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Vegetables · Vine

Growing cucumber

Cucumis sativus · also called Khira, KheeraA fast-growing warm-season vine producing crisp, hydrating fruits.

Sub-tropical foothills: Jammu, Kangra, Dehradun

Our team has checked this guide against the sources at the end of the page.Includes AI suggestions where no published guide covers a detail
Green cucumbers lying on the soil among the vines, with yellow flowers
Photo: Stephen Ausmus, USDA ARS · PDM

At a glance

Cucumber in the Sub-tropical foothills

  • Season

    Spring-summer (February to March in the open, January under cover) and rainy season (June to July)8

  • Sowing to last picking

    About 80 to 100 days from sowing to the last picking.

    No published guide covers this for the Sub-tropical foothills, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

  • Sow

    February to March8

  • First harvest

    40 to 55 days after sowing3,8

Across India

When to sow it

Twelve growing regions, January to December. Your region comes first.

Wait until February

The next sowing here is February to March.

Under cover, from January.

Sowing now in:West coast
  • Sow
  • Nursery
  • Transplant
  • Harvest
  • Under cover
  • Today
Sub-tropical foothillsJammu, Kangra, DehradunTemperate HimalayaKashmir valley, Shimla, KulluNorth-west plainsPunjab, Haryana, Delhi
Compare all 12 regions
Temperate HimalayaKashmir valley, Shimla, KulluCold desertLadakh, Lahaul and Spiti · Under cover onlyNorth-west plainsPunjab, Haryana, DelhiGangetic plainseastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal plainsNorth-east hills and valleysAssam, Meghalaya, SikkimArid westRajasthan, Kutch, north GujaratCentral plateauMadhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, VidarbhaDeccan plateauinterior Maharashtra, Telangana, north KarnatakaSouth interiorBengaluru, Mysuru, interior Tamil NaduWest coastKerala, Goa, KonkanEast coastcoastal Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, coastal Andhra
Today
See the dates as a table
RegionSowNurseryTransplantHarvest
Sub-tropical foothillsFebruary to MarchJune to JulyUnder cover: JanuaryUnder cover: First half of JanuaryUnder cover: Last week of December to first week of JanuaryUnder cover: By the first half of February
Temperate HimalayaApril to MayMid-June to July
Cold desertUnder cover onlyUnder cover: April to mid-MayUnder cover: Mid-June to mid-September
North-west plainsFebruary to MarchJune to JulyUnder cover: Mid-NovemberUnder cover: Mid-SeptemberUnder cover: JanuaryUnder cover: First week of OctoberUnder cover: First half of February
Gangetic plainsMid to late FebruaryLate June
North-east hills and valleysFebruary to mid-April
Arid westFebruary to mid-MarchLate June to July
Central plateauMid-January to FebruaryJune to mid-July
Deccan plateauJune to July
South interiorJuneJanuary to April
West coastJanuary to MarchSeptember to December
East coastJuneJanuary to April

From seed to harvest

One season, day by day

Days from sowing

  1. Before sowing

    Farmyard manure (FYM)8

    10 t per acre · Work in as a basal dressing · Basal, at field preparation

  2. Day 0

    Sow

  3. Day 5 to 7

    Seeds come up1,2,3,8Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.

  4. Day 40 to 55

    First picking3,8

  5. Day 80 to 100

    Last pickingNo published guide covers this for the Sub-tropical foothills, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

Water every 4 to 6 days, more at flower bud development and early fruit development.8

What it needs

Soil, sun and warmth

  • Soil pH1,2,3

    6.5 to 7.5

    Well-drained loam or sandy loam, rich in organic matter

  • SunlightNo published guide covers this for the Sub-tropical foothills, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

    At least 6 hours a day

    Full sun, at least 6 hours a day.

  • Temperature2,8

    Grows best at 18 to 24 °C

    Frost: none tolerated.

    Monthly temperatures for the Sub-tropical foothills aren't in the library yet.

Water and feeding

Watering8

Water every 4 to 5 days for the spring-summer crop, every 5 to 6 days later in summer, and only when needed in the rainy season. Do not let it go dry while flower buds form and young fruit sets. Too much water early on gives a leafy vine with more male flowers. Ridges and furrows suit it.

Weeding8,3

Hoe and hand weed the young vines two or three times. Earth up twice, a month apart. Once the vines spread they smother most weeds between the rows.

WhenWhatHow muchHow
Basal, at field preparationFarmyard manure (FYM)10 t per acreWork in as a basal dressing

Sources8

Varieties and yield

Typical rangeNo published guide covers this for the Sub-tropical foothills, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

40 to 60 quintals an acre

Yields vary with the plot, the seed and the season.

Varieties grown here8,3

  • Japanese Long Green

    SKUAST-Jammu. Early, 40 to 45 days; long green fruit.

  • Straight Eight

    SKUAST-Jammu. Early, short season; white-skinned fruit.

  • Poinsette

    SKUAST-Jammu. Tolerant to downy mildew, anthracnose and angular leaf spot; 50 to 60 days.

  • Kheera Local

    SKUAST-Jammu. 40 to 50 days; fruit 20 to 25 cm.

  • Pusa Sanyog

    Hybrid listed by SKUAST-Jammu

  • Pant Sankar Khira-1

    Hybrid listed by SKUAST-Jammu

  • Pusa Gynoecious Cucumber Hybrid-18

    IARI. Recommended by AICRP for Zone I (J&K, Himachal, Uttarakhand)

Good neighboursNo published guide covers this for the Sub-tropical foothills, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

Keep it away from

Pests and diseases8Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.

Organic and cultural controls only.

  • Pest

    Fruit fly

    Signs

    Lays eggs in young fruit, which then rots.

    What to do

    • Hang fruit fly lure traps, 2 to 4 an acre, and add more as needed.

  • Pest

    Red pumpkin beetle

    Signs

    Orange beetles chew the seed leaves and young leaves soon after the seed comes up.

    What to do

    • Pick the beetles off by hand in the early morning.
    • Dust young plants with wood ash.

  • Disease

    Downy mildew

    Signs

    Yellow spots on the upper leaf, purple to brown below with white down. Worst on cucumber in April and May in irrigated plains and river beds; leaves wither early.

    Prevention

    • Collect seed only from healthy fruit.

  • Disease

    Anthracnose

    Signs

    Dark brown spots on leaves, stems and fruit.

    What to do

    • Keep the field clean.

    Prevention

    • Sow early.

  • Disease

    Fruit rot

    Signs

    Fruit lying on wet soil goes soft and rots.

    What to do

    • Keep the fruit off the soil.
    • Pick the first ripe fruit on time.
    • Water in trenches round the root zone only.

  • Disease

    Powdery mildew

    Signs

    Small white patches that spread into a floury coat over leaves, stems, tendrils and fruit.

Seed and the season's end

Saving seed2

Keep at least 1000 m between cucumber varieties so the seed stays true to type. Pull out off-type and sick plants.

When the seed is ready

Leave seed fruit on the vine until it turns brown.

Cleaning the seed

Scoop the pulp into fresh water and leave it one to two days. Rub the seed free by hand and keep the heavy seed that sinks.

After the last picking8

In SKUAST-Jammu's sub-tropical cropping systems a spring cucumber is followed by brinjal in the rainy season and knol-khol in winter. A rainy-season cucumber (July to October) can follow spring okra and come before potato.

Destroy old cucurbit vines so downy mildew has nowhere to overwinter.

Rotation

Where root knot nematode is a problem, rotate with rice, oats, wheat or taramira.

Growing under cover8

Seedlings raised in polythene bags fruit 20 to 25 days earlier. Use 15 by 10 cm bags of 100 gauge, holed at the base and filled with soil, sand and well-rotted FYM (2:1:1). Sow two seeds a bag, 1 to 1.5 cm deep, in the last week of December or first week of January, keep the bags against a sunny wall and plant out at 25 to 30 days, by the first half of February. In river bed (trench) growing, cucumber is sown in the first half of January in trenches filled with soil, sand and manure and covered with polythene.

From the shop

Linked from this guide by our team.

Sources

Where this comes from

Our team has checked this guide against the sources at the end of the page.Reviewed by our team on 13 November 2026.

These published guides are the sources. Where none of them covers a detail for this region, the page shows an AI suggestion and labels it.

  1. 1Cucumber: crop production guide (Horticulture, vegetables)TNAU Agritech Portal, Tamil Nadu Agricultural UniversityRead the source
  2. 3Pusa Gynoecious Cucumber Hybrid-18 (Indian Horticulture, May to June 2021, pages 40 to 43)ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Division of Vegetable Science (Munshi, Behera, Sureja, Tomar, Singh and Dey)Read the source
  3. 4Advisory for Kharif Season in Uttarakhand (2 May 2020)G B Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Directorate of Extension EducationRead the source
  4. 8Package of Practices for Vegetable Crops 2020 (chapter 6, Cucumber; cucurbit pest and disease management; hybrids; cropping systems; protected and river bed cultivation)Directorate of Extension, SKUAST-JammuRead the source

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