Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Growing in Greenhouses & Polytunnels => Topic started by: Elm street on March 24, 2015, 10:21
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Greenhouse newbie question!
I have bought a couple of mini cucumber plants - Hana F1 type they are currently in my conservatory at home whilst I complete my new greenhouse on the plot.
Question - Can I grow cucumbers in buckets in the greenhouse or is it best to put them directly in the border soil?
Many thanks for any replies!!
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I hope your conservatory is warm, at night as well as day - you won't be able to leave then overnight in an unheated greenhouse until about the end of April/beginning of May.
I think they do better in the soil, but others grow them well enough in tubs - maybe I'm not careful enough with watering them.
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Thanks MOS,
The conservatory has a thermostatically controlled radiator in there, it does not fall below 10c overnight ;)
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Phew!
Panic over!
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If you have soil borders in the greenhouse I would plant them in there - easier to manage the watering in a greenhouse border than a container. Soil may need replacing periodically as it will get tired if you just plant the same greenhouse crops in it year after year. I replace mine every year, but that is probably overkill. The manure / compost mix I put in the my greenhouse borders comes out lovely at the end of the season, so for me in part the changing of the greenhouse soil annually is so that I have a supply of nice fine compost.
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I failed 3 years on the trot with GH cukes until last year, having finally worked out they were getting too much direct sunlight, although I have to say it's not a problem widely reported on these forums.
Better to err on the side of caution though and not plant in the sunniest part of the GH, and also, if possible, place them as far away from the door as you can - they like more humidity than, say, tomatoes which they often find themselves sharing the space with.
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I do agree that it is easier to keep water levels consistent etc growing cucumbers in border soil, I did quite well with them in flower buckets last year, with a pop bottle waterer in each. They did need regular feeding, more than in the soil, but gave a good crop trained up some trellis on the east facing side of the greenhouse at home. Reached the roof and flowered up amongst the grape vine :lol:
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I find they grow like triffids in the poly bed . crop almost as badly as courgettes lol
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Thanks for the replies everyone :D
Looks like they are going in the border soil then! In the SE corner of the greenhouse where the large water butt outside can give them some shade :D :D
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Thanks for the replies everyone :D
Looks like they are going in the border soil then! In the SE corner of the greenhouse where the large water butt outside can give them some shade :D :D
Sounds perfick :D
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Grow mine in buckets, I put a plastic plant pot with the bottom removed around he stem to help prevent neck rot. I water with a micro irrigation system.
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Grow mine in recycled growmore tubs with holes drilled in the bottom, because I am too cheapskate to buy buckets !
I stand the tubs in big seed trays permanently filled with a couple of inches of water and 1/2 strength feed.
I buy new JI No 2 every year.
Don't know if this is the best system- I am a newbie at cucumbers. It is basically just the same "ring-culture" system I have use for tomatoes for the last 99 years, even down to getting them to grow up hairy string, rather than wires or canes.