How To Grow Bush Pickles? Pickling cucumbers are short and blocky. Cucumbers (Cucumix sativus) are a crunchy, juicy ingredient in salads, but this versatile vegetable is also delicious in pickles.
Cucumbers are simply unripe fruits of normal cucumbers, but some cucumbers grown specifically for pickling are “bush cucumbers.” They are also called “cucumbers,” but they are actually a variety of the same plant, Cucumix sativus, with a slightly different name and colour.
Preparing to Grow Cucumbers
The ideal soil pH is between 6.6 and 5.5, which is slightly acidic, and cucumber plants thrive at full expansion in well drained soil. You can determine the fertilizer requirement and pH value of your garden by taking a soil sample. Ask your local county association for information or contact the local horticultural associations for more information.
Cucumbers are a tender annual plant, so wait until the last frost date in your area is over before sowing seeds.
If you do not have soil samples to give you clues about soil fertilizer requirements, sprinkle 1 / 4 to 1.5 pounds of organic matter per square foot on the soil surface of 100 square feet. To increase the organic matter content in your soil, dig a portion of it to a depth of 10 inches and spread a well-aged slurry on top. The soil temperature should be at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and the air temperature at the time of planting should be about 50 degrees.
Lightly mix the fertilizer powder granules into the soil surface with a garden fork and add 1 / 4 to 1.5 pounds of organic matter per square meter to the slurry.
Sowing Cucumber Seeds
Cucumbers can also be grown in the same way as other vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, but they are a bit different.
If you have the opposite problem, pull your cucumbers out of the ground when the soil is sandy or dry and press the seeds 1 cm deep into the soil. If the sowing instructions for cucumber seed packs differ from our recommendations, please follow the instructions in the seed pack.
Watering and Fertilizing Cucumbers
When the cucumber seedlings are about 5 cm high, remove the weakest seedling so that one seedling is left in each 12 cm long row. When the first flowers appear, spread 33 – 0.0% fertilizer in a 2.5 cm thick layer. Carefully rake the fertilizer from the surface of the earth and plant the thin plants with a diameter of 5 – 10 cm in rows. In dry weather, after a week, soak the soil thoroughly in the soil and cover with a layer of fertilizer.
Do not give up fertilizer in the hope of a larger harvest, but apply the same fertilizer at the same rate for three weeks.
Harvesting Your Cucumbers
Fruits such as cucumbers reach crop size within 48 days of sowing, but cucumbers should also be eaten as a salad. If the fruits are still unripe and used for pickling, regular cucumbers can be harvested at the end of the season.
Do not let the cucumbers grow too large, otherwise they will turn yellow in the first weeks of the season due to the heat and humidity of summer.
Ripe fruits taste bitter
Ripe fruits taste bitter, their seeds are harder and the plant produces less fruit overall. Ripe fruits result in plants producing fewer fruits overall, which prevents the spread of pests and diseases. After picking the cucumbers, cut the stems 1 / 4 inch from the end of the fruit with pruning shears or cut them back with pruning shears. Cut the stem of each cucumber with the cut and cut off each stem up to 1.5 cm from the ends of the fruit.
