Wire trellis vs. Florida weave?

I need your advice and experience, please!

I am putting up my trellises today. I have a few plants that will still need support, though, and they are too far from the trellises: Two cucumbers planted in the same square, and a tomatillo and a cherry tomato (indeterminate) which are basically adjacent -- the tomato is in a container next to the tomatillo square.

The cucumbers I had originally planned a trellis for, til I realized it would be too close to another trellis. The tomatillo and cherry tomato were not in the original plan.

I have two 4-ft wire cages left, plus some tall stakes. I could try to cage them both... or do a weave on one or both. Not sure which would work best. I realize it's going to be a mess either way. The cukes, I might be able to train over to the closest trellis... will follow up with pictures.

Thanks!

This is last years row garden, I put stakes at either end of the peppers and strung twine from stake to stake. I didnt think of going around the stake and coming back, thats what Ive done this year like a weave with this years trellis. The twine would allow me to also tie up any branches of the peppers.









This years trellis




I now have twine from each side I went from one side to the other and came back around so the plants have twine on both sides. With this trellis I can tie up from the top too, it has one more level to be put on it and it will be 8ft. I am only doing this one for this bed. I have a 4x8 bed I have that is only tomatoes and peppers. I will attach something to the side of each square and string twine from stake to stake, like last years row garden.Still trying to figure out if I will go the 4 ft way or the 8 ft way. I cant decide and when its like that I just wait until it comes to me:)

Let us know how yours works out. Have fun.
Ha-v-v

Wire Panel Trellis

Camprn, what a great link! We had seen the livestock panels used for arbor type hoops not too long ago, but I was intrigued by them using the same panels to make a teepee type arrangement for trellising of shorter veggies like sugar snap peas and cucumbers. That might work really well on a Table Top SFG, since it is only about 3 or 4 feet higher than the top of your TT and would be fairly easy to harvest for those of us who are vertically challenged (short stuff here)

"Florida trellis (weave)" works great up to about 6', then your typicallly "toast" (unless you have monkey arms and a step ladder )

I also find it anywhere from "insufficient" to "woefully insufficient" with a bumper crop of larger tomatoes (and sometimes bell peppers).....and especially on longer(unsupported) runs of plantings.

Also, if your using jute twine, it tends to stretch/sag/rot/snap .....at least down here.

I love the technique for horizontal sprawl or determinates, but it has never served me well for indeterminate tomatoes or larger pepppers.

However on short runs of smaller produce, its brutally cheap and effective.

I realize now I never posted back to this thread. Thanks everyone for the fantastic info!

I ended up using a 4-foot cage for the cucumbers but the cukes laughed at it, climbed out of the cage, climbed up the (ten foot!) amaranth, leaped from there onto the first pole bean trellis and were in fisticuffs with the rampicante when they finally succumbed to cucumber wilt. Silly cukes. (The cukes and rampicante were planted 9 feet apart and met just about in the middle, about 6 feet in the air, via circuitous routes.)

I was startled when my tomatoes easily climbed up 6.5 foot conduit trellises and looked like they were gunning for more. If I manage to get some to grow next year in my back yard, I will make sure to top them off.

Furbalsmom wrote:for those of us who are vertically challenged (short stuff here)

This is my near constant companion
I should add this to the gadget list.

LOL... I'm six feet tall and I STILL had a hard time reaching a lot of my stuff!

Megan wrote:I ended up using a 4-foot cage for the cucumbers but the cukes laughed at it, climbed out of the cage, climbed up the (ten foot!) amaranth, leaped from there onto the first pole bean trellis and were in fisticuffs with the rampicante when they finally succumbed to cucumber wilt. Silly cukes. (The cukes and rampicante were planted 9 feet apart and met just about in the middle, about 6 feet in the air, via circuitous routes.)

Yep, you can do it with a 4' cage .......




But that doesn't mean you should ;




This is "son-of-Stanley" & was just one of those stupid (stubborn) things I sometimes do.....just to be able to say "yep, I did it".

I've spent about 40% of my weekday gardening time (for the last 8 weeks), trimming tying, tucking, topping, training & otherwise "manipulating" this cuke back-and-forth on a 4' cage.

Suprisingly, the compacting & density hasn't appeared to have any negative impact on the growth, health or production of the plant ...... although I sometimes find full growth cukes that I didn't know I had (there are 11 cukes on that abberation right now....at least that I know of)....LOL

I would definately call this one of those "yes you can, but no, you shouldn't" situations.

The level of effort required exceeds the level of satisfaction/accomplishment in pulling it off. Again, not my brightest gardening moment this season.

Yup, agreed on all points!

The cage I used was not a circular one like you show... it was (I think?) a lot bigger. It was one of those triangular folding things for tomatoes. You can see it behind the amaranth in this picture from late June...oh, how innocent it all looks! Still ended up much too small, though.



I have two of those cages and I think they are pretty much useless for anything except maybe supporting peppers or tomatillos. My peas grabbed on too, but they died really early.

Agreed on the "cone trellis" .... they kinda suck, but all the cool kids were using them, so I figured I'd try.

The flat trellis yr using looks "doable" with a little work, but again ... the level of effort required may not justify the satisfaction of pulling it off (exhibit A .... the 4 year old magnolia tree with an 8" trunk that I have on a trellis in my pics. Gorgeous when it's in full bloom 2 weeks out of the year .... a pain in my rump for the other 50 weeks of the year).

The one cone trellis I had worked out pretty well to support a pepper plant.

The folding one... honestly, I thought it would work great until the cukes leaped onto the amaranth. I did a whole bunch of weaving and tying before that happened and it was going pretty well... I just didn't have the confidence to prune it harshly.