Tall Supports For Growing Climbing Plants

[ThomWV]

I have mentioned a set of trellis' that I built for pole beans and cucumbers in a couple of posts. I thought it might be a good idea to show you all what I was talking about in case some of you might find something similar useful for your garden.

The making was simplicity itself. The stands are made from 2x2's or similar scrap, each of the legs is 8 feet long. I bored a hole through each of them a couple of inches from the top and put a section of all-thread through it with a fender (extra large) washer and a nut on each end. The 2x2's cost me a buck and a half each; the all-thread (36" piece of 5/16"), nuts (8), and fender washers (8) came to another three bucks.



There are pole limas and cucumbers planted where each leg contacts the ground.

I made these after seeing how a friend of mine grows his pole beans. He uses bamboo tied together at the tops and stood up in Tee-pee fashion. The bamboo he used was quite tall, probably on the order of 12 feet, and he tied about 10~12 of them together. The base was about 6' in diameter so you quite litterly walked into the cone to pick. Cool!

On Edit: I used 4 legs because the ground is flat. If they were needed on a hillside or other uneven plot they could have been made with 3 legs.

[crispini]

1. Easy peasy!

I'll remember this trick!

[Dover]

2. Very nice! And I suppose easy to move around and store if/when not in use.

So if the beans climb up each pole you plant your seeds at the base of each pole? Or do you weave some string around and between the poles to create more climbing surface like a web?

[ThomWV]

3. Yep and nope

Yep. they are pretty easy to move around and I should be able to just fold the legs together and lean them against a shed for the winter.

I put the things in place and then planted. I put three lima seeds around each leg (one front and two rear) and one cucumber seed on each side of each leg. All of these are planted within inches of the legs (cukes are emerging this morning) and will be trained directly to the legs as the come up - they will not be allowed to wonder around the garden.

Nope, I won't be hanging anything from the legs for further support but I did consider just tacking some welded wire fencing to the sides. There were two reasons for not adding additional climbing surfaces. First; I sort of figured that cleaning the wire up in the fall would be more trouble than its worth. Second; because there are other things planted in there too (the Okra and cantaloupes) which I did not want to shade any more than necessary.

The reason I need light to penetrate the centers is that they are planted. If you were to hang a plumb bob down from the bolt that holds each quadrapod together it would be directly over the Okra seeds (and an additional plant at the ends of each row for 6 Okra plants total) and then the 'lopes are planted in a circle around the Okra.