Can you cut the leaves on a cucumber plant?

Elliot · July 3, 2012

we have a batch of cucumber plants and the leaves are large and are blocking off other plants. Can the leaves be trimmed without damaging the plants?

cornbreadlouie · July 3, 2012

I've been trimming a couple leaves off my zucchini plants when they start shading things and haven't noticed any loss of productivity, so I'm going to say YES!

habitat_gardener · July 4, 2012

I usually cut off leaves only if they have some insect damage. Otherwise, I use plant ties or a stake to reposition them so they aren't blocking another plant.

But it depends on who's getting blocked. I might prune a leaf on a rampant plant to give a less-rampant plant a better chance.

HiPoha · August 6, 2012

I recently trimmed off all the dry looking leaves from my kabocha squash plants and the next day the vine looked dead. It looked like the trimming caused the plants to bleed to death. The plants never bore female flowers anyway, so it wasn't such a loss. Just another lesson in what I should not do again.

July 3, 2012	#1
Elliot Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Hicksville, New York Posts: 503	Can you cut the leaves on a cucumber plant? we have a batch of cucumber plants and the leaves are large and are blocking off other plants. Can the leaves be trimmed without damaging the plants?

July 3, 2012	#2
cornbreadlouie Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: SF bay area... north bay Posts: 242	I've been trimming a couple leaves off my zucchini plants when they start shading things and haven't noticed any loss of productivity, so I'm going to say YES! __________________ Do You Like Worms?

July 4, 2012	#3
habitat_gardener Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: California Central Valley Posts: 2,543	I usually cut off leaves only if they have some insect damage. Otherwise, I use plant ties or a stake to reposition them so they aren't blocking another plant. But it depends on who's getting blocked. I might prune a leaf on a rampant plant to give a less-rampant plant a better chance.

August 6, 2012	#4
HiPoha Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Hawaii Posts: 130	I recently trimmed off all the dry looking leaves from my kabocha squash plants and the next day the vine looked dead. It looked like the trimming caused the plants to bleed to death. The plants never bore female flowers anyway, so it wasn't such a loss. Just another lesson in what I should not do again.