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.
Ann G
I'm a first time gardener and first time reader here, and this may save me! I read your tomato string training article, and that was genius and worked well. Now to get the cukes under control, as they are climbing the tomatoes!
Ian
Great post, I'm experimenting this year with horizontal string, which was, having read this post a poor idea...
BTW, why are cucumbers such rubbish climbers? seems like they simply can't be bothered at all.
Karen
LOL! ~ karen
Paula
I feel like this post should have been titled "Where's Idris?" because I've been all over it and still can't find the picture....but hey....if there is such a thing as Idris seeds, I want some! Ditto the Jason Momoa seed!
Patricia Hane
What in the world is Idris? Also, I'm not sure what are the suckers on my tomatoes. I wish you would post a drawing that would illustrate it for me. The busy photos don't always seem clear to me. All my plants are in cedar tubs plus some 5 gallon buckets and a few large pots. I had large gardens for many years but now I live in town with no where to plant so pots will have to do. I used organic potting soil and everything seems to be doing well. I live in McMinnville, OR. We had too little rain in the spring and now the opposite. We also had a really hot spell, 90s, but now the 70s which is average for here at this time. I have one pot each for snow peas and sugar snap peas. I picked a few twice and now they seem to have slowed down already. Could that be because my husband watered for me twice while I was gone and they got real dry. Do you have any good ideas to keep worms out of radishes and turnips.
I enjoy your blogs!!!
Kevin Zust
Wow, your Garden looks fantastic from the air! Ours is probably about the same square footage but more of a sprawling mess. Beds over here, patches over there, weeds everywhere!
Thanks for the awesome tip, it's not too late to use it to salvage our cukes. Take care!
Karen
Good luck and happy gardening Kevin! ~ karen
Garrett
I went to single stemming this year on my cucumbers, but I now have 3 10 ft tall lemon cucumber plants that are beautiful but are not putting on female blooms. If I miss a sucker though I notice a female is almost always the first to emerge. What are your thoughts?
Karen
HI Garrett. If the plants are relatively newly blooming it makes sense because a big flush of male flowers always appear first. Then the females follow. ~ karen!
Kay
Please look for 3g (3rd generation) pruning (or cutting) online. The main or primary stem bears mostly male flowers (90%). The secondary (sucker from primary) and tertiary (sucker from secondary) branches primarily bear female flowers. This is true for all vines with male+female flowers. In India, we allow the primary stem to grow 3'-5', then pinch the head off. Then we allow 2 to 3 secondary stems (suckers from primary stem) to branch out. These are then trimmed after 5' too. The third/tertiary branching (suckers from the secondary) system will have female flowers at each node. One cuke plant in the middle should not be pruned so you always have adequate male flowers to pollinate.
Only the suckers at the base, about 6 leaves from the ground, are pruned.
The videos are in Hindi, and this is done to all plants with both male and female flowers on the same plant.
Here is a scientist, who teaches organic farming to villagers explain the process.
Good luck
Kalmia
That’s amazing! Thanks for sharing
Garrett
When using string method and square foot gardening, how many plants do you seed per square foot?
Karen
I don't square foot garden combined with the string method for cucumbers or tomatoes. I plant 1 plant every 8" or so for cucumbers, every 1' for tomatoes for the string method. ~ karen!
cheryl
I have 2 questions you might have answered but I don't have time I read everyone's conversations even thou want to. Lol I'm a new to gardening.
1. What do the suckers that oh cut off look like?
2. What the different between male and female flowers and when do I get rid of the males?
Thank you for your patience
Cheryl
Melissa Keyser
I'm really confused about removing the flowers things. Obviously, you can't remove all the males or the females wouldn't get pollinated. Can you please elaborate? I've never heard that it makes things bitter.
Karen
Hi Melissa! I was only just researching the topic myself when I wrote about it! :) I should have further explained that this applies to "English Cucumbers". The long slender, seedless types. They've been bred to be grown in greenhouses because pollination (which they don't require) will cause them to be bitter. They aren't supposed to have male flowers but sometimes do. That's when you remove them. ~ karen!
Mary W
I never knew this - thank you for all the research you do and share.
Karen
:) ~ karen!
Kelli
ARGH. I live in a north-facing apt. with a covered patio...NO sun* whatsoever. My cat hates me.
Is there hope for me and the potential herb/veggie garden of my dreams? :-(
*on top of that a ginormous 4-story apt. complex is being built less than 100 FEET from my door. So...even less sun. It's been a really quiet, pleasant summer, lemme tell ya. >:-(
Paula
full spectrum LED grow lights....check the cannabis growing sites for recommendations.
or....move.
Nancy Blue Moon
Your pickles look scrumptious and may I please have a starter from those last two vines?...OK...just the last one will be fine...so fine....
SueSchneid22
Dear Karen, I love reading your blog. I am quite interested in trying to string tomatoes; didn't know it was a thing! We sort of accidentally happened upon a method similar to stringing cucumbers. All great info, amusingly delivered.
As a pop culture moron, my question is this: Do I have to be Canadian to know who Idris is? I didn't even know he was a he. I know I can Google it, but thought having you tell me might be more interesting.
Elen G
LOL. The Big Macs are killing me.
Sabina Missana
Oh thank GOD I am alone in my office I can't stop laughing!
Kim in Milwaukee
Ok Karen, you made me laugh out loud that time. Idris in the garden....very nice.
I am grateful for your sharing of the string method...I used it for my zucchini plants that turned out to be spaghetti squash, worked great, except I didn't make one main stalk so it took over the entire tiny garden of mine. There's always next year to tame those puppies!
Elaine
Oh gosh! I first cracked up at "love at first blight" (genius!) then really laughed over the shots of Idris!! So funny! I no longer can garden (I'm in a condo in your/our pretty little town) but I still love to read about gardening as I do miss it. I'm of your Mother's age, Karen, but heck, I can enjoy Idris too - although I still am faithful to Denzel.
Sakura Sushi
Regarding the first part of your post - I've come to realize that we're all weirdos. Every one of us, in some way or another. People whose weirdness is simpatico with other people's weirdness tend to get along and like each other - that's how you find your "tribe." That being said, you gardening nuts are really super weird - almost as weird as those kooks who think carrot cake is delicious, or an actual dessert or something.
BTW, your Photoshop skills are really coming along! Nice job!!
Tracy Martinez
That's really awesome but, I'm afraid nothing can beat Idris. :)
Mia
I was fascinated in Mexico by how they use the string method for virtually every vining plant - yours look fabulous! Especially the cucumburger; and the pickles? I've used your recipe for years now and they are divine - I can't live without them. I use your same recipe for my sweet-pickled jalapeños and it works beautifully...I just slice them into rounds before pickling and that's the only change. An interesting thing the farmers did in Mexico was continue the wire straight across the post tops (so they run horizontally like real close-together telephone wires), and then the cucumbers or squash hung down from above, like cute little man-balls...and every morning we could walk beneath the vines in the shade and pluck whichever ones looked ready.
lisa
Heh, cucumburger, and man-balls.
Jody
Just want to make sure I have this right. Hang string down from an upper support and "twist" plant around the string as it grows. The string doesn't need to be secured into the ground by the plant? Correct? And then Idris will climb up the string.
Karen
Almost! Everything is right other the Idris part. He doesn't climb the string, he just just grows from a flower and stays attached to it so he can't escape. It's genius really. ~ karen!