Question about using wood lath for grid

dixie 3/5/2011, 1:12 pm

I use string for my grids but was considering wood this year. Question is, when I pull up my tomato plants the root ball is huge & it seems it would tear the grid out when I pulled them. Any thoughts on this?

Megan 3/5/2011, 1:14 pm

Your tomato root balls must be much bigger than mine! You could always chop them up/tap off the extre MM with a trowel or some such, if it came to that. I always do that when pulling plants, so as not to lose the Mix. But I am going to stick with string this year.

boffer 3/5/2011, 1:21 pm

My tomato roots do not respect my grids! They travel into 2, 3, and even 4 other squares. I have to take my grid off to comfortably get the balls out.

Last year was the first time I tried string. I liked it so much better than everything else I use for grids, that I'm slowly converting all my boxes to string!

dixie 3/5/2011, 1:34 pm

Thanks, I'll stick with string. It's no big deal to replace it each year. I have a ball of old crochet thread that I use.

a0628h0427 3/6/2011, 11:55 pm

I use wood. The advantage I've gotten from it is that I can lay squares of chicken wire on it to keep cats out of the garden while I'm waiting for the seedlings to come up. I assemble the grid in one piece and lay it on top of the box. I'll be happy to send pics if you'd like.

Cody

ander217 3/7/2011, 7:33 am

Welcome to the forum, Cody. We always love to see photos.

How do you keep your wood from splitting? We tried both vinyl strips and wood lath and both wanted to split even when drilling nail holes. We finally gave up and went with clothesline last year.

This year we're going to try Model A Man's method of adding screws on the side of the box for anchoring the grids. Hubby has been using heavy wire to make the grids on his raised beds, but it is difficult to keep it straight, so I'd prefer going back to clothesline or string on my 4' x 4' box.

Boffer, have you tried clothesline? I also wondered about monofilament fishing line.

dixie 3/7/2011, 8:05 am

Hi Cody, Assembling and then placing on top of the grid sounds good. Please post the picture, someone else might be interested.

And welcome to the forum. I am just getting active on the forum this year & missed it when you introduced yourself.

a0628h0427 3/7/2011, 9:03 am

Hi everyone,

Here are some pictures of my two beds, taken a year ago.

Question about using wood lath for grid 22046_1348153868857_1381635465_985779_6176128_n

Question about using wood lath for grid 22046_1348153868857_1381635465_985779_6176128_n

Question about using wood lath for grid 22046_1348150788780_1381635465_985767_6921972_n

If I remember correctly, for the older grid on the brick bed, I drilled holes and used long screws with bolts to hold them together. That bed is two years old, and the wood is starting to warp, so I'll probably replace it in the near futre. On the newer wooden bed, I used some short wood screws. Both have worked equally well.

Cody

dixie 3/7/2011, 9:13 am

Great pics & thanks.

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