INSTALL A FRAME FOR GROWING CUCUMBERS
Cucumbers are trailing plants that naturally sprawl and occupy a lot of space. Training vines vertically on a frame saves room on the ground for growing other things. PHIL DUDMAN demonstrates how to set it up.
1 PREPARE a spot on the southern side of your patch so the leafy frame won’t shade the rest of the bed. Alternatively, set up the frame at the western end of the bed so it provides valuable afternoon shade for heat-sensitive plants such as beetroot, lettuce and other leafy greens. Throw down some compost and fertilisers, such as blood and bone and rock minerals, then rake it all in.
2 DECIDE where your posts should go, then bang them in firmly. We’ve used sturdy steel star pickets as posts because the frame is a heavy galvanised steel mesh panel. Wooden tomato stakes would be fine to support lighter frames made from plastic or wire mesh.
3 TIE the frame firmly to the posts in several places using a strong twine.
4 USE a dibbler or trowel to make planting holes at the base of the frame at a suitable depth for your cucumber seedlings or seed. Sow two seeds per hole, then thin out the weakest of the plants once they get going.
5 WATER seed sparingly, as cucumber seed can rot when the soil is too wet, then gradually increase watering as the plants start to grow. Direct the young vines to the frame. Once they’ve latched on with their tendrils, they will happily climb, and then they’ll need only occasional training to redirect any wayward stems.