Alternatives to growing cucumbers in growbags or soil

[George the Pigman]

I usually grow a couple of cucumber plants in my greenhouse every year in growbags. I have just gone to two garden centres and been shocked by the price of the growbags  (£4.99) compared to the price of the same volume of multipurpose compost. It looks a bit of a rip off to me.
Has anyone any experience of growing them in large containers?

[George the Pigman]

[pigeonseed]

No I've only ever grown them outdoors in the ground. I've seen cheaper growbags than that, but then who knows what the compost is like in them.

If bags of compost are ok price wise, I can't see why you couldn't use that soil in big containers. A grow bag is just a type of container after all.

[BoardStupid]

Nothing stopping you laying the bag of compost down and cutting hole into that ... Simples  ;D

[pigeonseed]

I think grow bag proportions are a bit different, they seem thinner, maybe you can get more plants for the soil that way. Compost bags are short and fat. That's why I thought GeorgePM might have wanted containers.

Compost bags would be good in terms of stopping soil from drying out - always the issue when you start growing in containers.

[BarriedaleNick]

I grow in builders buckets filled with a mix of own compost plus whatever i have lying around.  Drying out is an issue though but I have had some success doing this in the plastic greenhouse..

[BoardStupid]

I use the cheap grow cubes from Focus. Take bottom off pot that cucumber is in and put into top of grow cube. Seems to be working so far.

Also training plant up old clothes airer we had kicking around

[pigeonseed]

I'm adding those water-retaining gel things to toms in tubs this year. The difference in last year's flower containers without and this year's with is amazing - it's like an advert for the stuff! Might work for cucs too - they can be bitter if they suffer drought as I've discovered to my cost  in the past :-X

[djbrenton]

In Victorian times they used to use upturned turves on metal grilles for growing melons. I'm tempted to try it for cukes one year. The wide root spread and good drainage is apparently ideal.