Emma Miller
In mid-summer, cucumbers mature in vegetable gardens, delighting gardeners with young fruits from the bed. The picking of cucumbers should be carried out regularly so that the vegetables do not overripe. It is also very important to properly pick and store the fruits to increase their shelf life.
When to harvest cucumbers
Cucumbers appear on bushes from about mid-summer and continue fruit-bearing until early fall. However, everything depends on the plant variety and weather conditions. On average, the first fruits appear 30-40 after the cucumbers sprout.
How often to pick cucumbers
The fruits from the bushes should be collected regularly so that they do not overripe. Overripe cucumbers have very hard skin and they spoil quickly. Regular harvesting of cucumbers is also important so that the plant does not waste energy in ripening old cucumbers and actively forms new fruits.
The optimal frequency of harvesting is once every 2-3 days. It is also important to remove damaged and deformed fruits so that the plant does not waste energy on them. The very first fruits are recommended to be plucked very small to encourage fruiting.
How to pick cucumbers correctly so as not to harm them
- Pick cucumbers in the morning or evening, or on a cloudy day. Such fruits are the juiciest.
- During rain, postpone harvesting. Allow the fruits to dry out. Cucumbers harvested in the rain contain too much potassium and store little.
- Don’t pull the vegetables to avoid damaging the fruit and the bush’s branches. It is better to cut the stalks with garden shears.
- In the greenhouse, cucumbers are harvested more often. If greenhouse cucumbers are exhausted and do not produce fruit, they should be aired at night.
- Immediately after picking cucumbers, put them in the refrigerator. Then they will be stored much longer than at room temperature. Also, harvested cucumbers should not be washed beforehand.
