Cucumber plants are great to grow in your garden as they take only two months or more after planting from seed to start producing cucumbers. After harvest, you can add cucumbers to your various recipes, pickle them or refrigerate them for later use. However, you might be thinking about when to remove cucumber plants, as they grow best in warm conditions.
Cucumber plants can be removed from the garden after the harvest season. They will produce harvest from July – September if planted in May – June. Diseases like Alternaria leaf blight, bacterial wilt, black root rot, and gummy stem rot also require you to remove the cucumber plants.
Here’s a guide explaining when to remove cucumber plants from your garden and why you should do so. Also, it covers diseases that can affect your flora, how to identify diseased plants, and when to remove them so that the contagion doesn’t spread.
When Is the Best Time To Remove Cucumber Plants?
Cucumber plants do well in warmer weather as they need adequate sunlight. For example, the ideal soil temperature for these florae is 75°F (23.8°C) – 90°F (32.2°C). Planting too early may affect the yields.
The ideal time to grow cucumber is between May and June because of the soil temperature. Depending on when you plant them as seeds, you can start harvesting within 50 – 70 days.
When it comes to transplants, they produce cucumbers faster, so you can expect to start seeing these fruits after 35 – 60 days.
The harvest season for cucumber plants is between July and September. During this period, the flora will produce cucumbers requiring frequent plucking.
You should never leave unripe cucumbers on the plant as they will ripen. Cucumber plants can only have a specific number of fruits simultaneously. Therefore, allowing cucumbers to mature on the plant will almost certainly reduce your yield.
With cucumbers, you can expect a significant drop in yield toward the end of the harvest season. For example, if you plucked 10 cucumbers from a single plant every two days, you’ll start to see one cucumber on your plant every two days as September is about to end.
This indicates that the harvest period is almost over, and you should remove them from your garden.
Cucumber plants don’t do well when the temperature goes down. Keeping the flora below 55°F (12.8°C) for extended periods affects the plant’s health.
The plant will die when the temperature drops below 32°F (0°C). Also, it cannot withstand the lightest amount of frost.
Put simply, you’ll know it’s time to remove the plant when you notice a significant drop in yield. (i.e., less than 2 every 2 – 3 days).
Diseases That Require Removal of Cucumber Plants
Another reason why you should take out cucumber plants from your garden is because of diseases. Plant diseases can spread quickly and affect your cucumber plants and the surrounding fauna. This will be a significant problem if you have a kitchen garden, as you will no longer have access to your favorite fruits, vegetables, and herbs.
Root Diseases
Root diseases can also cause serious problems for your cucumber plant. Caused by overwatering and poor water drainage in soils, they can reduce yield and eventually kill the flora.
Foliar Diseases
The first thing you need to keep an eye on is foliar diseases, which affect the cucumber plant’s leaves. If you water the plants from above, some water will remain on the leaves. This will become a problem when there isn’t sufficient ventilation between the plants. As a result, it creates an environment for disease-causing microorganisms to thrive. Another way foliar diseases spread is through other infected plants.
Below are four diseases that require the cucumber plant’s removal as soon as possible.
Alternaria Leaf Blight
You may have already seen this condition on other plants – the leaves have yellow spots. Over time, the number of these spots increases, indicating the disease is taking over the leaf. If you don’t take action against leaf blight, the leaves will distort and die.
Once you’re done harvesting all the cucumbers by the end of the season, make sure you remove all affected plants. Clean any tools you use while interacting with the plant, as the fungus can spread to other flora.
Even though this leaf blight is by a fungus, it can survive colder temperatures. If possible, you should switch what you grow in your garden every two years.
Bacterial Wilt
When bacterial wilt affects your cucumber plant, you must catch it quickly before it spreads and destroys all the flora in your garden. Initially, there will be abnormal tissue growth or lesions on the leaves. As they are small, it may be hard to notice unless you inspect the plant closely.
At later stages, they create yellow rings around the tissue growth, while the center is translucent.
Unfortunately, there aren’t any ways to treat this disease and keep it in check.
There are two ways the disease spreads – through infected seeds or through spotted cucumber beetles.
Spotted cucumber beetles are considered pests of cucumbers. They carry the disease from plant to plant, which can affect all the cucumbers in your garden. You can use insecticides to reduce these pests. However, it may affect other beneficial insects like ladybugs, who are known to eat these insects and keep their population in check.
If you already notice bacterial wilt on your cucumber plants, you should remove the affected parts to stop the spread of the disease.
Black Root Rot
Black root rot is something you should be aware of, as this can destroy your cucumber plants quickly. It starts out from the roots by causing abnormal growth that is brown or gray in color. You may also notice black lines in the same areas. As the infection grows, it dries out the roots.
Over time, the infected plant will wilt. This can happen right after it produces cucumbers or towards the end of the season.
If you notice something wrong with the cucumber plant during or after harvest season, remove it and look at the roots. Discard the affected plants immediately if you see signs of black root rot.
Gummy Stem Blight
Another plant disease you must keep an eye on is gummy stem blight. To know whether it affected your cucumber plant, look at leaf veins. If you notice abnormal tissue growth that is green or gray in color, it is an indicator of gummy stem blight.
You can look at the stems to see if there are unusual openings. Inside these openings, you’ll notice it is brown or gray. Also, the leaves start to become brown. It spreads and covers the leaves over time.
There’s also the chance the disease will spread to your cucumber fruits, ruining your harvest. Generally, the seeds carry this disease, which is why you may not even know that you’ll face this problem in the future.
As gummy stem blight is infectious, you should remove all affected plants as soon as possible. Don’t forget to get rid of the waste these plants produce, like fallen leaves. This is because the bacteria can still spread, even if it doesn’t have a host at the moment.
Other problems that don’t affect the roots, such as powdery mildew on cucumbers, may not need such drastic solutions. Read my guide to see what to do in such cases: How to Treat Powdery Mildew on Cucumbers
Why Should You Remove Cucumber Plants?
Here are two reasons why you should remove cucumber plants as and when required.
- Make space for different plants. Cucumbers are generally summer plants and don’t survive winter, so removing them will help create space in your garden. You can grow winter flora like carrots, spinach, green peas, and cauliflower in the idle space.
- Prevent diseases from spreading. The main reason you should remove the cucumbers from your garden after harvest is that it prevents the same diseases from spreading again and again. Bacteria and fungi can stay hidden until you plant the next batch of seeds.
Final Thoughts
Removing cucumber plants after harvest is a good practice as this flora can’t resist the colder temperatures during winter. Another reason to eliminate these plants from your garden is if they have diseases like bacterial wilt, Alternaria leaf blight, gummy stem blight, and black root rot.
Rotate what you grow in the garden every season or two to prevent harmful bacteria and fungi buildup.
