Long Cucumbers.

Long cucumber is the classic Dutch glasshouse cucumber, shipped shrink-wrapped to hold moisture in a fruit that is almost entirely water. It is sold by the piece to a tight length and straightness specification, so a fruit outside the grade has little value regardless of its weight. It is the primary Dutch long high-wire baseline.

What the crop needs

The plant is grown on substrate and carried on a high wire, and it moves fast: fruit fills in days, and the plant will abort a load it cannot support. Transpiration is high, so irrigation capacity and humidity control are sized for peaks rather than averages. Because the crop responds within days, climate faults are expressed almost immediately — which makes the crop unforgiving, and also makes it quick to diagnose.

What the greenhouse has to do

Cucumber pushes the climate system harder than tomato does. Transpiration is high and the crop answers within days, so irrigation capacity, humidity control and ventilation are sized for peak demand rather than for the seasonal average. A house dimensioned on averages runs out of headroom in exactly the weeks that decide the grade.

Cycle planning is a design input, not an operational detail. The crop is fast enough to run more than one planting in a year, and how many the house runs sets the heating profile, the lighting decision and the labour pattern together. Length and straightness are graded fruit by fruit, so even transmission and even water delivery across the whole floor are worth more than a strong specification at one point in the house.

DutchGreenhouses® specifies the structure, climate, screening and irrigation around the cucumber crop, its cycle and the local climate, so peak demand is carried and fruit holds the grade. Get in touch to plan a cucumber greenhouse.