Hey All. I hope you are having a happy Monday. I just wanted to share with you a quick trellis project I undertook for our cucumbers. It started out with me tossing some cucumber seeds into our second self-watering planter. This one was unfinished, but I figured I had time to put the wooden cover on it later. Boy, that was a mistake. Those cucumber plants took off with growth and before I knew it, I needed a trellis!
At first, I wanted a vertical trellis, but I didn’t have time to create something to hold the weight of the plants and the trellis itself. So, I opted for a 5-foot ramp-like version made out of PVC pipe to keep the cucumber plants off the ground. I simply used what we had in the garage, including an old curtain rod that could be stuck into the ground to hold things up! Below is a video of the first part of the Trellis.
It was pretty interesting to get them trained onto the trellis at first. I had to tie a few of them to the nylon string, but after that, they took off on their own. They started growing all over the place and I had to start pruning them back to control the growth. To be honest though, I probably have too many bunched together. I had thinned them out some but the plants were doing so well I couldn’t bring myself to cut them all out, so I figured “what’s the worst that could happen?”
Well, this past weekend, I had to hurry up and create a second part to the trellis. By the time we woke up Sunday morning, one of the cucumber vines had grown past the end of the trellis! So, it was time to spring into action again. This time with the help of my son, we created a 6-foot section to connect to the 5-foot piece and attached a set of 45-degree elbows to start the downward trek. You can see it in the video below.
By the time I woke up this morning, the longest vine was already reaching out to the new portion of the trellis! Well, once they get to the end of this section, I have two options: 1) Let them keep growing and running along the ground, or 2) Cut and confine them to the trellis. I believe, we shall be going with option #2. Hopefully, we will get a nice little crop from them and if so, we’ll be sure to post photos!
What type or style of trellis have you created? I’d love to hear different ways to do this.
Have a Happy Monday everyone!