Background
The cucumber is a very fast-growing plant. The harvest takes only 2 to 3 weeks after the transplant of young cucumber plants.
The downside of this fast-growing is that the top of the crop quickly reaches the wire peak. Traditionally, when this point is reached, growers would bend the top of the crop over the crop wire.
Due to gravity, the top of the crop then grows downward. After a stem grows some 1,5 meters longer, the top is picked up and bent over the crop wire again.
This can be done once more. But after that, the leaves and stems become so messy that the crop must be removed.
After removing the old crop, a new crop must be planted. This gives short cultivation cycles and many weeks without crops in between.
When using a high wire system, the training wire can be elongated and shifted aside (lowering) to cope with the continuously growing stem (up to 60 cm a week).
In that way, one crop cycle can stay productive for a longer period. Moreover, the cucumber yield quality may be improved.
In a comparative trial, a high-wire-grown crop was compared with a crop grown using the traditional umbrella system.