[tomato-joy]

Recommendations for cucumbers please - I've not had much luck in the past so would love advice on varieties. Should I stick with the green ridge?

thanks.

[shaun]

ive grown the green ridge with no problems at all,i plant them through some teram to keep the root ball damp lots of manure before aswel.once they start cropping you can get sick of cucumber very easily
the skins can be a bit tough though

[tomato-joy]

do you grow outside or in the greenhouse? I was rather hoping to find one with a not so tough skin (as that's one of the troubles I've had in the past!)

[muntjac]

make a trough for ya greenhouse about 18 inch wide n a foot deep ,as long as you want from old pallets boards mines 6ft  .cover the inside with a plastic sheet .fil with old growbags and well rotted  manure , as much as you can pile in .pour asi do 3 buckets red hot water in it . all along the manure and cover with a plastic sheet n a load newspaper this will heat the soil up massivly ,the hot water is to give it a good start. leave it to cook for about a week then plant your cucs in it use a home made net made from baler twine attached to the back of the trough for them to grow up allowing them to go out over the roof space if needed .plant 6 cucs in the trough .. you will get all the cucs you want and loads more ridge or burpless for me , try doing the same for ya toms ... if you only grow a few plants .i put in 24 plants so i grow in buckets 6 rows of 4 in my biggest house  

[muntjac]

when you clear the toms / cucs at the end the season ,use the manure remains to feed ya broadbean trench . or you cann grow peppers in it  

[WG.]

Sounds like good advice Muntjac.  I like the hot water trick - presumably that it kicks the bacteria into life and then they keep things going themselves.

Sadly, baler twine seems to have gone the way of the Dodo, the Great Awk and the Passenger Pigeon.  The farmers all use plastic wrap these days.

[muntjac]

farmers supplies wil stil have it mate . shepherds definatly , search baler twine in google mate i am sure you will find it ,expect to pay about £20 a bale its called ,,FARMERS  . baler twine .comes in a bale of 12000 ft  i go through maybe 1 a year in all uses mainly for bracing pheasants repairing wire fences .

[WG.]

Never occured to me to buy the darned stuff.  Got so used to picking up used stuff off fences, etc.  Thanks for that Muntja

I remember as kids we got the job of plaiting baler twine into short ropes for tethering the calves.  "Left over centre, right over centre, left over centre ..."

Yup - I'm almost as old as you Muntjac

[muntjac]

i was told a piece of twine roled in ya pocket can save a life ,, didnt know why till i had to brirth a stuck lamb