I put this here because I figured it would eventually come down to opinion, although I toyed with GQ.
I’ve never grown cucumbers before, and I want to grow them for pickles. I’ve got a packet of organic Smart Pickle seeds here, and a square foot garden, and some trellis. The most I could fit in without building more trellis is, I think, three square feet, which should be spaced at six plants total according to the book. Is that enough? Too much? How many cucumbers can I expect to get? It’s very frustrating trying to find information on yields for home gardeners. (Do I need another variety?)
Also, I’m planting beans next to them. Kentucky Wonder pole beans. The book says I can put 8 plants per square foot; I’ve got two square feet they can have. Is sixteen plants too much? Not enough? This is seriously driving me nuts.
I’m one person, although I usually cook for two and sometimes more. I do plan on putting some food by. How many do you guys plant? How do you know? I mean, they might all die before they fruit and this might be a moot question, but I do want some advice here.
Rather than try to make some specific recommendations, and given your limited space, I think I could best help by pointing you to [http://www.squarefootgardening.com/body_index.htm] Square Foot Gardening.
I can say that I have used Mel Bartholomew’s book by the same name for my planting plans for over 16 years now, and recommend the guy highly!
Enjoy your cukes and pickles, don’t forget to put in some tomatoes if you can…store 'maters and home-grown ones could easily be from different planets!
Rather than try to make some specific recommendations, and given your limited space, I think I could best help by pointing you to Square Foot Gardening.
I can say that I have used Mel Bartholomew’s book by the same name for my planting plans for over 16 years now, and recommend the guy highly!
Enjoy your cukes and pickles, don’t forget to put in some tomatoes if you can…store 'maters and home-grown ones could easily be from different planets!
Zsofia, it’s hard to say as different varieties have somewhat different requirements. Your potential yeild is dependant on many factors, amount of sunlight both intensity and duration, the soil and the amount of nutrients in it, the number of flowers it produces and competition with other plants even of the same species. I know that doesn’t help one bit. But perhaps talking with local gardeners or with staff at a local nursery/garden center would be more helpful in terms of what grows best in your region.
That being said you don’t want to overcrowd your plants. I’ve had success with spacing as close as 8 inches apart, but that was making sure in the hottest part of the day they were adequately watered and pruning areas that were not getting sufficient sunlight. Assuming there is enough water and nutirients, if they get too crowded then the plants uses more energy feeding and sustaining the plant areas that are not recieving sun, instead of producing flowers which is where the cucumbers will come from. OTOH, if there isn’t enough foliage the cucumbers could burn in the sun. You can make it work is small spaces, but you have to tend to the plants a lot more in my experience.
I’ve tried asking gardening people here, but nobody seems to grow cucumbers! I know how many tomato plants to plant (as many as I can possibly cram in, 'cause I love tomatoes and so does everybody else), and that one healthy basil plant will do it for me but I’m planting three kinds anyway, etc. I’ve got excellent dirt and plenty of sun and great drip irrigation, I just can’t figure out how to even get a ballpark yield figure. I guess I’ll try calling the garden center, but I don’t really expect them to be any more helpful.
LiveOnAPlane, thanks, but I’ve already got the book and been all over the website.
Six plants in 3 square feet is a LOT for cukes. They will spread like crazy and get all kinds of tangled up in each other. I see you’re in SC, which means warmth and a long growing season. You will get cukes through late September. I know I do, and i live in Northern Virginia.
If you’re a beginning gardener I might cut that number in half (3 plants) just to get a feel for it this season and see how it goes. Overabundance is NEVER a bad thing, but if they start suffocating each other or the work to keep them separated and healthy becomes backbreaking it will be difficult to maintain.
Here is a picture of my little garden at my old townhouse. This was taken in July 2004 and is the result of TWO cucumber plants. Keep in mind we had a cool, cloudy summer that year in these parts: Winnie’s Garden o’ Madness
So how many actual cucumbers did you get from that? The only reason I’m concerned about this at all is that I’m growing them for pickles, not salads, and I’ll need enough at one time to make a batch of pickles. (Doesn’t help that all the recipes for pickles tend to say “x pounds” instead of, like, “x pounds, about x small cucumbers”. My gut feeling is to devote two of my squares to cucumbers and deal with it as it comes, but I’ll be disappointed if I don’t get enough to make pickles. (At least two kinds.)
Most commercial pickles weigh out between 10 to 20 per Kilo (5 to 9 per pound) but you can get tiny ones that are hundreds per kilo. Just buy yourself a pickle of the size you want to make and weigh it.
The harvest really started to pickup in late July (probably earlier for you), but literally I was picking at least a half dozen or more every day or two. That seems outrageous, but in humid, warm conditions the sky is the limit with these bad boys.
One spring, I planted a packet of cucumber seeds in the family garden. My mother didn’t know that I’d planted anything, and hired a man to till the plot. Three cucumber plants came up after being tilled. Those plants provided us with enough cucumbers to make quite a few pickles, PLUS we had Cucumber Salad just about every day with dinner.
Cucumber salad: Peel and deseed cukes if desired. Slice thinly. Add thinly sliced onion. Allow to soak in vinegar for a couple of hours. Remove from vinegar, dress with olive oil, salt, pepper, and whatever herbs are handy. Very cool and refreshing, but it DOES get tiresome after the second month of daily servings.
So it sounds like two of my squares (four plants) should be enough to keep me in pickles as long as I don’t try to make dill and bread and butter at the same time. I feel somewhat reassured. (If I can’t make pickles I’m stuck - I think cukes are okay in salads, but my dad hates them and I don’t think I could get rid of too many at work.)
Does anybody have a pickling cucumber reccomendation for the South? I sort of picked this one at random because it seems like everybody grows different ones all the time.
