Vegetable cultivation (Agriculture)

Vegetable cultivation

Cucumbers

There are two types of cucumbers: frame cucumbers, which need a good deal of warmth and are grown under glass (in a greenhouse or cold frame) and ridge cucumbers, which are hardier and can grown outdoors in summer in a sunny, sheltered position.
Cucumbers grown without artificial heat are in seasons from about August to October. Those grown in a heated greenhouse are ready from about May.
Cucumbers are climbing plants. In a greenhouse they need to be trained along wires; in cold frames or in the open air, they can be left to trail along the ground.
All cucumbers need rich soil. If growing them in a greenhouse border, make a bed of 3 parts good loam and 1 part well-rotted manure. If growing them in a cold frame or outdoors, dig the bed well and enrich it with plenty of well-rotted manure or garden compost.
A high temperature is needed for the seeds to germinate. They can be started in boxes or pots in an electrically heated propagator thermostat set at 24 C.
If no propagator is available, stand seed containers above the source of greenhouse heat.
Make a firs sowing in February and second in April. Sow either singly in 3 inch peat pots filled with seed compost pushing them in edgeways until covered by about half an inch of compost, or else 1 inch apart in boxes of seed compost.
Cover the pots or boxes with glass, and place a folded sheet of newspaper on top. Then place them in the propagator or over the source of heat.
After germination, night temperature should not fall much below 16 C, for about a month. Before planting out seedlings, fix vertical wires for training laterals along the wall and under the roof where the plants will grow. Place them about 12 inches away from the glass.
When seedlings have two rough leaves, transfer them to a bed made up on the greenhouse border or bench, or into 10-inch pots. Fix a horizontal wire, string or cane beside each plant for it to grow.
When the plants have grown up to a height of about 3 ft pinch out the growing tips of the leading shoots. If no cucumbers have appeared on laterals by the time they are about 2 ft long, pinch out the growing tips.
Cucumbers carry both male and female flowers. Shade the plants from strong sunshine, and water copiously. Damp down the floor of the greenhouse with a hose at least twice a day to maintain a humid condition. Pick them when they are a reasons-able size, but before they start to yellow. If picked too young they will taste bitter.



Tomatoes

Tomatoes are very sensitive to frost and cold, and are generally grown in greenhouse. But there are varieties that can be grown outdoors from June to September in a sunny, sheltered position.
As they take four or five months from sowing to ripening, depending on conditions, plants need to be sown in late march or early April. They can be starter in a cold greenhouse if the weather is suitable, but stand a better chance if started in heat.
Tomato plants can usually be planted out in a cold greenhouse of frame about mid-April, under cloches about mid-May or on the open garden in June.
You can also buy plants from a nursery ready for planting out. They should be sturdy, dark green, and about 8 in. high. Do not buy plants that look weak, fernlike or diseased. Avoid light green plants with large gaps between the leaves, which have been grown in poor light, also purplish-green plants, as they have been grown under too cold conditions. If planting outdoors, make sure you buy an outdoor variety.
Tomatoes are usually grown as a single stem (cordon), which if not stopped, can grow to a height of about 6 ft. All greenhouse plants are grown as cordons. Dwarf or bush varieties are also available for growing outdoors. Dwarf varieties spread along the ground and are not higher than 6 in. Bushes have a dropping growth.

Planting out young tomatoes in the open

Choose a warm, sheltered spot for planting-preferably a border beside a wall of fence. Dig the ground thoroughly and add plenty of well-rotted manure or garden compost. Do this well before the planting or at the same time as applying fertilizer. When all danger of frost is over, plant out in the prepared bed. Knock each plant gently out of its pot, keeping the soil ball intact and plant it so that the top of the ball is half an inch below soil level. Firm the soil round each plant, leave the pots in the greenhouse or on the window-ledge and keep moist. Water plants thoroughly and scatter slug pellets round them.