Spacing of cucumbers in a greenhouse

Hi all,

My intention is to grow cucumbers in greenhouses as a commercial venture.The cucumbers will be the vine variety "English Hothouse Cucumbers". Each greenhouse will have 2 raised beds with 116 squares in each bed (29 squares long x 4 squares wide).

Each cucumber plant will be trained to grow vertically by a cable hanging from the ceiling.I will have growing lights and misters to create humidity.I will also resort to pruning the plants so as to prevent to much of lateral growth.

My question is about the spacing of each plant: according to Mel's book it's 2 plants per square.
In a square of 1' x 1' the plants will be 10 cm (4 inches) apart. I find this somewhat hard to believe because the cucumber plant produces huge leaves and feel that 2/square will be a bit to cramped.

Other websites suggest spacing of more than 1' between plants.I tried to search this forum and found that some people even have 6 plants per square.

I would like to know from other growers out there what spacing they recommend for cucumbers in a greenhouse.

Your input would be highly appreciated.

Thanking you in advance.

Regards,
Sanjay

Thank you for the link,it was very helpful.

Regards,
Sanjay

Sanjay, Using the Square Foot Garden method, 2 per Square means they are 6" apart.  3" space on the left, 6" space between the plants, 3" space on the right.  If you plant a second square to the right, the previous right hand 3" space added to the new left hand space = 6"

The Forum is more focused towards personal sized gardens.  You may need to find additional forums for support on commercial sized operations.

You may have to experiment with plant spacing because your Mel's Mix will probably be a little different from MM in the US/Europe.  2 per square? 4 per square? ?/square?  The beds should be a dimension so that you can reach each plant comfortably.  Cucumbers need to be pollinated, either by insect pollinators (African bees or other pollinator) or by you.  Will your green house be open to natural pollinators?  Otherwise, you will need to be able to reach every male and female flower with a tiny paint brush!!

Best of luck on your commercial enterprise.