Growing Cucumbers

I grow my cucumbers in the greenhouse  in much the same way as I grow tomatoes.

First, I sow them 2 seeds in a 3″ pot. Then I pot these up singley into 5″ pots. Many gardeners will tell you to dispose of the weakest plant but, with the price of seeds as high as it is, that seems wasteful to me and I have never had any trouble pricking the plants out.

After the plants have grown to a reasonable size and the roots are showing at the bottom of the pot, I then pot them on into their final large pots. I stake these plants and tie the stakes to the roof of the greenhouse. I use my own garden compost to grow the plants in. However, growbags will do equally well. The plants are going to be in these pots for a few months and are going to be supporting a number of cucumbers, so the compost needs to be rich.
You could, if you wish grow cucumbers directly in growbags and use the very nice new supports with them. However, I feel that a deeper root run works better and bamboo canes work well for supports.

Most cucumber seed is supposedly all female these days, but it is worth keeping an eye on the flowers. You do not want male flowers. They make the cucumbers taste bitter. The way you tell the difference between male and female flowers is that the female flowers(the ones which will develop into cucumbers) have a thin stem between the flower and the main stem. You can leave the flowers a day or so to be sure that it is not male, just don’t let it open if it is. The male flowers are directly on the stem.

If you do not support cucumbers or train them in any way, they will grow slightly curved (a bit like a banana only not so curved.)The Victorian gardeners used glass trainers to ensure that they grew straight and an updated version of these is now available to buy. You can grow cucumbers quite well without them, but if you want straight cucumbers, then you need to train them. They will taste the same, whatever you decide.

When the cucumber plant starts to flower, you should feed them with a liquid fertiliser.Trim any side shots to two leaves and when the plant reaches the top  of the canes, pinch out the growing tip.

You can grow cucumbers outside in just the same way. Just plant them in the soil instead of potting them up. You can sow them outside. They should be  2 ft apart. If you sow them outside, then sow 2 seeds together and cover with a cut of platic bottle (a litre lemonade bottle with thee bottom cut of is great). This will protect the young plants from slugs and cold winds.

You do not need to grow cucumbers up canes. They will grow well scrambling on the ground, but they take up much more room and are susceptible to slug damage. Sow themGrowing Cucumbers 3ft apart if you are not supporting them.

Cucumbers are very easy to grow and taste much better straight from your plant than bought cucumbers do. They are attractiive enough to grow on wigwams in your flower beds, so have a go.