That's right. Just like tomatoes, I grow my cucumbers on strings. Get ready for tips on growing cucumbers under cover, keeping them healthy and sticking it to the murderous cucumber beetle.
One of the reasons I like my community garden so much is that it's a perfect mix of complete and partial weirdos. I say that with all the respect as someone who is a borderline total weirdo. For the most part our weirdness is manifested in our desire to grow our own food no matter what the cost.
If I have to turn 14 pool noodles into a giant spider costume that I wear for 4 hours a day to scare away the raccoons just give me a glue gun and get out of my way.
For years I've been string training my tomatoes the same way commercial greenhouse growers do. It was love at first blight.
With the string method, disease like blight and wilt are less likely to take hold and kill a plant because the tomato plants are kept smaller, away from the soil and with a lot of air circulation between them.
These same benefits apply to cucumbers as well.
Table of Contents
Growing Cucumbers Vertically on String
The best time to string train your cucumbers is when you first plant them, but even if they're sprawling on the ground right now you can string them up.
The method is exactly the same as string training tomatoes which you can learn about here.
String training cucumbers is done exactly the same way it is with tomatoes. Just hang a line of string from something towards the ground and as the cucumber plant grows, wind it firmly around the string. They support each other. Like a hotdog and mustard.
Pinch the suckers
The one thing you should do that you might not know about is trim the suckers. Yes. Cucumbers have suckers just like tomatoes do, only they're harder to see because cucumbers are notoriously sneaky.
If you've ever pulled out a cucumber plant at the end of the season only to find a cucumber the size of clown car hidden in the leaves, you know all about this sneakiness first hand.
You probably think that cucumbers are supposed to have a billion vines sprawling all over the place but they're way easier to manage when you keep the plant to one or two main leaders, just like you do with tomatoes. Pinch out any suckers.
(Suckers are stems that grow from between a leaf node and the main stem)
Learn how to identify a sucker here.
By the end of the season cucumber plants will still be sad looking, but this method of growing up a string helps slow down bacterial wilt that's transferred from cucumber beetles to the plants.
Bacterial Wilt & Cucumber Beetles
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These small striped bugs chew away on cucumber plants but the real issue is that they carry disease that almost inevitably leads to cucumber wilt.
If you've ever had your cucumber vines suddenly start to turn brown and die over a period of just a few days - that's cucumber wilt.
Maybe because we are having such unusually warm winters, maybe because pests come in cycles, maybe because the world is out to get me. Who knows.
String training can't eliminate cucumber wilt but it can help temper it. Growing disease resistant varieties of cucumbers will also help. I have a list of disease resistant plants I grow in this post.
Parthenocarpic cucumbers
The BEST way to eliminate bacterial wilt on cucumbers is to grow parthenocarpic varieties. They do not need pollination from insects. Parthenocarpic varieties don't need pollen to be transferred from flower to flower for the plant to set fruit.
This means you can grow them under a mesh cover to keep cucumber beetles out without worrying the plants won't get pollinated.
I have a similar instant hoop house to this for growing tall plants under cover.
Strip the Leaves
The other key to string training is to remove the lower, unhealthy leaves. This is good practice for tomatoes and vertically grown zucchini as well.
When the cucumber vine makes it up to the top of the string, just start guiding it down the string on the other side.
These are pickling cucumbers by the way, in case you were thinking that string training stunts the growth of cucumbers. It doesn't.
For my pickling cucumbers I grow Eureka Hybrid cucumbers because of their disease resistance. I may switch to a self pollinating variety if the cucumber beetle situation in Southern Ontario doesn't improve.
To make up for plant deaths I grow twice as many cucumber plants as I think I'll need and I make sure no plants are touching their neighbouring cucumber plant.
Cucumber Tips
- Pinch out suckers to make vines more manageable and cucumbers easier to see.
- Pickling cucumbers are a great choice if you never seem to eat your way through a regular cucumber before it goes bad. They're crunchier and drier than a regular cucumber though.
- Grow parthenocarpic varieties under cover to keep beetles & death away.
- If you notice a plant with bacterial wilt (it will look wilted, unhealthy and have brown leaves forming) PULL IT. Get rid of it immediately to slow the spread to your other plants.
- If you're a picklehead, always grow twice as many plants as you think you need because they won't all ripen at the same time. It's hard to make pickles if you're only able to pick 2 or 3 cucumbers a day. Also, some of those plants are bound to get cucumber wilt so planting more improves your chances of getting enough cucumbers before the whole plot shrivels up and dies.
Here's my favourite Bread & Butter Pickles recipe.
And here's my Favourite Kosher Dill recipe.
I truly believe you could be successful at growing just about anything with the string method.
When you're gonna dream - dream Big.
Kate
Dearest Karen,
If you no longer want Idris, I'll take him!
The decision equation: Idris vs cucumbers.
Hmm.... Cucumbers might be easier to handle especially with your new cucumber wrangling system. I will most def try that next year.
Love cukes, however .... We are talking Idris here!
All my best from Boston,
Kate
lisa
I string trained my cucumbers this year! BUT, didn't know about pruning suckers.
Also did not know about the male flowers making the cucumbers bitter? Don't you need the male flowers to pollinate the female flowers in order to have a successful cucumber? I read somewhere that un-pollinated female flowers produce odd-shaped fruit, which I *also* have (curled horseshoes and/or obscenely shaped.) Maybe there's a market for those...
Beth
Omg! I did my tomatoes with the string this year, but they're didn't look like yours. Still bushy, so I'm obviously not pruning correctly. They are doing way better than they usually do, so that's good! But I also did my cucumbers and the lovely loofah seeds you sent me that way too! Am currently scouring the internet for Jason Momoa seeds...
Kim in Milwaukee
Oooo please share the Jason seeds when you find them!!
Mary W
Great post today! Thanks for the pickle recipes, also! I used to make B&B pickles by salting the slices and hanging them outside in a pillow case. It worked like a charm. My question: Did you raise your own dill? I used to for my pickles and there was nothing like it in the stores. I loved that dill and so did the butterflies. Only thing, I had to cut it in jar sized pieces and look inside the straw chambers to make sure I didn't pickle some insects, also. (Organically gardened.) I love dill so much, we used the tops in my daughters wedding bouquets that hung on the church pews in kraft paper wraps and a single fake monarch in each bouquet. They were just gorgeous! Her table centerpieces were sod in a round glass container with three daisies stuck into water picks and one monarch wired in to hover above them. They were also so beautiful. You give me so many wonderful ideas. She released monarchs during the reception and my favorite picture is her with a couple of monarchs landing on her veil - big smile. Are you planting milkweed this year?
Karen
Ohhhhh I don't need to plant milkweed. :) It's a recurring thing. Always popping up. I do grow my own dill. I mainly just allow it to grow and reseed. I'm between dill right now but hopefully I'll be big enough for dill pickle season in a month. :) The centrepieces sound beautifullllll. ~ karen!
Tracey B
I have no interest in gardening.
Until the last photo.
That I could get into...lol
Monique
hahaha..:) I read an article about Idris w/ Matthew because of their movie and thought of you..It's been a bad yr indeed..my Stripes of Youre are nowhere near ripening even and I have only eaten 1 ripe Dancing With Smurfs..
But on the other hand..my girl no longer limps:)
Karen
Well that's one good thing. ;) Glad to have read your chicken responded well to the aspirin. I have a doubly bad year because it took so long to plant everything after building the garden. ~ karen!
Alena
I wish I could complain about a wet year. I am so close to you and my neighbourhood has not seen a drop of rain for THREE MONTHS! I hate dry summers. I am so desperate that I am thinking about trading a kidney for a bit of rain. We have extremely hard water and even if I water it simply is not the same as when it rains.
Even my dog loves rain water - it's her yummy water. She is easy to fool though; I fill dishes on the patio with faucet water and she very happily laps it up thinking it's rain water. She is not thirsty, she has fresh water at home all day long. But if it's outside, it's gotta be rain water and that's her manna from heaven.
Dale R Lacina
You want rain....I'll give you rain. Actually the BSA Troop I work with are rain makers. The past three camp-outs we have had brought copious amounts of rain. So pick the nearest campsite to your area, schedule our Troop to camp there and Voilà ...... rain, rain, rain.
My Dad (the farmer) said the only thing that grows well during a drought were the weeds!!! Not an LOL.
Alena
Thanks for the suggestion, I will definitely consider it. BTW, I completely agree with your dad - the weeds are thriving!
Elissa Rioux
I live vicariously through your garden posts but this one got my attention in a big way! Idris on a vine, my heart is a flutter 💓. Thanks for your wonderful witty posts Karen. I look forward to them almost as much as my morning coffee.
Karen
It's hard to beat the pull of morning coffee, lol. ~ karen!
Anita
oh God bless you with you Idris pics. just made my morning
Ev Wilcox
Wow-I knew you were a great gardener, but Big Macs AND Idris?! Well done! We prob won't
be hearing from you much when you harvest those.... Sigh. I was going to have a great raised bed this year but my son got hurt at work and could not put it together. Oh well, we already got the wood, and it can be built for next spring. Our rainfall has been nil in this area of Ohio. The grass is brown and crunchy a bit. Those are my excuses anyway. Congrats on another wonderful garden and thanks for the photos. Happy eating!
Rene Walkin
Loved this post which I read first thing this morning. It changed my view on the world which was bleak to begin with. Thanks for the smile (and the good gardening advice!)
Karen
Oh! Thank you. Yeah .. there are a few crap things going on in the world right now. Happy to be a conduit for good. ~ karen!
Laura
Alrighty tell us the difference between a girl flower & a boy flower.
Jean Munroe
Yes, I want to know, too. Never heard of such.
Katie C.
Ooh! Ooh! I know this! I learned it this year. ;)
The girl flowers are what you see in the 3rd photo (the first cucumber plant close-up). They are the ones that turn into fruit. When they pop up you see a tiny baby version of whatever is growing at the base of the flower.
The boy flowers are just a flower on the end of a stem.
The attached picture is of a zucchini plant, but it's the same for cukes.
Karen
Yup! ~ karen
Tina
Interesting! Thanks!
Karen
Oops, sorry! A girl flower is the one that produces the fruit. A boy flower is the one that pollinates. The girl flower is always on a shorter stem and you can actually see the squash or cucumber at the base of it. The boy flower is on a long stem with no fruit beneath the flower and it has a longer, thinner stamen. Does that help? Also the boy flowers think they know how to fix things by virtue of their sex but usually don't really have a clue. ~ karen!
TucsonPatty
I really think you should be selling some of those heirloom Idris seeds! They could fetch a fortune! I might begin gardening, just to grow that plant!
Tina
I'm sorry to go off topic and I hope I'm not being pushy but I grew raspberry plants this year from seeds. WooHoo! They were tiny sprouts when I purchased them in but with the alternating heat and rain, they're now about 2 feet high and some of the stalks are falling sideways. I have no berries this year. Do I trim them off? Should I stake and tie them to keep them from dropping? Thanks for your help!
Karen
Hi Tina. Most people just let their raspberries "do their thing". They get really big, tall and sprawley. They also spread like crazy. Berries grow on new canes and old canes die back every year. So in the spring just cut away the old canes (you can tell they look old and are usually easy to break off because they're dead) and let the new ones take over. But be diligent about pulling up the suckers that shoot out anywhere you don't want them otherwise they'll take over. ~ karen!
Tina
Thanks! One thing I'll say, for seeds, they've really grown!
Emma
I plant mine in big pots...no spreading. Worked great!
ronda
pots?? hmmmmm. could be the answer to my unspoken question. pulled out ALL the raspberry canes last year, but one seems to have been transplanted into a pot with some daylillies. I will have to put it into a larger pot and see what happens over the winter. cuz, basically, raspberries will kill off anything else in the garden. but there's nothing like eating raspberries right off the cane!
Angie Pearce
I'm new to your site. All I can say is thank you. Every single post makes me laugh. I mean, really laugh. Your e-mails are a joy to receive in my inbox. Keep up the good work!
Emma
Welcome to the World of Karen! She, as you can tell, is A++ Awesome.
Get ready for a lot of learning. 😊🌱
Karen
Thanks Emma. :) ~ karen!
Emma
Hugs!
So..
m vs f
blossoms?
Help!
Karen
Thanks for saying that Angie! Comments like that are great motivation. ~ karen!
Kathleen Aberley
This method is PERFECT for my limited space garden.
My Great Uncle always used to "plant by the moon". I still have the book he used illustrating what to plant when. He always had great success - perhaps there is something in it that needs further investigating by me. People think I'm slightly dippy anyway - this may just confirm it for them! :)
Karen
Planting by the moon is basically based on the gravitational pull of water in the soil upwards, so it does make sense, but now that we have actual watering systems and hoses it isn't that important. :) But yes some people swear by it. ~ karen!
cbblue
I'm all for Macs and Elbas on a string. Just love you honey!
Teresa Jarabek
OMG, you are all too funny tonight!! LOL LOL
Isabella
I used your string method on squash. It's worked beautifully. My husband said " it'll never work". The man hates change. I offered to string his cakes but he only let me do two plants. Yep, he's that selfish. Anyway, the cukes did great but he says his ground hogging vines are doing better. Next year I'm going to do a whole row of them on my own to prove your point which is now my favorite way too. He is our pickle maker and he thinks he's a big dill because of it. Plus he and I have been arguing about gardening for 49 years now.
The string method will definitely not work on the pumpkins though. Or our watermelon. Karen, I feel like you're my guru. I have done so many things your way over the years. Thanks for doing all the thinking and research for the rest of us.
Lois Baron
For a moment there, my heart leapt at the notion of growing cakes on string. Most men think they're big dills. Sounds like y'all are a good match :-)
Tina
I'd like to see you string his cakes!
Karen
You're welcome Isabella! I aim to educate. :) First myself, then everyone else, lol. ~ karen!
Emma
Karen..How to tell between a male and female blossom???
Emoteri
Emma, I hate to say it, but Female blossoms are fatter just below the flower. Sad, but true. a Male blossom has no little pre-cuke or pre-squash plumpness behind the flower. A Female blossom, of course, has a lovely fattened bit at the end of the stem just below the flower. That is your baby squash/cuke. FYI, you will likely see male flowers for a week or more before a plant produces female flowers..
karin
You'd be surprised about the pumpkins... Last year a few volunteers sprouted near an 8 foot chain link fence and they turned out lovely. The vines held the weight no problem (they were carvers not pie) and they didn't get the weird flat side from being on the ground. That being said, you might need something heftier than twine :-)
Sandra Blackwell
I have seen people make slings out of net grape bags or potato bags...if the vine is growing on the fence it would be easy to make the squash a hammock.
Ian Jones
Pantyhoes , Stockings or tights are what you're looking for. Opaque work best..
Beth
I've heard that you can do pumpkins, but it requires a pantyhose hammock to support them.
Karen
That's sort of true and sort of not true. :) It isn't the pumpkins that need support, it's the vines, but it's the pumpkins that weigh down the vines and might break them. As long as the vines have something strong to climb on, the pumpkins don't need to be supported. Something slightly angled is best (so not completely vertical). ~ karen!
Kari
Isabella, how much/many of the squash leaves do you leave on? I've been doing a sudo version of the string method in my cucumber/squash beds but with chicken wire. Clipping the vines to it as they grow but having a harder time with the squash than the cucumbers. Thanks Karen for let us know about the cucumber suckers. I will pay more attention to this from now on.
Karen
Kari, leave all the squash leaves on. They're important. They're what give the squash sweetness. :) ~ karen!
Kari
Cool didn't know that. But now even more curious how to grow Squash, namely zucchini vertically.
Lois Baron
Suckers? Lord have mercy. THIS is why I have no interest in gardening. In what other avocation do innocent things like "side sprouts" get named for science-fiction monsters or parts of creepy sea creatures that have eight legs? Anything that has eight legs is horrifying. Next you'll be casually saying that cucumbers have eight legs. ::running away now::
But thanks for your highly education post, as ever, and I wouldn't mind getting me some of those last couple of plants you pictured, as long as someone else tends them. :-)
Tina
I'm with you, Lois! I have small, raised gardens this year but have figured out the farm down the road has veg I can buy without ruining my nails!