Arched Tomato Trellis

Luckily my tomatoes are doing well this year. In fact they are outgrowing their trellises which are about 6 ft tall.

We still have months left in the growing season, so it's time to extend the trellises. I have been fantasizing about an arched-shaped trellis covered in tomatoes since last winter. I built the arch using wire concrete reinforcement panels. They are approximately 4 ft x 7 ft and are made of rigid wire with a 4 inch grid. 

I attached the wire sheets onto my trellises and reinforced the center with 1 x 2's.

This trellis is ten feet long so I used two wire panels. I attached the panels to the outermost horizontal 1 x 2's using wire. 

It was clear that the arch needed to be supported in the middle so I used a 

1 x 2 that's about 6 feet long. I put it at the center of the arch and held it up with two vertical posts. At the highest point, it is about 7 ft high.

We have to be careful not to kick the vertical posts when we walk underneath. Sometime later, I may wire it together at the top for more stability, but for today, this is how it stands...ready for the tomatoes to grow.

...and it's all worth it for this.

Black Krim

Using Twine Instead of Wire on the Trellises

Trial and error had resulted in a discovery I thought I would share with you. When I made my tomato trellises, I used 20 gauge wire hung vertically for the tomatoes to climb. I was thinking wire would be stronger than twine. 

It is stronger but it is also less forgiving than twine. I've noticed areas where the wire is cutting into the vines. 

I started with one plant and removed the wire and replaced it with twine to see how it would work. Giving the twine a little extra slack allowed the vines to be gently twisted around it. The twine moves with the plant and easily conforms to the shape of the vine. On the other hand, the wire digs into the plant in some areas causing damage, so twine works better.

I made this realization after making wire trellises for all 12 of my tomatoes. It was a time-consuming process to switch the wire out and install twine supports instead, but the job is done! 

Each twisting tomato stem has one string to climb, and they are spaced about 8 inches apart along the top. I have been really consistent about pruning out all of the suckers, so there is good air circulation. 

Next time I will use twine from the start. 

You live, you learn. 

Giving Melons Room to Grow

My dilemma: How to contain the 6 melon varieties in my small space and maximize my yields? I decided to place a row of fencing across the middle of the bed to make the vines climb up and over as they spread into the empty zone. This will allow the vines to grow longer in the same amount of space. Longer vines will make more melons and I can hardly wait for the harvest!

This year I planted my favorites (Hale's Best cantaloupe, Honeydew, and Crenshaw) and some new varieties (Saskata's Asian melon, banana melon and Sugar Baby watermelon). I have pruned the vines to train them to grow from left to right in this photo. 

They follow the sun so they want to grow that direction, so that is why they are planted to the left. That allows room for them to spread. The problem is, the space is small. By going vertically, I hope to reduce the crowding and promote better air circulation. This will hopefully help with the mildew that will be coming soon. 

Last year my melons were amazing. They grew up an over my rabbit fencing that surrounds my garden. They grew beautifully suspended by the fence, so I know the rabbit fencing is strong enough if it is supported every four feet by a metal "T" stakes. 

I am also training the vines to climb the perimeter fence by poking the escaped vines back through the fence. My goal is to try to arrange the vines so that the flowers are on the inside of the fence. We definitely want the melons forming on the inside or my dad's dog will help herself to them like last year.

Vines escaping through the fence.

Vines trained to grow up the fence from the inside. I carefully place the tendrils in contact with the wire to encourage them to grab a hold.

There are lots of flowers blooming, and with this obstacle to climb there is plenty of room for the melons to grow.

Fingers crossed!

Trellis Ideas for Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Beans, Peas, Melons and Peppers

My little garden seems to have been transformed into the land of many trellises.

And I haven't even started with the peppers.

Wood and metal, twine and wire come together in various combinations to lend support to my tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, beans and tomatillos. I thought I would share some ideas that I've tried. Some worked better than others.

Tomato Trellises
Our growing season in the Los Angeles area is very long and so we tend to have large plants. The typical tomato cages are completely inadequate for our indeterminate tomatoes which can reach 10-12 ft in a good year. Our tomato trellises need to be tall and sturdy. I have learned that it works best to have the twine or wire run vertically instead of horizontally. I have tried both, and you can train the vine to twist around the vertical wire from the ground to the top. With horizontal wires, the vines can topple over the wire and get damaged.

This is a wooden trellis I built last spring.

It worked great for the green beans and tomatoes last summer, and supported peas during the winter.

It is still standing strong, and this year it will support cucumbers on one side and tomatoes on the other. The horizontal twine has been removed and more vertical rows were added. The cucumbers are also planted against the wire rabbit fence which will support them nicely.

Read how to build the wooden trellis here. 

This year I tried a new design using metal stakes, wooden furring strips and wire strung vertically. This one is ten feet long and will support 4 tomatoes. Read how to make this trellis here.

The only issue I found with this design is that I planted the plants in the center and there are no wires within reach of the plants when they are young.

I added a wire attached to a small "U" shaped stake which I pushed into the soil next to the plant. 

Once the vines grow they will reach the other wires but not when they are small. For that reason, I changed the design again when I made this one.

The difference is that this one has only one furring strip on the bottom which runs down the middle. This brings the wire closer to the young tomatoes, so I prefer this one. I haven't finished putting up all the vertical wires yet, and I may just add them as needed rather than putting up lots of wire strands now.

**Update: I would recommend using twine instead of wire for the vertical supports. It is less likely to cut into the vines. Read about that here.

Here is last year's version which was made of metal stakes with wire strung horizontally.

When the tomatoes outgrew the trellises I extended them by attaching round stakes using wire.

I just kept adding rows of wire horizontally as the plants grew. You can read about that trellis here.

Bean and Pea Trellises

This year I decided to try growing my pole beans on tee pee trellises. 

Growing the green beans in succession will prolong my harvest. These two tee pees were planted 3 weeks apart. They look happy. Click here for the link to see how I made my tee pee trellis using a round pole, pvc adapter, twine and "U" hooks.

I've grown bush beans on small trellises made of metal posts with twine strung horizontally. I find that spacing the poles about 10-12 inches apart works well. I planted two rows and ended up adding additional twine as needed to keep the bushes controlled as they grew.

I've also used string trellises that were bought at a garden shop and tied between poles. 

This trellis did not work well because I used round poles which were not very stable. I tied guide wires and attached them to the raised beds but it was still unsteady. I would recommend using metal stakes with the stabilizing cross piece at the bottom instead.

Melon Trellises

Last year my melons went crazy and ended up climbing up and over the rabbit fencing that surrounds our garden.

The fence held up well under the weight of the cantaloupe and Crenshaw melons. 

This year I plan to let the melons climb their fence again. 

I am also considering adding a couple of rows of rabbit fencing running across the bed in the "spill zone" to the right. I'm thinking of two rows of fencing running from top to bottom in the photo. The melons will be trained to climb up and over which will effectively increase the area that the melons can grow. Metal stakes placed every four feet worked last year. The rabbit fencing slips into the little hooks on the stakes which makes it easy. 

Tomatillo and Pepper Trellises

Well, tomatillos can really go crazy, can't they? They are hard to tame but definitely need support, at least in my garden. I have used tomato cages, but again they are too small and my plants outgrow them. This year I planted them in the melon bed, close to the rabbit fence, so one side has support from the fence. 

I put metal stakes on the other side running parallel to the fence and strung wire horizontally to provide support on that side. To support the branches between the plants, I ran wire in a zigzag pattern both down low and higher.

If they grow higher than the posts, I will add the longer round poles like I did when I extended my tomato trellis above. If I had longer metal stakes I would have used them but these were the only posts I had left. I've used this method to support my peppers and it works well for them too.

Last year I used bamboo sticks to tame the tomatillos. 

I had some bamboo growing in pots and the dead stalks had branches which were strong enough to keep the plants loosely controlled. Sometimes the simplest things work best. Read about it here.

I hope these trellis ideas inspire you to experiment and come up with your own versions. The hard work is done in my spring garden. March and April have been busy out there, tending the soil, building supports and transplanting my seedlings. 

Grow garden, grow!!

DIY Tomato Trellis

Every year I redesign my tomato trellises in an attempt to create better ones. This latest version is made of 8 ft metal garden stakes, 1 x 2 inch pine furring strips and 20 gauge wire. I bought 10 ft furring strips, so the trellis is 10 ft long. It uses 4 furring strips and 6 metal stakes. The wire is strung vertically so the tomato vines can be trained to twine around the wire as the vines grow. 

The metal stakes were placed 10 inches apart which will allow air to circulate between the vines to control mildew. The plants will be planted in the middle and trained to grow up the vertical wires.

My husband pounded the stakes while I used the level to be sure they were straight. We also used the level to make the tops of the stakes the same height so the trellis looks even and level. The furring strips are not perfectly straight but these were the straightest ones at the store, and since they were only around a dollar each, they are fine.

These are common metal garden stakes and they have raised ridges that the 1 x 2 inch furring strips fit between perfectly. I used the wire to tightly tie the furring strip to the stakes. 

Then I strung the wire from the top furring strip to the bottom one. The wires are spaced 6 inches apart.

This is a simple design which is much less complicated than my first tomato trellis which is made of wood and twine. Read how I made the wooden trellis here.

Tomato trellis, photo from March 2014

It is still standing and will support cucumbers and tomatoes this year. I am hoping this new trellis will work better because there are more vertical wires and having two rows of them will control the vines better than only one row of wires. At least that's what I'm hoping. I am also vowing to do a better job of pruning the tomatoes this year.  

The small tomato transplants look tiny down there, but hopefully the vines will be happy climbing up their new trellis.

Time to harvest those carrots to make room for more tomatoes...

Bessie May loves carrots.

** For an updated, improved version of this trellis, click here.