**Do you put a piece of wood/bamboo across the bottom...?**

No, I gave up on twine and now use Trellinet/Hortonova from Johnny's. It has six-inch holes, so hands fit easily through when harvesting.

1. Cut a piece of netting to size.
2. Weave the top pole through the netting.
3. Pull the netting taut and fasten it with cable ties to the side poles.
No need for a bottom pole.

In the fall/winter after the vines have dried, they are easily removed from the netting. The netting is left up year-round and reused season after season.

Since cable ties deteriorate/get brittle and need replacement every year, I remove them when I do soil prep for the next season. It's easier to work the soil if the netting is out-of-the-way, that is, detached from the side poles so it can be held out of the way (with a clothes pin) while you work. Don't remove the netting from the top pole (too much work getting it reinstalled.)

Thanks marquette,
That's a really good idea.

Re: Trellinet: What do you use for side poles?

If I had to do it over, I'd use metal re-inforcing wire panels attached to a metal t-bar in each end. I also hear that cattle panels are excellent (attached to metal t-bars).

**What do you use for side poles?**

 Wood posts spaced less than ten feet apart.
 For the top crossbars: black gas pipes, or metal conduit pipes. (For strength and rigidity, each conduit pipe needs a full-length re-bar inside otherwise they'll kink and sag.)

Attach crossbars to wood posts:

 Cut a notch in top of wood posts for crossbars to rest in.
 Attach crossbars to posts with metal strap (plumbing dept.) or use two nails and wire or other materials.

Make sure top crossbars cannot fall down. Also, make the installation strong, so it doesn't keel over in high winds & rain.

So sorry about all the flooding in Iowa; hope you and yours are safe and dry.

Here's a picture of my current setup that I posted on another thread. The fencing is 7' tall. The twine reaches up 3-5 feet above that.

Here's the picture. (900K JPG file)

tcstoehr, that's a great set-up! What do you call the metal sections you use? Are they galvanized?

Thanks for posting the picture.

The metal fencing material is galvanized. It's 78" High-Tensile Game Fencing. It's supposed to keep game or livestock animals inside, but I use it to keep the deer outside. I'm sure they can jump it if they want to badly enough. So far, it has deterred them so they just go over to the neighbors and eat *their* garden. My beans got to the top of it in no time, so I added some bamboo poles that I had laying around, and some old twine. That bought be some a few more feet, but they've gotten to the top of that now. Good enough I say.

http://www.stockyardsupply.com/page2/index.htm

For my trellises, I use a combination of T-bar steel fence posts and 3/8" rebar rod. The rod runs through 1-1/4" PVC "T's" that slip over the ends of the posts on top, and a bottom bar is secured to the posts using cable ties. I run twine between the two bars; the rough surface of the rebar rod prevents the lines from bunching up in strong winds.

A picture is worth a thousand words... I'll be posting a photo as soon as I put up my trellises.

tcstoehr, my apologies for taking so long to thank you for the useful information you posted. The High-Tensile Game Fencing material would make a great support for my climbers & could stay up year-round. Thanks for taking time to get all the information together and posting it.