intended mainly for outdoors and others for a greenhouse; that distinction is part of choosing a plant. Fruit size, appearance and culinary purpose are useful points of comparison too. A small variety suits a different use from a long cucumber to share, even though both belong to the same species.

Cucumber
Cucumber
Characteristics
  • Lifecycle : Annual
  • Exposure : Full Sun
  • Frost Hardiness : Frost Sensitive
  • Cultivation Difficulty : Easy
  • Mature height : 30 cm
Sowing & Planting
  • Greenhouse crops : Unheated greenhouse
  • Greenhouse Growing : Not Required
  • Sowing Depth : 2 cm
  • Plant Spacing : 60 cm
  • Row Spacing : 120 cm
Maintenance
  • Maintenance : Moderate
  • Water Requirements : High
Other characteristics
  • Soil Type : Humus-rich
  • Soil pH Preference : Neutral
  • Pest Sensitivity : Moderate
  • Disease Sensitivity : Moderate
  • Weed Sensitivity : Moderate
  • Pollination : Insect-pollinated
  • Propagation : Sowing