For A Massive Cucumber Harvest, Use This Planting Method All Summer Long

For a strong and steady supply of cucumbers throughout the season, healthy plants may be your main focus. Perhaps you've implemented all the tricks, like installing tomato cages so the cucumbers can grow vertically and putting a watering system in place so you don't make any of the watering mistakes that kill cucumbers. However, one of the most effective things you can do to maximize your cucumber producing capacity is to plant in succession. 

Succession planting is a method many farmers and home gardeners use to extend the harvest of a particular plant. It involves putting a new plant or two (or however many) in the ground every few weeks, rather than doing it all in one fell swoop. This ensures that the plants reach maturity at different times. In the case of cucumbers, that means you aren't getting an abundance of cucumber plants fruiting all at once (pickles, anyone?), but instead, a more manageable amount across a longer growing season. Beyond that, having younger replacement plants at the ready works as an insurance policy against plant loss — whether from pests, illness, or environmental stress — and can also work to supersede older plants that aren't producing as well anymore. 

If you'd like to try your hand at succession planting to improve your cucumber yield, start by figuring out how much garden space you'd like to allot to cucumbers. Rather than sowing seeds in the entire space, plant just one row of seeds, leaving the rest of the space empty. (Pro tip: there's a cardboard hack that has you cover the part of the row you aren't yet using with broken down boxes to prevent weeds from taking over the space.) After a few weeks, plant another row, and then do that again. Cucumbers reach maturity between 50 and 70 days after planting, so depending on your last and first frost dates for spring and fall, respectively, you should be able to fit in several plantings. 

If you'd like to have the best of both worlds, producing a massive amount at once for pickling and then having a second planting to carry you through the rest of the season with fresh cukes, you might try the harvest and sow method. In this scenario, you take out a plant that finishes its season early, filling the newly free space with a second round of cucumbers.