When are cucumbers harvested?

Small and crunchy, long and nutritious, fresh or pickled - the cucumber is a very multifaceted vegetable and also very easy to care for. The pumpkin fruit is used in salads, as an accompaniment to bread sauce or on its own as a refreshing snack. For this reason, it is not only grown extensively in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, but is also ideally suited for cultivation in your own home garden. Of course, cucumbers taste best when they are ripe. But when is the right harvest time?

Picking time of cucumbers

Pickles from their own Cultivation can be harvested as early as eight to ten weeks after sowing. The ideal time cannot be generalized. The taste, variety and intended use are decisive for harvesting. A ripe fruit has a smooth, deep green skin.

Size as a guide

In addition to the well-known cucumber from the supermarket, there are countless other varieties such as pickled cucumbers, mini cucumbers or field cucumbers, to name just a few. These differ a lot in terms of taste, which is due, among other things, to the different harvest times. Depending on the intended use, the length of the cucumber is an important indicator of its ripeness. Here are a few examples:

• Gherkins: represent the smallest cucumber shape, available as pickled cucumber in a jar, optimal length: 4-6 cm
• Delicatessen cucumbers: also pickling cucumbers in a slightly larger shape, optimal length: 6-12 cm
• Cucumbers: suitable for raw consumption, optimal length: 20-30 cm

In contrast to many types of cucumber, the color of the skin of the peeled cucumber provides information about the correct time of harvest. This should have a strong yellow.

Don't wait too long

For all other types of cucumber, however, as soon as yellow spots form on the skin, the harvest time has already passed and the vegetables are overripe. In this form, the vegetables have a very high water content and lose a lot of flavor as a result. Sometimes it even takes one bitter Taste. Therefore, in case of doubt, the early harvest of cucumbers is recommended. You can't really go wrong with this. On the contrary, young fruits have a pleasantly soft skin and the seeds have not yet formed completely. The mild consistency makes the cucumber more digestible for many people. In addition, young crop yields contain most of the vitamins and nutrients.

In addition, regular harvest increases the yield. If you grow a cucumber vine in your own garden, you should harvest the cucumbers as soon as possible. The longer the vegetables hang on the plant, the more energy resources it has to use to maintain the fruit cluster. In the worst case, it rejects subsequent fruits before they are ripe. With careful care, harvesting is even possible every two weeks.

Note: Unfortunately, the fact that a cucumber tastes bitter cannot always be completely ruled out, even if it is picked at the right time of harvest. This is often due to genetic causes. Even Care errors like overfeeding the plant can cause the bitter taste. In particular, a wrong location ensures the indigestible aroma, as the bitter substances from the stem base pass into the fruit when it is cold and rainy.

Harvest tips

• remove the flower bases in September
• in this way the plant will continue to bear fruit until October
• do not pick the fruit, ...
• ... use a sharp knife instead
• Harvest in the morning or in the morning
• then the nutrient content is highest

Cucumber harvest in Austria and Switzerland

Home-grown cucumbers can be harvested throughout the summer, depending on the sowing date. Those who plant the tendril in May (necessarily after the ice saints) can look forward to the first harvest in July. At this time, the official cucumber harvest of the greenhouse cultivation in Germany begins. Outdoor varieties come on the market a few weeks later.

The latter also procures a large part of the goods from neighboring countries. Austrian cucumbers come primarily from the regions around Vienna, where they are grown exclusively in glass houses. During the harvest season, temporary workers travel to the farm to make a living with the cucumber harvest. Thanks to the optimized conditions offered by the greenhouse, workers here begin to harvest the plants as early as March. Only in the period from November to February are the vegetables not available here.

In Switzerland, the cucumber is in season from April to October. Here, too, the focus is on greenhouse cultivation. Foil cultivation is also common. The pickled cucumber is particularly popular here, as it is an ideal addition to a hearty snack or to the Swiss classics cheese fondue and raclette.