Growing cucumbers is easy.

Tomatoes are very easy to grow in your own garden, but what would the tomato be without its good friend the cucumber? Cucumbers are almost as common in Swedish greenhouses as the tomato, and that is really not surprising considering how well they go together. Cucumber and tomato are such a common feature of the Swedish salad that it is almost impossible to tell them apart, and it should be that way in the garden too.

Grow your own cucumbers – Greenhouse

Cucumbers can grow wonderfully well during the Swedish summer but like to have a greenhouse. The cucumber thrives best at temperatures around 25 degrees and is extremely sensitive to low temperatures. Already at 10 degrees the cucumber can begin to droop, which is precisely why a greenhouse is preferable. Cucumbers are best planted far from the greenhouse door, if you don’t have ventilation windows, as a draught from it can bring both cold and disease.

Grow your own cucumbers – Pre-sowing

Cucumbers are usually sown from seed and benefit from being sown indoors first before they go out to the greenhouse. Because the cucumber plant is so sensitive to cold, it also helps to have a small buffer between sowing the cucumber and the time it is safe to plant it out in the greenhouse. Plant the seed in a pot of seed compost and make sure it stands warm but not in direct sunlight. The pot should be watered from below, the surface can be showered if it is dry, and as soon as the soil out in the greenhouse is 15 degrees the plant can be set out. Of course you can wait a little, but not too long; a larger cucumber plant requires more water and nutrients than it is possible to give it in a small pot.

Grow your own cucumbers – Planting

Cucumbers can be planted together with tomatoes in a greenhouse, but they thrive best in a completely different soil, so it is best to separate them somewhat. The soil should be moisture-retentive, humus-rich and very nutrient-rich, at a temperature of 15–20°C and a pH of around 7.0. Cucumbers have an enormous need for both nutrients and calcium, so you need to feed often, although it is important that the fertiliser is chlorine-free. Well-rotted manure works very well. A generous feeding in autumn saves you a lot of work in spring, so plan ahead if you are going to plant cucumbers. Cucumber plants are planted about 50 cm apart, but not down in the soil, rather in small mounds on top of ground level. Once in place you water the plant lightly and the cucumber is in place.

Grow your own cucumbers – Care

As mentioned earlier, a cucumber plant needs enormous amounts of water and should be watered at least once a day when the sun is at its highest. Also feed regularly; a mixture of bone meal, blood meal and Algomin is perfect for the purpose. During warm periods you may even have to water more often and ventilate the greenhouse so it does not get too hot. If there is a risk of cold you can put a fan heater in the greenhouse overnight, though there is then a risk that it gets too hot instead. To be sure pollination takes place you can rub male flowers and female flowers against each other; they are easy to tell apart because female flowers have an ovary behind the flower that male flowers lack. If the cucumber plant is topped at head height and supported with a plant stake it will stand steady even with fruit on it, and you needn’t worry about it snapping off. Don’t wait to harvest the cucumbers until it is too late, because large cucumbers are more watery and have less flavour than somewhat smaller ones, and it would be a shame not to get perfect cucumbers for your effort.