Among vegetable gardeners who have limited growing space, tomatoes definitely seem to be a favorite crop – you can find room for a tomato plant or two just about anywhere, even if you have to tuck it into a flower bed or grow it in a container on a sunny terrace.

But what about veggies that like to sprawl out over a large area, like cucumbers? Look up the spacing requirements for them, and you’ll find a single cucumber plant can spread out over 12 to 20 square feet when grown in traditional rows.

One way to make better use of space and maximize yields is to grow vertically – that is, to let your vining plants expand upward instead of outward, by supporting them on a raised structure. It’s a perfect solution for anyone growing in containers, raised beds, or other small plots of land (like a narrow side yard).

The best and easiest candidates for vertical growing are beans, cucumbers, and all kinds of summer squash (like zucchini and the common yellow crookneck varieties).

Winter squash varieties (acorn, butternut, Hubbard) can also be grown vertically, but you’ll have to find a way to support the heavy fruits as they ripen. The same goes for pumpkins and melons — these extra-large fruits can present their own challenges when they don’t have a spot on the ground to rest on.

There are other benefits to vertical growing as well. When plants are raised off the ground, leaves are less susceptible to slug damage. Since foliage dries off faster after a rain, fungal problems are reduced. And, your vertically-grown plants may have more leaf surface area exposed to the sun, resulting in better growth.

The most important way to ensure success with vertical growing is this: Know the difference between vining and bush varieties of the same crop – not all varieties have been bred to grow upward!

Some specific tips to keep in mind for climbing vegetables:

  • Beans. There is a huge difference between bush beans and pole beans. Bush beans are relatively short, self-supporting plants that don’t climb. They have been bred specifically for commercial farmers; their lower height makes harvesting by machine easier. Pole beans, however, can climb to ten feet or more – and the added height means you can harvest twice as many beans, from the same amount of space.

  • Cucumbers. Choose seeds or seedlings carefully, and don’t end up with a “bush”variety. While bush varieties are still sprawling plants, they’re not really climbers. Instead, they put out vines that radiate only three feet out from the plant’s center – meaning they require only 9 square feet of space, about a third of what a vining cucumber needs when grown flat. In this way they’re considered “space-saving” types. But choose a vining cucumber variety to grow vertically, and you can grow one to two plants in just one square foot of space. For more specific tips on growing cucumbers vertically, see BluestoneGarden’s post on Urban Organic Gardener.
  • Zucchini and crookneck squash. There are a few heirloom varieties of zucchini and other kinds of summer squash that are prolific, vining climbers. Most types, however, tend to be sprawling, bushy plants that want to grow flat but can be coaxed into growing vertically with a little bit of effort (you’ll have to tie the stems to your trellis). Just be sure to avoid those that are labeled as “space-spacing” varieties; they’ve been bred specifically to grow horizontally. And if you don’t have immediate success growing summer squash vertically, try a different variety next year, till you find one that works for you.

In general, you’ll need plant supports of at least six to eight feet tall for cucumbers and squash; taller for pole beans. It’s best to start out with your growing structure already in place, and then set out plants at its base – you’re less likely to damage roots this way than if you try to anchor a support into place once the plants are already established and growing.

As you experiment with vertical growing, you can create your own plant supports from materials you have on hand — dowels, bamboo poles, wire, twine, etc. You can also grow vertically on a chain link fence, or on a trellis mounted to the side of a shed or garage. If you have an arch or arbor framing a walkway or gate, consider using it to support scarlet runner beans, which are both edible and decorative, with their bright red flowers. And if you’d rather purchase your growing supports, there’s a wide range of functional and decorative products on the market. For very narrow spaces (against a fence, in planter boxes, etc.), a fan tre­llis allows you to grow straight up and flat. In raised beds or large containers, a tall obelisk is both functional and decorative.

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