Growing Vegetable Cucumber or Sambar Cucumber without Soil Using Simplified Hydroponics

Growing Vegetable Cucumber or Sambar Cucumber without Soil Using Simplified Hydroponics by Pritham 'Metal Farmer' D'Souza

Vegetable Cucumber also known as Sambar Cucumber is an all time favorite vegetable crop grown in coastal Karnataka esp Mangalore. It was a challenge to grow SC in hydroponics as the crop requires a lot of care and patience in the field as it is gets easily damaged by excess irrigation, high soil temperatures and attack from fruit boring insect Dacus dorsalis fly.


Seedlings germinated within 2 days

• Sow the seeds in seed trays and later transplant when 3 leaf stage is seen

21 days later, growth affected by red pumpkin beetle attack, immediate control using neem sprays

• In the field, integrated pest management using organic neem sprays and Dimethoate Rogar is used to reduces pest attack of red pumpkin beetle which feed on the young and tender leaves of the plant
• here since i do not use any chemical pesticides, i let the plant take the insect assault for a few days till i applied organic neem spray
  

3 days later, after using Neem Sprays, lush green growth seen and pest attack neutralized.

• Neem spray applied when there is pest incidence proved excellent and the results speak for themselves.
  
• no blanket sprays required. hence no wasting
  

21 days later formation of fruit buds

• tiny fruit buds appear and its best to switch from grow nutrients to bloom nutrients
  

15 days later size of fruit increased considerably

• the young and growing fruit buds need to be protected from extreme heat which was bouncing off the hard concrete flooring. hence i had placed old gunny bags on the ground and the vines were growing over it. so no direct contact with the hot floor
  

to prevent attack of fruit boring Dacus dorsalis, i used a plastic bowl as cover

• this was not a good idea as the growing fruit needs light and breeze. but fortunately for me, the idea of covering the growing fruit with whatever i could find (here a plastic tray) worked.
• The next time, i will use a net cover
  

the protected fruit without any attack

• not a scratch on the fruit
  

Fruit ready for harvest after it changes color from green to orange

• depending on individual tastes, generally fruits are harvested when they change their color from dark green to light green or brown and in some cases orange.
• for long distance transporting green fruits are harvested.
  

another fruit protected

• if you look closely, the fruit has an abnormal twisted appearance.
  
• its probably because the growing fruit didnt rest on the gunny bag which i had kept but was growing on the concrete flooring which gets hot when the temperatures are high. hence the fruit could have gotten disfigured, but its still tasty
  

Ripe Vegetable Cucumber excellent to extract seeds

• The orange color indicates the fruit is over ripe and is excellent for extracting the seeds.
  

All pics and data by Pritham 'Metal Farmer' D'Souza