Skip to Content

Do Cucumbers Need A Trellis | Inspiring Answers

Sharing is caring!

The demand for cucumber among all vegetable crops is very high since it is eaten almost all year round, both raw and salted.

That is why in nearly every vegetable garden, you can see a place for cucumber bushes, to which a lot of attention is paid. Typically, this plant clings to any support with its green antennae to reach for sunlight.

So, growing on a trellis is the right option for cucumber. Trellis fully provides the light necessary for the rapid ripening of fruits, eliminates contact with harmful bacteria, and promotes better pollination.

Do Cucumbers Need A Trellis
via Pixabay

Do Cucumbers Need a Trellis?

Yes, because it provides many advantages to the cucumbers. The trellis itself consists of pillars that form support. A wire or a strong bundle is pulled over them, around which the plant can twine around and will not break off during the entire growth. Some of these advantages include:

  1. Space is saved – The trellis takes up very little space, but it contains two times more plants than an ordinary one.
  2. The risk of plant diseases is reduced because the stems and leaves do not touch the ground – It is easier for the plant to avoid damage from peronosporosis and powdery mildew.
  3. The vegetative process is accelerated – With vertical cultivation, the plant gets more light and heat. Thanks to the arrangement because the daily temperature drop is not so much felt, which positively affects its development.
  4. The yield increases – The experience of summer residents and gardeners who grow cucumbers on a trellis proved is proper care from a plot of 5 square meters. It is possible to collect up to 80 kg of healthy fruits. Cucumbers will have a uniform and bright color because they hang from the lashes. In addition, their fruits have no deformations.
  5. It facilitates the care of plants. Cucumber is smoothly distributed over the trellis, braiding its rods, thereby enabling the processing of the entire plant and feeding and further watering.
  6. Pure fruits are harvested – Because cucumbers are placed vertically in the trellis, ripe fruits do not touch the wet ground and thus remain clean.
  7. It is simple to build a trellis – You need to pull a wire or rope near the poles, walls, or fences. 
Do Cucumbers Need A Trellis 2

Ways to Create a Trellis for Cucumbers

Any gardener can make trellis on the selected area with their own hands. There are many ways to create it, and here are the steps.

  • You will need three posts, a tight rope or wire, and some metal pegs.
    • Drive two pillars along the edges of the garden bed (on each side, one pillar with a height of at least 1.5 meters is enough).
    • Put another one on top of them to twine a rope around it. 
    • Put pegs on the sides of the bed or both. 
    • From the bottom, attach a wire to a peg and pull it up to the crossbar.
    • Bend around and pull down to the peg, wrap the thread around the next peg, and pull it up again. 
    • Then pull the rope to the very end of the trellis. 
    • This type of trellis is made after the cucumbers are planted but before they start to ascend.
  • To create the wooden trellis, the design consists of slats, and in appearance, it resembles a ladder or a horizontal school bar in a gym.
    • Cells of about 15 cm are made from the slats, but no more, since when the plant begins to twine around them, there is an option that they will break and be unable to withstand the load. 
    • For such a design, you need slats of about 3 cm wide, horizontal posts with a thickness of at least 5 cm, and vertical beams of at least 4 cm.
    • The slats are knocked into a square or rhombus using self-tapping screws, and the lattice is attached to a base of four bars. 
    • This option is not just created for the garden, and it also performs a decorative function.
  • You can make a trellis of the same type as a wooden one, i.e., take the same basis, and instead of wooden slats, pull a strong bundle.
  • Dig in a post, put a bicycle wheel on top of it, pull a rope or wire from top to bottom from it.

How to Plant Cucumbers on a Trellis

Planting cucumbers on a trellis is carried out from late May to early June. A furrow is drawn into which the seeds are planted in a previously prepared bed on both sides.

Observe the distance when planting seedlings, which should be 20 cm between the pits and the row spacing of 100 cm. Then sow three pieces of seeds. 

After all the seeds have sprouted, the weakest are removed, the method called thinning. Thinning is necessary to prevent the plants from choking each other.

As soon as the cucumbers sprout ten centimeters in height, a cucumber trellis is installed. As it grows, the plant is tied to it. Cucumber seedlings must be watered with warm water, only at the root.

Essential tips for growing cucumbers:

  • Do not plant cucumbers in the same garden for several years in a row.
  • Water the seedlings regularly since cucumbers are moisture-loving plants. If you keep them in a drought, there will be no fruit.
  • Cucumbers love warmth, so the plant will not grow well if the temperature drops below 10 degrees. This will lead to late bloom or even to the death of the plant.
  • Make beds for cucumbers in areas where cabbage, potatoes, and tomatoes grew.
  • Feeding is needed every two weeks.

Harvesting of Cucumbers in a Trellis

On average, cucumbers take about 40 days to ripe. Harvesting time largely depends on the purposes of its further use. The regular harvesting should be two days since a delay in this process can lead to less intense fruiting.

It is better to arm yourself with a knife and cut off the necessary fruits to do this. Plucking, pulling, and twisting the stalks is highly undesirable, as this weakens the bush. It is better to pick cucumbers in the morning or evening when solar activity is not very strong. The harvest is put in a cool place.


Conclusion

At the end of the harvest, it is necessary to remove all residues of vegetation from the trellis and destroy them, preferably burn. This will help prevent the spread of possible diseases in the future.

The net, twine, or wire is removed from the stakes. After which, they are taken out of the soil, dried, and put in a utility room for winter storage.

After removing the trellis, you need to take care of the soil, dig up the ground, and remove the roots from the bushes. After that, you can start preparing the beds for growing the next crop.