Forcing Cucumbers.

Give information on growing hot-house cucumbers, and also if you think it would pay me to go into the business in southern California.

Forcing of cucumbers has been undertaken for a number of years in California and formerly was considered unprofitable because cucumbers grown in the open air in frostless places came in before the forced product could be sold out at sufficiently high prices to make the venture profitable.  Recently, however, owing to our increased population in cities and larger demand of products out of season, forcing becomes more promising and is worthy of attention.  Forcing of cucumbers in California can be done at very much less expense, of course, than elsewhere, because of the abundance of winter sunshine and the fact that sufficiently high temperatures can be secured in glass houses with exceedingly little if any artificial heat:  The chances of growing cucumbers out of season for shipment eastward and northward can be discussed with the officers of the California Vegetable Growers’ Union, which has offices and warehouse in Los Angeles.

Cucumber Growing.

I have a piece of red so-called orange land which has produced excellent wheat.  Will you give information about its adaptability to cucumbers?  Are there pickle factories in the State which would demand them in quantities, and is there much other demand for them?  About when should they be planted, and how much water would they need?

The cucumber needs a retentive soil which does not crack and bake, and such a soil is made by abundance of organic matter.  Your orange soil, unless heavily treated with stable manure and given plenty of time for disintegration, would probably give you distressful cucumber plants, if it has come right out of wheat-growing.  Besides, cucumbers do not like dry heat, even if the soil be kept moist by irrigation.  Oranges will do well under conditions not favorable to cucumbers.  Cucumber plants must come up after danger of frost is over.  The amount of water they require depends upon how moist the soil is naturally, and as the crop is chiefly grown on moist river lands and around the bay, it is chiefly made without irrigation.  Such lands have a cucumber capacity equal to the consumption of the United States, probably, and the pickle factories can usually get all they can use at a minimum transportation cost.  Large-scale plantings should only be made by men who know the crop and have definite information or contract for what they can get for it.

Ginger in California.

We have ginger roots in a growing condition with sprouts and bulbs growing an them, but we do not understand how to raise the plants.

Growing ginger in California in a commercial way has not been worked out, although roots have been introduced from time to time.  Plant your roots in the garden, just as you would callas, where you can give them good cultivation and water, as seems to be necessary, and note their behavior under these favorable conditions before you undertake any large investment in a crop.