Trellis

How tall should your trellis be if your growing tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and pole beans. Thanks for any help.

Depends what variety you are growing.  My large indeterminate tomatoes grow over 8 feet high so I have 8 ft high tomato cages.  This is July 5 and they just kept growing.

In between the the two tomato plants is a cucumber on a trellis.  It looks like about 5 ft tall July 5.

I grow rattlesnake beans and they grow over 10 feet tall.  I have an 8 ft high trellis and they grow over the top of this and get all tangled together at the top.


This will be my first summer growing vining squash so I can't help you with that.  I do have an 8 ft tall trellis that I will be growing on though.

Warning - most gardeners do not have trellises this tall so someone else will probably chime in shortly with different heights.

I have 8' trellises for cantaloupe, winter squash, and Rattle Snake beans. The 5' trellises are a little short for the Kentucky Wonder beans and cucumbers. The problem is, EMC and PVC come in 5' and 10' lengths and 10' lengths, respectively. So 5' and 8' trellises seem to be the most common.

I use a 6 foot trellis for my cherry tomatoes.  But sometimes, like last year, they grow to 15 ft. So I have to weave them down and back up thru the trellis.  Not a bad problem to have.
 
Indeterminate tomatoes go on a 5 footer.  Mine don't get much taller than that.

Cukes also go on 5 footers.  They can be woven also if necessary but I don't usually have that nice problem with cukes.

Pole bean go on a 6 footer but get all tangled and bunched up at the top.  Doesn't affect the harvest though.

CC

When I was at the farm I kept a garden of about an acre in size.  For tomatoes and other vine crops I liked to trellis I would use cow panels bought at the local TSC store.

To use these 16 feet long by 5 feet high panels I would lay them flat then mark the at 6 feet from each end.  Then with some help I would bend the two six feet parts to a right angle to the 4 feet middle.  Stood up there was an arbor 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide.  This was set in the garden bed and plants were put on each of the 6 feet side.  Tomatoes and other vine crops would grow up the sides and over the top of the arbors.  They were anchored with "T" post.

Tomatoes, cukes, squashes and cantaloupes were some of the crops grown on these arbors.  The cow panels were cheap at about $15.00 each and are still being used by the kids 30 years later.

Cow panels can also be used in place of string or wire.  You need a good pair of bolt cutters to cut them to size if you need a shorter than 16 feet piece.  Go check these out at a local farm store.  BTW the TSC stores are the cheapest for these around here.

Cow panels can also be curved to create an arbor-trellis.  This stock photo with pipe and trellis could be recreated with cow panels??

Gib, TSC is my go to for stuff like that too.  

I could copy CCs post for what I have.

After 5 yrs some of my trellis nettings aregetting wonky ...mostly due to me cutting strands here and there by accident when cleaning up in the fall.  So I need to replace it and will be trying this one from Amazon:

Luster Leaf 869 Vine and Veggie Trellis Net, Green, 5-Feet by 30-Feet

I like the color and it's around $10 right now. I'll let you know how it works out.

CapeCoddess wrote:After 5 yrs some of my trellis nettings aregetting wonky ...mostly due to me cutting strands here and there by accident when cleaning up in the fall.  So I need to replace it and will be trying this one from Amazon:

Luster Leaf 869 Vine and Veggie Trellis Net, Green, 5-Feet by 30-Feet

I like the color and it's around $10 right now. I'll let you know how it works out.

And I just received (yesterday) my Ross Trellis Netting, 5'x30' from Amazon Canada. And of course I paid the inflated Canadian price of $16 (12 USD).

Same Ross is $28.86 here.  You did good, TD! But I can get the 100 length for $21.21.
huh...

CC - the green trellis will eventually fade out to a beigie/white color.

yolos wrote:CC - the green trellis will eventually fade out to a beigie/white color.

Oh, OK. Do you use this one? Does it last for year (if I don't keep accidentally cutting it up)?

CapeCoddess wrote:

yolos wrote:CC - the green trellis will eventually fade out to a beigie/white color.

Oh, OK.  Do you use this one?  Does it last for year (if I don't keep accidentally cutting it up)?

Yes I have used it but don't remember how it did.  But all my nylon trellis seems to last about the same length of time.  They last me for 2-3 years.

I use EMT 10' for the sides and cut one into 4' for the top then tie my own 6" square netting using carpenters string takes a little longer this way but I never got more than one year out of the store bought netting.

newbeone wrote:I use EMT 10' for the sides and cut one into 4' for the top then tie my own 6" square netting using carpenters string takes a little longer this way but I never got more than one year out of the store bought netting.

newbeone ... are you using the full 10 foot length for the uprights?  I am in the process of making new trellises and was going to cut mine down to 8 feet but it would be less work to just use the 10 feet sections. My concern is that it will be too high and will require a dangerous balancing act for this old guy to reach the top.

yolos wrote:

CapeCoddess wrote:

yolos wrote:CC - the green trellis will eventually fade out to a beigie/white color.

Oh, OK.  Do you use this one?  Does it last for year (if I don't keep accidentally cutting it up)?

Yes I have used it but don't remember how it did.  But all my nylon trellis seems to last about the same length of time.  They last me for 2-3 years.

My "Vigoro 5ft x 8ft Sturdy Garden Trellis" is on its third year and doesn't seem like it would need to be replaced next year, though I obviously won't actually know until the end of the season.
 
Yolos and newbeone, what happens to yours after 2-3 years/1 year? And do you store yours inside during part of the year?

CC - I've taken down my trellises at the end of the year, removed all the dead vines,  and found a few spots where I clearly did not harvest my cucumbers very carefully.

Some of mine are on there second year and doing good, this fall I will start my third year gardening at my present location before that I was up in Zone 4, and no I do not store my trellis down here gardening is about a year round thing except maybe for the next couple months.

I have one SFG box, and I have two trellises. I followed the instructions in the book and mine are made of electrical conduit. They're 5ft tall, and I'm already thinking I should have made them taller. If I decide to do that, I'll use PVC pipe instead of the electrical conduit. It took me 45 minutes to make each cut, using a pipe cutter, and my carpal tunnel didn't appreciate it. I'm just over 5 ft. tall, so I figure I should be able to reach a 7ft. trellis fairly easily. I'll decide at the end of the season. I like the fact that they slip over rebars at each side. It makes it easy to lift them off and store them over winter, if I decide to do that.

I found that just a hand saw with a fresh blade cut through my electrical conduit in like 2 minutes.  But maybe I have my youth to thank for that.

Robbomb116 wrote:I found that just a hand saw with a fresh blade cut through my electrical conduit in like 2 minutes.  But maybe I have my youth to thank for that.

Hand hack saw works great.  And I don't have my youth but I do have experience over the years using a hack saw.

I was dreading cutting it, cause I had never actually cut metal before, so  I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was with the hack saw.

Hammock Gal,

I agree that PVC trellises are easier to manage. Why not compromise on 6'?  That way, you should still be able to reach the top.

Robbomb116 wrote:I found that just a hand saw with a fresh blade cut through my electrical conduit in like 2 minutes.  But maybe I have my youth to thank for that.

Seriously? And here I thought I was so smart picking up that pipe cutter off the bargain table for $2! Thanks for that info, if I ever have to cut electrical conduit again, it'll be with a hand saw.

donnainzone5 wrote:Hammock Gal,

I agree that PVC trellises are easier to manage. Why not compromise on 6'?  That way, you should still be able to reach the top.

I'm going to see how tall the tomatoes get, and go from there. But if I decide to rebuild, it will be with PVC. I'm not sure yet if I will remove them to store over winter, but if I do, PVC will just be much easier for me to handle on my own.

Somewhat off topic, but his is my plan for my next box(es). The trellis would be made of cattle panel and be used for winter squash and possibly melons.  It's just if the wife will let me build more boxes haha