5 Crops You'll HATE NOT PLANTING in August!. Part 4

Crop #4 that you should start in August is another twofer. Cucumbers and zucchini. Now is the perfect time to sow your last wave of cucumbers and zucchini for the season. And if you think this can't be done, I'm here to tell you you're probably wrong. Cucumbers and zucchini are two of the fastest growing warm weather crops in our summer garden. They germinate in as little as three to four days and then they start producing their first fruits in as little as five to six weeks. So, a seed sown August 1st can give you food as early as September 7th to 15th, depending on the variety. My original planting of cucumbers and zucchini are all long dead, but I grew three to four waves of cucumbers and zucchini every single year. These are transplants that I just put out three weeks ago and they're already three to four feet long. I've already picked some fruits off of them. Look at all those little baby cucumbers forming on there. Is that not remarkable? My initial zucchini plants are all long dead. This is the only kind of survivor, but I need to rip that ugly thing out because I have these two beautiful plants starting to produce right behind it. So, this one was transplanted out only three weeks ago and it's already starting to flower and then this one right here is only a two week old transplant. It was transplanted out two weeks ago. They just grow like weeds. What's beautiful about this process is our soil is nice and warm right now. So, our cucumbers and zucchini can be directly sown right now. Just take your finger, punch a hole about an inch deep, sow a seed or two if you want to overseed and they should germinate in as little as three to four days. If you don't see frost until October, you can still start another planting of cucumbers and zucchini right out in your garden right now. And if you don't see frost until November or December, like I do, well, there's probably enough time for two more waves of cucumbers and zucchini. I have those waves out there right now. I'll probably sow more in another week or two. I might even sow more in another four weeks. You can plant new waves of cucumbers and zucchini out in your garden every four to six weeks. You can plant new waves of cucumbers and zucchini out in your garden every four to six weeks. They grow so quickly. And if you've never grown a late summer planting of cucumbers and zucchini, you are about to just have your life changed because the plantings of cucumbers and zucchini we put out in spring get harassed with all sorts of pests, squash bugs, vine borers, cucumber beetles. They are brutal. Well, now that we've moved into the back half of summer, you are going to find that most locations don't have any generation of vine borers remaining. So you won't have to deal with the vine borers and cucumber beetle pests. They are over by now. And squash bug pressure is going down a lot. So you will be able to grow these things out in the garden without all of the problems that we get in late spring and early summer. And you'll get more harvest with less work. I generally recommend that you grow the cucumber and zucchini varieties with the fewest days to maturity possible. The early varieties are better this time of year. However, if all you have is what you have from spring, give it a try. You should still get a harvest. The plantings of cucumbers and zucchini we put out in spring get harassed with all sorts of pests, squash bugs, vine borers, cucumber beetles. They are brutal. Well, now that we've moved into the back half of summer, you are going to find that most locations don't have any generation of vine borers remaining. So you won't have to deal with the vine borers and cucumber beetle pests. They are over by now. And squash bug pressure is going down a lot. So you will be able to grow these things out in the garden without all of the problems that we get in late spring and early summer. And you'll get more harvest with less work. I generally recommend that you grow the cucumber and zucchini varieties with the fewest days to maturity possible. The early varieties are better this time of year. However, if all you have is what you have from spring, give it a try. You should still get a harvest.