delicious cucumbers and a lot of
cucumbers let's look at growing the bush
slicer cucumber variety the seed packet
that we are using is from Rene's garden
and these are very good quality seeds
and we're gonna be starting our cucumber
plants in seed starting cells and as you
can see here we are preparing our seed
starting mix and this is a combination
of peat moss vermiculite and compost and
I think this is the best combination
that you can use to start your own seeds
you can use coco coir instead of peat
moss if you prefer
and as you can see here this combination
makes a very nice seed starting mix that
you can use to start your cucumber
plants now there are two ways you can
water your seed starting mix one way is
to just sprinkle some water on the top
this will get the seed started quickly
and also water from the bottom which
will let the seed starting cells absorb
more water
you can also pre moist in your seed
starting mix and then put it in the
cells as you see here
and once again this is the seed packet
we are using and we're going to be
sewing 1 to 2 seeds per cell and that is
quite enough
growing about six cucumber plants here
now you can go with two seeds but this
seed packet has such a high germination
rate that you do not need to sow more
than one seed and don't forget to label
your plant so you know which variety
you're growing and 16 days later you can
see that the cucumber plants have grown
pretty well and their roots have started
coming out of the bottom of the cells
which means it's a good time to start
transplanting them so if you're going to
be using a whiskey barrel container here
to plant our cucumber plants and this is
a compact cucumber variety and if you
look at the soil here we already have a
lot of organic matter in the soil and we
were growing shallots earlier in this
container and now this has enough
organic matter and enough fertilizer to
sustain the next plant which are the
cucumbers and we're going to be
transplanting our cucumber seedlings
from the cells to this whiskey barrel
container and as you can see here all we
do is just remove the plant from the
cells and then plant them and this is a
compact cucumber variety that means that
it will not produce a lot of vines it
will rather produce less vines and also
be a much more compact plant compared to
the regular cucumber variety and that's
the biggest difference between a bush
type cucumber and the binding type
cucumber and that's the fact that this
plant will grow in a very compact
fashion and still produce a lot of
cucumbers as you will soon see
and all cucumbers need some kind of
staking which we will be adding a little
later because this cucumber doesn't
produce a lot of vines we can wait for
some time to add the stakes now make
sure you water your seedlings very
thoroughly this is the most important
step of planting your seedlings when
you're transplanting them we had a
heatwave in July and as you can see here
the plant suffered quite a lot but the
cucumber is a pretty resilient plant it
will come back up even if it is stressed
and as you can see here now the plants
have grown a little larger the vines
have started becoming strong and now is
the time to start training your cucumber
vines to grow on this trellis take some
kind of a support structure I'm using
these plastic stakes here and I'm just
going to be tying the cucumber plants to
these stakes now when you look at the
plants now it may seem like they do not
like being trained but that's not the
case eventually these cucumber vines
will start following the path and start
growing as you train them make sure you
choose a nice sunny location for your
cucumber plants and also make sure that
the weather is warm too hot cucumbers
like warm to hot weather and they will
not tolerate cold or frost and although
it's a little late in July that we
planted it can still grow through the
end of August here in Southern
California
as you can see here we are trading the
binds of the other cucumber plant as
well and it will follow the path to the
stake as well and this cucumber variety
will grow to about four feet or so
and then start producing cucumbers
unlike the regular cucumber the vining
cucumber variety which will keep
producing a lot of vines before it
starts producing fruits so as you can
see here the plant doesn't look very
happy now but in just a few days you
will see that the plant has adapted and
it will be back to normal right here
just like that
as you can see here cucumbers can be
trained very easily on these vines and
they can grow into bigger plants very
easily
now as far as insects and diseases go I
did not see any insects on the plant
however cucumbers are literally born
with powdery mildew as you can see here
the leaves get a little white and the
solution that I used was to spray the
leaves with sesame oil now there are
many ways you can deal with this problem
but I found that sesame oil or even milk
three parts of water to one part of milk
works very well and you can see here the
flowers have started forming now
cucumbers have also started forming
and this is a time where you can
actually see all your cucumbers being
formed and once again this is not a huge
plant as you can see here it does go to
about four feet mine went a little
larger I think but still a very compact
cucumber variety and we're gonna be
harvesting our first cucumber now and as
you can see here beautiful looking
cucumber quite a small and compact sized
cucumber but that's what you get for
planting compact cucumber varieties a
decently sized cucumber and you can
easily grow these in containers and
that's the whole idea of growing compact
cucumber plants the bush type cucumber
plant is that although your cucumbers
might look small
they are extremely delicious and it does
produce a lot of cucumbers once again
you can see here beautiful looking
cucumber that we harvested and there are
several more growing on the plant
now let's cut open a cucumber and see
how it looks like
this is a very nice soft cucumber
variety the seeds are not very hard as
you can see here as long as you harvest
them in time and you can just slice
these cucumbers
like that with the peels you always get
more nutrients when you eat the peel and
I usually throw away the top and bottom
part of the cucumber because that's the
part that has the most bitterness now
although I didn't find any bitterness in
my cucumber I know a lot of our YouTube
viewers have mentioned that their
cucumbers are bitter and if that's the
case just throw away the top and the
bottom parts and you should have
cucumbers that are not bitter also make
sure that you're growing at least two
cucumber plants in the same place and
that helps reduce bitterness as well now
my kids actually like the cucumbers when
the skin has been removed so if you're
removing the skin here as you can see
we're just peeling off the skin and once
we've peeled off the skin we're gonna be
chopping this up into smaller slices and
there's a little old wives tale
something that we've all heard and that
is a fact that to remove the bitterness
of the cucumber you need to remove the
sides the top in the bottom part of the
cucumber and then rub them against the
cucumber to remove the bitterness now I
don't know how well this works but I'm
just gonna show you the technique and
try and see if this works for you and if
it does work put in a comment below here
and let us know so all you really do is
remove the top part of the cucumber and
then rub it against the side just like
that and I have no idea what really
happens but it's supposed to remove the
bitterness away from the cucumber now as
a kid I've always been doing this and
supposedly it was working
but there are some cucumber varieties
that are actually resistant to being
bitter they don't usually turn out
bitter and then there are some cucumber
varieties that actually are better now
the bush slice of cucumber this cucumber
variety is one that is not bitter
most of the cucumbers I harvested were
excellent and taste and just as expected
you know lovely tasting cucumbers
without any bitterness and as you can
see here even after harvesting a few
cucumbers there are still a few more
growing on the plant and if you have
been following my monthly series you
have been seeing me harvesting these
cucumbers on a monthly basis we have two
cities in July we harvested these in
August and the plant just kept producing
so overall it's a very productive
cucumber variety especially the fact
that you can harvest so many cucumbers
and also the fact that the plant is
quite compact and as you can see we have
easily grown this in a container and
still harvested a lot of cucumbers very
nice-looking cucumbers and also very
delicious so there we have it folks that
was our episode on growing the bush type
cucumber variety called the bush slicer
if you have a favorite cucumber variety
do let us know in the comments box below
and don't forget to give us a thumbs up
