Last edited on November 02, 2026. View history
Deka Cucumber
Deka Cucumber
A variety of cucumber
An old Russian pickling cucumber, a hardy, heavy-cropping outdoor type with thick green skin. It suits gherkins and lacto-fermented pickles, and can also be eaten as a larger cucumber. Transplant at 50 cm.
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Deka cucumber facts
Lifespan
Crop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
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 deka 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 deka 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.
Growing deka cucumbers
- Sow seeds indoors 4 weeks before planting out
- Harden off the seedlings 1 week before planting out
- Put up a trellis or net 1 week before planting out
- Water deeply at planting out every week
- Mulch around the plants 2 weeks after planting out
- Feed with liquid fertiliser 5 weeks after planting out every 2 weeks
- Pick fruit regularly at first harvest every week
- Pull out finished plants 6 weeks after first harvest
Plant deka cucumbers with
collard greens
Savoy cabbage
buttercrunch lettuce
striped cavern tomato
Video
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Ecological requirements
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) |
Learn more about deka cucumbers
Resources outside Growstuff.
