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Growing Cucumbers 🥒

It would be a shame not to take advantage of this lovely hot weather and so the perfect thing to grow now, which can be sown directly outside, is the summer salad favourite, the Ridge Cucumber.  Now a lot of varieties can only be sown indoors and then transplanted outdoors so it's important to be mindful about buying the right seeds when skipping this step.   Cucumber 'Marketmore'- crispy and mild tasting, excellent in salads. Cucumber 'Bono'- Smooth skinned but stronger taste, again great for salads (and nothing to do with U2) Cucumber 'Tanja'- Mild, crisp and prickly skinned another for salads and very high yielding.  Cucumber 'Profi-F1'- These are smaller and are ideal for pickling when picked early or as a lunch box treat.   There are more but just be sure to check when buying.    Cucumbers used to be troublesome when grown as the male plants used to get a bitter taste once they matured but now they have been hybrid grown so that it's only the female ones that we plant.    Location. Cucumbers do love shelter and warmth. Ideally you need a sunny spot that has some wind blocking hedging or buildings. The ground should be well drained and well fertilised with either manure or a good quality fertiliser such as Organic Chicken Manure Pellets dug in.    They should be sown about 40 to 50 inches apart as they do tend to take up quite a bit of space and around 1.5 to 2cm deep.    Once you have them in the ground, water them well and then place tarp or hessian sacking on top to help them germinate. This step is not critical but will speed things up massively. This can be removed once they have germinated and leaves can be seen above ground.    Care. Cucumbers are fairly low maintenance when grown outdoors as the bees and the bugs will do the pollinating for you. You can choose to let them grow without support (give a little more space if you decide to do this) or you can grow them on a trellis/fence.  For trellis grown, simply set up two posts at either end of your cucumber row and run chicken wire between them. As the plants get bigger and start trailing you can use soft ties to gently attach them up the wire. If sown now, the plants should start producing their first crop late August through to September. More fruiting can be encouraged by picking them as soon as they are ready and also removing any of the stunted or damaged growth as soon as they are noticed.      Pests.  Slugs adore cucumber plants and so it is important to set up slug traps or treat the area with the likes of Doff Slug and Snail Killer to prevent any damage before it happens. Greenfly/Blackfly can also be a problem however this is usually more the case when grown in polytunnels or greenhouses. Either way they can both easily be treated using a mixture of peppermint essential oil with water in a spray bottle or by using Neudorff Pyrol Bug and Larvae Killer.  It's best to try and use natural methods to kill off any pests as using pesticides will also kill off the helpful insects such as the bees who worked hard to pollinate your crop for you!    So here is to the good weather continuing and crispy cucumber growing! Happy planting :) Sophie