THEY look so exotic, with their broad leaves and yellow flowers, and when trained correctly a couple of indoor cucumbers will produce enough fruit to keep you going all summer.

Seed should be sown in April in the greenhouse singly in 7cm pots containing multi-purpose compost. They can be transplanted into frames or the greenhouse border in late spring or early summer and need watering well, especially while they are flowering.

When sowing you need a constantly warm temperature - minimum 25C, so you'll need a heated propagator for the seeds to germinate quickly. Once the first leaves have fully opened they can be potted on into a larger pot.

Finally, plant them singly in 25cm pots of compost or growing bags and water in after planting.

Most new greenhouse hybrids are all-female. Female flowers have a miniature cucumber behind them, while male flowers just have a thin stalk. If the plants are stressed some male flowers will form and should be removed to stop insects transferring pollen to the female flowers which results in bitter fruits. Keep humidity high and the temperature at around 20C, and the compost moist but not waterlogged.

Each stem can be trained up a vertical wire or cane and the tip of each side shoot should be pinched out at two leaves beyond a female flower. Once the fruits have started to swell, feed every two weeks with a tomato fertiliser.

When the fruit reaches a reasonable size it can be harvested. Don't let the cucumbers turn yellow on the plant or it will stop cropping.