This year, we’re growing cucumbers in a pot.
And we’re getting more fruit than we’ve ever had before – as you can see from the photo below, the plants are covered in flowers…
On a whim, we planted four seedlings into the old self-watering pot that we’d used to grow our indoor tomatoes a couple of years ago. We’ve learned the hard way over previous years that the most important thing with cucumbers is sufficient water – without it, the fruit is often bitter, and the plant doesn’t produce a good crop.
The pot was positioned on the driveway and a plastic trellis erected against the fence. The plants are growing in a mixture of old potting mix enriched with cow manure. The fertiliser might not have been necessary if we’d used new potting mix, but it seemed a shame to waste what we already had.
The plants are kept well hydrated throughout the day via the self-watering pot, which needs refilling at least twice a day (cucumbers need a lot of water!). As there isn’t a lot of soil, we also give them a feed of worm juice and fish emulsion every couple of weeks or so.
We’ve been rewarded with a bumper crop of sweet, crunchy Lebanese cucumbers! We’ve already harvested dozens of them, with oodles of new ones popping up every day…
Even if you don’t have garden beds, it’s definitely worth trying to grow cucumbers in pots!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I’ve never tried growing cucumbers in pots, only potatoes. Now I might give this a try! Thanks for the tip about them needing lots of water. I’ve always wondered why some tasted bitter than others. They look great Celia!
Em, how did you go with potatoes? We didn’t have much luck! Last year we grew apple cukes which were all bitter – took us a while to figure out that it was lack of water! :)
Brilliant, never realised you could grow cucumbers in a pot – you and Pete certainly know what you are doing.
:-) Mandy xo
Mandy, we really don’t, it’s flying by the seat of our pants stuff. We only blog the stuff that works though.. ;-)
We always grow our cucumbers in growbags, which is like a bag of compost slit open partially at the top. Works great. Same idea as a pot … But without the pot. ;)
Nice idea, Misky! We only used the pot because we had it, but the self-watering bit makes it easy to keep them hydrated. We have to refill the water twice a day though!
Hi Celia
Pretty soon you will be like me. Too scared to go outside in case another cucumber has grown whilst you had a cup of coffee! It is amazing they are doing so well in a pott.
We have serious cucumber overload. We have 10 plants: just imagine it!!!
Glenda, I’m so impressed with how well your garden has grown! You’ll never look back now! :)
Your are amaziing Celia…you must have 100 green thumbs…..LOL
Not me Norma, but Pete has some pretty good ideas! :)
Snap, Celia! We’re doing the same. We have two plants in pots/beds in our kitchen garden and they are doing us proud. Love the espalier! Well done, as always.
Thanks love. It’s been a great year for cucurbits, although I’m not sure how they’re going to cope with today’s 39C!
Great stuff Celia. I love cucumbers and yours look so healthy and productive.
Jane, we missed one cuke – it grew huge – and made two jars of bread and butter pickles. I love that! :)
My goodness Celia that’s such an enormous plant from such a little pot!
Four plants, Claire! But they are growing really well!
Well, you certainly taught me something today Celia. I’d no idea that this was possible and yours certainly is thriving. Thanks for the lesson!
John, it’s an experiment for us, but it’s worked really well this year. Pete just brought in a couple more cucumbers this morning. It’s a nice way to grow them because otherwise they take over the garden beds!
To see what’s coming out of that tiny and insignificant pot is amazing. You are so creative with your garden. I’ll look forward to seeing what you do with your plentiful harvest xx
Charlie, we’re eating them as fast as they come into the kitchen! One giant one that we missed was turned into bread and butter pickles!
I’ve planted 4 different types of cucumbers this year with no success at all :( The searing heat just killed them off. I bought a punnet yesterday to give it one more try, so thanks for the idea with the self wateringpot- you clever clogs you! Xox
Darling, we need to refill our pot twice a day with water, and feed it regularly, or it runs out of nutrients. Having said that, this is our most successful cucumber crop to date!
I’m growing cucumbers in a pot as we speak (type)…I didn’t know how big they could get until I saw your picture. Hmmm…we may have a problem soon! How do you tell the male/female flowers apart…I “think” I have only males at this stage…but I’m not sure.
Mel, the female flowers have immature fruit (like the last photo above), whereas the male flowers just grow on a stalk.
My cucumbers this last year were unsuccessful! Perhaps I’ll try the pot this time! It works for you ! don;t you just love when you take it off the vine, snap it in half & just smell the fragrance of fresh Lebanese cucumber? It’s therapy for the senses! God bless all your produce Celia!
Thanks Lina! I adore cucumbers – we’ve taken to just snacking on them (I like them with a little Vegemite actually although most people find that appalling! :))
omg I never thought you could do this with pots. We live on a small block and every square inch has been done up in landscaped beds which are lovely but no place to grow food. the only lawn area is just big enough for Charlie’s loo. I’m definitely going to try this!
Maureen, I’m always amazed at what grows in pots. And this makes use of space which is otherwise wasted next to our drive way!
OK, I can back up Celia: I can only grow any vegetables/herbs in pots where i live, but the position is about 15 meters long and sunny: have done so for some 19 years! With some things I would not bother, but small cucumbers, every year!! Asc usual, keep the water to them and a light fertilizer every week! This year I have planted more chillies and tomatoes: OMG, all the varieties of gorgeous chillies one could never get at a greengocer’s/supermarket!
Eha, we have chillies too – jalapeno, cayenne and birdseyes. The bell chillies haven’t started yet, but the others are fabulous!
Celia, try scotch bonnets also next season; my first crop this year and they ARE hot, hot, hot, but the prettiest plants in my garden :) !
WOW Celia! You gave all the important information I need to know to plant my own. LOVE it! Your blog will be my guide as I establish my own raised veggie patch (with chooks!)
p.s miss you on Instagram…. just catching up on all your posts here now… maybe you decided to leave it for more time in the garden…. totally agree :)
Hey Dimity! How nice to hear from you! Yes, found I was just spending too much time online and needed to pull back a little for real life.. :)
I grow them in pots, too- although my plants never look as good as yours.
Heidi, the self-watering pot seems to have made a big difference this year!
That is an ‘ah ha’ moment for me Celia. I love Lebanese cucumbers and had a reasonable crop last year but the dreaded powdery mildew got them. At the moment anything in our veggie patch is cooking as it grows, the sun is unrelenting and we so desperately need rain (we share the shower with a bucket to collect water for the garden) but a self- watering pot in some light shade ….should be just the answer.
Jan, the powdery mildew gets them all in the end, I think. We’ve been lucky this year, but it’s now just starting to kick in…
Wow! I’m going to try potting some of my seedlings when I get home :)
Hope it works well for you, Tandy! :)
That’s a great idea! Your cucumber plant is thriving so much! Good for you! Thanks for all the tips too! :)
Thanks Sophie! It’s so great to have fresh cucumbers on a daily basis!
Oh clever you. I think Charlie has just challenged you to a creative cucumber recipe collection
Hehehe…lucky I’ve always been able to resist a challenge. They’re aren’t really that many left over, we’re eating them as fast as we can! :)
Thank you for the great idea!! In a couple months, (or sooner given this ridiculously mild winter) I’ll be thinking about gardening and I happen to have two pots just like those. However, I’ve never seen plastic trellis like that before. I love cucumbers, especially in an Asian cucumber salad I make. If I can find something to use for the trellis, this would be perfect for hiding some ugly parts of my neighbors fence that is falling apart. You certainly know how to keep your plants healthy Celia!
Mel, I hope you’re feeling better! The plastic trellis came from our local hardware store – I think they’re quite widely available these days! It works well too..
I’d given up growing cucumbers because they take up so much space but maybe I should give it another go. A good idea to use plastic trellis.
Anne, they always used to fill up a whole bed – this way is much easier and manageable! :)
We didn’t have any luck this past summer doing cucumbers in pots so I’m not sure what went wrong. We use a lot of compost and the rest of the garden did well. But cucumbers were very anemic. This coming summer I’ll put them back in the raised beds for now. Yours look great.
Thank you – this is our first year of a really good cucumber crop – perhaps it’s very dependent on the conditions of the season?
I think it must be as the year before we had cucumbers growing like crazy.
Terrific idea of using the self watering pot…I can’t believe how big your plant is.
Karen, it’s four plants, but I agree – I can’t believe they do so well in such a relatively small pot! :)
That makes it even more amazing…four plants sharing that space. You definitely have a talent at growing plants.