How to save space in the cucumber patch

Cucumbers are interesting. Most cultivars are monoecious, meaning they have male and female flowers on the same plant. Female flowers have a miniature cucumber behind the blossom.

Some cultivars have been bred and selected to be gynoecious — produce only, or mostly, female flowers. Most of these still need to be pollinated and fertilized, but they will produce more cucumber fruits than the standard cucumbers. Some of these are also parthenocarpic. Which means they can produce fruit without fertilization of the ovaries. These cultivars were developed mainly for the greenhouse industry, where ovary fertilization can sometimes be difficult.

In addition, newer cultivars have been developed for better flavor and a pleasant eating experience. Cucumbers also produce fruit quite quickly, which makes them a great garden addition in the short eastern Idaho growing season.

The challenge? Cucumbers can take up a lot of space in your garden. Here are some options for cucumbers in small garden spaces.

Bush-type cucumbers

In recent years, bush-type cucumber cultivars have been developed. Some of these have vines as short as two feet. Yields for the season will be less than standard cucumbers, but usually adequate for a family garden. Fruit quality will be better if you can keep them off the ground, so a cage, similar to what is used for determinate tomatoes, will improve quality and make harvest easier. Bush-type cucumbers don’t need to be pruned.

The flavor and texture may be less than what you experience with your favorite standard cucumber, but over time they will improve.

Trellis standard cucumbers

To save space with standard cucumbers you will need to trellis them. Any kind of trellis will do, but some are better than others. A trellis will also keep fruit off the ground and make harvesting mush easier. Here is a video of a simple, inexpensive DIY trellis I have used for several years

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Trellising cucumbers are a little more complicated than trellising tomatoes. However, just like tomatoes, cucumbers have a main stem and one leaf that attaches at each node on the stem. There will also be a tendril, at least one flower, and one vegetative bud, which develops into a secondary stem, at each node.

With this training system, cucumbers can be planted 12 inches apart in a row.

Step one — Get the vegetative growth up quickly to about two feet. To do this keep only the leaf at each node along the main stem. Remove the tendril, flowers and secondary stem at each node up to about two feet.

Step two — Start fruit production by leaving the flowers on the main stem at each node for about 12 more inches. This means from two to three feet up the stem you will remove the tendrils and secondary stems.

Step three — All the way up the rest of the stem you will continue to remove the tendrils. Continue to keep the flowers at each node and allow the secondary stems to grow two nodes. Leave only the leaf and flowers on these secondary stem nodes. Continue this up over the trellis and back down until the season ends.

Here are a couple of cucumber trellising videos I did in Utah. Because of the shorter eastern Idaho growing season, there are minor differences between the videos and the above instructions.