I made trellises from 1/2" metal conduit pipe and corner connectors. They make a simple 3-sided trellis that secure into the soil over a short piece of rebar. I made them 5' wide and 5' tall for green beans & peas, 8' tall for tomatoes and cucumbers. I tie nylon trellis netting onto them as tightly as possible (the trellis netting is 5' wide, so it just fits).

These work great for my peas, beans, tomatoes, and cucumbers (although the cucumbers and tomatoes need a bit of training to stay in the netting). I actually angle the cucumber trellis forward a little which helps the cukes hang down on one side for easier picking and gives them a little more distance from my tomatoes which are right behind them. Tomatoes are pruned to remove suckers and maintain a single growing stem up the trellis so they don't turn into a tangled mess with the adjacent tomato plants.

Even with heavy tomatoes and cucumbers, I haven't had any trouble with the nylon trellis netting stretching out or loosening up... maybe because I had to tie them so tight to fit on my 5' wide trellis?

Here you go - all sorts of pictures and ideas. I use cattle panels which you will see in the pics too.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Raised bed trellis pics

emorems0, can you tell me more about how you make the corners? Are the corner connectors intended for conduit, or is it something intended for some other purpose?

--McKenzie

I made trellises from 1/2" metal conduit pipe and corner connectors.
I made them 5' wide and 5' tall for green beans & peas, 8' tall for tomatoes and cucumbers.
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Possibilities are unlimited.
But To me 1/2" EMT sounds too week for tomatoes. I could be wrong.

The 1/2" metal conduit was plenty strong for my tomatoes, I had 5 big plants on each 5' trellis last year (plants grew more than the 8' tall) with large beefsteak heirlooms weighing them down... the conduit showed no sign of stress, it's much stronger than the PVC that I've seen others made out of but is thinner and less obtrusive in my front yard garden than a big, white PVC trellis. I just use regular 90degree conduit connectors to connect the pieces and the half inch width pipe just fits over the rebar spikes to secure them to the ground. Of course, if you have a raised bed, you could probably use some of those screw on conduit holders (forgive my ignorance, I'm not an electrician and don't know the real names for these things!) to secure the conduit right onto the sides of your raised bed. You could upgrade to thicker conduit as well, but I found the 1/2" to be plenty strong enough to support heavy tomatoes and cucumbers.

I can take a picture later if requested, I actually need to put together another one this year as I'm moving and expanding my beans and peas.

If I had the money and wanted something more permanent (the conduit trellises are nice in that I can remove them at the end of the growing season to change things up or really work the soil), I'd go with one of those wood-framed trellises with the cattle panel... they'd certainly look nicer in my front yard than my current set up.

I made my trellis frame for peas and beans out of 2x2 wood pieces. Used metal corner braces inside the corners. Basically a large rectangle with the bottom of the frame having 6" long legs. I attached the nylon netting using screws and washers. The washers keeps the netting from slipping off. I have 6" long pieces of 2 1/2" pvc attached to the insides of my bed. The legs of the frame slip into the pvc. Easily removable for fall bed cleaning.

Easiest way is to grab 14 foot pieces of rebar and bend them in half. Using two you make a mock teepee.

After reading what others are doing I am convinced I have the cheaper long-range solution although you may not adopt it. Arched metal high tunnels are not that expensive when you consider that all of the problems you mentioned would be solved. Many think of them as only season extenders but that is only half of the benefit. The tomatoes can be supported with nothing more than a string draped from the framework. You can do the same for netting. You won't have wind blowing your plants around unless you create it with fans.

If you do a little caculation of the cost/benefit on various supports you will logically think Green-(house).

Lots of great ideas here. Thanks for the link for photos which I should have done myself first. I would be happy to have a photo of anyone's garden with their vertical supports and any more different versions of vertical support. Thanks!

If you want something cheap, simple, functional, and pretty much indestructable, use PVC. Some pipe, and a bunch of elbows and tees will have you up and going in no time. I originally did this with 1/2" ID schedule 40, for a 5-foot high x 4 foot wide trellis, which works great for cherry tomatoes, peas, and beans. Make it with an upper and lower horizontal cross bar. I later added on some more trellises, and used schedule 80 instead. That was better, especially if you're doing cukes or melons. You could just go 3/4", I suppose. Cover it with poultry netting.

Very easy to pull down, and dismantle, if needed. No screws or fasteners. You shouldn't even need glue.

If you want something that looks nicer, then spend more money and take more trouble. I want to spend my time gardening, not fabricating.

Well, I guess it would have helped for me to say to begin with that looking nice is important to me. I have a small 1/4 acre property and so the vegetable garden is part of the landscape and is very visible.

I have seen very functional PVC structures, and they do seem easy to assemble, but I'd prefer something that was either wood, or galvanized metal that wouldn't rust. Copper piping might have been something I would have thought about before it became so expensive.

And how do these structures do when it is windy? Especially something that is holding up a big old indeterminate tomato plant?

I thought that idea of having the PVC piping sunk into the corners of the bed to hold a structure sounded easy to take it down and put it away for the winter, but will that hold it up during high winds?

BMoser, it sounds like the same arrangement that Eliot Coleman uses in Maine and describes in his books.

I've never worked with metal conduit or cattle panels, so I wonder if they will rust over time?

My cattle panels don't rust. They are galvanized.

Dave

Well, it's not exactly ugly, but it is just PVC. The schedule 80 is grey, which is less conspicuous. Of course, you can paint it.

I've had no trouble with wind, though my 1/2" frame tends to lean a bit when loaded, and I've supported it with a guy wire or two. My frames get *covered* with plants, so wind resistance is important. If you're concerned, you might think about putting a chunk of 4x4 under each end as an anchor. Drill a hole in each, insert the PVC tube, and bury that. It won't go anywhere. But you should certainly sink it at least a foot.

Actually, I sunk lengths of larger tube that stick up four inches out of the soil on each end, and inserted the frame tubes snugly into them. You can get PVC that will fit snugly. My original idea was that it would make it easy to just pull out the frame every year, but I've always just left it in. So I'm not sure how well that works in practice.

But the stuff is indestructable, and dirt cheap. I can get 10 feet of 3/4 inch schedule 40 tube for $2. The schedule 80 is, of course, more pricey. You can get a big pile of tee or 90-degree couplings for the same price. One 5x5 frame might set you back $10.

informative fine gardening article from a couple of years ago.

Here is a link that might be useful: your tomatoes deserve support

Thanks Dan, for that further explanation. It is economical, no doubt about it.

And thanks Dave, good to know the cattle panels are galvanized. I live in a suburban environment where we don't really have local feed stores. But I know of one that is a 30minute drive away. I assume that would be where I might find a cattle panel.

Canadianplant, that would be the problem I would have with using rebar is that it rusts. And the tripod shape is something that hasn't worked the way I want it to for growing beans or peas. So I'm looking for another method.

Does anyone actually construct their own tomato cages? Maybe out of the cattle panels, or with wood?

I looked through the images on google for awhile and I see some designs and ideas that I like and wonder if anyone has any experience with them and whether they work out in the garden. I can't link to them, so I am going to post them here, but they are from the google images page.

Can something like this be adapted as a tomato cage and could it be anchored enough to make it stay up in the wind? Has anyone used this design or similar for a tomato cage?

Something like this looks a little flimsy because of the material used, but a similar design for cukes and squashes, is this useful or not?

This looks like a cattle panel, is that right? Has anyone used it in this way and are there any drawbacks? How would you anchor it to stay up in the wind?

And this doesn't look like the same material as the material on the previous photo, and are the squares too small? The height of this seems so close to the ground, the caption said he was growing peas on it.

Last one….

This trellis, looks top-heavy and wondering if that is a board that is supporting it at an angle behind it? I also think the nylon netting is too loose, yes? Not sure this would be secure in high winds.

OH…does anyone know what the name of that metal round container is? Is it something to water cattle or something?

Thanks hoovb, for the link to the tomato trellising. I see the galvanized cattle panels in one photo.

Lots of very good info. I used old fence board which I ripped on a table saw to about an inch each then screwed to 2x4's . Last year I grew cucumbers, 4 or 5 mounds with three plants each, and it held up great. That is the box which is closest in the picture.

The back two boxes I used 2x4's with a fence board across the top for stability. I put screws up the 2x4s and then used fishing line ( someone on gw recommended fish line because at the end of the year you just cut it off for easy clean up) . I wrapped it many times around each screw and zig zagged up. I grew tomatoes on it and I thought it held ok. If it got loose i just wrapped the line around the screw again. Eventually, though, I seemed to have the whole plant threaded through the line. I also used plant tape to tie them on. My toms got away from me partially because I placed my box too close to the wall so it ended up not being the best set up as far as location. I guess I will be out there with a shovel relocating those two boxes but I am planning to put my peas on fish line in one this year.

Like the idea of using hoops in place to give cross support. Could you drill holes in the PVC and attach little pieces of wire which could allow you to slide something like bamboo or even another piece of PVC through and across the hoops? It would still make it easy to clean up by sliding it out at the end of the season but I suppose it would really only give you one level of support. Oh well. I'll leave this in case it triggers another idea ;)

{{gwi:34333}}

Thanks changingitup….So the support on the right in the closest bed, is old fence board and 2x4’s which you grew cucumber on? So I imagine you had to tie the cucumber in as it climbed the support? It looks like a later support somewhat, instead of the grid of a nylon netting or a cattle panel.

I’ve seen a few of these style supports but have not tried one yet. And I have kept looking at more photos and I’ll just keep posting more as I find them.

Here is one that is that ladder style...

And here is a ladder style tomato support….

And here are some tomato cages that sort of look like that first photo of the red garden structure. These look a little small and crowded to me….

And I like the looks of this one. Don't know if that is netting on it? I would prefer something like cattle panel cut to size and stapled maybe? And not sure how this is being supported, if it is attached to the bed or if they installed it in the ground. It looks like they buried one side in the bed and one side along the outside into the ground. I would need to bury the legs in both raised beds.

And here is another effort to use the aisle between two beds. Not sure what material that is or how they got such a crisp fold rather than a rounded top. Looks like they used a piece of lumber to screw over the panel at the base for support. I can see it going over on a windy day when it is covered with plants. I can see pole beans on these, but if one side is facing south, then it would shade the bed behind it right? I would think you would want to use something like this on the last two beds so nothing is getting shaded but the north side of that trellis. Which could use lettuce in it? Or line them up so they are East and West.

This one doesn't look that useful to me. It's too small for a tomato plant and aren't the dimensions of the wood, going to make peas or beans have a difficult time climbing it?

I thought this made a nice entryway to a garden. Anyone have any idea how they built that top?

Didn't get around to taking pictures of my metal conduit trellises, but a quick google search provided an image that is exactly the same as I made mine except that I use a trellis netting with 6" holes and theirs look much larger.

Conduit is galvanized as well and won't rust. The trellises go together in 2 minutes with a screw driver. You could always paint them to give a faux copper look too.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:34329}}

This post was edited by emorems0 on Thu, Mar 20, 14 at 15:46

Just found a how to for the conduit trellis with some detailed pictures of the corner connectors (and U-brackets... that's what they're called! lol), and they use regular trellis netting :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Conduit trellis - how to and pictures

The second tomato support does look too crowded. Wouldn't that make it hard for the sun to reach the fruit? Plus, Isn't that the pyramid style that you are not having much luck with? The second picture with the ladder support seems to allow more room to work with the plant allowing you to bend and position branches and along with ties and trimming you could 'possibly' keep control of them.

Yes, that's the correct bed, yes ladder not grid. Last year was my first with raised beds so it's all trial and error and advice from GW. The cucumbers vined so I just wrapped them around and up as they grew, sometimes it just took setting a tendril on a board and it stayed. It worked very well and I had no problems with cucumbers being too heavy and pulling it down.

I actually even used the ladder fashion with the fish line in the back boxes. I guess I liked that because I could weave the branches through it. If I needed to I could pull the line completely around the plant and then wrap the wire around the screw to tighten again. The problem I had with that system was that there was not enough vertical support to stop them from sliding over so I used plant tape to tie them and that just slid too. Maybe a couple more Verticals would fix that. Of course, like I mentioned, my experience was made more negative because of how close the boxes are to that wall :( I was trying to suck heat off of it but I think access trumped that, lol!

You'll need to think about accessibility with those wooden teepee/cages for tomatoes, the spaces at the top are quite narrow to be able to reach your hand in and my typical tomato plants grow to at least 8' tall, that would need at TALL cage!

The sturdy-looking metal trellis 'tented' between the two raised beds looks to me like a cattle panel folded in half. Its a pretty typical way to use them, some keep the top curved rather than bent. Works great for peas & pole beans.

The ladder trellis for tomatoes doesn't seem like it would give enough support, unless you are planting a determinate/bush type tomato (maybe).

I grow my cucumbers on the same conduit trellises that I use for tomatoes, peas and beans. Does really well, I have the cucumber trellis angled forward some to give it some space away from my tomatoes and keep the cukes growing down on one side.

emorems, thanks for that link. That is a good looking trellis. I have an old screen house frame in the yard at the moment, that I used the last two years, in a similar fashion to that metal conduit trellis. It is rusting in places and I think this will be the last year it is still standing. I added the netting to the legs of the frame with plastic ties. I thought I got it as tight as I could. I only grew peas on them and I found that they would be leaning and in windy conditions the peas would lean even more away from the netting. I was thinking maybe I should try growing them in a corridor, between two trellises?

I also think I need three different type of structures, something tall for pole beans that will allow for a whole row of bean plants, not just a teepee type structure where you only have 4-6 legs maybe, and if you have multiple plants on each leg, they have to wind around each other. I assume this structure doesn't have to hold a lot of weight, but should be secure and stay upright. It looks like that metal conduit would be able to carry the weight, I just don't want to use the nylon netting again.

The second structure would be some kind of tomato cage that does not rust and doesn't fall over when the plants with fruit become heavy late in the season, and that also allows for tall growth. You're right, my tomato plants usually get at least 8ft tall too. You use the metal conduit for tomatoes too? That's a lot of weight, isn't it?

I currently use stakes and that works okay but I hope for something better. Yes, I like the look of those pyramidal structures, like a tuteur or obelisk, but I would adapt that design to accommodate a large tomato plant. Maybe just angle it in slightly and make the crossbars a good 3 or 4 ft wide? And without ornamentation that gets in the way of sunshine, or harvesting. I saw a great wooden tomato cage design once, that someone made, that you could take apart partially and it would fold up flat for storage. I can't remember where I saw it.

And the third structure would be for squashes and cucumbers and melons. I don't have a lot of space, so I'd like to get them going vertical but have something sturdy enough to hold the fruits and I thought I could angle them over the bed. I have raised beds.

I'm glad you told me about the Metal conduit that is galvanized. That seems like a great outdoor material. I'm sure I will have to find some way to use it. I like the directions for that trellis you linked to. I see they anchor it with rebar, that should be solid. I don't know…I wish I had a better experience with that nylon netting. Do you have a problem with your netting? I wonder if there's something I'm missing because a lot of people use this netting with out a problem, I assume. The only thing I can think of is to have two trellis and grow the peas and beans down the middle between them? And I wonder if angling the two trellises, slightly toward the middle would also be a better design to resist wind damage?

I have not tried the cattle panel yet and I wonder if it is better or has it's own drawbacks. One being anchoring it so it doesn't' come down in wind.

Changingitup, you’re right, that second tomato support is way too narrow and blocking the sun. The teepee for beans was what I was not so happy with, because if you don’t have one leg for each bean plant, they wind around each other. I just find it limits the productiveness of growing pole beans. And bamboo is too thick for peas to climb. I haven’ tried that for tomatoes or anything else.

That second ladder style for tomatoes, I see two problems with. Yes there’s plenty of space for sun and tying the plant in and for harvesting, but the narrowest part of the structure is at the top where usually for me, is the largest and widest part of the tomato plant. And they would have to be much taller for an indeterminate tomato, I’d think.

Yes, I’ve had similar experiences with efforts to trellis, where the structure is not quite good enough to give it all the support it needs. I used twine and would try what you did, to wrap it around the areas that were leaning or drooping. And I’ve tried tying them in with pieces of nylons where it was sliding over. I’m trying to get a structure that I can just add the plants and let them grow and I don’t have to fuss with them much after that. Probably something that is wishful thinking. :-)

I'm with dave, I use various constructions of cattle wire/panels.

I have one that's about a ten-12 foot tall, 5 foot wide "a frame" with cattle fencing going ground to apex. I'm going to grow "red noodle beans" on it this year, but in the past I grew cucumber on it and it worked FANTASTICALLY. The cucumbers loved being able to dangle their fruits below the a frame and put out leaves on top (where it was very sunny), and the space underneath was cool enough to grow shade-preferring plants.

I use the wire to bound my compost bin, and the edge of it bent with a nice lip so I could avoid snagging my clothing or skin on the edges of metal.

It has a lot of uses but essentially turns anything it's attached it into a trellis.

I had zero problems with my conduit/netting trellises last year and they held pole beans, peas, tomatoes (5 to a trellis) and cucumbers. I think that since my trellis frames were just over 5' wide (top pole was 5', so with the corner joints the sides came out just a bit more), I really had to stretch the netting tight in order to get it tied on.... I actually alternated the rows that I tied on each side since they wouldn't quite reach, so it was really tight.

I don't have much trouble with wind since my beds are up against the front of the house, but I think the addition of the U-brackets on the side of the raised bed would help stabilize it even more, and you can always use a longer piece of rebar too.

If you really want to skip the netting, I'd probably go with something like a cattle panel. From what I've seen, people anchor each side with one of those big T-posts... seems like it would be really secure, but I don't have any personal experience.

You will have some tending/training with your tomatoes and cucumbers if you decide to trellis them, all it takes is a quick check every few days to point the growing tips through to the other side of the trellis, otherwise they'll pick one side and just start growing out of the trellis.

I don't have any advice for squash or watermelon. I stake my zucchini, but this will be my first year for winter squash and watermelon and I plan on just letting them have a portion of my back yard.

We have one raised bed for the tomatoes and sink a metal fence post on each end, then zig zag hog wire (probably the same as a cattle panel) and attach to the fence posts. I think they are about 5' tall and the tomatoes get to about 6 feet. One tomato per side of the zig zag= 5-6 plants. We secure them with little plastic clip ons or the green stuff. We are in a pretty windy area and no problems! Also, by mid summer the plants have covered the trellises anyway, so ugliness is out. No problem with shading. I find at least half of my tomatoes way down in the shade anyway!
For beans I've always used the ^ type made with bamboo, but this year we are going to try a v style so the beans hang on the outside=easier to harvest. We're still trying to figure the best way to make this wind proof. More metal fence posts is my guess! Nancy

The limit of possibilities is up to your imagination AND how much TIME and MONEY you want to spend.
There are a lot of good ideas up there.

I, myself, don't want any permanent trellis, nor a huge one that I cannot remove and store. I am a wood worker and I like to make simple ones from cheap cedar lumber (1'x 2"), for peas, beans, cukes. For tomatoes I use a combination of cage and stakes.

One of our projects has been enlarging our garden from 1200 sq. ft. to over 4000 sq. ft.

We've used bull panels in the past & they ARE indestructible, however they are not inexpensive. We continue to use them & I just installed an additional 100 ft. They have withstood sustained 65 MPH winds (TX gulf coast) even when fully loaded. I would highly recommend them to anyone that needs a permanent solution.

Here is a closeup of the panel at the very front of the garden (where I grow the cantaloupe & honeydew). I start with a standard bull panel (5' X 20'), which is made out of 1 gauge galvanized wire & has a 6” x 6” spacing. At the very top & bottom of each panel, I weld a section of #5 rebar to prevent any sagging/flexing. These panels then rest on top of the T-posts & are welded in place also. When the panels are all installed, I then install the insulated risers & sprinkler heads as pictured. This will allow for an unobstructed arc of water... and as you can see, each section is perfectly level & straight.

While this may seem like overkill to some, I know that this setup will stand up to any strong winds that may be encounter during our growing seasons down here, even when being fully loaded with vegetation & fruit.

I found this trellis for sale, it is a simple plastic piece that fits on top of conduit and string is tied to it. I have a very small area to work with and am planning to grow beans so a few of these might do the job.
Do y'all think it is a workable idea?

Here is a link that might be useful: Bean Pole

Those will work perfect for you, Lucille. If memory serves me correctly, you can do 12 bean plants per unit.

I didn't see anyone mention the use of re-bar mesh sheets.

They are available in 42" x 84" panels in any hardware store.

All one has to do is roll the panels into a cylinder and secure using plastic ties strips.

I use a single cage for peppers and shorter vine legumes. I stack 2 and even 3 cages for tomatoes reaching up to 10 feet high. When stacking I connect the cages with tie strips and use a tall T-Bar stake driven next to the cages and secured again with strips.

One other trick - i remove the bottom horizontal ring using a large set of wire cutters - this leave 4" legs that I can stick into the ground for more stability.

These cages cost about $7 bucks to make and last 5 - 8 years with only a little rust.

I used those sheets made into cylinders for tomato cages and they work very well. For me personally they are overkill for pepper plants which (again, for me) do fine just with staking.

This was the first thread I started as we were exploring ideas for vertical supports. Just thought I'd add a photo to show what we ended up doing. Thanks for all the great discussion on the subject, it helped a LOT!

This post was edited by prairiemoon2 on Thu, Jul 3, 14 at 7:32

Very pretty!!

Thanks, Loribee. :-)