PlantSowGrow
How to grow Gherkin (National Pickling)
Cucumis sativus
🥕 Vegetable
🌱 Grown each year
Small, knobbly outdoor cucumbers for pickling whole or slicing into salads. Tough and productive in the open ground.
At a glance: Sow late April to mid May, harvest from mid June.
When to sow, plant and harvest
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Sow outdoors
Harvest
Timed for a typical UK garden (last frost mid-April). The app uses your own town's frost dates.
Growing Gherkin (National Pickling): what it needs
- Light
- Full sun · 6+ hours a day
- Watering
- Water regularly in dry weather
- Soil
- Fertile, well-drained soil
- Spacing
- 60 cm
- In pots
- Only in large containers
- Feeding
- A general feed before sowing or planting
- Harvest
- About 55 days from sowing
- Hardiness
- USDA zones 3–9
- Difficulty
- Easy
Step by step
- Late April – mid May · 2 weeks after the last spring frost
Sow Seeds Outdoors
Sow thinly in drills where they are to grow. Sow seeds on their edge, 1 cm deep.
- 3–8 days after “Sow Seeds Indoors” · Early May
Check Germination
Seedlings should appear in 3–8 days. If sown outdoors, thin to 60 cm apart when big enough to handle.
- 47–68 days after “Check Germination” · Mid June – early July
Start Harvesting
Pick at 5–8 cm for pickling, every day or two.
- 45–75 days after “Start Harvesting” · Early August – early September
Finish and Clear
Clear the remains to the compost heap once cropping ends.
