Cucumbers are vegetables that are grown from flowers and contain seeds.
They have high water content and are very low in calories.
It is highly health beneficial with nutrients that promote hydration, aid in weight loss, help in fighting harmful free radicals that cause diseases, helping the skin fight effects of aging, lowering blood sugar and boost digestion.
They are enjoyed in salads and soups, raw or cooked. In value addition, it is processed into cucumber juice by squeezing and pressing it and beauty products.
There are several commercial varieties available as listed by ishamba.com. These are Palomer, Woodland Crisp, Early fortune, Colorado, Ashley, London long green, Hybrid victory, Poisett, Yellow fellow, danora F1.
Planting
Cucumbers are easy to plant and take care of. They also take a short time to mature. They are low maintenance and high yielding with good farming practices notes farmerstrend.co.ke.
They do well in hot weather with at least six to eight hours of direct sunlight according to mfarm.co.ke. Cucumber grows best at a temperature between 18 and 30 degrees Celsius.
They can be grown in a wide variety of soils from fertile sandy loams to clay with good drainage and humidity.
The soil should be added with organic compost or farmyard manure to increase fertility and harvest high yields. The soil PH should be between 5.5 to 6.7 for optimum growth adds ishamba.com.
They are grown from cucumber seeds that are planted directly into the field. Two to three cucumber seeds are sown in each planting hole at a spacing of rows at 1.5 metres to 2.5 metres by 60cm to 90 cm between the plants.
Cucumbers are staked as the vines are weak and usually need support.
An optimum rainfall of 800mm has required however drip irrigation is the most effective method for watering cucumbers as they require constant irrigating highlights ishamba.com.
Pests and diseases
Cucumbers thrive well too in greenhouses where they are protected from diseases, pests, and insects, loss of moisture and encourage water retention.
A farmer should control weeds by shallow cultivation as weeding helps reduce competition for soil nutrients, space, water, sunlight and keeps off pests and diseases. They should also considerably practice mulching as it helps in the preservation of moisture, suppress weeds, add soil nutrients on decomposition, prevent soil erosion as well as keep off pests and diseases.
The common disease that affects cucumbers as noted by ishamba.com is the Downey mildew, others are powdery mildew, anthracnose which are controlled by spraying fungicides.
Pests include beetles, fruit fly, aphids, cutworms and melon flies which are controlled by spraying with pesticides and insecticides.
Harvesting
Cucumbers take between 50 to 60 days from planting to harvest.
They are harvested about four times in a month very early in the morning and at the right time to avoid loss of flavor highlights mfarm.co.ke
They are best picked when they are uniformly green, hard and crisp.
Market
Cucumbers have a readily available market all-year-round with waiting buyers willing to buy the farm produce even before harvest according to media reports.
