If you don’t feel you have enough garden space to grow cucumbers, consider growing them in containers. It’s easy and you can get a really good crop of this second most popular vegetable after tomatoes (which can also be grown in containers). Since cucumbers have a smaller root structure than many vegetables, there is little worry about them becoming root-bound in the container.
Your first requirement is 6-8 hours of sunlight. Next comes a container. The minimum is 5-gallons, but a cattle pot (21” in diameter and 21” tall) is much preferred. Then comes the type of cucumber. The literature suggests first through third choices should be bush, small vining and full vining, although when using a cattle pot with a 4-5’ cage, full vining does well.
A typical cucumber (straight-8, market-more, etc.) should produce 15-25 fruit. Special order seeds (beit-A, green light, Socrates, etc.) can produce 40+ fruit. To get these results, don’t use regular soil. Use garden soil, potting soil, or better yet pure compost, which will provide the necessary nutrients for excellent results. This is particularly important if growing larger vining plants with their larger root system. NEVER grow a larger vining plant in a 5-gallon bucket. Next, comes water. Cucumbers are high moisture content plants and need plenty of water. Containers require more water than plants grown in a regular garden. To ensure water drains, use three bricks or something else to keep the container bottom from being in contact with ground. For some reason of physics, such contact prevents water from properly draining. You did drill drain holes in the bottom didn’t you?
Finally, we have heat. Containers need the sun, but their soil tends to get much warmer in the sun. Consider painting containers white, particularly if they’re black or wrap in white cloths.
