Identifying cucumber, and whether to stop it.

[Sheepish]

A friend of mine is growing a cucumber plant, from a seedling of unknown type given to her by a friend. She asked me a couple of questions, but as I've never grown cukes I'm not sure of the answers.

Firstly does she need to stop the growth as we would for a tomato plant?

Secondly, she's been keeping it in her kitchen, but it's getting too big for the space. She asked if she can simply move it outside. Is there any way of knowing whether it's an outdoor or indoor type just by looking?

[sewer rat]

There is a rough way of telling if the cuke is indoors or outdoors - if it has ridges along the length of the fruits, this is a good, BUT NOT 100% ACCURATE, indication that it is an outdoor type. Most F1 all-female varieties are bred for indoor cultivation in this country and genearlly have smooth skins. As I said, this can only be used as a very rough indicator - is there any way your friend can find out the variety from her donor friend?
I never stop my cukes, but I have a lot of space and they can grow to 8ft high and then I can train them along further supports between the crop bars of my tunnel. They can be stopped in the same way as most of this type of climbuing plant - just remove the growing tip - but make sure that you also remove the tips on any side shoots that have been allowed to develop or it will be low and rampant as opposed to beanstalkish !

[Sheepish]

Thanks. I'll check with her if she can track down the original source of the plant.