First Early Cucumbers May 2011

Nip out those early tiny cucumbers for a better crop.

 

 

It is easy to get carried away with the sign of all those  cucumbers forming on your early plants, but you have to be bold at this early stage and nip out quite a few on the main stem. This will give your plant more longevity by giving it a chance to establish well before it starts really cropping heavily. I like to grow my plant to the crop wire, then pinch out the head and grow most of my cucumbers on the shoots that I train up. Last year  I   had nearly 50 cucumbers form one plant using this system, so it seems to work well for me. If you are short of space it is no problem to just grow them on the stem.

 Just leave a few on the main stem at the start and it is surprising how quickly they will grow. 

I removed all the cucumbers below this first one, and you can see how it has grown. I have also removed some above it, and I will now start to train a few side shoots out. I will probably leave about 5 or 6 on the main stem. The plant is grown in a bottomless  pot, as I explained earlier on my blog, so as to keep the stem away from the damp soil.