By Jennifer Poindexter
Do you get overwhelmed by your cucumber plants ? If you are n’t mindful of how to properly prune the plants to keep them under ascendence , they can well take over your garden .
Even if you trellis your cucumbers , some still manage to take over an area . This is why it ’s vital to understand the pruning process for these plants .
Pruning a cuke plant is n’t difficult or time ingest . It only requires you to utilize a few tips and give them to your gardening preference and subroutine .
If you need a guide to snip cucumber plants , you ’re in the correct place . Here ’s what you should know :
Why Prune a Cucumber Plant?
There are multiple reasons to prune yourcucumbers . The most obvious reason is it helps keep the plant under control and from take up over your garden .
Pruning can also avail improve airflow around the plant . This reduces the likeliness of fungous issue prepare .
It ’s also judicious to rationalise off any utter , damaged , or morbid portions of your cucumber plants . This will keep your garden cleanser and also avoid inviting more pests and diseases to feed on these damaged part .
If you need a little need to prune your cucumber plants , hopefully these points will encourage you to add this task to your horticulture to - do list .
Steps to Pruning a Cucumber Plant
We ’ll now discuss a few cursor on how to prune your cucumber plant properly . It ’s up to you which order you ’d care to rationalize your plants .
Take these tips into condition as you develop cucumbers and figure out what methods work best for you and your horticulture style .
1. Work with Clean Equipment
No matter where you start with pruning yourcucumber plant life , always make certain you exercise with light , sharpened equipment .
Most people use pruning shear to care for their cuke plants . No matter what your tool of alternative , right sustenance of the equipmentmatters .
assume you apply pruning shear , it ’s vital that they ’re astute enough to easy slice up through the cuke plant and obviate induce any damage .
If you damage your Cucumis sativus plant during pruning , this go out wounds which may invite pest and disease into the country .
Ensuring the shear are clean is also important as disease can easily spread out from one plant to another when apportion equipment .
Once your shear are clean and sharp , you ’re quick to begin the pruning summons on your cucumber vine works . Do n’t forget to clean your shears when you ’ve finished the pruning process , so they ’ll be ready the next time .
2. Locate the Main Vine
Before you dive into lop your plant , examine it . It ’s important that you identify the main vine . During the bulk of the growing season , you ’ll only prune vines which rise from this chief region .
The main vine should only be clipped back at the conclusion of the grow season if the plant has become prideful .
Do n’t do this during the master stint of the turn season as this can weaken your crop . Once your principal vine has been located , begin examine the rest of the plant .
This will facilitate you as you fill in the continue stair in the pruning process .
3. Remove Lower Leaves of the Cucumber Plant and Lateral Runners
As you further examine your cucumber plant , you ’ll notice there are leaves near the ground . Go ahead and remove them .
Having leaves so tight to the grime is a great elbow room to snare wet between the plant and the solid ground . This can lead to fungal disease .
Though fungous disease can unremarkably be treated , it ’s good to take step to dissuade it when possible . By removing the leaves at the bottom of the plant , you ’re increasing airflow which helps dissuade issues .
You should also remove the first five sidelong runners on the plant . This should help increase its productiveness .
After the first five are removed , set aside the rest of the runners to imprint and follow the persist tips on cut your cucumber plant throughout the growing time of year .
4. Remove Suckers on the Cucumber Plant
When you ’re pluck your cucumber , deliberate bringing your shear along with you . It ’s a corking time to examine your plant life and prune as you pluck .
However , be mindful to go over your cucumbers before you begin rationalize . As long as the plants are starting to set fruits on their primary leaves , you should be in the unmortgaged to prune .
Another elbow room to assert you ’re secure to get down pruning is to take care at the pinnacle of the plant . In approximately one month , each plant should be between one and two feet improbable .
When they ’ve reached these pinnacle , it should be safe to begin pruning them .
Once you make out it ’s secure to prune , start with the sucker . insure you check the leaves to see if any suckers are forming . How can you spot a sucker on a cucumber industrial plant ?
You ’ll notice you have the primary vine , then an offset from the primary vine with a large leaf seize , but then you may have a smaller branch with an unexploited leaf .
This last offshoot with an unexploited foliage is a sucker . These should be remove from the works as they take nutrient from the more productive orbit .
In tour , this can shorten the sizing of your harvest home . Keep an eye out for suckers and remove them from your plant in a timely manner .
5. Prune Outer Leaves, Fruits, and Flowers
We ’ve talk about how to spot the main vine of a Cucumis sativus plant life and the only acceptable fourth dimension to rationalise this vine .
However , it ’s okay to clip any fruits , flowers , or outer leaves on the plant life as take . This will help keep the flora in confirmation within your garden and should n’t hinder your harvest . It should also aid amend air flow around the plant to deter issues with disease .
As suggested with suckers , when you ’re glean your cucumber plant , go in advance and prune any part of the industrial plant ( aside from the main vine ) that is becoming unruly or has been impacted by disease .
During this fourth dimension , you ’ll remove flowers . Be mindful of how you select the ones to be pruned . By removing some of the heyday , you ’re encouraging an growth in both leafage and stem maturation .
Therefore , if you think your cucumber works needs to be fuller at the top , polish off the flowers at the bottom and frailty versa . This will point the works to charge its nutrients to the remaining flowers .
Pruning a cucumber plant can demand some scheme . wait at your plant and see where it needs help for further outgrowth or needs to be reigned in . Then remove the parts of the plant consequently .
6. Leave the Tendrils Alone
We ’ve spoken a quite a little about the different parts of cucumber plant that should be rationalize . However , there ’s one chief part of the plant you do n’t require to move out if you’re able to assist it .
This part is the tendril . tendril are the small curly parts of the cucumber vine plant that assist it attach to a trellis and rise .
If you remove this part of the plant , it ’s stuck . This could affect the main vine in a negative way as it depends upon the tendrils for support .
Therefore , if you do n’t have to bump off tendril from your cucumber plant life , it ’s best to pass on them be and give up them to continue tot support . It will help oneself keep your garden tidier in the long run .
7. Difference Between Pruning Larger Varieties vs. Smaller Varieties
Now that you have an savvy of which function of the cucumber plant to prune and when , let ’s discuss some variations to the pruning physical process .
How you cut back your cucumbers will count upon the miscellanea and the size of the yield the plant sets . The assortment which put belittled fruits , may not need to be cut as hard .
The reason being is that smaller fruit puts less stress on the plant . Therefore , it can support more small fruit than big yield .
Yet , if you ’re growing a cucumber vine miscellanea which produces larger yield , you may need to soak some of the yield away from the plant to ensure you have a healthy harvest .
A general rule of thumb is plants which set diminished fruit , can have more than one yield per leaf node .
However , if you have a plant with larger fruit , it can only countersink one fruit per leaf lymph gland . Take these peak into consideration when deciding how much fruit your cucumber plant should bring about .
8. Frequency of Pruning
There are many methods as to when you should trim your cucumber plants . I ’ve paint a picture that you prune as you cull . This is an easy way to keep your cucumber plants in deterrent while also ensuring you reap cucumbers in a well timed way .
Another general guideline for pruning cucumbers is to ensure it ’s done one to two time per hebdomad . In the midst of crop time , you may find fault cucumbers once per twenty-four hour period .
It wo n’t be necessary to prune your plants as oftentimes as you pick during this time of the growing season , so deliver a finish for pruning each week can aid you ensure you stay on top of your plants without over pruning them .
You ’ll notice when your plants are in need of forge up . The idea is to ensure that you inspect your plants , remove any stunned folio which take up too much way , and also remove suckers and excess yield to further a bighearted crop .
The final guidepost mass follow for pruning their cuke is to only start the unconscious process once you notice beat leaves .
By removing the utter leave , you ’re providing more sunlight to the new development for warm plants . From there , you’re able to begin mold up your cucumber vine plants per the instructions provided here .
How frequently you cut your cucumber will depend upon the amount of time you have to pass in your garden . Pick the relative frequency which works well for your docket and do what you’re able to to help your cucumber plants be as productive as possible .
You now have a few tips on how you may clip your cuke plants . Once you become familiar with the anatomy of a cucumber plant , it will become easier to blot the parts which necessitate to be there and the parts of the plant that can stymie it if not removed .
wreak with fair equipment and tidy your plants as time take into account , and you should have an gratifying experience raise cucumbers in your home garden .
Learn More About Growing Cucumbers
https://extension.umn.edu/vegetables/growing-cucumbers
https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/cucumber/
