A good trellis height ??

I'm planning on building my trellises this weekend and was trying to decide on a good height for them ...



I plan on using pvc with rebar as stakes.. The netting will be made from jute or cotton twine since I want to posibly recycle that in my compost bin.. If things go well, I may go with nylon next year...

What do you want them to support?

Tomatoes, peas, and beans...

LOL, OK, What kind of tomatoes, peas and beans? this is important stuff, I'm not trying to string you along. oh! bad pun.

Great! Out with the bi focals

Tongues of fire beans, cherokee purple tomatoes, kentucky wonder pole beans, and silvery fir tree tomatoes...

RoOsTeR wrote:Great! Out with the bi focals

Haha, on a side note I went to the eye doc today and whaddya know, bifocals... I hope they help... now on to the important matters.

Purple Cherokee in an indeterminate vine tomato, is known to grow about 4 foot tall, in Mel's mix I bet it will grow a bit taller.

Kentucky Wonder pole bean Mine grew taller than 13 feet last season, I had them on a 10 foot trellis and had a 6 foot ladder to help me harvest.

Silver Fir Tree Tomato I found it listed elsewhere as a determinate, meaning it will grow to just under 4 feet and produce most of it's fruit all at once.

I didn't find much on the Tongues of fire bean only that they were a bush variety, the pods CAN be eaten when they are very small before they turn red, but are primarily grown as a shell bean.

What kind of peas?

does any of this help at all?

Oops !! Forgot the peas.... Sugar snaps are what I plan to grow...

I built mine 79" and have both tomatoes and pole beans. Never grown pole beans but have heard they grow 7-9 feet which will be higher than I planned..oooops

I have my sugar ann snap peas on a 4 foot trellis.

I read this Q&A here a long time ago.

what do you call a tomato at the top of a 10' trellis?

Rotten

Just remember you are going to be picking them so don't build it higher than you can pick.

make sure to read the package on how tall the veggies will get

first year when we planted sugar snap peas they grew about four feet tall

second year planted sugar snap peas not knowing that some types grow taller then others and hubby had to put up a second trellis to support the sugar snap peas that got 8 feet tall we lost some do to high winds and they snap off before getting their new support up

hugs

rose

Should I give them a little extra than what the package says, to be safe ??

Maybe it doesnt work this way but would it be possible to train the plant back down the trellis once it gets to the top? Like with the 9ft+ veins, it gets to the top of a 4ft trellis, could you train it back down and maybe even back up again if it gets that long/tall?

JK wrote:Maybe it doesnt work this way but would it be possible to train the plant back down the trellis once it gets to the top? Like with the 9ft+ veins, it gets to the top of a 4ft trellis, could you train it back down and maybe even back up again if it gets that long/tall?

I did my cucumbers this way last year and it seemed to work fairly well. BTW,I wasn't into SFG then, but it seems to me you will get the same results.

Another thing is if you have the space sideways from your garden you can train the plants to grow out on the trellis in a lateral fashion.

Like say in an arbor or pergola type structure ??

I was envisioning something similar to this.

I think I get it...

camprn wrote:I was envisioning something similar to this.

What kind of tomatoes?? Thaks

I was cutting the suckers off my better boy today and snipped the string it was growing up

I went thru something similar when I was laying out my squares:oops: .. The woes of having a good sharp knife and doing a bit of sharpening on the side for folks...lol