Vertical Gardening Issue

akolcharno 4/15/2015, 10:49 am

I'm starting my SFG for the first time this year, i've read the book, got the soil mixed and box made. Planning my squares out now and I seem to have more vertically minded plants that I want to grow than 1 trellis will allow. I want to plant 2 tomato plants, snap peas, zucchini, beans, & peppers. Along with some others, but I'm finding the problem of having enough room on 1 trellis, wondering if I should try the vertical netting that is suspended over the entire 4'x4' box. Has anyone tried this with success? I feel like it might not work as well for the vining plants. Any suggestions? I picked these specifically b/c they are the main plants I know my family will eat!

**sanderson** 4/15/2015, 2:23 pm

Akocharno, Welcome to the Forum from California! $glad you\'re here$

Finding room for everything one wants can be a problem at the beginning; just not enough boxes! Very Happy

Add plants that need trellising, and it really becomes a challenge. One way to extend a SFG is to use 5-gallon buckets or large pots for growing tomatoes (they can be caged and/or staked). Peppers don't need a trellis, just a stake. I grow many of them in Medium pots with a skinny stake or bamboo stake. Growing zucchinis vertically is difficult. It can be done but I now grow zucchinis in large pots with cages. This saves the trellis for pole beans and peas. There are also bush beans and peas that don't need a trellis, maybe just low decorative fencing to corral them. I hope this helps.

butterwhat 4/16/2015, 10:12 pm

I grow snow peas and pickle cucumbers on my trellis. Tomatoes and peppers I use stakes for (tall ones for the tomatoes, shorter ones for the peppers). I don't grow zucchini because it takes up a lot of space and I can get all I want for next to nothing, or nothing (people leave them on top of the file cabinets at work!) I grow bush beans so they don't need any support. If you have room, you can always let the zucchini spread out of the box onto the ground.

audrey.jeanne.roberts 4/16/2015, 10:40 pm

The main problem with trying to many climbing plants in a box is that they shade each other and sometimes way too much. I've had peppers be crowded out by taller Japanese Eggplant and never produced a single pepper.

One thing I do with overhead structures is use the twine from hay or straw bales suspended from the above support. If a plant naturally climbs then I don't have to do much. I grow beans like this. If they need help, then I wind the twine around a plant enough to hold it up and continue to wind it around as it grows. It's cheap (we have dozens of the strings from the cattle operation on our property), strong and easily reused.

ralitaco 4/16/2015, 11:27 pm

It may be too late but what about building a 2x8 box instead of a 4x4.

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Vertical Gardening Issue

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Re: Vertical Gardening Issue


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