Best time to plant cucumber in Alice Springs
Cucumis sativus
Sow cucumber in Alice Springs in Oct to Feb.
Cucumber is a frost-tender vine in the gourd family, grown for fruit picked green and crisp before the seeds harden. Plants sprawl or climb, and a trellis saves space and keeps the fruit clean. Types range from short Lebanese and pickling cucumbers to long continental ones. Keep watering steady, as dry spells can make the fruit bitter.
When to sow in Alice Springs
Alice Springs, NT is in the arid zone. The zone also plants in Aug to Sep, but Alice Springs's frost dates make those months risky for a frost-tender crop.
Broadly matches local guides, with some differences.
Your local conditions can shift any months shown here, so treat them as a guide.
Frost in Alice Springs
Frost usually arrives in Alice Springs around late May and finishes by mid September. In about 1 year in 10 it comes as early as early May or as late as early October, so frost-tender crops are planned around those dates.
From its Bureau of Meteorology station, 1991 to 2020, counting a night at 2°C or lower as a frost. Frost hollows and hillsides can shift these dates by weeks, so ask the growers at your garden too.
On a shared plot: suits a plot
Grow it up a trellis to save room and keep fruit clean, and put the trellis where its shade won't fall on a neighbour.
Growing details
- How to start
- Sow directly or raise seedlings
- Sowing depth
- 2-3cm
- Plant spacing
- 15cm on a trellis, 60-90cm sprawling
- Row spacing
- 90cm
- Germination
- About 10 days
- Time to harvest
- 55 days
- Frost
- Frost tender
- Sun
- Full sun
- Life cycle
- annual
These are typical figures, and varieties differ. Your seed packet takes priority.