The cultivation of cucumbers, like any other agricultural crop, has its own characteristics. This vegetable is quite whimsical, it is very demanding on the presence of a comfortable air temperature and constant optimal soil moisture. Therefore, gardeners, summer residents, farmers are constantly looking for effective ways to cultivate this crop. One of the directions is the use of vertical beds. Moreover, many owners of household plots and gardens are interested in such a topic as a vertical bed for cucumbers, equipped with their own hands.
The advantages of vertical beds
First, answer one question. What are the advantages of a vertical bed for cucumbers? First of all, of course, the saving of land space, when instead of horizontal capture of the necessary surface, the bed uses a vertical direction for the development of planted plants. Fruits ripening on such a bed do not touch the ground. An experienced vegetable grower, summer resident, amateur knows that cucumbers on a vertical bed are well protected from rotting, contamination by soil particles, and rodent attacks. Fertilizing the soil also becomes safer (that is, fertilizers will not come into contact with the fruits). The uniformity of fruit ripening is ensured, plantation care conditions become more comfortable. In some cases, it becomes possible to create a convenient or even automatic irrigation system.
Types of Vertical Beds
The vertical bed for cucumbers is, in fact, a structure that can have the most diverse design. Sometimes these are plastic bags, bags, hanging bottles placed in a certain order on a vertical surface (wall, shield, partition, net). In other cases, the vertical bed for cucumbers is a cut plastic pipe with closed ends suspended under the crossbars or beams, wooden containers, plastic 5-liter water tanks, also cut along the axis. Vertical beds also include various types of trellis, located in the form of a tent, wall. One of the simplest options is a plastic mesh stretched from the bottom up or obliquely. A special variety of designs are pipes with holes dug vertically into the ground. Such a vertical bed for cucumbers can be combined with trellis or hanging containers. Structures made of metal or plastic barrels are quite simple, even primitive, original constructions are made of old furniture, where cucumbers are planted in soil, covered in extended drawers of tables, chests of drawers, cabinets, etc.
How to make a vertical bed for cucumbers? About it - further.
Grid
The first option is to use a mesh as the basis for which the antennae of the growing stems will cling. The vertical bed for cucumbers, created with the help of a grid, is an attractive inexpensive option, effective and does not require huge labor costs.
Nets are sold in special stores for gardeners and gardeners. You can make them yourself from the fishing line. The main thing is that the mesh should be either from fishing line or from plastic, metal is not allowed! The reason is that when heated in the sun, a metal wire can cause burns on the leaves of plants.
Planting cucumbers in vertical beds is simple. The soil must be enriched before planting. In the spring or autumn, organic fertilizers are applied, a month before sowing cucumbers or planting seedlings, mineral fertilizers should be scattered. Cucumbers on a vertical vertical bed will take up a little space, they will have enough sun, it is very convenient to collect them!
Plastic bags
Another simple option is to use canvas or plastic bags containing inside the soil for planting. The easiest way - a bag of plastic, but it is also the most short-lived - just for one season.
Bags for this bed should have a volume of about 100-120 liters, garbage bags will do, as well as homemade ones, if you are very unlucky and you will not get ready-made bags on sale.
You will also need a two-meter stick with notches for fishing line, plastic tubes (hose cuttings) with a diameter of up to 3 cm and a length greater than the height of the package each, fishing line (skein at least 30 m), a dozen pegs.
The ground for filling the bags must be prepared a good, ideal option - buy the soil mixture in the store.
Then you should install the plastic bag in place. A stick is installed (simply stuck) in the center of the bag, and three plastic tubes are pre-perforated into the bag; they should not touch the stick. The ends of the tubes should peek out of the bag. The whole structure is reinforced with pegs. After making cuts in the packets, fill them with earth. After pouring water into the tubes, the earth will humidify. Next, watering the beds should be done through these pipes. Through the cuts in the bag, the moisture content of the soil inside is determined, since the dry top layer of the earth cannot serve as an indicator of a lack of moisture. Cucumbers do not like both drought and waterlogging.
After the appearance of the antennae, wrap them around the fishing line, then everything will go by itself.
The advantage of this method is that on the plot the crop of cucumbers ripens earlier than on ordinary beds, the cucumber tree decorates the plot, watering is done once a week, additional feeding is not required. And plus - all the same saving in usable area.
Pipes
Growing cucumbers is also possible in vertical beds in the form of pipes, although these methods are less common, they are mainly used in flower cultivation, for berries (primarily strawberries), greens.
Here we can distinguish the use of pipes in two directions. The first direction - perforated plastic pipes are vertically installed in the soil. Sewer pipes from plumbing stores are most suitable for this. Sometimes inside a large pipe passes a smaller diameter pipe, which serves to organize an irrigation system. The pipe is buried in the soil a third of its length for structural stability. Soil is poured into the pipe from above, you can pre-mix it with seeds. But you can plant the seeds in the soil and through the holes in the pipe. Also, through these holes you can plant cucumber seedlings. Vertical pipes, placed in a row, can play the role of a partition between different zones and beds of the garden, the walls of the gazebo or serve as a fence of the site.
The second direction is also a vertical bed, but the pipes are horizontal! How? Plastic pipes are simply taken, cut into scraps (however, you can not do cross cutting, just the hanging bed will be long), each trim is cut lengthwise into two halves, and boundary walls are placed from the ends. The resulting gutters are hung on the crossbars, tree branches, arbors, even on the peak of the house. Suspension is made using a rope, fishing line, rope, wire. It can be multi-tiered, the length of the gutters is chosen independently. In each soil is placed, seedlings are planted.
Instead of tubular gutters, you can use hanging plastic containers, cut five-liter plastic containers, wooden boxes.
Vertical tire bed
This scheme is very common among summer residents due to its simplicity and low laboriousness of creation.
3-5 old tire covers are taken. They can be of the same diameter, but this is not necessary. They are stacked on top of each other sequentially, as their internal space is filled with soil with top dressing. If flowers or greens can be planted with seeds mixed with earth, then cucumbers are planted in vertical beds in specially cut openings, where seedlings are placed. It turns out a multi-level design, introducing diversity into the landscape of the site.
An interesting variant of this technique: not 3-5 old tires are used, but much more - up to 12 pieces! A hammer and a chisel apply 10 to 12 holes on the surface in contact with the road. Inside the tires, 5-7 cm are filled with a mixture of compost or manure with the ground, ordinary soil is poured on top. Tires are stacked vertically on top of each other. 3 pieces of cucumber seeds are planted in the holes. Seeds are recommended to pre-hold for 6-7 hours in the refrigerator, then soak.
When shoots appear, it is necessary to remove weak plants, leaving the most viable. After the appearance of lashes to protect the latter from breaking, foam rubber is placed under them.
It is good to water through a perforated pipe inserted into the tires, but you can do with primitive watering can.
Vertical Barrel Bed
The option for the greenhouse is more interesting, conditionally it can be called a “barrel-pipe”, where the main element is a wooden, metal or plastic barrel. It is necessary to make a number of holes for seedlings in it, rectangular or round. Holes on the surface of the barrel must be placed in rows horizontally, the intervals between rows of 20 cm
Then the feeder is prepared - a metal pipe with a length of about 1520 cm and an internal diameter of about 4 to 6 cm. The side surface of the pipe is perforated: holes with a diameter of 4 or 5 mm are drilled in it. At the upper end of the pipe, a funnel is fixed. The lower end of the feeder pipe is jammed with a wooden cork or clay-cement mortar.
The finished pipe is fixed on a wooden cross. To prevent the holes from clogging with earth, the pipe is wrapped in burlap.
The place in the greenhouse where this structure will be installed is leveled and compacted. A barrel with a feeder pipe installed inside is placed there. Clay and fine gravel are placed at the bottom so as not to close the bottom row of holes. Then the internal volume of the structure is filled with a substrate. Seedlings are planted both in the side holes and on the top surface of the barrel. By the way, a small remark: seedlings in the lateral holes are planted with the roots down, as the substrate sags, the correct orientation of the roots will be restored.
A simpler barrel option: without any contrivance, place the soil mixture in the tank, plant seeds or seedlings of cucumbers under the film, later install wire arcs, to which shoots are then attached. This type of vertical bed does not have all the advantages characteristic of this technology, but it is simple, unpretentious and quite allows you to collect a more or less acceptable early crop of cucumbers. By the way, the shoots hanging downwards beautifully mask a barrel.
Other varieties of vertical beds
Giving a second chance to old kitchen furniture to serve their owners, some summer residents use it to create vertical beds. But for the cultivation of cucumbers, this method is rarely used, since it is not as effective as others.
To obtain a good crop of cucumbers in extreme conditions, the use of trellises is required - wooden (metal, plastic) gratings, battens, walls, slingshots, between which horizontal, oblique-wire or twine strings are stretched horizontally in several rows. Here again, the property of cucumbers is used to attach with antennae and lashes to supports and stretch upward. Again, wooden slats can be used instead of strings.
Some unexpected examples of creating vertical beds. These may be the stalks of corn or sunflower! If, in addition to cucumbers, coriander and radish are planted around corn (to attract beneficial insects, for the same purpose, you can add cosmea flowers, or, as it is also called, cosmos) to the garden. Another unexpected example: cucumbers are planted around the pipe, but instead of trellis or nets hop sprouts are used as a support for cucumbers, amateurs of this method assure that such a bed increases yield significantly.
Conclusion
The article does not cover all the details of the topic, due to the immensity of this direction, but the question of how to grow cucumbers on a vertical bed, basically gives the minimum necessary answer.
Vertical beds, of course, are suitable for growing not only cucumbers, this is a fairly universal direction. Moreover, this technology is also applicable for decorative purposes, when containers with flowers and grass, effectively placed on walls, racks, trellises, pipes, transform the area in the country house or in front of the cottage, turning it into a truly paradise. But this is a topic for other articles.
And one more remark. Especially many opportunities for realizing creative potential vertical beds provide summer residents. Planting cucumbers in vertical beds, although it has its own characteristics, does not present any difficulties. Getting pleasure from the results of his work, a summer resident or amateur vegetable grower is forced to solve many problems, apply improvised materials. Not a stranger to the aesthetics of the site. In addition, experience and knowledge of neighbors are at his disposal.
Undoubtedly, everything that was said in this article about such a thing as a vertical bed for cucumbers, arranged with one's own hands, acquires special relevance for small greenhouses, where the issue of shortage of usable space is very acute.
It is wonderful that some of the methods described here are also suitable for growing cucumbers on the balcony of a city apartment!