Electrical Conduit Trellis

Went to Home Depot today and bought all the necessary metal parts for under 12 bucks...

(3) 5 foot sections 1/2 inch metal conduit: 1.87 each

(2) elbow connectors 1/2 inch 3.49 each

I picked up the trellis at my local Agway for 4 bucks.. for a grand total of: 16.59



Not too shabby

being a life long electrician
I approve

Hopefully you already had the re-bar. I just priced mine out today and had to special order the elbows at my local ACE. They carry them but were out so this way I know I'll get them next Wednesday. It works out to be about $23 for each trellis with ACE's prices. Not too bad considering the only thing I might have to replace from year to year is the nylon trellis net (because I'll likely get irritated trying to clean dead tomato vines from it this fall and pitch the netting LOL!).

I really like mine a lot.

I have 3 of the conduit trellis'. This year I built a gourd arbor and had some cattle panel leftover. So I built 2 7 foot trellis out of one 16ft section. I screwed it to some 2 x 2, anchored it with re-bar and conduit hangers.

Total cost per trellis = $16.00 or so. I'll never need to throw the cattle panel away, the wood will probably rot, but it's like 2.00 for a 8 ft section.

This is encouraging! I will have to show this to my husband, he thought it would cost a lot more per trellis. Thanks for the posts!

And Brenda, tell your husband that these trellises last a LONG time. Mine are still in commission after three years. The nylon netting is a little bit worn here and there, but I'm still going to use it this year and then replace it next year.

The netting would probably last even longer if I bothered to take it down for the winter

@ Brenda G - If you don't have a Home Depot near you try Lowe's. That is where we got all of our items too. The netting is found, at least at our Lowe's, in the seed section.

Have fun!
Renee

I went to lowes to get everything and they told me they didn't have trellis netting...I'm going to home depot because I've seen it there

Mastiff07 wrote:I went to lowes to get everything and they told me they didn't have trellis netting...I'm going to home depot because I've seen it there

I got my netting at my local Agway. Not sure about Home Depot.

I'm building trellises this weekend, buying conduit and rebar from lowes or home depot. I ordered the nylon trellis off amazon; it's much cheaper there and I get the free 2 day shipping.

philct wrote:Went to Home Depot today and bought all the necessary metal parts for under 12 bucks...

(3) 5 foot sections 1/2 inch metal conduit: 1.87 each

(2) elbow connectors 1/2 inch 3.49 each

I picked up the trellis at my local Agway for 4 bucks.. for a grand total of: 16.59



Not too shabby

Cool.

Only thing I might would do is secure the pipes by driving in some rebar stakes and/or get some conduit straps. Neither of which ought to be more than a couple bucks.

Thanks littlesaphire and gregrenee88!! We are just getting our fencing up this weekend and will be filling the boxes and constructing the trellises next week! (our last frost date isn't til early june, booo lol!) I've been taking progress photos along the way, now if we could just stop working long enough to get them loaded...

TN_GARDENER wrote:

philct wrote:Went to Home Depot today and bought all the necessary metal parts for under 12 bucks...

(3) 5 foot sections 1/2 inch metal conduit: 1.87 each

(2) elbow connectors 1/2 inch 3.49 each

I picked up the trellis at my local Agway for 4 bucks.. for a grand total of: 16.59



Not too shabby

Cool.

Only thing I might would do is secure the pipes by driving in some rebar stakes and/or get some conduit straps. Neither of which ought to be more than a couple bucks.

Conduit straps, you're a genious. I was trying to figure out how to get those rebar stakes into the ground (I'm a wimp). A drill I can handle. Great tip, thanks!

philct wrote:Went to Home Depot today and bought all the necessary metal parts for under 12 bucks...

(3) 5 foot sections 1/2 inch metal conduit: 1.87 each

(2) elbow connectors 1/2 inch 3.49 each

I picked up the trellis at my local Agway for 4 bucks.. for a grand total of: 16.59



Not too shabby

Opps, forgot the rebarb...

I paid 1.97 each for 18" 1/2" rebarb that I hammered into the ground the hold the trellis.. Sorry

if you cant find netting parks sells it or just use string Iv had some big stuff hold just fine on plain nylon string

tie some across the bottom and then tie it to the top and tight to the bottom string

I bought a 5' x 30' trellis netting for $12.79 on ebay. It was buy-it-now with free shipping. I am going to HD on Saturday for the conduit and elbows. I have some rebar, but might need longer pieces. How far must they stick out of the ground? I have nowhere to attach conduit straps, so the rebar method seems to be the best idea. My SFG is 26 ft long, and I plan to make the trellises 6', 5', 6', 5', and 6' high all in a row. I will fasten the netting with wire ties at the tops of the trellises, and maybe down some of the uprights. I am not sure if I will cut the netting for each trellis or just run one long piece. With the extra length, I should have enough to go up and down as needed.

For the rebar I bought eight foot pieces, cut them in half (four foot pieces) then pounded them two feet in the ground, leaving two feet up top to place the conduit on.

This is working well and I have seen most other people doing conduit trellising do the same.

You can just cut the net to use the net itself to tie to the conduit. On the outside square you cut the vertical and swing it out to use to tie to the conduit. Hard to describe but you will see what I mean.

If I were you I would plan the area for tomatoes to be 7 or 8 ft tall....my tomatoes always grow taller....ask Tall Tomatoes on the forum.......Ruth

Thanks for the quick replies. I figure with wire ties I can remove the netting in winter without trying to undo knots, just cut the ties. I know the tomatoes will grow like crazy, but once they get to the top, they can begin to hang down. My boyfriend once put up a trellis 8 ft high for sugar snap peas. He later added 2 more feet to the top. and still had them hanging down. Charles -- I am about 15 miles west of Wilkes-Barre, 500 ft from the grounds of the State Correctional Institution at Dallas. Since that is a protected area for deer, I always had a problem with them, so I never bothered with a garden. Last year my brother had some extra tomatoes, so he stuck them in in front of my house, and I had a bumper crop. I ate all I wanted, canned 20 pints of spaghetti sauce, and gave quite a few away also. This year I decided to put a raised bed there, and after it was built, I decided to make it a SFG. Funds are tight, so this year it is filled with compost only, but next year I will dig that out and put down weed blocker and make MM for it.

Here is a picture of my garden.

As you can see the only plants showing are ones I purchased, but I did put in a lot of seeds over the past few days including running between raindrops on Monday. (LOL)