How do you support cucumbers please?

I have grown these before but not with great success. I hope to do better this year ! I am growing the small 'Emilie' variety and at the moment my plant is in a largish pot and has just started to show flower buds. It has not spread further than a very small bush at present and is situated in my greenhouse. Where do I go from here please ?

 

Thank you

This is Emilie http://www.johnsons-seeds.com/catalogue/product/cucumber-emilie-f1/12827/

 

Mine are still on the kitchen windowsill, I believe overnight temps are still a little too cool for them (7C last night).

John...was it you that last year recommended removing the first few fruits...I cant seem to find the discussion now from last year. And I already have 4 or 5 small fruits on each plant now

Steve...

 

Thanks for confirming this for me John, I didn't do this last year...and had a good six week period with no fruits, or fruits that did not grow more than half an inch.

Steve...

 

With regard to support, I start with a short 3' cane and then either use a string tied to the pot (I drill holes in opposite sides of the pot, thread a bit of wire through and tie the vertical support to that) and then use plastic coated wire wraps about every foot to fasten the cuc to the vertical. I've horizontal wires that run from one end of the GH roof to the other for supporting the vertical 'strings'. I also use some wide mesh fishing net (picked up on a beach) at one end of the GH and simply tie the cuc into that.

I'm also trying 'Emilie' this year as it is supposed to be a smaller cuc as we always end up throwing away about a third of the larger ones. The one in my GH is now approaching 3' tall with several cucs on it and the one in my polytunnel is about 8 inches tall. I'm also growing 'Marketmore' which is a ridge type and trails along the ground and for the first time an 'Akito' which is a prickly type but which is supposed to be trained upwards.
I've never bothered nipping the early fruits as we always seem to get an overwhelming abundance, but what I do try to do is nip out the tendrils as in theory they divert energy from growth and fruit production.

Cucs were planted out in polytunnel on 7th May and seem to have survived the cold nights without any problems.