Growing cucumbers in your garden can be a great plus. They are quite easy to grow and they yield plenty of fruits. Cucumber plants grow very rapidly, therefore, cucumber harvesting is important to prevent your cucumber from turning yellow. But when are they ready to pick?
Early phase: Cucumbers kick-off by forming at the bottom of a female flower. They are quite edible even at that very early phase. But they will be too tiny to eat, so you might not enjoy eating them at that stage.Dying in early phase: A few times you might notice them dying off at an early stage. That is because they probably didn’t get pollinated correctly.
Pickling cucumbers: Young cucumbers are nice for making pickles. You will need to grow several plants and keep an eye on them so they don't get too ripe. Although your plants may produce just 3 or 4 of these kinds of cucumbers at a time, you can make a large collection of pickling.Blossom tail: Once the end of your cucumber begins to swell, they are practically done growing and ready to be picked. To know when your cucumbers are ready for picking, always take note of the blossom tail - this is the part that indicates how close to harvest time they are.
Size: Cucumbers will enlarge and get bigger from the top to the bottom. The best time to harvest a fresh eating cucumber should be when they are about 7 to 9 inches long and light-dark green. This way you get to enjoy your cucumber with succulent taste and nice texture.
Generally, cucumbers become ripe from 50 to 70 days after planting them. Usually, your cucumber becomes ripe when it is medium green to bright dark green, firm, and not hard or soft.
Cucumbers can be picked for either slicing or for making pickles. Normally, cucumbers are picked around 50 – 90 days after planting. In this guide, we will be giving you tips on when to pick your cucumbers and details about ripe cucumbers.