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#1
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Cucumbers grown vertically
I am moving my garden into considerably less space and would like to
continue growing 2 hills of cucumber plants. My plan is to raise them vertically to conserve space. I would appreciate advice about ways of doing this. Thanks |
#2
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Cucumbers grown vertically
The easiest way that I have found is to buy a couple of 7' or 8' step
ladders from garage sales. Set them firmly into the soil and the cukes have somewhere to grow. Soon they are covered with vines and you can't tell what the support is. They can be easily put away when not in use. If you are trimming large branches from your trees (or your neighbor is), you can tie three or more together at the top and place the teepee firmly into the soil. It is best to leave on a few inches of the smaller branches for additional attachment spots. Plant a cuke or two at the base of each pole and watch 'em grow. Dan DeLyon "Andy N" wrote in message news:hga_9.89978$_s4.41001@rwcrnsc54... I am moving my garden into considerably less space and would like to continue growing 2 hills of cucumber plants. My plan is to raise them vertically to conserve space. I would appreciate advice about ways of doing this. Thanks |
#3
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Cucumbers grown vertically
On 1/30/03 8:02 AM, Andy N wrote:
I am moving my garden into considerably less space and would like to continue growing 2 hills of cucumber plants. My plan is to raise them vertically to conserve space. I would appreciate advice about ways of doing this. Thanks Purchase 3 ten foot lengths of half inch electrical conduit, two 90 degree elbow fittings and a nylon trellis with six inch squares. Drive (or pound) two of the pipes 3 or 4 feet into the ground ten feet apart. Weave the remaining pipe through the top of the trellis and then the sides of the trellis over the two vertical pipes. Connect the top pipe to the side pipes with the elbows and you are done. Of course, you can change the dimensions as needed. I did this about 7 years ago and leave it in place all year. The conduit never rusts and the nylon has not deteriorated yet! --jack |
#4
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Cucumbers grown vertically
I used to live on a very small lot and wanted many different veggies. I
grew cucumbers, pole beans, snow peas and summer spinach vertically with great success. I went to Home Depot and bought several green fence posts. They come in different heights; I think I opted for the tallest which was 7' tall, but you had to pound the first 1' into the soil for stability, so you ended with 6' of growing height. The posts are green metal with little hooks running end to end. I spaced them about 6' apart in a straight row on the edge or back of the garden. Next, I rolled out several feet of heavy bird netting and attached it to the hooks on each pole. Make sure to pull it very tight. If you can't find the heavy netting, use two layers of the thin netting. I also secured the netting to the posts with extra string or twine to ensure it stayed on. The last step is to plant the cucumbers right below the netting. Once the vines were long enough, I tied the first section to the bird netting with old strips of pantyhose (the pantyhose is soft and stretchy and won't hurt the vines). The cucumbers grew on their own from that point on and would sometimes go over the other side of the netting. This is a great space saver, allows easy picking, and reduces disease such as powdery mildew with greater air circulation for the leaves. Hope this helps. Good luck. Penny Zone 7b - North Carolina "Andy N" wrote in message news:hga_9.89978$_s4.41001@rwcrnsc54... I am moving my garden into considerably less space and would like to continue growing 2 hills of cucumber plants. My plan is to raise them vertically to conserve space. I would appreciate advice about ways of doing this. Thanks |
#5
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Cucumbers grown vertically
On Thu, 30 Jan 2003 14:02:53 GMT, "Andy N"
wrote: I am moving my garden into considerably less space and would like to continue growing 2 hills of cucumber plants. My plan is to raise them vertically to conserve space. I would appreciate advice about ways of doing this. Thanks What we do is just to make a circle out of welded-wire fencing (this is also sometimes called 'woven wire' fencing) - you can hook the fencing to itself, if you know what I mean. This isn't chicken-wire, but heavier fencing. Then we plant the cukes around the outside of the circle of fencing, and they grow up it. This works pretty well. A few cukes will get stuck inside the fencing and you can't get them out, but the method is so cheap and so easy to do that I think it's worth losing a few cukes. Pat -- Pat Meadows CLICK DAILY TO FEED THE HUNGRY United States: http://www.stopthehunger.com/ International: http://www.thehungersite.com/ |
#6
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Cucumbers grown vertically
Andy N wrote:
I am moving my garden into considerably less space and would like to continue growing 2 hills of cucumber plants. My plan is to raise them vertically to conserve space. I would appreciate advice about ways of doing this. Thanks I used to grow them up the perimeter fence of my garden. But, I always had to try to get the plants to grow the correct way (toward the fence, not toward the garden). Even when they were planted right next to the fence, they still wanted to grow toward the garden (gravity I guess). Cukes don't like to be handled so I'd always lose a few training them to the fence. Then, last year I smartened up and planted a few hills and just stuck the round tomato cages around them. Get the tallest ones you can find. Cheap, easy, and they found the cages all by themselves since the hill was in the center of the cage. They grew up, then back down the cages and even went across from cage to cage. I had the best crop I've had in years. That's what I'm doing again this year. Mary |
#7
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Cucumbers grown vertically
Thank you all for the great ideas. They were all so good fortunately I'll
have quite a bit of time to think about it since my garden is in Iowa. Thanks again! |
#8
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Cucumbers grown vertically
"Andy N" wrote in message news:sth_9.101621$AV4.3489@sccrnsc01...
Thank you all for the great ideas. They were all so good fortunately I'll have quite a bit of time to think about it since my garden is in Iowa. Thanks again! I use 6' tomato spirals. If they outgrow those, I attach a length of small rope and attach the other end of the rope to my 10' tall tomato stakes. Works great. |
#9
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Cucumbers grown vertically
Lee Hall wrote:
"Andy N" wrote in message news:sth_9.101621$AV4.3489@sccrnsc01... Thank you all for the great ideas. They were all so good fortunately I'll have quite a bit of time to think about it since my garden is in Iowa. Thanks again! I use 6' tomato spirals. If they outgrow those, I attach a length of small rope and attach the other end of the rope to my 10' tall tomato stakes. Works great. I use a wooden trellis, kinda of decorative until the plants overtake it and even then. -- Steve |
#10
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Cucumbers grown vertically
I have been growing (straight eights) for about 30 years now and expect
possibly there is a better variety selection and would welcome any input on this. When growing them on the ground and sprawling, the cucumber beetles also would have a picnic on them so I constantly kept the vines dusted with multi-purpose garden dust. I was never bothered with wilt until after the hot weather hit and the vines were watered. My plan starting with this new garden is to water only on the ground and never use a sprinkler to water. |
#11
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Cucumbers grown vertically
*** post for FREE via your newsreader at post.newsfeed.com ***
On 1/30/03 8:02 AM, Andy N wrote: I am moving my garden into considerably less space and would like to continue growing 2 hills of cucumber plants. My plan is to raise them vertically to conserve space. I would appreciate advice about ways of doing this. Thanks Purchase 3 ten foot lengths of half inch electrical conduit, two 90 degree elbow fittings and a nylon trellis with six inch squares. Drive (or pound) two of the pipes 3 or 4 feet into the ground ten feet apart. Weave the remaining pipe through the top of the trellis and then the sides of the trellis over the two vertical pipes. Connect the top pipe to the side pipes with the elbows and you are done. Of course, you can change the dimensions as needed. I did this about 7 years ago and leave it in place all year. The conduit never rusts and the nylon has not deteriorated yet! I also live in Iowa and do something very similar to this. (I use treated lumber supports instead of conduit.) The problem I have with growing them vertically is that they very hard to keep insect-free. I start every year with 10 lovely cucumber plants growing strongly up my trellis, and as soon as they mature one or two fruits, the cucumber beetles come in and soon they are all dead from bacterial wilt. Grown in mounds, cukes can be covered with Reemay, but not on a trellis. But, I strongly recommend this method if you can keep the bugs away. And one more thing. If you plan to grow vertically, you have to make sure you _do not_ get bush varieties of cukes. They usually state if they are bush or vining varieties in the catalogs. Most climbers are slicing-type cukes, but I'm sure there are some climbing picklers if that is what you are interested in. IC Gardener Iowa City, Iowa Zone 5A -----= Posted via Newsfeed.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =----- http://www.newsfeed.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! -----== 100,000 Groups! - 19 Servers! - Unlimited Download! =----- |
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