Grow Your Own Magazine

Do cucumbers grow?
Was given one, and have another which I grew from seed on my sitting room window sill.
OH hasn't erected the greenhouse yet, (and is unlikely to in the near future) but the first one, I was given is getting pretty tall, it has long 'stalks' winding out from the sides, are they 'creepers' or do they fatten out to become cucumbers?
Got it staked out with green canes just now, but it is as tall as them, and don't think I could manage to fit 4 foot canes on my window sill!
Will cucumbers grow outdoors?

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http://clairescraftandgarden.blogspot.com/

Is it to late to plant cucumbers? I 'd like to grow them but probably should have started ages ago .

I would imagine they would still grow where you are as you have plenty of summer left, probably getting to the end of planting possiblities up here, do you want some seeds? I have lots left, that way, what have you got to lose?

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http://clairescraftandgarden.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the offer Claire - that's so kind. I do have a packet of seeds I bought a month ago but somehow it got to the back of the drawer and then I kind of dithered in shall I or shan't I mode.
I'll give them a go today. Do they need a lot of space?

margo

Cucumbers grow fairly long (10ft plus), depending on what variety will depend on whether you can plant it outside. You don't have to grow it up it can be grown along, but preferably off the ground. You can pinch the top out if you want to restrict the growth and then the side shoots will grow and give you more cucumbers, it isn't usual to grow cucumbers as a bush but give it a go if it suits your needs.

Ian

Thanks for that advice Ian. I think I'd better look at the space I've got available.

I've just built a cucumber tripod (an idea I got from an earlier thread on here) out of branches we found while clearing our plot, lashed together with garden string. It's probably about 6 feet tall and I've got 3 plants, one for each leg, ready to go out once they're hardened off. The plan is to grow them up the tripod and pinch out the tips if we need to once they get to the top.

I've also read somewhere (on here?) that you get better performance if you pinch off the tendrils and tie the plants instead, as they use up less energy growing tendrils and put more into fruit. I don't know if that's true (maybe they would just put more energy into growing more tendrils?), so I think we'll try it on one or two of the plants but not all of them, see which works best.

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Warning: I have a dangerous tendency to act like I know what I'm talking about.

Couldn't bring myself to pinch out the tendrils yet, they are proving far too fascinating to watch as they wind themselves around the canes I put in, almost moving in front of our eyes!!

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http://clairescraftandgarden.blogspot.com/