Cucumber Newbie- Need advice

[gsaxon]

I have a question for all of those people who have grown cucumbers in their aerogardens. Since cucumbers like to grow and climb everything, I am assuming that they will grow completely outside the aerogarden lights. Does everyone need to add extra lights to keep the plants growing. I was thinking of trying a cucumber in a harvest that I am not using, but I just don't see how it is possible to provide the plant with enough light. Can anyone offer any experience that they have with growing cucumbers?

Thanks!

[Shawn]

When I grew mine I had a metal trellis in back that I would lead the tendrils to.  Mine kinda stayed confined.  I only grew twice so no expert here.

[gsaxon]

Thank you Shawn. I am excited to try out cucumbers, but I am concerned that the harvest will be too small if the plant grows up above the lights. Hopefully some of our AG community will have more experiences to share. I like the idea of placing some kind of trellis behind the unit to allow the plant to grow. 

GSAXON

[maskedsonnet]

If you have an extra grow light or two if it grows too far out-of-bounds you should be okay - I would be most concerned about the roots getting over-crowded in a Harvest. A trellis behind the machine would help a LOT, mine is growing in a Farm XL and I've had to give it several lines of twine to hold onto on the front and back of the machine. I think a metal trellis would also be a good place to clip supplemental grow lights onto, if you end up needing them. Here's what mine looks like today:

And here is a not-so-great photo of the roots, but there are quite a lot of them:

I know a lot of people turn their plants while small to make a root ball instead of letting them spread out in the water like I do - I believe to make rinse and refills easier. A lot of people also trim their roots. I never bother with rinse and refills or root trimming, but I have either 5 or 3 gallon water reservoirs attached to all my machines that I let get sucked pretty low before refilling, which is probably what's saving me from nutrient lockout. I'm assuming that's why people do the r&r's anyways, aside from the AG instructions say to do it. I can't say I read the instructions terribly closely, other than assembly.

Also for cucumbers, I highly recommend getting a parthenocarpic variety, so you don't have to deal with gendered flowers and pollinating by hand. Mine is Mini Munch, which I love, but I'm sure there are others out there. And don't be alarmed as the plant grows and some of the leaves look like garbage, especially the ones lower down on the plant. They are pretty much continuously dying and regrowing, something I had to get used to in hydroponics but never noticed growing them outdoors. Probably because they naturally drop and get blown away by the wind outside, but inside just stay on the plant until you pinch them off. And get ready for TONS of cucumbers!! I've been happily snacking almost every day on a cucumber from my garden for the past month at least, probably longer. They come off in pretty good groups of 5-7, and this variety keeps well in the fridge for about a week, the longest I've ever kept one in there. Probably would have lasted longer if I'd needed it to.

[gsaxon]

Thanks for the thorough advice. It looks like I will have to set up some extra lighting, but your project looks amazing. I can't believe how bad the leaves look in the picture and that they just keep regenerating new leaves. It really sounds like you have enough cucumbers to last a long time on just one plat. I am a little worried about trying this in a harvest, but I guess you never know until you try! Worst case scenario, I try it out and realize that the roots are too big for the harvest. I am a lot like you in that I do not trim the roots. Perhaps on this project, I will need to do that. Thanks again for the information!

[maskedsonnet]

Lol she’s my productive little eye-sore! Good luck, it’s always fun experimenting and seeing how big a plant you can get into the Harvests!

[lynnee]

Jan 6, 2022 11:11:50 GMT -5 maskedsonnet said:

Lol she’s my productive little eye-sore! Good luck, it’s always fun experimenting and seeing how big a plant you can get into the Harvests!

maskedsonnet, what are you using for the reservoirs? I have a couple of the AG reservoirs that I’ve never used, in part because of the space they need for a couple of gallons of water.

FWIW, I never bothered with R&Rs either, until a very nice bell pepper plant died suddenly. I think it was probably root rot. Nothing like that has happened again, and the plants seem to like the fresh water every 2 weeks.

[maskedsonnet]

Jan 6, 2022 20:56:14 GMT -5 lynnee said:

Jan 6, 2022 11:11:50 GMT -5 maskedsonnet said:

Lol she’s my productive little eye-sore! Good luck, it’s always fun experimenting and seeing how big a plant you can get into the Harvests!

maskedsonnet , what are you using for the reservoirs? I have a couple of the AG reservoirs that I’ve never used, in part because of the space they need for a couple of gallons of water.

FWIW, I never bothered with R&Rs either, until a very nice bell pepper plant died suddenly. I think it was probably root rot. Nothing like that has happened again, and the plants seem to like the fresh water every 2 weeks.

Sorry it took me a little time to search these out, been wild around here - I go into detail about my water system here and here, including links to the materials I use!

It's really just 5 or 3 gallon bottles, with plastic water dispensers as the bottom reservoir. It's the same concept as the AG versions, just with bigger bottles and without the auto-siphon, but I've never been bothered with starting a siphon with my mouth, I just make sure I have a cup ready to spit the water back out, because I do add peroxide to my reservoirs as well as covering them with cloth to prevent algae buildup.

[lynnee]

maskedsonnet, thanks so much for the links! I'm blown away by your big water bottle system for the Farm.