Cucumbers I'm growing in my greenhouse this year (2022)

August is ending. The summer we practically never had is leaving. Despite the rainy and autumn-like cold summer, our greenhouse harvest is excellent.

In the fall, we remodeled the greenhouses—we had three beds in each, now there are two, making the aisle more spacious. We added fresh soil from the garden, compost, mineral fertilizers, dolomite flour, and ash to the beds. We dug and watered the soil with phytosporin.

Tomato seedlings and two hot pepper plants were planted in the small cucumber greenhouse, where cucumbers and peppers had previously grown. In the large tomato greenhouse, cucumbers and peppers were planted in one bed, and tomato seedlings were planted in the other, along with peppers at the edges and watermelon bushes in the corners.

Contrary to the belief that cucumbers and tomatoes can't be grown in the same greenhouse because they require different growing conditions, we've been growing cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, watermelons, and eggplants together for many years, and all the vegetables are thriving, disease-free. The tomatoes are large and delicious, the plants are covered with tomatoes, and there are always plenty of cucumbers—we even give buckets to friends.

I'd like to tell you about the cucumbers we're growing this year. In the spring, I bought seeds for five varieties of cucumbers.

These are the cucumbers that grew from these seeds.

I sowed the cucumbers on April 18th, and ten days later, I transplanted nine into individual cups. I sowed two seeds of each variety. One seed, a German F-1, didn't sprout.

I placed the cups with the seedlings on the windowsill. On cloudy days, I turned on a lamp in the morning and evening to provide more light and prevent the seedlings from stretching.

In mid-May, we planted the seedlings in the greenhouse. I ended up with a total of nine cucumbers: two Emerald Streams, two Soltis, two Shosha, two Levina, and one Herman.

I also sowed three more Herman seeds in the greenhouse, but they didn't sprout. We usually plant 12-15 cucumber plants. Later, I had to remove two more cucumber plants because they had barren flowers. I thought we were left without cucumbers this year.

I'll tell you briefly about each variety.

Herman F-1

Herman F-1 is my favorite cucumber. I plant it every year and it always produces a good harvest. This year, I got some poor-quality seeds; only one of the five germinated. But the single bush planted in a new location was simply gorgeous, with numerous strong side shoots bearing numerous cucumbers. Herman's leaves are large, dark green, and the bushes are tall.

German is an early-ripening, high-yielding hybrid variety. It's the earliest of all cucumbers; the cucumbers grow to a uniform size and don't overgrow, even if you don't pick them every day. The cucumbers are dark green, with some having lighter green rays underneath.

I never remove the side shoots on my cucumbers, as suggested online. I tie the shoots to twine and let them grow up next to the main stem or slightly to the side. I also never pick off the ovaries of the lower cucumbers. Why pick them? They fill out, and we soon pick them. They're delicious, the sweetest because they're the first ones to ripen.

Emerald Stream F-1

A cucumber called Emerald Stream is a hybrid. I've been growing it for several years now. It has vigorous bushes, large dark green leaves, and thick stems.

The fruits are long, bumpy, prickly, and dark green. They are very tasty, tender, and slightly sweet.

But it needs to be picked every day, as it grows quickly, although the size of the cucumber does not affect the taste.

Cucumbers can be salted and pickled, cut into several pieces. Emerald Stream is always productive. It grows and bears fruit until frost.

Soltis F-1

This is my second year growing the Soltis cucumber hybrid. It's a long-fruited salad-type cucumber. The fruits are elongated, with a smooth, thin skin, and are very tasty.

It's best to pick the cucumbers while they're still thin; if they get too big, the skin becomes tough, the flesh becomes watery, and the flavor changes slightly. Young cucumbers make amazing quick-pickled cucumbers, perfect for lunch at the dacha.

The bushes grow up to the roof of the greenhouse, with many side shoots on which, as well as on the central stem, there are many cucumbers.

Shosha F-1

Another cucumber, Shosha, is also a hybrid. I planted it for the first time and am very pleased. It's an early-ripening variety with a very high yield. We picked the first cucumbers earlier than the Herman variety. The cucumbers are small, pimply, with dark green skin, similar to the Herman variety, crispy, and deliciously flavorful.

They're great for winter preserves. They grow quickly, so you need to pick the cucumbers every day.

Just like Soltis, it produces many side shoots with cucumbers. I tie them to the main stem, and let some of the side shoots run along the twine next to the central stem.

Levina F1

And the last variety is Levin F1. This cucumber caught my eye with its beautiful package. The picture shows a cucumber vine covered with luscious light green cucumbers; I wanted some of those too.

Levina's seeds sprouted first. The seedlings were strong and healthy. Two of the bushes quickly sprouted side shoots and were taller than all the other bushes. The main stem was covered in numerous sterile flowers, reaching all the way to the top of the bush, but no cucumber ovaries had formed. The side shoots grew quickly and also bore only sterile flowers.

By mid-June, we were already busy picking and eating cucumbers from all the other cucumber plants, but Levina's cucumber bushes only had one light green cucumber each. When we picked them, they tasted very bitter.

I decided to rip Levina out and throw her away. I don't need a cucumber like that.

In conclusion, I want to say that even though we didn't have a real summer this year and despite the fact that I only had seven cucumber plants, the harvest was quite good. Every day, we picked half a 10-liter bucket of cucumbers. We shared the harvest with family, neighbors, and friends, pickled and salted it for the winter, and ate it fresh and lightly pickled.

August is almost over, and the cucumbers are still growing. Yesterday I pickled three jars of assorted cucumbers and tomatoes. And we harvested half a bucket of cucumbers again.