If you want fresh greens on your balcony and like eating cucumbers, you can fulfill both wishes. Simply plant cucumbers on the balcony. It's worth it for anyone who wants to enjoy sour, s alty or sweet cucumbers for snacks, as a salad, as a vegetable or as a cool face mask.
How to plant cucumbers on the balcony?
To plant cucumbers on the balcony, choose a wind-protected, sunny location on a southern wall of the house and use a large planter. Place moist cucumber seeds 1 cm deep in the soil or plant purchased young plants. Make sure you have enough water and a climbing aid.
Balcony location – that’s what cucumber plants want
As soon as the temperatures no longer fall below 10 degrees, you can plant cucumbers on the balcony. Cucumbers need a lot of warmth and light. Therefore, place cucumber plants on the balcony on a southern wall of the house. This protects against wind and radiates additional heat. Cucumber varieties especially for the balcony are, for example:
- Dragonfly – small, crunchy delicacy cucumber
- Picolino F1 – bitter-free, purely female flowering cucumber variety
The right planter for cucumber plants
Whether in a bucket or a box – cucumbers need a lot of space. The perfect planter shouldn't be too small. Both sufficient planting distance between the individual cucumbers and sufficient root depth must be taken into account.
Cucumber seeds or young plants?
Try both. Before you throw away the seeds from a cucumber, you can grow them yourself directly in the bucket on the balcony. When the first leaves sprout after 1 to 2 weeks, you have saved the money for young plants. Or you can plant both the seeds and young plants and gain valuable experience with planting different cucumbers on the balcony.
The cucumber seeds must still be moist so that they germinate in the bucket. Therefore, press a centimeter deep into the moist soil immediately after removing it from the cucumber. It takes 1 week for the seedlings to sprout. Simply plant purchased cucumber plants directly into the planter with sowing soil after watering.
Cucumbers on the balcony are particularly thirsty
The drier mountain air on the balcony makes cucumbers demanding when it comes to watering. In summer, daily watering is mandatory. Always check the soil in the container for sufficient moisture and ensure that no waterlogging occurs.
Cucumbers on the balcony - this is how they are cared for
Balcony cucumbers climb high and want to hold on. At the latest when they bear fruit, they need a secure cucumber climbing aid so that they don't break. Don't fertilize too much at once in the planter. Less is more! Therefore lower dose of nutrients.
Tips & Tricks
Harvesting the first green cucumbers early stimulates the growth of new fruits!
