Last edited by shiny on November 10, 2026. View history
The cucumber is an annual creeping vine that roots in the ground and grows up trellises or other supporting frames, wrapping around supports with thin, spiraling tendrils. The plant can root in a soilless medium, then sprawl along the ground in the absence of a supporting structure. The vine has large leaves that form a canopy over the fruits.
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For cucumber, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 6°C and a shortest growing cycle of 40 days at its best temperature, about 760 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your cucumber will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
by shiny,
Beans, peas and corn: remove husks and allow seeds to dry out – this may take a couple of weeks, then remove casings and store.
Pumpkins and melons: seeds need to be washed and set aside to dry for a week or so before …
corn
pumpkins
melons
lettuces
celery
parsnips
carrots
leeks
onions
radicchio
cucumbers
tomatoes
zucchini
capsica
by maco,
I've got seeds either on-hand or ordered for just about everything I'm starting from seed this year. I've been working out what I want to plant, and this is the plan I've come up with for the 72 square feet of my backyard raised beds:
arugula
basils
beets
cabbages
cauliflowers
cucumbers
eggplants
garlic
kale
lettuces
onions
oregano
parsley
Hungarian wax peppers
bell peppers
zucchini
yellow summer squash
butternut squash
sweet potatoes
tomatoes
super sweet 100 tomatoes
chamomiles
by oakandsage,
So I completely don't have the time/energy to keep my crop list up to date, but this year I planted cucumbers. Or I thought I planted cucumbers. It turns out they are armenian cucumbers which are actually a particularly cucumbery variety of muskmelon. Many people like them …
by Skud,
I'm in Thornbury, in the inner northern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.
Our landlords won't let us replace the lawn with a veg garden, so we can only plant in containers. I'm on my usual spring quest for largish containers, 30cm diameter and above. We especially love the old-style…
eggplants
pears
quinces
ginger
by ribbonknight,
The first plant is a cucumber, Mexican sour gherkin, which I've grown from seed. Firstly, yay, the things I grew from seed this year have been way more successful than last year!
The cucumber looks like this: 
thyme
by neotoma,
I had the first tiny strawberry of the season today! I'm looking forward to many more.
Also, I transplanted a lot of seedlings into the community garden today: 2 cucumbers, 3 green beans, 2 tongue-of-fire beans, an ornamental [sweet potato](/crops/swee…
green beans
sweet potatoes
artichokes
lettuces
radishes
carrots
parsnips
sunflowers
strawberries
A summary of nutritional data per 100g for Cucumber, common, unpeeled, raw.
| Energy | 50.0 kJ |
|---|---|
| Protein | 0.8 g |
| Fat, total | 0.1 g |
| Carbohydrate | 1.2 g |
| - Sugars | 1.2 g |
| Fibre | 1.4 g |
| Sodium | 10.0 mg |
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 40 to 180 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Cucumis sativus L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Dilleniidae Violales Cucurbitaceae |
|---|---|
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | climber/scrambler/scadent |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
Resources outside Growstuff.
Cucumber
collard greens
Savoy cabbage
buttercrunch lettuce
striped cavern tomato
Photos
trishf42 harvested not specified.
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