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Description

Growing your own fruit and vegetables is extremely rewarding and this fast-growing and vigorous variety of mini cucumber that will provide you with plentiful crops of bitter-free fruits. 'Socrates' cucumbers are a 'all female' variety that will perform at its best when grown in a tunnel or greenhouse where they can be kept free from pollinators. 'All female' F1 hybrids give the surest results, producing almost all female flowers, virtually eliminating the need to remove male flowers (male flowers are generally only produced when plants become stressed). They delicious fruits are best cut when about 18cm (7in) long, this is when they will have a pleasing nutty flavour. They have a very high resistance to diseases that provide you with a much longer growing season. Delivered as a pack of 5 seeds. Sow indoors from February - May.

Top Tips

Cucumbers do best in a humid atmosphere, so damp down the greenhouse or tunnel regularly.
Once the fruits form, give a liquid feed every 3-4 weeks to ensure the best crops.

Care Information

How to grow Cucumber �Socrates F1�

Sow indoors, February to May, 0.5cm (�in) deep, on edge, in small pots of compost.
Water well, firm gently and place in a warm position. A temperature of 20-25�C (68-77�F) is ideal. Keep moist.
Seedlings usually appear in 7-21 days. When plants have developed 3 or 4 leaves, transplant to 12cm (5in) pots and grow on in cooler but not cold conditions.
Plant out from April to June, into large pots, growing bags, or fertile, well-drained soil in the greenhouse border or tunnel.
Provide support and train plants up canes, wires, strings or netting; untrained plants will not produce straight fruits.
Stop lateral growth at 2 leaves past each fruit. Pinch out growing tip when plants reach the roof. Male flowers (those without a swelling behind the flower) may occasionally form, especially if the plants become stressed. These should be removed as pollinated female flowers produce bitter fruits.

Delivery Information

Our experienced team at the nursery will always carefully package and send your plants nursery fresh in the perfect condition to thrive once you receive and plant them. Although most plants are extremely tough and will not be affected by all but the most extreme of weather conditions, we always avoid dispatching the most perishable plants if extreme frosts or heat is forecast. We also avoid dispatching orders over Bank Holiday weekends.

Please allow us 3-5 working days to dispatch your order. If you have ordered a 'pre-order' item, these will be sent out as soon as possible after the quoted dispatch date and we generally ship your entire order with any pre-ordered items. Once your order has been dispatched, we will send you an email with details on how you can track it.

We send most of our orders via a fully tracked courier service with Yodel. We will send you a tracking link as soon as your order has been dispatched. To avoid perishable items being stuck at depots and deteriorating, we will not require a signature on delivery, and we ask out couriers to leave your item in a safe place ad your delivery address.

*Please note, once your item has been delivered, we cannot be held responsible for loss or theft from your delivery address. If you have delivery instruction and require our courier to leave your item in a specific place, please let us know - there is an option to leave a message for the courier at the checkout.

For smaller and single-item orders, we may send these via the post with Royal Mail - Tracking will not be available for orders sent via this method.

**Please note, we cannot guarantee delivery on a certain day or time. Delivery to outlying postcode areas may take 1-2 days longer, dependent on your location.

For all orders, a small delivery fee of £4.99 will be charged or spend over £49.99 for FREE Delivery!

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