Rob Smith is training cucumbers
The sturdy frame I’ve created will let them climb and save me space
It’s been a busy growing season so far, not only because I’m transforming my new plot into a productive kitchen garden, but also because I’ve been a little behind in planting out some of my favourite crops.
One crop I love to grow is cucumbers and normally it’s outdoor varieties, such as ‘White Wonder’. This productive variety yields dozens of creamy-white fruit all summer, but can suffer from slug damage if the weather is on the wet side. This year I’ve decided to grow a new variety called ‘Merlin’, which is a midi variety, producing 15-18cm (6-7in) long fruit and is parthenocarpic, meaning it only produces female flowers and the fruit will be free of seed.
I started the seeds off around six weeks ago and have already potted them into their final pots in the new greenhouse. As it’s a vigorous variety I wanted to use the vertical space in the greenhouse to grow these cucumbers, yet I didn’t want to train them up a single cane or string as they’re supposed to be very productive and I was afraid the plant may break its support. So I decided to create a sturdy frame for them using a couple of wire fencing panels and timber. After creating the new frame, I’ve laid them at an angle and fixed them to the side of the greenhouse with some sturdy cable ties so that it doesn’t slip and shatter any of the glass. I then let the plants start to climb up the frame and so have used less floor space, enabling me to fit more crops in the greenhouse.
When growing cucumbers, I find it best to leave a couple of leaves after every fruit and remove the rest of the sideshoot. Then you can control the plant more without it turning into a triffid and taking over! Each plant is in a 15 litre pot and watered regularly and fed with my home-made comfrey tea, which seems to give them a real boost and will help increase the number of fruit from each plant. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks I’ll be harvesting crunchy cucumbers, even if I was a little late planting out my seedlings!