There are two types of cucumber plants one is a bush type other is cucumber vines. You can support the bush cucumber plants with a tomato cage or if you don’t this will not affect the plant and harvest.
But you need to use garden trellis to support vine type cucumber plants. You can also use the same cucumber trellis to support other similar types of plants. This way you use one trellis for supporting multiple plants.
When I first planted my cucumbers, I made the mistake of not using a cucumber trellis. The result was Cucumber vines were everywhere in the garden because I left them over the ground. They spread all over the place then I realize using a garden trellis is a must for vine type plants.
Now I use garden trellis to support my plants. This increases production and reduces insect and disease issues.
Moreover, plants grow over the trellis are easy to harvest and produce more fruits.
Top 5 benefits of using Cucumber trellis
1. Every plant needs light to produce food and fruits. Most of the light is absorbed by the plant leaves. When cucumbers are grown above the ground their leaves get easy access to bright sunlight and produce more healthy plant food. This encourages healthy growth and produces more fruits.
2. Plant leaves get dry easily even after the rain. Because trellis gives plants more room to spread and this increases the airflow.
3. You will have more space that can be used for other purposes if vine type plants are grown above the ground.
4. Vertically grown plants are easy to harvest even for people with bad back pain.
5. Garden trellis reduces the risk of plant diseases and insect attacks. Vertical growing plants get fewer diseases as compare to the plants grown over the ground.
The best location for a cucumber trellis
Now you understand the benefits of using a garden trellis. The next thing is to find a suitable location for trellis. Let’s take the example of cucumber plants. We all know cucumber plants love to grow in a warm environment and enjoy 6 to 8 hours of bright light. You need to find such a place where your plants can grow in ideal growing conditions.
Don’t forget about the soil it should be highly nutritional soil. After giving enough light to your plants you need to focus on the Quality of soil. The soil should have all essential nutrients and minerals for the cucumber plants.
I mix homemade compost with the soil of my raised garden beds. Also, I give them extra nutrition by supplying them with Slow releasing organic fertilizer.
DIY Cucumber trellis ideas
You can make your cucumber trellis at home or buy them online if you don’t have spare time for trellis. Below are the most common types of garden trellis that you can make easily and use for vining vegetable plants.
Let’s start from simple and easy designs
String Garden Trellis
In this design, you use a structure made of wood or metal over the growing vining plants. Like in the image below I made a wooden structure over my raised beds. Take the string and pass it through each eye hole of the wooden frame. This way you can create the below like trellis for your plants.
Don’t use cheap strings because I had used them before and my plants ended up damaged on the ground. Choose high-quality trellis string. You can ask on the dollar store for the good quality string for the DIY trellis project.
Using Net Trellis
If you are not a fan of using string and making trellis. The easier method is to use a nylon net instead of a string. The net can be hung over the wooden or metallic frames, or secured with the other strong structures, hung it over the plants with the help of side wooden poles.
Metal Mesh Trellis
This is the easy form of a trellis. All you need to do is buy a metal mesh from the market. Then if you want, you can cut it according to the size of your raised beds. But my advice is don’t cut it because you may grow more vining plants. Then you can use the same metal mesh to support multiple plants at once.
Attach them to the back of raised beds. Or you can bend it to form U shaped cucumber tunnels.
Or
A shaped trellis joins two pieces of metal mesh together like in the picture below. Secure the top with plastic ties that do not use metallic ties. Because metallic tie can catch rust and after some time, they look rusty and bad.
Best cucumber trellis to purchase
Cucumber trellis comes in many different styles and shapes. Most of them are made with metal and look like metal cage. Few of them are reviewed below
Wire Cage for vining veggies
Below is the picture of the red cucumber cage made of metal. These types of cages are stronger than A-shaped metal mesh. You can use it to support 2 to 3 cucumber vines and grow one lettuce plant in the middle.
A-frame trellises
This is the most widely used cucumber trellis. They are cheap and high durable. The A shape allows you to grow any fast-growing plant under the trellis until the vine gets bigger in size. Because once the vines become large enough, they will cover the trellis. Plants grown under the trellis will not grow due to a lack of sunlight.
There are springs on both sides the hold the two metallic frames together to form A shape. You need to take out the springs (coil) to separate them from one another.
Pyramidal Garden trellis
Many companies make pyramid shape trellis. These look nice and made your garden beautiful. They look more like ornamental then cucumber trellis. These are called decorative trellis. Visit Amazon or your local garden store to check the different shapes and colors of the decorative trellis. Off curse, you need to pay more if you want stylish trellis for your garden.
Best cucumber types for trellis
Once you are ready to grow cucumbers vertically you need to choose the vining cucumber varieties. Some of the best and easy to grow vining cucumbers are:
Lemon
Suyo Long
Marketmore 76
Armenian
Diva
How to grow cucumber vine with trellis?
You have two methods of growing cucumbers. One is form seeds and the second is from seedlings. If you like to grow it form seedlings then you need to start the work 4 weeks before the last frost. This is the time when you plant seeds indoors and germinate them. In the meantime, you can buy trellis form the market or make your own at home.
Then fix them in the garden where you want to grow your cucumbers.
Once the seedlings are ready to transfer in the outside garden. check the weather again if everything is good. Then plant them at the bottom of the trellis (with 6 inches of difference between them).
NOTE: Garden trellis should be installed before sowing the seeds and planting the seedlings.
Caring cucumber plants on Trellis
Cucumbers are easy to grow and care but still, you need to give them basic care to encourage healthy growth. Below are the main caring points that you need to follow.
Watering: Cucumbers are rich in water content. Therefore, a good percentage of moisture in the soil. For this, you need to keep the soil moist all the time. Make sure you don’t become soil wet or soggy. If you don’t have time to give frequent water to your plants. You should use mulch; it is protecting plants and also helps soil to retain moisture in it.
Fertilizer: Vining veggies need a little number of fertilizers. The problem is they need a continuous supply of nutrients. Therefore, you need to give them a slow-releasing fertilizer. These are the fertilizers that release nutrients at a very slow rate. This ensures the continuous supply of nutrients to the plants.
To reduce your fertilization expenses, mix compost into the soil. Compost has many essential nutrients for plants.
Bonus Tip: Help your plants grow on a trellis. For this, you need to lift the vine form the growth and put them on the trellis. Careful while handling the vines because they are soft and delicate. Little extra force can damage them. Just help them once and when they grow well, they will latch onto the garden trellis automatically without your further help.
