A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening Training plants up a trellis?

I decided to stake a few trellis in my garden for the cukes and cantaloupe. How "easy" is it to grow them vertically?
I made my trellis out of 2x2's and plastic netting then carefully pulled the runners up against the netting and tied them to it. I tied loosely to allow the stem to grow bigger. Will they take off upwards from there or do I need to continue tieing the stems to the trellis?
Any other tips I should know?

Also, I planted bush green beans, they shouldn't need a trellis, right? What about lima beans? I planted "Henderson Bush" so it would be a bush bean, too, right?

Thanks,
JoAnn

I went out and took some pics. The cukes seem to be fine, but (and I don't know if you can see it in the pics) I had to take some of the mellon vines and bring them back to the trellis - kind of bowing them! Will this hurt them?
Mellons:


Cukes:

I have planted cukes along a chain link fence and they did splendidly.
But the melons would worry me. They would seem too heavy. I have seen them grown vertically with little slings to hold them as they develop.

Should do well

yep you need the little slings for the heavier fruit. Pantyhose have been recomended from time to time.

The cukes will do fine, they also like a BIG square tomato cage, The melons will do ok with the netting,but the supports that hold the net should be stronger then wooden poles, I use the small 1/2 inch diameter electrical conduit pipes about 6ft in height with a 4 ft one on top, connect them with 2 elbow connectors and use about 18inches of rebar to support the bottoms(inside the pipes), it's cheap and works great!! I make them 4ft long just for the stability reasons...but I love them and when you can get a melon or pumpkin to actually 'hang' from the netting, it's really weird looking, but cool!! They love being off the ground too!!! No more boards and 'earth bugs' to worry about...lol