How I Made a Cucumber Trellis with Natural Materials I Already Had
Want an incredibly cheap trellis for your cucumbers? Whether you're growing pickling cucumbers or growing slicing cucumbers, this little thing will do the trick for less than $3!
Growing cucumber on a trellis keeps fruits off the ground; I'll discuss the many benefits of this shortly. I didn't want to use up precious cattle panel space for my cucumbers, as I need to dedicate that towards tomatoes. So, I got a little creative with what I had! I ended up with a cute little trellis made of natural materials and spent nothing extra.
It's not perfect, but it has a rustic charm to it, and I absolutely love how it looks in my garden. It will play a big part in maximizing space within my garden.
Growing Cucumber Vertically: Gathering Supplies
One thing I love is finding a reason to use my power tools. In this case, it's my battery powered mini chainsaw. I went to the woods and brought down some smaller trees; 10'-50' mostly. I knew I was going to need some logs and branches; I didn't know how they were going to be assembled, but I knew I needed to cut some trees down.
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| I love the primitive, rustic look that this trellis adds to the garden. |
Once I brought them down, I stripped them of branches and twigs, then cut the thicker branches to a length of 3'-6'. I believe the branches used for this particular trellis were roughly 4-5' long. I used three of them to put this together, and a roll of twine (unsure as to how much I used; it barely put a dent in a 500' roll.) All it takes is two ingredients and a little bit of creativity!
Assembly of the Cucumber Trellis: Just Wing it!
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| You can see how I tied these branches together with twine to build this trellis. Look at those tiny little cucumber transplants, just waiting to climb it! |
Seriously, just wing it! I tried to select three similar sized branches, then I stood them up in a pyramid. I tried to let the branches rest against each other naturally, holding one another up, to figure out where I wanted to join them together. Once they seemed to stand on their own, I grabbed my twine and tied them together. How? Well, I'm sure there's a tutorial for the correct way to do it on YouTube; but I'm impulsive, impatient, and I like to just get things done sometimes. It's just a simple little trellis to keep my cucumbers vertical, it's difficult to mess it up. So mine isn't very neat or proper- but it works. I can say that about a lot of things around this little farm, if we're being completely honest!
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| Twine is an excellent choice for an environmentally friendly trellising material. It's strong, it's biodegradable, and the texture helps plants to grab it and vine over it. |
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| What a mess of twine; but it'll do! |
After I had the structure secured at the top, I grabbed the twine and starting from the bottom, I wrapped it around moving upwards, in a spiral-like fashion. With each wrap, I tied it around the branches for stability.
As I went, I looked for notches and protrusions where branches used to be, using those as guides for where to tie or wrap the twine; those areas helped to "grab" the string and hold it in place. This will help to prevent the twine from slipping downward on the branches as the weight from the cucumber fruits places pressure on them.
This "spiral" was going to form the base of the "netting" part of the trellis. Once I made it to the top, I took lengths of twine and tied them to the existing twine, going from the top to the bottom forming a loose grid (if you could call it that), then back again.
You can also see that it's not a perfect "net." It's like a confused, blind-folded spider tried to build its first web, riding down a pothole-riddled backroad in a school bus.
But it'll "catch" the food as it's intended to do, so all is well, right? Well, at least I hope it will.
We shall see as the summer season approaches.
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| Twine loop used to attach cucumber vines to the DIY wooden trellis. |
Anyways, I attached a few strings of twine to the bottom of the "net" and tied loops into the bottom. These loops dangle close to the ground; they go around the leading vine, encouraging the cucumbers to climb up the trellis. In the photo above, you can see that I'm training the cucumbers to grow up the trellis by directing them with these twine loops.
Once the cucumbers are growing vertically up this budget friendly trellis, I'll only have to worry about trimming any suckers that pop up from the roots to maintain a healthy, productive cucumber patch. We should have a productive patch with very few fungal issues.
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| Cucumber vines start off somewhat slow, but once they take off... they take OFF! These plants are close to that point. |
Why Is a Trellis Important for Growing Cucumbers?
Cucumbers can be prone to fungal, bacterial, and viral diseases. Growing them on a trellis helps to encourage airflow, reducing the risk of some of these diseases. In addition, keeping them off of the ground and preventing soil contact helps, as well. If you've ever grown cucumbers along the ground, you might be familiar with how much of a pain it can be to weed between cucumber vines; especially as they vine through a grassy yard. Sure, you could move the vines to mow around them. That is, until the vines begin rooting into the soil, locking them into place.
Having the vines suspended in the air also makes pests more susceptible to predators, making the cucumbers a little riskier to obtain. Insects don't have the protection of being sandwiched between foliage and the ground; therefore, birds and predatory insects are able to pick them off. Rodents are forced to climb the trellises, which exposes them to hawks, snakes, owls, cats, and foxes.
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Rodents and pests have a harder time accessing cucumbers when they are trellised, keeping your cucumbers safer from pests and wildlife damage. What Will I Do with All of These Cucumbers? For the most part, our cucumbers will be for fresh eating. I'm growing a slicer variety, which is typically for salads and fresh snacking. It's your traditional fresh cucumber. I did not grow any pickling varieties; they've left a bitter taste in my mouth, both figuratively and literally. I haven't found a pickling cucumber that I like, that doesn't become bitter in the summer heat here. 
I actually dehydrate a lot of cucumbers, too! They're excellent for making tzatziki sauce, or for adding a fresh, summery flavor to a variety of foods and teas. I have a herd of goats that absolutely love snacking on their dehydrated cucumber chips during the winter, as well. So, I make sure to dehydrate plenty of extras for the wonderful ruminants that we have. Try adding some dehydrated cucumber to your long-term food storage plans; it keeps wonderfully in the pantry! Every year, I lean more and more into dehydrated foods. Freezing is my favorite way to preserve most foods, but cucumbers aren't a great item to freeze. Frozen cucumbers are mushy and watery; it just isn't my favorite idea. However, dehydrated cucumbers are an excellent flavor to have on hand for fruit or herbal teas, infused waters, and more. |
Now We Wait- Harvest Season Will Approach Rapidly!
We already have our first flowers blooming, beginning around the last week of May. After the first flush of flowers, I notice that the vines usually begin to take off rapidly. I expect that we'll be overrun with cucumbers in about one month, so around the end of June.
You can see one of those flowers in the photo below! So far, we don't have any pests that have shown up, and I'm hoping it stays that way for a while. Eventually, the cucumber beetles and squash bugs always show up. When that happens, I'll begin applying some organic insecticides and soapy water sprays.
For now, the vines are young, the garden is cute, and our hopes and dreams are high. As the dog days of summer draw near, the vines will grow out of control, the pests will reign down upon us, the diseases will begin to wreck plants, and the weeds will absolutely strangle our plants- somewhat- which is why this woven garden fabric has my heart. It's one of the best defenses I have against weeds.
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| The first cucumber blossoms of the season! Now that they're blooming, pollinators will come along and ensure that they have an abundant harvest. |
What Are Your Goals?
Everyone has a different set of goals for their garden, and different measures of success. Some focus solely on slicer cucumbers like we do; others focus primarily on pickling cucumbers, as they prefer that the bulk of their harvest be for cucumber pickles. Others prefer the unique or strange cucumbers, whether they're intended for fresh eating or pickling. Some families will grow one plant, others? Dozens, or more.
What varieties of cucumbers are you growing in your garden, and what are your primary goals? Ours sometimes change from year to year, especially if I'm looking to save seeds.
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| The first cucumber blossoms of the season! Now that they're blooming, pollinators will come along and ensure that they have an abundant harvest. |