Growing Cucumbers Vertically using my new "Tomato Cage Tower"

[Annette]

I have come up with what I think is an original idea which I have not seen used anywhere else and hope it proves useful to other Workshoppers.

I have a small vegie patch in suburban Canberra and as you can appreciate growing space is a very valuable commodity. I have come up with a solution to growing cucumbers and potentially other vegetables vertically using the metal cone shaped tomato cages. To save space I wanted to grow my cucumber plants vertically but they were fast outgrowing the standard metal tomato cage in height. To increase the height of the tomato cage I simply placed another tomato cage upside down on top of the bottom tomato cage and secured both together using cable ties. By using this method I have, in effect, created a “tomato cage tower” and doubled the height of a standard tomato cage.

This has greatly increased the growing capacity of my cucumbers and therefore saved space to grow other vegetables. We have 2 trellises, one of which already has cucumbers on it and the other is currently being used to grow other vegetables. This year I was very determined to grow as many cucumbers as I possibly could (I currently have 17 plants) in the available space in my vegie garden because I make pickled cucumbers (amongst other things) which are an absolute hit with friends and family and are constantly in high demand. I also use them to exchange with other gardeners nearby for some of their garden produce.

I hope all you vegie growers in Workshop Land like my "Tomato Cage Tower" - patent pending 

[Jason]

Great work @Annette. Many thanks for sharing this tip.

We've been growing cucumbers in our Vegepod and been harvesting plenty in recent weeks. On the weekend we had a double cucumber which I'd never seen before - it looked like this inside:

Jason

[Annette]

My cucumber crop currently stands at 30 kilos with plenty more to come. I have also made over 50 jars of pickled cucumbers from 4 different batches and also 50 jars of pickled zucchinis.