Cool Tips To Help with Your Cucumber & Tomato Plants

When growing in small spaces or areas it can be hard to find room to grow cucumbers so here is what they do. they hang these http://shop.simplyhydro.com/Reel-Enz-Plant-Support-Spools_p_1681.html plant support spools from the ceiling down to each plant container. They train the plant using vine clamps to grow up the string. when the vine reaches the top they let some of the string out lowering the plant. This technique can be used on tomato plants as well

If you start to notice that your cucumbers are growing bigger on one end then the other (bulbous at the top) & the leaves of the plant are showing faint yellowing around the edges then you need to add a blooming additive that is high in potassium & phosphorus as this is a sign that your plants need more potassium. http://shop.simplyhydro.com/BloomBastic-80-ml-Atami-_p_2534.html is the most popular or you can use http://shop.simplyhydro.com/Hydroplex-Bloom-Enchancer-Quart_p_766.html there are many potassium blooming additives available.

ok I get asked a lot why cucumbers that are growing and developed will all the sudden turn yellow and fall of. This one is an easy fix. Once your plant has more then 4 cucumbers developing on it I pinch off all new fruits until I am about to pick those then I let 4 or 5 more grow per plant. If there is a high fruit load on a plant developing fruits will abort.

Seedlings exposed to to much heat not enough light will stretch. This makes the seedlings weak and more susceptible to diseases, drought and bugs. The reason plants do this is they are assuming that they are being shaded by other plants and they grow really tall really fast in order to compete for light.

Once your tomato plants have a couple sets of leaves you need to expose them to air movement either from oscillating fans or gently running your fingers through the plant canopy a couple times a day. Doing this encourages the plant to grow stronger and healthier. Air movement also helps keep bugs off of plants. When the fan passes over the plant canopy the leaves should move slightly like in a light breeze. Having the fan to strong will cause wind burn damaging your plants.

Now when it comes to transplanting it is a fact the more times you transplant your tomato plants into bigger pots the better. WHY? you might ask. this is because every time you transplant you should bury it up to its "neck" (just below its top set of leaves), or as much of the plant you can bury under the soil. The newly buried part of the plant will develop a strong healthy root system. Planting this way also allows you to control the plants size. much easier to work with a plant that has 8 inches of strong stocky foliage then a 2 foot long spindly plant.