Need Help With Trellis ideas

I am as pushy as they come. I have been talking to a friend since Dec
about putting in a veggie garden. She wanted to talk to her organic
friends first. She is very busy and things kept getting put off. I
finally showed up at her house with a bag of MM and some tomatoes and
said, I am planting. I use a planting method. Organic is up to you, but
that is the way I lean so here we are. She was concerned about
vermiculite per her friends. I assured her that is a problem from the
past, but not currently (asbestos). And I just kept going.

Before the day was out, we had bought a few more plants from Armstrong
Nursery and every place she had room, I planted - all in planters which
is a first for me.

We are going to let the watermelon and spaghetti squash sprawl. May be a
mistake due to ground squirrels and rabbits. What do you think?

Everything else is a climber and I put bamboo stakes in the containers
but do not think they will be up to the task, even with the nylon
netting (not yet in). What to do what to do. Should I use the PVC and
U-post option? Are the containers deep enough for that to be an option?

If you have some that work for you, maybe you can post pictures for my engineer challenged visual learning mind?

The sprawlers:





Have one tomato in one large container then...realized I was doing SFG and one tomato per large container was silly - now maybe one too many :




Cukes, tomatoes and tomato:

I'm not sure if this will help.....Put tomato cages in the pots. Whatever can climb, will. Twelve inch pots can handle 1 tomato, pepper. eggplant or pair of cucumbers easily enough. If its large, like watermelon or winter squash, just let it sprawl. You have to take a chance and hope for the best unless you have an enclosed space. I think those 3 tomatoes in one pot is a bit much, unless that pot is huge, meaning more than 24" across. Maybe someone else can give better input. Good luck.

quiltbea wrote: I think those 3 tomatoes in one pot is a bit much, unless that pot is huge, meaning more than 24" across. Maybe someone else can give better input. Good luck.

They are 24 inches across. Maybe a little more. I still think three is a bit much, but we shall see. I will think about tomato cages. My real objection is they are not tall enough. And when things start spilling over the top, it tends to topple the tomato cage. But hey, I can always try. And keep the tomatoes really well pruned.

If you can measure and cut wire tomato
cages are very easy to build. I would make cages for those pots out of
rabbit fence wire. You will have to cut access holes in the sides of the r-wire cage.
Preventing rabbit wire cages from tipping over is easy with plastic zip ties to
schedule 40 stakes inserted about a foot into the pot or ground. I use these cages in a long thin non-MM bed and it works great.

It appears that in a SFG the trellis is
the way to go. I'll have that experience later this year.

Here are some links:

Building Tomato Cages

Making Tomato Cages

Build Homemade Tomato Cages

Some tomato cages are 5 and 6 feet tall, if you can get them. Are those determinates? Many only grow 3 or 4 feet tall.

A tip to keep pots from toppling. Stick a tall narrow rod thru the center hole right into the ground before filling the pot. It'll hold it up. Been there, done that.

I actually have "rescue plants" that someone gave me this week (think its a cuke and or watermelon?)

I'll go run out and rig up a demo that might help.....

Be back with pics

I'll go run out and rig up a demo that might help.....

Be back with pics

YEEEHAAAWWW!

Well if it wer me id build a conduit trellis right behind the pots by driving rebar in the ground. If you want something more portable you could make a 2 foot box and fill it with concrete 2/12 to 4 inches thick and insert rebar in 2 corners while still wet, then remove the box when hardened. add conduit string or netting, then place the pot on slab

Thanks for the ideas and acara I am going to be waiting on the pics. I will let you know what I ultimately end up with.

Okay ... I'm assuming yr looking for easy/quick/cheap here (but let me know if thats not the case .... you know me ...I can over engineer anything ).

Everything I see in the pics is round container & one is on a concrete patio..... so I did "self suppporting" (no rebar rods through pots & into ground).

For single stake trellis ....

Pot, landscape fabric, drill, stake ......











Fill pot & plant ...and your done. A block of wood will also work, in lieu of the brick.

The landscape fabric is just to retain soil from running out the drain holes in the bottom of pot.


If you need something more substantial .... keep going.

Grab 2 tomato cages where the large ring is SMALLER than your opening (you can mix/match, but the larger ring on smaller of the two cages has to fit inside pot.






Line up the wires and connect the cages (the green Velcro tape works great for this).



Slide the assembly over the center stake (if used) and into the pot. Backfill soil to give it some stability.



You can add stakes if your going for a crop with heavy produce. Run the stakes inside the hoop rings and attach.



.. and your done.

This will give you a "double height" cage with a larger footprint, which is a lot more stable. These rigs also work great for 5 gallon buckets.

There is a way to augment this system (requires using the rebar stakes into ground & a triangle tomato cage kit) if your going for something huge, like trying watermelon trelising in a pot (or are trying to contain "Stanley the crack-cucumber" ... for those of you who remember that escapade ). Let me know if that is what yr looking for and I''ll add in another post.


Hope that helps

Acara - cheap and easy is exactly what I was looking for. Those are perfect. And as I am slowly losing traction here and more than likely ending up on an apartment rather than home I LOVE these. Not really conversant in pot gardening - not this kind anyway. I will let the reader decide if I am serious or not.

Perfect. Saw colored tomato cages for the first time this year. Truly appeals to the artist in me - love utilitarian, but can't we make it pretty too? LOL. My only 'complaint' with the tomato cages is that the gaps between cross wires are too big, but one can always add twine or even nylon netting over the frame. Love it. And the center one also. Yay acara. THANKS FOR THE PICS!!!

@acara.......Great idea! +1

Acara you are good at teaching. Love the ideas of planting in pots. I have a few big pots and I am going to try growing in them. Thank you for the inspiration!

what a great idea with those tomato cages

hugs

rose

PVC posts for use in buckets. Small wooden dowels up posts to keep plants from sliding down under their own weight.



Kay

Nice design .... much more attractive than my rusty rebar "feet" ..







... ummm, but the rust makes the plants cling better

.. supplemental iron source maybe??

..LOL ... okay, mine are just plain ugly & yours rock

Kay - I agree with Acara - those are some ROCKIN' stakes!

I just finished building this conduit trellis. I drove rebar into the hard clay and then set the conduit on the rebar. I call this my watermellon sail. I am going to plant watermellons in the pots and let them climb up the trellis. Last year my grandson was so eager to see the watermellons that he kept stepping on the vines. This is my answer to the problem.

Oooo. Ahhhh. Nice.

walshevak wrote:PVC posts for use in buckets. Small wooden dowels up posts to keep plants from sliding down under their own weight.



Kay

Ooooo. Somehow I missed these. Wow. Also a really clever twist on support. Love it.

You can also use reinforcing mesh -remesh - to build trellises. The local construction supply sells 8 1/2ft wide remesh by the foot off rolls that they have - other sizes are available too. I'm using it for a climbing squash that gets enormous. I would use it to build tomato cages too but our space is limited and storing them would be a problem.

We bought Texas Tomato cages years ago, they are real big, real stout, and fold flat. Oh yeah, real expensive too. We've been using them for 8 years so we've amortized the cost down to pretty cheap compared to the wimpy garden store versions but it was hard for me to spend the money.

I also have Texas Tomato Cages. They are the best but take up too much room for a SF Garden. But I am still using them for my main crop of tomatoes. This year I also tried the method of pruning and wrapping the stem with twine hanging down from a support. I can get 3 times as many tomatoes using this method than I can get using the Texas Tomato Cages.

@yolos.....I agree with you on the twine. I plant mine that way and its not only a space-saver, its so darn easy to go by your plants once a week and wrap the growing vine one turn around the twine. Love it.

Chopper
I got a couple of the coloured tomato cages a few years ago, they were quite expensive and pretty much opposite the traditional cages in that the bottom is wider then the top and they are much more stable, they basically just sit on the ground

acara, that is quite interesting, the thought of putting one upside down over the other one ....cool

Has anyone tried this? I hesitate because they're expensive. I think I prefer the twine idea.

http://www.gardeners.com/Tomato-Ladders/VegetableGardening_TerrificTomatoes,38-184RS,default,cp.html