Trellising for melons and cukes
 

I think I might trellis my cukes and melons (probably just smaller fruited varieties) this year, both as a space saver and to keep the critters from eating so many of them.

Would really like to know what others are doing in terms of support/trellising. Feel free to go into as much or as little detail as you'd like. Thanks. ;)

Suze,
I use 3 10 foot sticks of ¾ rigid conduit.
I put ¾ 90s on two sticks, one going up the other ¾ 90 goes on one going across then I screw another ¾ stick for one going back down.
I then put 1 and ¼ inch pipe in the ground 2 feet deep, ‘you may want to go 3 feet deep in your sand.
You can then stand the frame up; in this way you have a frame that is 8 feet tall and 10 feet long.
As you can see you can put a tee on one end and carry on with another stick of conduit to make it 20 feet long and so forth, there is no limit to the length you can go.
You just drop another ¾ stick in the ground at every tee in the horizontal top portion of the frame.

You can then put chicken wire about 1 foot off of the ground along the frame for the vines to grow on, this works for tomatoes too.
Just tie the chicken wire at the top to prevent unsightly sagging with a tight string or wire all along the top from bow to stern.
Then in your sand you need to dig a trench about two feet wide and 18 to 2 feet deep and fill with soil that is mixed with the sand you have along the frame.
That’s a generous trench for melons!
Plant cucumbers about 1 foot apart (I have planted about 6 inches apart with great results.)
There is no need for a hill as the sandy soil will drain just fine without one.
A hill in that sandy of a soil will keep the roots from getting moisture, ‘as it will dry out.
This method is the only way to grow cucumbers and small melons.
I run two of the ten foot frames about 4 feet from each other and I can then walk along the middle and just pick the fruit that is hanging there, ‘it’s so easy to see.
This method is also simple, easy to do, very cheap to build and a real plus, ‘is it’s modular, can be taken down and will last for years.
Any questions just ask, ‘I might even be able to come up with the conduit.
PS. Last of all run a drip.
I hope you try this, you will be glad you did.

Worth

Suze:

Below is a picture of the round trellises I made a couple of years ago. I used 4' wire fencing I got from HD...so each trellis is about 7' tall. The problem was that the wire came in 2x4" holes...so I had to take the time to cut them out to a 4x4" hole. I initially used a wire cutter...but this left a sharp edge...so I moved on to using a cutting disk on my cordless drill. This was a lot of work! And a 4x4 hole is still pretty small for my large hand...but they work. Each one is about 22-24" in diameter.

If I had to do it over again...I would have gone with the concreter reinforing wire that has a 6x6" hole...but at the time HD only had 100' roles of it and wanted $90 for it...too much for me. I know keep an eye out at constructions sites for any left over wire.

I made six of these cages for cucumbers and pole beans.

[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/adenn1/P6170053.jpg[/IMG]

Hi, Suze. I also use the same basic set up for melons, cukes, tomatoes and pole beans. Mine is pretty much like Adenn1's picture. Of course, the cukes just climb right up on their own. I choose melons with shorter vines like Jenny Lind, Minnesota Midget, Green Machine and this year, Green Climbing and Golden Midget (tiny watermelon). I use the stretchy green tie stuff that comes on a roll and tie the vine to the support. The smaller melons just hang there pretty well but if I had a melon of any real size, I'd make a sling to support it out of a knee high stocking.

Mark, may I suggest C-shaped cages? Use the same material, but leave an 8-12" gap and secure the "open space" with a bracket.

Feldon:

That's a great idea...you know I saw a picture of a c-shaped cage once...believe it was Bullys garden. That would make picking cucumbers much easier.

If the weather ever warms up...I can get out there and modify one and see how it works. Any thoughts on what to use for a brakcet? I guess I could use some heavy wire to hold the shape

Thanks much...

Yes, it was from Bully. :) This is what I will be doing for my tomatoes.

I will be posting an idea in "General Discussions" soon.

dcarch

Hello, Suze.

I have three setups that I use. I prefer the last one, but I still use the first two. My first trellis idea was to use 4' (or even 5') heights of deer fencing, which is the same stuff Adenn1 used. I pounded 8' long 2" x 2" stakes 2' into the ground at a slight angle. I have used widths as short as 4' and as long as 16' to grow anything that can be trellised-peas, beans, cukes, bitter melon, squash, opo, tomatoes, and luffa.

My second try was to use the 6' long by 4' wide reinforcing grids. I don't like the points (fingers?) that stick out of these, but they work just fine. (I don't have a heavy-duty wire cutter.)

My third try was to go to the local feed supply store. I bought a 16' length of cattle panel. These are galvanized, heavy duty wire grids; have 6" square openings, and come in 3', 4', and 5' heights. I bought the 4 footers for ease of handling. The guy at the store cut the panel into two 6' lengths (6' x 4') and one 4 foot length (4' x 4'). I used T bars as supports this time as they will last much longer than the 2" posts.

As I said earlier, I greatly prefer the cattle panels. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to show you.

Good luck with whatever you choose to work with.

Michael

Interestingly (to me), I still prefer to grow my tomatoes up 2" x 2" stakes. I regularly pinch the suckers to encourage vertical growth as I don't have a lot of space.

Suze, for cukes I keep it simple by just using those really big tomato cages that you can get for about $5. If they start to tip I just drive a stake in there to hold them up.

For melons I constructed a simple trellis out of 1"x2" 's that I built into a ladder-type thing and I tie the melons onto the rungs. I stapled chicken wire to it to give them something to climb on. I use this only for smaller melons, < 2 lbs or so. Larger melons I let sprawl.

Thanks everyone for contributing to this thread. I have gotten some great ideas to try this Spring.

Another tip:
My Mom uses two tomato cages stacked and the rods/wires the you usually stick in the ground she curls on the top one. She grew Scarlet runner beans on it one year. I may try something like that this year for my cucumbers. I tried a regular small tomato cage last year, and it wasn't quite big enough.

I love this place!

Tyff

Tyff, have you seen the square tomato cages you order through catalogs or on line? I use two of those stacked together, secured with an electrical tie wraps, and it works very well. Is that the same kind of cage your mom uses?