I get 800 cucumbers from a bed of plants

 

"This can be done with simple means, Professor Raik said. My wife and I have been experimenting with agronomy since 2006, when we set up a garden house. We grow cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage, strawberries, flavour greens, sometimes paprika, baklava, curry, even melons, etc. We also have a fruit garden. The most successful of all of the projects, however, is the cucumber project," he says.

'The tools we use are very foolproof. It has already worked for a dozen summers and produces an average of about 50 cucumbers for each plant per year. Since I usually plant 16 plants, it makes about 800 cucumbers a year. The harvest season is from mid-June to the end of September. About 8 fresh cucumbers will then be available on a normal summer's day.

The technology itself is as follows:

1) Preparing the bed

I dig about 40-50 cm deep, 80-90 cm wide and as long as needed ditch. I fill it with compost, which I produce from biowaste in my own garden. Sometimes I add a little fertiliser, but almost just as well, even without it. The compost is loaded with a pile as it collapses later. It needs to be watered to ensure sufficient moisture and then covered with black plastic.

2) Planting cucumbers

We buy pre-grown cucumber plants from the market. Growing them by yourself is wonderful. Cut into the plastic with scissors and place the plants in the soil. Then water and cover the greenhouse with plastic.

3) Maintenance

It is important to keep moisture and heat. So most of the time I keep cucumbers under plastic. In warmer times, cucumbers can be kept open. On summer nights, when the temperature is high, it doesn't need cover at all. What is important is that when the temperature drops to 12 degrees C and below, the cucumbers will stop. The plastic also helps to maintain the high moisture that cucumbers seem to love.

I will chew cucumber every night! In recent years, it has been easy because my son built an automatic irrigation system for them. (Gardena watering system components can be bought from a number of construction and gardening shops). All maintenance is therefore very simple. Simply pick the cucumbers every day, and in the process you also remove all the dried leaves.

 Professor John Raik of the Faculty of IT"