Growing Cucumbers

Last month we visited our farm in Madaba, Jordan that grows vegetables, and that includes courgettes/zucchinis, Aubergines/eggplants, corn, and cucumbers! There are also olive trees that produce olives that are either kept to marinate, or are pressed to produce virgin olive oil.

The cucumbers grow in green houses in the form of vines there, and I thought that it was pretty interesting how you should give these cucumbers something to climb on, and they will climb up to the ceiling of the greenhouse.

Apparently cucumbers can either grow in bushes or in vines, so there are 2 types. But usually the vines produce more fruit throughout the growing season.

Cucumbers love hot weather and plenty of water, and they grow best in warmer countries. 

These vines produce more fruit as you harvest, so the more you harvest the more they produce. Harvesting the cucumbers should be done with a sharp knife by cutting the stem above the fruit, as pulling it out will damage the vine.

In Jordan, cucumbers are harvested in smaller sizes. If you compare the size of the fruit harvested in Jordan to the ones that harvested in western countries, you will find the in the West the let the cucumbers become large in size. While in the Middle East, the huge cucumbers are not preferred, they are always harvested in smaller sizes as in the picture below. And this is what people use to make pickles!

If you don't harvest the cucumbers and let them get really large, this will make them bitter and it will prevent the vine from producing more fruits. When the bottom becomes yellow, it means that the fruit is over ripe.