building a cucumber trellis

Pickles are an obsession of mine. I’ve been known to eat a whole jar in one sitting.  The absolute best in my opinion are Woodstock Farms Organic Kosher Baby Dill Pickles.  This year, I’ve decided to make my own baby dill pickles.

I have tons of dill sprouting.

Lots of garlic growing.

There are also plenty of harmonie cucumber seedlings thriving that were started indoors and transplanted outside just yesterday.  This cucumber variation is meant for baby gherkins.

Thanks to my dad’s handy skills, I also have two big trellises made of birch scavenged from my parents’ house and lots of hemp twine. These trellises are space savers and they can handle many cucumber plants, which is a good thing because I will need a ton of cucumbers for pickles!

step-by-step
First, you’ll need three long branches from a tree of your choice. I’d suggest at least four feet depending on how tall you’d like your trellises to be and how big your pots are.  The branches we used were somewhere around six feet long.

step 1: Push the three branches down a few inches into the soil.

step 2: Tie a slip knot around one of the branches at the top where you’ll create your “teepee.” Make sure you leave a long tail because you’ll need it later.

step 3: Loop the twine around each branch, pulling tightly as you loop, finishing with a few extra wraps around all three.

step 4: Tie the end of your twine to the original tail from your slip knot using a square knot (a good knot to use with stiff twine). The top portion of your trellis is complete.

The basic structure is ready.  Now you’ll need to wrap twine around it several times to give the cucumber vines something to grow up.  As you can see, my father doesn’t mess around when he buys twine!

step 5: Tie a knot at the bottom of one of your branches.

step 6: Loop around each branch.  Each time you get to the original branch, tie a half hitch to prevent slipping before continuing on.

step 7: When you get to the top, tie a full knot to secure twine.
Voila, a very wabi-sabi looking cucumber trellis that will hopefully supply many yummy gherkins.

Last thing. Your cucumbers will need a little training.  As they grow, weave the plant in and out of the twine.  They will throw tendrils that will wrap tightly around the twine as they spread out.  You will want to check on them often to help train them up the trellis because they can grow up to four inches per day!

Ps. Special thanks to my father, Bob Anderson, for his help with this post.