CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED IN CUCUMBER CULTIVATION

Cucumber farming can be quite easy especially when you’ve mastered the act over time. But there are some problems common to cucumber farming no matter where you are and how you plant them. Sometimes it might be as a result of something you did wrong or something you were meant to do but failed to or simply just nature playing out. So we’ve compiled a number of these problems.

Let’s see which of them you’ve had to deal with shall we?

Challenges

1. BITTERNESS

Bitterness is one very common problem that you may and probably will encounter while growing your cucumbers. Especially if you are planting as a beginner and there are a number of reasons why this happens like:

Inconsistent watering

Low soil fertility

Diseased foliage

Very hot temperature

(check out our article on “why your cucumber is bitter” for further details)

2. WEEDS

     Weeds are a part of any farmer’s greatest enemies. They are simply called “plants that grow where they are not wanted”. Funny enough they tend to take up more space and nutrients than the actual plant. Weed management and control must be considered by the farmer to make sure that the plants are healthy and free from pest and insect attacks. Weeds competing with the plants for soil nutrients results in an unhealthy plant, so keeping them far away from your farm will do you a whole lot of good.

(check out our article on “weed control management” for further details)

3. PESTS AND DISEASES

Pest and diseases just like weeds, intrude where they are not needed and go on to slow down the growth and yield of the cucumber plant like they do to other plants.

One effective way you can keep the cucumber plants healthy and protected from these problems is by keeping your farm and it’s environs weed free because weeds/bushes are the habitat for pests and diseases. Some pests are also the vectors of some of these diseases known to cucumber plants.

As it’s popularly said “Prevention is better than cure” preventing these problems is a lot better than trying to manage the plants when they have been infected by diseases or when they are under pests attack.