Cucumbers enjoy a warm, humid atmosphere, so growing them alongside tomatoes which prefer it dry is not always easy.
First, choose a good all female variety of cucumber as these are the most trouble free and likely to produce good results. Ordinary open pollinated types can produce bitter fruit if the flowers are pollinated.
Personally, I'd always grow them in the greenhouse border if you can, enriching the soil with lots of well rotted compost to keep the moisture in. Cucumbers in grow bags need more attention as the bags dry out easily in hot weather.
In either case, plant the cucumber into a slight mound so that water doesn't collect around the stem.
The main problem will be that the plant will make a huge amount of growth. Keep the sideshoots pinched out to keep most of the growth to a single cordon until it is quite tall, and then allow side stems to develop on which your cucumbers will form.
In my experience, the main problem has always been what to do with all those cucumbers as even a single plant produces an abundance.
The main pest is likely to be red spider mite when the leaves go pale and yellow and you can see the pest with a magnifying glass on the underside of the leaves. Spraying several times a day with water is the best way to keep it under control but I always found that plants succumbed to it sooner or later.
Cucumbers enjoy a warm, humid atmosphere, so growing them alongside tomatoes which prefer it dry is not always easy.
First, choose a good all female variety of cucumber as these are the most trouble free and likely to produce good results. Ordinary open pollinated types can produce bitter fruit if the flowers are pollinated.
Personally, I'd always grow them in the greenhouse border if you can, enriching the soil with lots of well rotted compost to keep the moisture in. Cucumbers in grow bags need more attention as the bags dry out easily in hot weather.
In either case, plant the cucumber into a slight mound so that water doesn't collect around the stem.
The main problem will be that the plant will make a huge amount of growth. Keep the sideshoots pinched out to keep most of the growth to a single cordon until it is quite tall, and then allow side stems to develop on which your cucumbers will form.
In my experience, the main problem has always been what to do with all those cucumbers as even a single plant produces an abundance.
The main pest is likely to be red spider mite when the leaves go pale and yellow and you can see the pest with a magnifying glass on the underside of the leaves. Spraying several times a day with water is the best way to keep it under control but I always found that plants succumbed to it sooner or later.
2 Jun, 2010