4U BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Temperature required for Indoor Cucumbers. 

 Where cucumbers are grown under glass, it is necessary 

 to supply them M'ith considerable heat, the night temperature 

 required being about 65° F., and the day temperature about 

 85° F. The temperature requirement varies witli the condi- 

 tion of the weather. Higher temperatures can be maintained 

 during sunsliine than during cloudy weather. Houses are 

 frequently run in the day time at a temperature exceeding 

 85° F. High temperatures during cloudy weather will pro- 

 duce a weak growth, lacking a sufficient textiu'e of foliage, 

 etc., which would result in the plant possessing a marked 

 tendency to wilt in strong sunlight. The conditions which 

 cucumbers are subject to under glass are by no means the 

 same as those which occur in the summer out of doors. 

 Indoor cucumbers are subject to very different moisture con- 

 ditions, and in the winter the lioht is none too cood for a 

 plant whose requirements demand strong light. In order 

 that cucumber plants may be induced to grow under these 

 adverse conditions, heat is substituted for light, as a stim- 

 ulus ; which results in producing plants possessing a much 

 more delicate structure, and consequently rendering them 

 much more susceptible to certain diseases. All cucumber 

 crops grown under glass are more or less abnormal, or, in 

 other words, they are forced ; but there is considerable dif- 

 ference in the amount of forcing they receive by different 

 growers, owing to different conceptions of manipulating the 

 crop. 



Fertilization of Flowers. 



Cucumbers are monoecious plants, i.e., the sexes are borne 

 in separate flowers on the same plant. For this reason, 

 when cucumbers are grown in greenhouses it is necessary to 

 resort to hand poUenation, or else to employ bees to cany 

 the i)ollen from the staminate to the pistillate blossoms. 

 Bees are generally abundant enough in sunmier to accom- 

 plish fertilization of outdoor crops. It is stated, however, 

 by some authorities, that certain varieties of cucumbers, such 

 as the Telegraph, or long English types, do not require fer- 

 tilization, inasnuich as the fruit matures, whether fertilized 



