Into The Bloom: How To Grow Cucumber At Home During Monsoon

As the monsoon has taken over most parts of India, it is time to decide on which vegetables, fruits, and flowers you would like to grow in this season in your home garden. One of the vegetables known to bloom in well-drained and moist soil is cucumber. Why don’t we learn how to fill your basket with the harvest of cucumbers this rainy season? 

What Are The Benefits Of Eating Cucumbers?

Before you plant cucumber seeds, you would like to know the benefits of vegetables. Since you would be consuming the entire harvest, here are five benefits that you must note.

• Cucumbers are rich in water content, hence, they help the body stay hydrated.
• The vegetable is loaded with fibre, which is good for the digestive system and helps to avoid constipation
• Cucumbers have vitamins K and A that are essential for your immune system (Kadha Recipes For Immunity), bones, and eyes. 
• According to a report published by Cleveland Clinic, cucumbers can help a person regulate their blood sugar levels and weight. 
• Potassium in cucumber has also been associated with regulating blood pressure and contributing to improvement in heart health. 

How To Grow Cucumbers At Home

Before you start planting cucumbers, you must investigate the space and see if it is ideal to grow the vegetable. If your home garden is small, it is best that you opt for a vertical garden. It will give you enough space to grow the vegetable with little hassle.

You can either extract cucumber seeds by cutting the vegetable or buy them from the market or online. If you are extracting from the vegetable, you can cut it into thin slices of at least 2-3 mm in width. 

Here is how you should plant cucumbers at home:

• Prepare the pot with moist soil and place it in the corner of your garden that receives optimum sunlight and warmth during the day. The soil should be a mix of loose potting soil and organic manure in equal parts to maintain its pH in the range of 5.5-6.8. The mix can also be one-third parts of sand, potting soil, and vermicompost.
• If the planter is big, you can sow many seeds at once. You should place seeds at least an inch into the soil and at least four inches apart so that they have enough space to grow and roots have plenty of space to spread. 
• Water them regularly until the seeds start germinating and ensure that the pot is not holding water but remains well drained.
• Before sowing, you can soak the seeds in water for a day or place them in a wet paper towel before planting. The two techniques act as catalysts in the germination process.

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How To Take Care Of Cucumber Plants?

• Since cucumber plants have vines, they need support when they start growing up. You can either add a next around the plant to help it grow or plant a few straight wooden sticks to offer support to vines. 
• After 45-50 days, you will start noticing flowers in the plant. However, it will only happen if you keep the soil moist throughout the day. In 55-60 days, you will see a few cucumbers ready for the harvest.
• You should harvest cucumbers as soon as they are fully grown because if you let them stay any longer or grow to their full size, they might taste bitter.

You should not wait for them to turn yellow, or else, you will have ruined the harvest. Green cucumbers (Home-Made Body-Cooling Drinks) are considered the healthiest. You can store your harvest in the fridge for about a week. 

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Stay tuned to HerZindagi for more tips to grow vegetables, fruits, and flowers at home.