8 Cucumber Trellis Ideas – Supporting Cucumber Plants – How to Tie Up Cucumbers

Do you have a problem with soil born diseases in your cucumber plants? These cucumber trellis ideas will help to solve this stumbling block.

Anyone who has grown cucumbers knows that they take up a LOT of room in a vegetable garden.  One way to overcome the space problem is to use trellises or other climbing structures as a means of cucumber support. 

This allows the cucumbers to grow up instead of letting them crawl along on the ground and saves precious garden space. 

Since cucumbers are a vining plant, they will attach themselves to any support that you provide. This keeps the cucumbers free of soil born diseases and makes them much easier to harvest.

Do cucumber plants need support?

While not absolutely necessary, supporting cucumber plants is recommended. In fact, a common mistake that beginning gardeners make is not supporting plants that need it.

Cucumbers vines have tiny tendrils which will grab any nearby poles, trellises, cages or stakes. Even tall nearby plants might discover that they have a cucumber hitchhiker!

Supporting cucumber plants makes it easier to pick the cucumbers when they are ready and keeps the plant much cleaner that if it were growing on the ground.

Staking cucumbers also makes the plant easier to water, since it is easier to keep the moisture near the roots and not on the leaves which can lead to fungal diseases such as alternaria leaf blight, anthracnose and powdery mildew.

Do your cucumbers suffer from soil born diseases? Try growing them upwards instead of along the ground. Check out 8 cucumber trellis ideas for some inspiration on The Gardening Cook.  Click To Tweet

How tall should a cucumber trellis be?

Cucumber trellises can be anywhere between three and six feet tall. Cucumber vines grow quickly but seem to be well controlled when growing. 

Different types of cucumbers grow to various heights. Research the plant you are growing so that you can match the trellis size to your plant.

Most cucumber types can be handled on a trellis that is 5-6 feet tall.

Keep in mind your own height. While a cucumber plant will grow up an 8 foot obelisk, you might have a hard time reaching the fruit at the top!

Cucumber trellis ideas

There are many means of supporting cucumber plants.

From specialty cages, to obelisks, and jute stretched over fence posts, all you need is some kind of set up which will allow the cucumber vine tendrils to attach themselves to.

Keep reading to discover some cucumber support ideas to try.

Fence posts and jute to support cucumber plants

I admit I am not the handiest person with power tools, so this set up was easy for me to put together. I used some old recycled metal fence posts and jute to form a make shift cage for my cucumber vines to climb on. 

The only other tool needed was a rubber mallet to pound the fence posts into the soil.

The cage is not the most beautiful cumber trellis idea, but it does the trick nicely.

The cucumber vine tendrils grab both the jute and the fence posts and grow up them quickly. It makes it so much easier to see where the cucumbers are and keeps the patch all contained very nicely.

To make the cucumber trellis, I wrapped jute three times around the posts at one foot intervals along the sides and kept walking around them until the posts were wrapped like a cage. 

The cucumbers love it. They are already growing up to the top!

You can use the project card at the bottom of this post to print out the directions to make this cucumber trellis.

Wooden cucumber trellis

The Gardening Cook on Facebook has some creative fans who contributed other cucumber trellis ideas.

This cucumber trellis was built by the husband of a Gardening Cook fan called Allison.

It consists of two A-frame sides connected by one beam at the top. Wire supports for the cucumbers also connect the A-frame sides.

More wire supports are draped over the top beam and connect to the long wooden raised garden bed below. If you are handy with tools, this type of support would also be easy to put together.

Would you like to share your husband with me for a weekend Allison?

Cucumber teepee for climbing

Teepees are an ideal way to support cucumber plants. They are super easy to put together with three long stakes and a nylon stocking to hold them at the top in the form of a teepee.

I often grow my heirloom beans up the sides but have also used them as a cucumber trellis, too. See how to make this cucumber teepee here.

Another of my Facebook fans – Debbie suggested this option for a trellis: “I had some cut off limbs from my confederate roses, which I cut every year when finished blooming.

I tied them like a tepee and ran my cumber vines up them and it works wonderfully, and it was really cheap too!”

Other ideas for supporting cucumber plants

Supporting cucumber plants is easy with these ideas. Here are a few more:

Garden obelisk

A garden obelisk is a great idea for giving cucumbers something to climb on. Making one is easy and they are both decorative and functional.

The design is perfect for attracting cucumber tendrils. They can climb up the side supports and overhand the horizontal supports.

Supporting cucumbers with stakes

Another way to tie up cucumbers is to use garden stakes that are made for indeterminate tomato plants that grow quite tall.

The stakes are about 6 feet and cucumber plants love them!

I just put them into the ground near the base of the plants and let the tendrils grab the pole. The vines climb up and cover the plant in no time.

I use several stakes, side by side, and can support a lot of tomato plants in a single raised garden bed.

Cot frame cucumber trellis

Here is another great idea.  This old crib cot frame makes a wonderful A -frame trellis that just about anything will grow up!

Since cucumbers are heavy on the vines, they will hang down inside the frame and will be easy to harvest. Idea shared from Grow Veg on Facebook.

One of the great things about this idea is that the cucumbers will shade plants that are underplanted. This allows you to grow lettuce and spinach under the frame without them bolting as early as normal.

Cucumber trellis netting

Trellis nets are made of weather-proof nylon and are strong and tear-resistant. This type of netting is easy to install and keeps your plants off the ground, reducing rot and disease.

This raised position also increases air circulation around the vines and  allows for optimal spacing between your plants.

You can purchase this netting at most big box stores and on Amazon. (affiliate link)

Cucumber lattice trellis

This type of trellis requires a bit more handiwork but does a good job supporting cucumber plants and looks great too.

You will need to build a frame for the wooden lattice and the posts of the structure will need to be secured in the garden by buying the feet into the soil.

Place the completed lattice trellis behind the cucumber plants and they will climb the lattice quickly.

Soil born diseases isn’t the only issue that cucumbers have. Do you have a problem with your cucumbers turning yellow? Find out the reason for yellow cucumbers in this post.

Admin note: this post for cucumber trellis ideas first appeared on the blog in June of 2013. I have updated the post to add all new photos, more trellis ideas and a video for you to enjoy.

Pin this post for cucumber supports

Would you like a reminder of this post for cucumber trellis ideas? Just pin this image to one of your gardening boards on Pinterest so that you can easily find it later.

 

Yield: 1 cucumber trellis

How to build a cucumber trellis

Print

This DIY cucumber trellis uses recycled fence posts and jute to make a cage that your cucumber vines will love to climb.

Active Time 30 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Difficulty easy

Estimated Cost $25

Materials

• 4 upright posts at least four feet tall. My posts were 5 feet tall.
• Roll of jute

Tools

• Rubber mallet

Instructions

1. Choose an area for your trellis.
2. Use the rubber mallet to position the four posts into a square shape of the size you like.
3. Starting about one foot up tie the end of the roll of jute.
4. Wrap the post three times with the jute and walk to the opposite side post and repeat.
5. Continue going around the cage until all four posts have a row of jute 1 foot off the ground.
6. Tie the jute around the fourth post.
7. Return to the first post and repeat steps 3-6 one foot higher than the first row of jute.
8. Wrap the entire cage and repeat with three more rows. If your posts are taller than four feet, add additional rows of jute.
9. Plant your cucumber seeds at the proper spacing in the soil at the base of the trellis.
10. Vines will grow up and attach themselves to the side posts as well as the jute string.

Notes

I used recycled metal fence posts since they have small tabs on them that hold the jute in place. they are expensive to purchase new so any type of plastic post will also work to keep the price down.

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