Vertical Growing Question

neddleman 4/23/2010, 6:07 pm

I am new to this whole thing, but I am trying to make sense of the vertical growing of peas and such. Mel's book says that you can plant 8 to a square--how do you trellis them? I had imagined a trellis on one side of the box, but with 8 plants in a square, I am confused. Any advice?

choksaw 4/23/2010, 8:22 pm

If you choose to plant 8 per sqaure you would need to move the trellis so that it splits the square your growing in so that they can climb both sides of the trellis same thing for peas so it would be a good idea to dedicate that row of sqaures to vineing plants so that you can get full use of the trellis support system

jenjehle 4/23/2010, 11:53 pm

Last year when I grew sugar snap peas in my SFG I just put a trellis down into the soil that I had from another area in my yard. I had the SFG book suggested trellis with the nylon netting at the back of my bed but I needed an extra one to go between the sugar snap peas when planting them 8 per square. This trellis just stuck down into the ground and it was metal and sort of decorative. It looked nice in my SFG and then I just continued to use the nylon trellis for other things at the back of my bed.

It worked for me! Let us know what you decide to do!

neddleman 4/24/2010, 1:34 am

Thank you! I am excited to get planting!

new2this 4/24/2010, 8:39 am

Hey Needle....I too was confused about this.....I didn't think it thru and really wish I had put my trellis over the squares (splitting them in 2) instead of on the very end of the bed.

But, what's done is done.....so I took thin wooden skewers and angled them into the soil and wrapped the netting around them. Now (hopefully) my peas will be able to catch on.

Retired Member 1 4/24/2010, 10:04 am

My trellis is at the end of the bed, so what I did was plant beans and peas in two staggered rows 2" apart right by the trellis -- only took a half square, but the other half is available for the roots. It seems to be working as both peas and beans are growing like crazy. In my former method of planting beans and peas, I would make a trellis that looked like an inverted "V" about 18" apart on the bottom and plant both sides. Took a lot more room for about half the plants possible in SFG.

Another option, as someone has mentioned is build a temporary trellis at an angle to your main trellis to train the little darlings up.

silverbug 4/24/2010, 12:32 pm

I usually guide the peas to whatever trellis I'm using. I will plant as many as I can near whatever support I'm using, and typically, they catch on to the idea pretty quickly. I'm just going to guide the "second row" over to the trellis and they'll do just fine.

aspiegardner 4/29/2010, 7:35 am

if you go to home depot they have a tomato "cage" but it is flat you can use it flat and it is long enough to go the length of a square foot box.

I put it down the middle and put all vine plants in that box.

Than I had another for the tomatos

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