Northwoods: I am not sure why so many of your bagged apples fell off but I presume from June drop? If you are bagging early in the season that might be a reason. Most are bagging when the fruit is the size of a dime to beat insect damage from curculio/leafroller but when June drop comes, the trees will drop some fruit naturally. I prefer to spray early for insects (starting at petal fall) and then bag mid-late june. This also gives me plenty of time to get them bagged since I am covered against insects anyway. Just a thought that perhaps june drop is the reason. Of course since I am only bagging the Haralson this is not an issue for me. It would be if I bagged all my apple varieties. Tony: The last time I bought Imidan 70 was from Schlabach's Nursery in Medina NY. They stopped selling it this year and now offer Avuant instead due to the restricted use issue for many states for Imidan. Not a problem for me. I have many friends in the orchard industry who will sell me a pound or I can get it direct if I buy it in 4 lb lots from Keystone. 4 pounds at time will last me for about 7-8 years. I keep it triple packaged,cool and dry and have no problems with the longevity issue. 8 year old Imidan seemed to work for me just as well as fresh. Imidan can be purchased IF you have a pesticide applicator's license (if it is a restricted use chemical for your state) and if you are willing to buy 4 lbs at a time. For many home growers with just 2-3 apple trees, the cost for such quantity and the pesticide applicator's license required make Imidan out of reach.

Is the dish itself 10' wide or in its slanted position, 10' tall from the ground? How high is the post? Can you change the dish position to parallel to the ground? Just thinking that in that position, you could plant underneath the dish and ,first cutting holes in the mesh, thread your vining plants or a couple of lady banks rose up through the holes to use the diameter of the dish as support for the canes. I've seen LBR grown on/over tall trellises like wisteria. You have to keep after clipping the lower branches(it has a tendency to sucker). But still, it's not entirely evergreen and a 10'wide planting you might not want or have the room for and the bloom period is short in early spring.

Mine are also very much not for show, but I've enjoyed the making of them and then watching the clematis climb. I have a variety of home-made and found objects that I use as trellises and obelisks along with some nicer store-bought ones. I'm currently learning to weld so I can make more decorative trellises, but for now zip-ties, hose clamps and the ties used in concrete forms are my friends. I use 5/16 steel rod - a bit more delicate looking than rebar, and visit the metal recycling at my local dump, Craigslist, the various dump sites around the old farm where I live, along with the local resale shops for finial and building materials. My first effort was a pair of old wheel rims with holes drilled for the rod that holds them in place. Needs a longer rod so I can add a second tier as the atragenes I have planted on here are huge now, wire rather than bird netting, and a finial. From Mar 17, 2011 This was an old lamp base I scooped from the trash, took out the wiring, drilled a hole through each shelf for the steel rod. Also still needs a finial. From Mar 17, 2011 I found this folding shelf unit by the side of the road on the way to work with a "free" sign. Getting it into my tiny car was interesting, but I welded the shelves to the back unit and the side supports so it is open flat to use a a wall trellis. As you can see from the wall behind, none of this is in a finished area (family wood shop) so beautiful isn't necessary like it might be if I lived in an area where my neighbors had to look at it. From Mar 17, 2011 I have a couple more that I made this week (so no photos) to support a few of my this year's purchases, with three legs of rod plus the wire cable from an old garage door spiralling up to the top for the clematis to climb and a found "finial" on the top. I'm about out of the rusty old rod that was already around the shop, so will have to buy some more for the welding practice.

I don't have a garage or shed (am in a hi-rise but was in a house for years before and do some vertical gardening on my balcony wall), but I do have vines for hummingbirds and recently butterflies have been visiting too (yes I get both up here...lol). Regarding your suggestions, you bring up good points and counter-points regarding trellising against a shed wall. Wood does rot after awhile (even with paint) and metal can rust and crumble after awhile (even with paint). It would be nice if one could find a similar large wall trellis in PVC (I know there are smaller ones that are tall but usually narrow too, but that might be something to think about to use). What I can offer would be like a small scale experience to help describe what the vines you are considering might do and the type of support you might need. Some of the vines that hummers like do include the honeysuckles, but if you choose a native (Loncera sempervirens), then those don't grow as aggressively or are as invasive as the japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica). There are many named varieties of the natives and my hummers couldn't wait until the flowers started opening yesterday and they were all over it. Mine ("Blanche Sandman") is in a pot and supported by a decorative vinyl-coated metal trellis. Interestingly, that honeysuckle seems a bit reticent to twine like other honeysuckles so it would basically mean manually threading it around the support and/or tying them initially until they are on their way. My other honeysuckle - a "Mandarin" (Lonicera x mandarin) does twine quite readily on its own and that is on a small wooden trellis support and yep, the hummers like that one too). But as a note, as a twiner, honeysuckles may have some difficulty going around something too large in diameter, although being woody vines, they do better than the annual vines on wider supports. Similarly, my American wisteria, which is not as aggressive as its asian cousins and as a woody vine, can twine better around a wider support, but the thinner the easier for it. My Blanche Sandman honeysuckle looks like this right now (sorry for the hazy picture but it's hazy here...ugh... this is its 2nd year with me, it was from a 1 gallon size plant that I got last year). These have a tendency for bare bottoms (I have seen larger specimens do similar) with a mass of vinelettes and flowers towards the top (unless you prune to make it bushier - the japanese honeysuckle tends to do the long vines): The SRBs, cypress vines and cardinal climbers have thinner vine shoots and need a finer support to attach to. I have seen some interesting suggestions for that on the large scale where one can string fishing line up for them. Since they are annuals (and the cardinal climber is in the colder areas although they might reseed), and unless you can find white or clear netting, using fishing line might be more aesthetically neutral in winter when the support area is exposed after they die back. The crossvine and trumpet vine are woody like honeysuckle and sortof twine but can become shrubby as well. So for any of the woody vines, a good solid support would be a must. The trumpet vine can get aggressive so unless you are willing to hack it back (I have seen people grow it like a standard), then you might want to reconsider. The crossvine might get that way too, although it's not as aggressive and there are some pretty cultivars out there. If you did decide on clematis (I have one on a cheapy tomato cage) it depends on the type as the group 3s like I have can be cut to the ground every year and will bloom on new growth (meaning for a trellis, it needs to be re-trained each year), whereas the group 1s and 2s maintain a woody structure and require minimal pruning. These attach via their leafs, which wrap around the support, so too thick or wide a support and they can't climb well on their own and they will attach to themselves and then fall over in a tangled mess. But for the ones maintaining a woody structure, if you thread and train the vine (even tie it up), you can shape it permanently. For attaching to a wall, it's probably best to have it on a stand-off (maybe a few inches out) so that you can get behind it and allow the plants to be woven around and through it easier. Plus it keeps the back of the plants off a hot wall and allows some air to move behind. Anyway, hope this helps a little - when I was composing this, I saw a butterfly that I wasn't sure of. Someone from above was looking out for me because I took a WAG and checked a PA butterfly site and immediately ID'd it on a first try as a silver-spotted skipper. I have alot of red flowers blooming up here right now and I guess it saw those and the leaves of my wisteria and maybe thought the wisteria was a locust tree or related (these apparently like pea family plants and the wisteria leaves resemble such): I did have a visit from an Eastern Black swallowtail last weekend: And I'm still trying to get a good picture of my hummers this year but here's a rare one from last year where 2 were sitting not far from each other and had they known the other was there, the mad chase would have errupted (plus you can see my volunteer MGs around the shepherd's hook where the feeder was hung - they did use the MGs as they were closing by the way):