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A little-known fact – cucumbers are wild plants and, like vines, stretch upwards towards the sun and wrap around growing plants or supports nearby. Good yields are possible subject to not only regular watering and fertilizing, but also the creation of favorable conditions for development. For these purposes, it is most practical to use trellises – special designs that help maintain garden vines in an upright position without sagging. At what it is not at all difficult to build a trellis for cucumbers with your own hands on the site.
Benefits of trellis growing
The most obvious advantages of the trellis method of growing cucumbers are the increase in plant productivity, the lengthening of the growing season and the effective use of the planting area. With proper care from 5 square meters, you can get 60-90 kg of high-quality and healthy greens. In addition, cucumber trellises allow you to organize the optimal air-light regime for all plants. Since the difference in daily temperatures is not so noticeable in well-blown crops, as a result, drop-liquid moisture is less formed on the lower part of the leaf, and between the rows the soil surface remains unoccupied for the entire growing season.
To a large extent, the care of crops is facilitated. The fruits are clean, do not touch the wet ground, do not rot and are always in sight, so it is easy to assess the degree of their maturity and avoid overripe. Harvesting also takes less time and is less traumatic for the plant itself, since the stems and shoots do not need to be turned over. As practice has shown, tied plants minimize the risk of infection with downy mildew and other diseases.
Cucumber trellises can be installed on any available vertical surface, whether it be poles, a wall, a fence, using stretched twine or wire. They will serve not only as a decorative decoration of the site, but will allow you to shade those places that are necessary.
Wallpaper design
Cucumber trellises can have a wide variety of designs in the form of a square, pedestal, rectangle, tent. The support is made both from metal tubes, cement pillars, and from wooden blocks or thick branches.
Often, gardeners do not spend much on trellis and prefer to build it from PVC mesh or twine. Why two pillars 1,5-1,8 m high are driven in along the edges of the beds, the third is strengthened horizontally from above, in order to wrap twine around it or fix the net in the future. Otherwise, when the fruits become heavy and pour, it can tear, slide down and damage the bush. Pegs are driven in on both sides of the planned beds. The thread is pulled in a zigzag fashion between the vertical posts, then wrapped around the transverse one and fastened to a peg.
Tapestries with their own hands
wooden trellis
A wooden trellis can be made from flexible branches or, more durable, from planed slats. In appearance, it resembles a Swedish wall or a school horizontal bar. From the rails, cells 15-20 cm wide are made. The width of the planks should be at least 3-4 cm, horizontal pillars – at least 5-7 cm, vertical bars – 4-6 cm. This version of the trellis has a very decorative look and decorates any area.
Rebar metal trellis
For the construction of a metal trellis from reinforcement, two tubes 180-200 cm long are dug into the ground from both ends of the beds. The installation depth of the pillars is 35-45 cm. into the ground, fill the hole and compact the soil tightly. Next, the horizontal crossbar is fixed by electric welding. Similarly, as in the variant with a wooden trellis, pegs are driven in on two sides of the garden bed and twine or wire is pulled. The metal trellis must be coated with a primer or some other anti-corrosion compound to avoid rust.
Trellis from wheel rim and tire
Cucumber trellises can also be made from the rim of a bicycle wheel or tire. For this, tires from under large-sized machines are suitable – a tractor, truck or combine. One side of the tire is cut off and installed at the landing site. Two rods are inserted into it crosswise, with a convex arc outward. Inside, the tire is covered with soil and covered with a cut bag, tucking the edges under the wheel. Holes are cut in the burlap, seedlings are planted in them and covered with polyethylene or agrofibre, raising it during loosening or watering. When the cucumbers grow to 30-35 cm, the bag and covering material are removed, and a pole with a horizontally fixed bicycle wheel rim is installed in the center. A twine or wire is pulled from the base of the tire to it. If you have difficulty purchasing a tire, you can pull the thread from the rim to the pegs driven into the ground.
Irrigation
Continuous moistening of the soil, which is often used in vegetable growing, when growing cucumbers using a trellis method, has a number of significant disadvantages over drip irrigation. It requires a lot of water. At the same time, the plants are supplied with a liquid-nutrient solution under low pressure, which corresponds to the biological characteristics of development and the soil and climatic conditions of their cultivation. Drip irrigation systems according to the type of construction can be seasonal-stationary or seasonal. With a seasonal system, the entire irrigation and distribution network is installed at the beginning of the growing season, and dismantled at the end. With a seasonal-stationary system, the distribution network is buried and stationary, and the irrigation network is made of seasonal polyethylene pipes.
Water outlets are located at a distance of 15-35 cm from each other. The need for cucumber water depends on the phase of its development. The first watering is carried out immediately after sowing to get friendly shoots. During the growing season and fruit formation – as the earth dries out, without moistening it deeper than 16-22 cm. During the period of active fruiting, the soil is moistened by 28-35 cm at least every 3-5 days, preventing the soil from becoming waterlogged.
Planting cucumbers and care
Soil and seed preparation
The soil for planting should begin to prepare from the autumn of the previous year. For each sq m, 22-24 g of urea, 25-28 g of superphosphate, 12-15 g of potassium chloride and 6-8 kg of humus or mullein are added. They dig up and leave to winter open, holding snow on the site in the winter. In early spring, at the beginning of April, the plot is loosened to a depth of 7-10 cm. After that, it is divided into cells to fix the trellis posts, leaving a row spacing of at least 90-120 cm. After installing the posts, the soil is again loosened shallowly. Before planting, pull twine or galvanized wire with a diameter of at least 3-4 mm in 2,5-3 horizontal rows between the posts. So that the bottom row of wire is at a distance of 16-19 cm from the soil, the second and third at a height of 50-70 cm from the bottom row, and the fourth – at the height of the trellis posts for cucumbers, no more than 170-180 cm. Then furrows are cut to a depth of 10-13 cm.
Basically, when growing cucumbers on a trellis, a seedless method is used. Before sowing, they are calibrated for 8-12 minutes in a 3% salt solution. In this case, undeveloped, lightweight or empty seeds float, and heavy ones sink to the bottom. Then they are washed and if they were not initially processed by the manufacturer, they are placed for 12-18 hours in a solution of trace elements – 0,5-1 g / l manganese sulfate, 0,2-0,3 g / l boric acid, 0,2-0,3 .XNUMX g/l ammonium molybdate. This stimulates the vital activity of the plant at the beginning of growth and development, increases resistance to diseases. Then the seeds are dried in natural conditions until flowability.
Landing
Seeds in open ground are sown in late April – early May, ready-made seedlings – in the second half of May. As a rule, a wide-row and tape two-line sowing method is used according to the scheme of 35-45 cm between lines, 140-170 cm between rows and 20-25 cm between seeds. Immediately before planting, the hole is watered abundantly.
Seedlings are planted when 3-4 true leaves are formed. Plant density per 1 sq m 4-5 pcs. Sometimes an additional row is sown between the rows of the trellis, which is not fixed to the trellis for cucumbers. The earth is slightly compacted, watered abundantly and mulched. Waterlogging is not allowed to prevent rotting of the root system. During the fruiting period, the amount of watering is increased.
Care
To reduce the risk of planting damage by fungal diseases, it is better to water cucumbers in furrows, and not by sprinkling. Depending on the temperature and dryness of the air, watering is carried out 2-4 times a week, early in the morning or in the evening. After the appearance of 2-3 leaves in the seedlings or after the complete adaptation of the seedlings, a twine is pulled near each plant, twisting cucumbers on it a little to set the direction of growth for them.
In the phase of 3-5 leaves, the first feeding with organic matter is carried out (100-150 g of chicken manure per bucket of water) together with preventive treatment with copper-containing preparations or Bordeaux mixture. Such spraying is repeated immediately after flowering and 5-8 days after the appearance of small ovaries.
Video “Do-it-yourself metal trellis”
This video shows how to build a metal trellis for cucumbers.
Design, device, mesh for growing cucumbers
