Our family moved from the city to the countryside 24 years ago. Then a greenhouse was not required: cucumbers grew in the open ground and gave excellent yields.
Cucumbers without trellis in the open field
They took up a lot of space, because the shortest lashes were cucumber ‘Bushes’: the main one is only 40 cm (1.3 ft), from it there are lashes of the first order (they are also not very long), the plants are compact.
‘Prosimy 40’ increased the main whip to 2 m (6.6 ft), and the side (of the first order whips) increased to 20 pcs. – the ground was not visible under the green. And what thick eyelashes this cucumber has – up to 2.3 cm (0.9 in) in diameter!
“Murom 36” has a softer appearance, the whip at home is 4 times shorter, the side is twice as thin, and there are only about a dozen of them. But the plant is able to tolerate a decrease in temperature. This is important for us, because the same cold rain may start in July.
‘Vyaznikovsky 37’ is similar to ‘Mama’ by the type and number of first-order eyelashes, second-order eyelashes are generally rare for him.
Cucumber took up a lot of space, but the yield did not shine, although we did not know it. For us, to collect 3 kg (6.6 lb) from one square meter of land is a good harvest. The fruits grew until the onset of absolutely useless conditions (which were at the end of August) – cold weather and severe dampness.
Cucumber without trellis in the greenhouse
Later, greenhouse cucumbers “April F1” and “old F1” appeared. They gave a rich harvest, but the long whips grew ugly because they needed support. And then we didn’t know that cucumbers need trellises!
The first cucumber trellis
Our first trellis was funny: corners with a side of 20 mm (0.8 in) were taken from the design, a support in the form of the letter A was welded from them at the end and 4 m (8.8 ft) long. This option failed: cucumbers did not want to grow inclined at our desire! Although they tied them, our plants still aspired to vertical perfection. After a few years, the climate changed so much that a stable harvest was possible only in a greenhouse. There we have already allowed cucumbers to grow straight up.
There were a lot of experiments — I had to change the way of gartering cucumbers every year. We stretched fishing nets with a fine net, made of harsh twine, we ourselves put them right in the greenhouse. Everything was equally inconvenient for work, it took a lot of time to build and still had to do the garter. One joy: it doesn’t hurt to walk around the greenhouse now, because the leaves have stopped whipping on the legs, since before I had to walk on tiptoe so as not to break them.
Growing cucumbers on the trellis
We grow only 8 plants in the greenhouse. For them, a bed is prepared as follows: loosen the plane, make a hole, sow 2 seeds, from which one weaker sprout is then removed. It is important to place the seeds directly under the trellis so that you do not have to force the plants to bend later, because it is not always possible to make a garter in time. The main thing is that the support is “at hand” in the cucumber tendrils. This became possible when I bought a special trellis net. There are two types of it:
- the first is a rigid structure with a large mesh. You need to make a strong frame for it, because it looks like a welded construction grid, only made of plastic. For the frame, put several supports (frames) so that the upper and lower borders can be fixed.
- the second is also a mesh, but soft, it can be rolled into a ball. Actually, it is sold in the form of a ball packed in a bag. Here, the frame may not be rigid, and straight lines are not required, because the network can bend around any obstacles.
We chose a grid with a length of 5 m (16.4 ft), just the length of the greenhouse. Even special racks were not made for installation, metal parts of the greenhouse structure were dispensed with.
Varieties and hybrids for growing on a trellis
“Brother” is good at salting, he has a delicate skin.
“unique” gives a plentiful early harvest, but this does not stop fruiting, which continues as long as the weather allows, while the returns are great.
The hybrid ‘bumblebee’ is good on its own, but when planted with other hybrids, it helps them produce 50% more fruit than without its participation. To do this, it is necessary that the ‘bumblebee’ was sown before the main hybrids.
Conclusion: varieties or hybrids of cucumbers with long main lashes and lashes of the first order, which should not be many, are suitable for growing on a trellis.
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