[Zippy]

I was given a couple of cucumber plants from a guy who doesn't know what variety they are.

I had presumed that they would be cold greenhouse plants and have them in 5" pots at the moment, but they look like they are going to be hungry beasts - compost is damp, not waterlogged, but leaves are showing chlorosis already - lack of nutrients?

I am wondering if I would be better hardening them off and sending them up to the allotment under a coldframe? Do Cukes usually grow outdoor or greenhouse? Never tried growing them.

If they can go out, I could use the greenhouse space they are taking up to grow a couple of chillies.

[noshed]

In Cornwall you could probably treat them as outdoors ones. Harden them off in the cold frame before planting them out and put them in a hole filled with compost/rotted manure. It might be worth covering them with some sort of cloche for the first week or two - it's perishing here at the moment and mine are in the house looking out of the window!

[Zippy]

thanks NoShed - do I take it from your Avitar photo you now have a shed?

[noshed]

Indeed I do. It was a great day when I got that built.

[8doubles]

One in the greenhouse and one outside seems the obvious way , just in case this year never warms up.

[JayG]

They might be suffering from the cold already; 5" pots are a decent size for a single plant unless they are huge!

8doubles ideas sounds like a good each-way bet, but don't forget that of all the tender summer vegetables cucumbers are the most likely to go mammaries-uppermost if it's too cold for them.