Trellises: How Tall is Tall Enough?

Yesterday, my hubby and I put up the first of four circuit pipe trellises on our veggie beds. (Here I am, trying to find the corner of the tomato netting). My plan is to have seven foot tall trellises on the two north beds, and five foot tall trellises on the two south beds (which cast their shadow toward the north, of course). My logic is that my pole beans and peas can grow up to seven feet or so. I will also put my indeterminate tomatoes in the taller trellis beds. Also, I plan to vertically train melons in a few beds.

What is your experience with trellis heights? How high have you seen your plants grow? Any pictures? Also, how strong is strong enough? We put our circuit pipes over rebar pounded into the ground, and then also screwed metal straps over the pipes, attaching them to the backs of the beds.

My running beans are already topping my conduit at about 6 ft, and they haven't even started blooming yet.

I think you should go 8-10 feet high, but it's anybody's guess.


Leon

My pole beans consistently top 8 top. This is an 8 foot trellis, taken last year. You can see the dead vines from the previous year.



We still don't know if MP is a socks and sandals gal! (PNW joke)

I just went 4 x 4 because I didn't want to go over my head ......stuuuuuupiiiiiiid.... My favorite peas are Maestro which only get 3 to 4 feet tall. These pretty Golden Sweets are jumping up a few inches every day. This was yesterday. This AM you cannot see the top of the frame. Yours are sounding SO nice right now. I'm thinking about running a bit of net back to the fence.


I have bush beans so maybe no problem there. I'm feeling a little idgey about my tomatoes. Yeish!

BTW....your garden is beautiful Boff

You all are making me nervous.... my trellises aren't up yet but were planned to be 4', those would be for the tomatoes, cukes and watermelon. Am I going to be in trouble?

My peas are apparently a bush variety (I goofed??) so not so worried about them. The pole beans will get 5' pole tipis and/or the corn if it grows fast enough, which should go to 8-10ft.

Megan wrote:snip .....My peas are apparently a bush variety (I goofed??) so not so worried about them. The pole beans will get 5' pole tipis and/or the corn if it grows fast enough, which should go to 8-10ft.

Megan I have 4 different kinds of peas growing in the back 4 of my pic. Only one type is tall the rest are smaller. That was no goof on your part.

8 to 10 foot corn? That is impressive!!

Lavender Debs wrote:

Megan wrote:snip .....My peas are apparently a bush variety (I goofed??) so not so worried about them. The pole beans will get 5' pole tipis and/or the corn if it grows fast enough, which should go to 8-10ft.

Megan I have 4 different kinds of peas growing in the back 4 of my pic. Only one type is tall the rest are smaller. That was no goof on your part.

8 to 10 foot corn? That is impressive!!

You made me doubt my memory, so I went back to check facts ;-) The one review on rareseeds.com reported 9 foot stalks, I guess that is close? link It will be interesting to see what I actually get.

For the peas... kind of a goof because I was hoping to get more plants into a smaller area and if I read correctly, that works best with a vining plant? I have them planted 4 to a square and suspect that is too tight for a bush pea. (I won't cry if I have to eat pea tendrils, though ;-) )

I have been gardening a while, but this is my first year SFG. I've done French intensive and container gardening so I didn't bat an eye when I figured 16 to a square (4 rows of 4). That is how I would have done it in other gardens. You are doing 4? Now I am a little worried. Oh well, plant and learn. Mirjam was worried about how many I had when they were seedlings. Except for the part about it being too early to tell, they seem to be doing well.

I thought bush peas needed a lot of space, which is why I called it a flub when I ordered the wrong sort... I thought/think, for whatever reason I can't prove, that it needs more like one per square, like a pepper plant. But I haven't grown peas in over 30 years, so I have no idea ;-) Most are just tiny shoots at the moment. I guess we will find out!

We completed the SFG official-style trellises on all 4 veggie beds this weekend! (the 2nd pic is view from our living room window).

I went 6' on most of the trellises (trelli?), but 7' on the Kentucky Wonder pole beans as I know they will grow tall. I didn't want to go higher than I could reach as I don't do well on stepladders. I'm already regretting the 7' one, but too late to change now. Most plants will just bend over at the top and start down the other side, so nothing to worry about.

Megan wrote:You all are making me nervous.... my trellises aren't up yet but were planned to be 4', those would be for the tomatoes, cukes and watermelon. Am I going to be in trouble?

If the tomatoes are indeterminate, 4' is a bit low. You could sink a couple of taller poles tied onto the trellis to give it more support. All the cukes and watermelon will do is bend over and come down over the other side and out into the pathways, then down the side of the bed onto the lawn, then out into the driveway ... you get my drift. I had one squash a couple of years ago I named "Audrey". After she took over a 8x8' area, I started coiling her stems around the plant and at the end of the season when I straightened them out some were 24' long. That obviously was a mutant seed since no others in the same packet did that. But can you imagine her on a trellis?

All of my trellises are 6'. The peas and sugar snap peas to beyond that and just start hanging down the backside. Beans, too. But shoot! I can't reach anything above 6' anyway, so that they just come down the other side is helpful! This will be my first year trying to do cukes, watermelon and cantaloupes up a trellis, so no idea on those.

belfrybat wrote:

Megan wrote:You all are making me nervous.... my trellises aren't up yet but were planned to be 4', those would be for the tomatoes, cukes and watermelon. Am I going to be in trouble?

If the tomatoes are indeterminate, 4' is a bit low. You could sink a couple of taller poles tied onto the trellis to give it more support. All the cukes and watermelon will do is bend over and come down over the other side and out into the pathways, then down the side of the bed onto the lawn, then out into the driveway ... you get my drift. I had one squash a couple of years ago I named "Audrey".

I have seen squash get big, though not that big, yikes. I wasn't planning on trellising the squash (just kinda looping it around the corn, per the "Three Sisters" plan, though I know it's going to be a comedy of crowding.

If the cukes and the watermelon bend over and come down the other side, they are going to run smack into each other and/or the whole Three Sisters she-bang (the watermelon is more likely to.) And won't that be "interesting"...

The tomatoes are indeterminate, yes. I think I'm going to have a little discussion with hubby when he comes home about returning the trellises and maybe buying a cattle panel or two. Whatever I do, I need to do it pretty quickly. I have a little time with the tomatoes, but the curcurbits are starting to scare me, even though they just have seed leaves now.

As for beans... I was just thinking to myself earlier tonight that the lima beans are almost ready for tipi-ing... I swear they are bigger than they were yesterday!

boffer wrote:My pole beans consistently top 8 top. This is an 8 foot trellis,
taken last year. You can see the dead vines from the previous year.

(the Picture you had, was not allowed in my response)

can't quite tell - is that Trellis constructed from REBAR? sunk into ground.
That would answer the question, of (no matter what) the thing staying UPright!
Splendid idea!! - Thanks!!

If it helps any .... I've never been able to build something that a plant couldn't manage to out grow.



At somepoint yr just going to have to "top" the plant, or buy a cherrypicker/bucket-truck to maintain





I don't recommend letting them get above 8', as the pruning techniques get problematic ....

My squash is going over the top of my 8 ft tall trellis. I have been snipping off the terminal ends of the vines in a effort to prevent the squash from overtaking the entire bed.