So........When do you sow your Cucumber seeds then?

[Dynamite]

Since my post on asking when people Sow their Tomato seeds was quite popular and interesting, I thought I would do the same with Cucumber.

I am doing Burpless Tasy Green this year. I will be sowing in my kitchen and then they go into the unheated greenhouse at some stage.

The packet says to sow April to May.

What do you do?

Kind Regards......Rob

[Cadalot]

3rd Week of April see Alans Allotment: Sowing & Planting Plan I have found that they grow really quickly. Alans Allotment: Cucumbers

[Small pumpkin]

April for me as well.

[veggiechicken]

Last year I sowed 3 Passandra on 7th February.
This year, I shall try sowing them 3 weeks earlier - which is tomorrow.
As I said on your Tomato thread, I'm happy to take the risk of failure - and I'll sow old seeds anyway.

[Bren In Pots]

Around the middle of April here as well, the same time as I sow my courgettes.

[bikermike]

Socrates here.
Probably mid feb in a propagator

[fon]

I tried it on the 1st of Jan last year and got a nice headstart.

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...rth_93068.html

Iv done it again with the Cucumbers. The tomatoes were pointless as everything else caught up really quickly, but the cucumbers got way ahead.

The only issue is space and light indoors until its warm enough outside.

Fon

[bramble]

Won't think of sowing cucumbers until at least March.
They are very susceptible to the cold.

[Penellype]

I sow 1 for the greenhouse at the end March, which I am prepared to lose if we get a late frost (it will go into the greenhouse in May). Then I sow another 2 for the greenhouse in April (one is for insurance in case the older plant dies) and 2 for outdoors in late April/early May.

[Dynamite]

I think I will go got the last week in April.

Regards......Rob

[KevinM67]

I grew them outside last year - so it was an early May start for me indoors, and put them out at the beginning of June.

I started with four, but lost 2 to 'damping off' (which did my head in as they appeared really healthy).

I grew the Burpless variety - and the remaining 2 plants grew really well with loads of fruit.

[bazzaboy]

Start quite late - I only really grow them for the local show and that's in the second week of September, start them too early and they go over or get scratched by their own leaves.... 'Carmen' is a regular late one. I end up eating the curly ones, the scratched ones, the misfits. We think of cucumbers as being green but, akin to bananas, their ripe state is to turn yellow - which would disqualify them! I didn't get a First last year on cucumbers, was pipped - so peeved! The Victorians had the answer to perfectly straight cucumbers and grew them in individualised hand-blown glass tubes (see pic), which also protected them - I have seen them in museums but they're now hideously expensive as "antiques". Could do with an alternative, to steal a march, if anyone has any suggestions? (Other than "Get a life!" )

[1Bee]

Every year I'm tempted to sow things early, but all I've got is a heated propagator, an unheated growhouse in a back yard which doesn't get much sunlight till summer and some windowsills with little sunlight and no guarantee of frost free....

I'm best off waiting till things can go almost straight from the propagator into the growhouse.

[hop-a-long]

I've unintentionally managed to plant a couple of cucumbers already! I was going through my seed packets last week to see what and when to plant, left the tray down on the floor overnight and the bloody cat wee'd on them!! I probably should've chucked them to be honest! But I washed them down as best I could and stuck them in some pots. Carmen cucumbers, with special fertiliser, will try and keep them as houseplants on the windowsill if they can cope!
Oh and as for keeping them straight, last year I got some really cool moulds on ebay, I think they may even have been Japanese, one was heart shaped and the other was star shaped, good for novelty value anyway I'll try find the link.

[hop-a-long]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Star-Shape...-/262792369668
You need to secure them really well together over the fruit, when it's still small enough to to fit in. First ones I tried, the expanding cucumbers just pushed them apart. But I did get a couple of well defined ones after which were good for a laugh!