How To DIY A Bamboo Trellis That Is Perfect For Growing Cucumbers

Growing your own vegetable garden provides you with plentiful greens to use in your daily cooking. Tomatoes, lettuce, onions, and cucumbers are some of the most common vegetables folks grow when starting a garden. Some vegetables can grow together, while others prefer having space to themselves where they can grow freely. Cucumbers, for instance, thrive on trellises. They grow best when they know they can climb high and wrap their vines around poles. Trellises allow them to expand and receive the proper air circulation they need. In addition, cucumbers growing vertically on the trellis make more room for plants to grow underneath them. Building a trellis is straightforward as well. In fact, TikTok user @laurenschell2 built a bamboo tepee trellis that can be replicated in any backyard. 

You can set up your trellis anywhere in your backyard as long as it receives enough sunlight. Cucumbers enjoy warm weather and need about six to eight hours of direct sunlight to flourish. Pick an area where you have other vegetables growing, primarily root vegetables like radishes, beets, or carrots, so that you don't have multiple climbing vegetables growing at the same time. Gather your materials once you choose a location to create your bamboo trellis. Even though you can complete this DIY in a few hours, there are a few mistakes you should avoid when growing cucumbers on a trellis.

You'll need:

• 5 to 6 bamboo poles

• Roll of jute twine

• Scissors

You can purchase bamboo poles from Ace Hardware for $5.99 and jute twine from Home Depot for $4.67.

Grab the tip of each bamboo pole to create a bundle and wrap the heads with twine. Tie the twine about one inch from the top. You don't want to tie the twine too tight because you'll want the legs to be able to spread when you pick them up. So, lightly wrap the twine.

After you spread out the poles, lash the twine around the entire thing, from the top to the bottom, to secure the trellis. The cucumbers need a ladder to climb over, which is where the twine comes in. Starting from the top, wrap the twine around one pole, then drag it across to the pole next to it and loop the twine around. You should have a piece of twine hanging straight in the middle of two poles. Continue the same movement with the other three poles. You want to leave space between two poles without twine for it to act as a door so you can go in and remove any dead vines or gather cucumbers. Tie off the twine once you reach the last pole in the top section. You should end up with a semi-circle after tying the twine. Then, move down to the next section, repeating the steps until you fill the trellis with twine. You should have at least 12 rows of twine around the trellis.

Once you set up your trellis, water your soil and watch your cucumbers grow. You might already see a few growing if you DIYed your trellis with bamboo after planting cucumbers. Some cucumbers might already have vines growing out of the soil, so you can train them to grow on the trellis by wrapping or weaving a few of the vines along the twine. Over time, they'll begin to climb the trellis by themselves. Check on your cucumbers daily to ensure they grow on the trellis and stay within the area. You could also make more trellises to grow different types of plants.