Growing squash, melons, and beans vertically is certainly not new. With larger melons, you must support them with netting or other weight-bearing, soft material. I have not heard of the particular implementation you are mentioning, though.

When I saw "mesh", my first thought was they were using a screen or mesh type material to keep Squash Vine Borer insects out.

Sorry, should have been more clear. With an A-frame, the frames of the supports are shaped like two "A"s. The mesh -- chickenwire, concrete reinforcing, they used all kinds -- is stretched between the two A's. That wouldn't be vertical (which works, but I'm not looking to do trellising again), but more of an inclined plane, leaning against another inclined plane.

And this structure should hopefully be break-downable, to make room for winter crops...so I was thinking two sets of 7-foot 2x4s braced with a 3-foot 2x4, and three 3-foot 2x4s to hold the "A"s together. All connected with lagbolts and wingnuts, for easy breakdown, with permanent nails on the outer surface of the "A"s to stretch the mesh/wire/whatever across.

Was just wondering if anyone else had seen it, done it, or had suggestions. Trellising cucurbits is too time-wasting in my opinion; I never liked tying up pantyhose anyway. (joke, smile.)

Am still looking for pics, will post em if I find em.

P.T., I've grown "Zucchetta Rampicante" (a rampant vining summer squash) on a 6' vertical trellis of 6" remesh, and the kabocha squash I grew last year got into several of my 5' remesh tomato cages & climbed aggressively (until the heavy squash pulled the vines down). When I lived in SoCal, I grew Chayote squash on a large _horizontal_ trellis, 6' off the ground.

In previous years, I have grown cucumbers on a setup very similar to what you describe - and I highly recommend it. The cukes were very straight, and easy to harvest.

My recommendation of this method for squash is conditional. Many of the squash that I grow root at the nodes - I try to select varieties that do so, since they tend to yield more heavily & the extra roots are "insurance" against Squash Vine Borer attack. These are generally either C. maxima (kabocha, buttercup, hubbard, banana, and the "trophy" pumpkins) or C. moschata (Zucchetta, butternut, and "cheese" squashes). Both species tend to have longer vines (20 feet for me is not unusual).

If you have the room, any varieties that root along the vine should be allowed to trail. You can train them along a non-shaded fence line, or around the edge of your garden. If your space is limited, you may wish to trellis; but be aware that if you have SVB in your area, the vines will be vulnerable to total loss if attacked by SVB (C. maxima in particular).

The teepee method sounds good, but for C. maxima & the more rampant butternuts (such as "Tahitian", which I recommend for your climate) I would recommend dimensions larger than those described - at least 5' wide (the widest remesh width, standing on end) and 5-6' apart, and as high as you can reach. Some home improvement stores sell precut 6-inch remesh in 8' lengths, and I would consider that to be the minimum size for a side. Even at this size, with one plant at each corner, the larger vines will overrun it; so for the larger varieties, 10' width (2 remesh pieces, side-by-side) would probably be more appropriate.

Remember that you will need to provide additional support for the squash as they become larger, so allow yourself room to get underneath. Mesh bags (such as onion bags) and cheesecloth are both excellent for this purpose.

One last note... I always recommend Chayote squash, for anyone who lives in SoCal. It is an aggressive climber that _must_ be grown trellised. I grew it when I was there, and if you have the space to dedicate to it (it is a _perennial_) you will be richly rewarded. You can search other GW threads for more info.

Maybe similiar to this one...
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/vegetabletrellis

Thank you so much, zeedman! Amazing amount of info. Since we have a 17x20 community garden half-plot, I won't have room for huge winter squash or chayote. The summer squash/cukes/melons we're looking at growing don't root at nodes, so it's OK to send them up up, I think. Last season they got about 6 feet long along the center runner at the longest point, so straight up is not an option -- heavy fruit+over my head = concussion, if the amount of Blue Lake beans I consistently pulled off the brim of my hat is any indication. Also, the plot is not oriented N-S so vertical staking would be...problematic in my 4' wide raised beds.

I'll have to think about your other suggestions - maybe when we get our own yard?

Have been looking for example pictures, haven't found any yet. You'd think SOMEBODY on Flickr would snap something in front of the demonstration garden!

You can make a frame of about anything. The ones you saw sure sound nice.

We've grown vines vertically for several years. I've never needed to sling the fruits, even with 12 inch pumpkins. We just use stakes, which aren't as pretty as a trellis but the plant can sure be pretty anyway:

{{gwi:111453}}

And the pumpkins did fine without slings, here's several months later:

{{gwi:111454}}

Currently I am enjoying trobocino squash off vines that were planted (and tied up the stake) after the pumpkins were removed a month ago.

With the A-frame type trellis, it seems you could even grow another crop underneath, shade loving spinach or lettuce or some-such.

One thing I experienced was that not all squash are good climbers. I tried using a trellis with Romanesca zuccini and it did not really work well. They are hollow stemmed so if it gets heavy, the stem bends over and breaks. Plus, the SVB thing.

Other squash (like Trombetta) are vining and have tendrils that attach themselves. Vining squash love to climb...mine are now at a height of 8 ft off the ground.

But, I don't love the taste of this vining squash the way I do Romanesca or other squash so I am going to go back to letting them run along the ground.

What a useful and interesting topic this has become! I'm taking notes. :)

This year, we successfully grew Zucchini rampicante & Early Triumph cucumbers on wooden laundry racks, which were anchored to the ground with tall bamboo stakes. I ran garden twine between the horizontal dowels & it worked out very well. When the season is over, they fold up flat & take up very little storage space.

Here is my zucchetta rampicante on its trellis. It has done very well with little training ...

http://bartoy.blogspot.com/2007/06/thats-not-squash.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Life has taught us ...

"I don't need {{gwi:111449}}

But, {{gwi:111451}} a big strong pumpkin on a dead vine, my dear!

what you guys are doing is very laudable.
i think that growing your own vegetables is:
1) a good source of activity and exercise in our now majorly sedentary lifestyle
2) a great source of nutrition as long as you are growing only vegetables and not pizzas or fried chicken
keep it up u guys

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