503 



CULTURE OF THE CUCUMBER IN POTS. 



From the plants sown on the 1st of September I cut the first-fruit on the 

 4th of November ; from that date to the 4th of December I have cut from 

 three lights, or three plants, forty beautiful fruit of the Syon House kind, 

 varying from twelve to fifteen inches in length. The same plants will con- 

 tinue bearing till about Christmas. I have just (Jan. 10th) begun to cut 

 from the second sowing, which will continue bearing through March. The 

 plants of the first sowing are thrown away at Christmas, and plants of the 

 third sowing are planted out in their place. When I plant in a bed, I form 

 the bottom of the bed by laying some strong stakes across the trough, and 

 covering them with any rough boards. The stakes so laid will leave a 

 cavity round the back and front of the trough, so as to allow the heat and 

 moisture to rise from the bottom. The plants are put out in a narrow 

 ridge, and earthed up in the usual way as they advance in growth, and the 

 branches are trained upon a trellis, in the same way as for the plants in 

 pots. These plants will bear well through the spring and summer months. 

 As soon as the first three lights can be spared, I introduce shelves fifteen 

 inches from the glass, and fill them with strawberry plants ; and the pit 

 answers equally well as for cucumbers, only for strawberries the bottom- 

 heat is not wanted." 



1076. The advantages gained by this pit over any pit that I have ever 

 seen or heard of, are, firstly, a great saving of labour and dung, which last 

 at all times makes a very littery and unsightly appearance ; secondly, the 

 having a sufficient command of top-heat in severe arid changeable weather ; 

 thirdly, the return pipe being buried, or partly buried, in water, gives a 

 sufficient bottom-heat, moist or dry, at pleasure ; and fourthly, the vapour 

 which can be produced from the trough admits of keeping the air at any 

 degree of moisture required. By these means, the plants become so healthy 

 and strong that a good crop of fine fruit is certain. (Gard. Chron. for 

 1841, p. 36.) 



1077. Messrs. J. Weeks and Co., who erected Mr. Greens pit, have 

 obligingly furnished us with a section of it, fig. 357, to a scale of ^- of an 

 inch to a foot. 



a a, Outer walls. 



b, Hot-water pipes, laid in a trough of 

 brickwork (c), which ran be filled with 

 water, and emptied at pleasure. 



C, Trough of brick-work. 



d </, Ground level. 



e, Joists of wood or iron, forming the floor 



of the pit. 



f, Bed for planting or plunging, in which 



there may be upright tubes, chimney 

 pipes, or flower-pots with the bottoms 

 out, at regular distances, so to admit 

 at pleasure the moist air from the 

 chamber below. 

 <7, The trellis. 



Fig. 357. Mr. Green's Cucumber Pit. 

 Scale i of an inch to a foot. 



h 7i, Hot-water pipes for top-heat. 



SUBSECT. IV. Culture of the Cucumber in Pots, in a Pinery, Vinery, or in a 

 Cucumber -house. 



1078. The culture of the cucumber in pots has been reduced to a regular 

 system by Mr. W. P. Ay res, whose Treatise on the Cultivation of the 

 Cucumber in Pots (1841, 3s. 6rf.), is not only the cheapest of six treatises 



