First-time cucumbers

[john gault]

My first patch of cucumbers are looking good, but now wondering is it's best to just let them grow or provide a trellis of some sort for them the grow on?

[Marlingardener]

A trellis will keep the cukes off the ground and away from many pests that love to nibble on them. Also, your cukes will be straighter, and much easier to pick. We use an old metal grate that was over one of our patio doors, but any sturdy trellis will do.

[greenstubbs]

I have had better luck growing themon a trellis for the reasons mentioned above. If your cramped for space this is the best way to go, really any type of fencing will do and your weakest link will be in the poles. Good Luck

[txbarta]

I also have had my first cucumber plant and I must say, I started off with no trellis and the plant suffered from disease (perhaps from being too close to the ground). Eventually I made a DIY trellis to bring the vine and flowers about a foot off of the ground and the results afterwards were encouraging.

I would suggest implementing one into any vine'ish plants.

[PunkRotten]

I am growing cucumbers now and have a trellis set up. It is a lot better for them to grow on and also saves more space. But this cucumber variety is small and only grows 3 foot vines.


Next Spring I plan to grow more cucumbers and melons but all are small varieties with short vines. All will have trellises too. But I will have a 6 foot area dedicated to some watermelons and I will let them grow along the floor. They weigh too much to support with the cheap trellis materials I have and I don't feel like spending extra money.