Cucumber Trellis Update

The cucumbers have been growing like mad over the past couple of weeks.  I've tried my best to train them up the trellis but every time it gets windy (which is often)  the plants always come loose from the trellis.  I have tried wrapping the vines in opposing directions so the plants help to hold each other up.  This seems to help a little bit.  The other problem with the trellis is every time a cucumber grows large and becomes heavy, it tends to pull the plant back down off the trellis.  I am now trying to tie  the vines to the trellis to see if that helps at all.  If that doesn't work I think I might give up and let the cucumbers grow along the ground.  Next year's trellis is going to involve some kind of fencing that the vines can hold onto better.

 

Each vine is tightly packed with dozens of flowers and the lower flowers have already given way to small fruits.

 

Once a small fruit has formed it is only a matter of a few days before the cucumber is big enough for pickling.  Right now I am trying to eat as many as I can fresh.  Once I get a large enough harvest at one time they will be made into pickles.  I think that may be as soon as a week or two away.

 

 

The first sets of plants that came up are doing very well.  They seem long enough now that they are better able to be wrapped around the trellis.  I am tying some of the longer ones to the trellis for added support.  The vines themselves are not very useful for climbing the trellis.  The plant relies instead on it's tendrils to provide support for the growing plant and fruits.  That is why next year this trellis is going to involve some sort of fencing to hold the vine up.