Lowering Cucumber Plants

Lowered cucumber plants.

 Lowering is one technique to prolong the production life of the plants.  Because crops mature and get harvested from the bottom, we lower the plant to make the stems sit on steel wires that are shown below.

An example placement of steel wires where the plants
can rest their stems.

Once the crops are harvested at the bottom, we trim everything off including suckers, leaves, and cucumbers up to certain height to make the plants sit on the wires.  Eventually we curve the stems back and forth when they are too long, so they look kind of like snakes sitting.

This technique is more organized than hanging the plants and letting them grow downward.  It is also long-lasting because the latter method can only let the plants grow until it makes a round trip to the floor.  But Kyra and I doubt the efficiency of this technique because the longer the stems, the longer the distance the nutrients travel upward from the roots.  We need to verify that keeping the plants grow in one long stem and concentrating everything on top is actually worth the effort.

UPDATE 1: Note that we either use this technique or we use clippers and horizontal wires to support the mature plants.  Kyra has mentioned that we get more production from lowering plants than using clippers and horizontal wires.

UPDATE 2: Carl has mentioned that we used clippers and horizontal wires because it was easier for the workers to support the plants with. If we were to lower the plants instead, we have to do it every 2-3 days. Lowering also gives more production, and the height does not matter for the nutrients that are traveling up.