Quite often you can see forced proximity of cucumbers and tomatoes within the same greenhouse.
Not everyone knows that such a habit can reduce the yield of vegetables.
It’s not that the cultures somehow negatively influence each other: in principle, there are no direct contraindications to growing them together.
So why don’t experienced gardeners grow tomatoes and cucumbers in the same greenhouse?
Despite the fact that there is no direct competition or common diseases between plants, they can have a negative impact on each other, says agronomist and landscape designer Anastasia Kovrizhnykh .
This is explained by the fact that crops have completely different approaches to understanding the ideal microclimate. If you set ideal conditions for tomatoes in a greenhouse, cucumbers will have a hard time. In most cases, the yield decreases and the taste of vegetables changes negatively.
If you prioritize cucumbers, tomatoes may even die due to disease.
What are the differences in the needs of cucumbers and tomatoes?
Cucumbers thrive when the greenhouse has high humidity and high temperatures. Needless to say, such conditions are simply unacceptable for tomatoes.
Tomatoes thrive in fairly dry greenhouse air.
Is there any way to solve this problem?
The optimal solution would be to grow crops in separate greenhouses. Also, one of the crops can be sent to open ground.
If it is important to grow two types of vegetables within one greenhouse, it will have to be divided into two parts, creating a wall of film between them. Also, roofing felt can act as a "divider".
In this case, you will be able to provide suitable conditions for each crop.
