Hi cfed,

I like the way your PVC looks in the garden, white is so clean looking. Unfortunately it will yellow.

I don't want to be a kill joy, but, in my personal experience, I think you have bigger problems than yellowing PVC. Each of these happened to me the first year I used the Florida weave method.

1. I think you really need a very sturdy post on the ends, they will probably be supporting a LOT of weight before the season is over. "I sunk a 1' length of 2" diameter PVC into the ground, leaving 4" above the soil line" Eight inches for your anchor is not deep enough, at least on the ends where the weight will be pulling it to the center.

2. PVC pipe is quite flexible. I've bent it to make hoop houses. The 1.5" PVC will bend toward the center when you run the support twines higher and the 'maters lean on them, contributing to the likely hood of the end posts being dislodged. It is possible the pipes on the ends may split or break where the slits or nail holes are.

3. "Between every 3 plants..." Three plants between posts is one too many. The center one is going to lean to one end or the other.

If you had not put the slits in the pipe, I would have said that your twine would slide down the posts, making the slits was clever.

IMHO, here are the solutions to the problems, which I suggest you may want to do before the plants get big enough to pull things down:

1. Put Steel T-posts on the ends in place of the PVC pipe and bury them at least 18" (more if you have sandy or loose soil.) I do use cheap 2x2's in the centers, so your PVC should be fine for that.

2. Steel posts will probably not bend toward the center, but you may need to anchor them with a guy wire at the ends. I had to, they really got to where they were leaning after a good rain or watering, but my rows were about 85-90' long with about 30 plants in them. I used wooden 2x2's for the posts in the middle of the rows.

3. Take the end posts that you have replaced with the T-posts and respace them so that you only have twp plants between verticals.

On the matter of tightening twine, I'd be interested in knowing how that works out. I wonder if you may have a problem because you tighten a lower strand that is older and you have added strands after that, you may not be able to tighten the upper ones.

Here is what I do. I used my table saw (yep it is mine!) to rip a 2x4" into pieces about 3/4" x 1" x 8" (remember, I had 3 rows about 80' long) and when a section got too loose, I'd take one of my little "bats" and twist the twine around it and tie one end to the twine with another short piece of twine to hold it in place. If I needed to tighten it more later, I just moved the tie off it and twisted some more. It worked real well.

BTW, do you deliver? That "pie" looks really good. Made me want to chew on my monitor!

Bets

Here is a link that might be useful: Good Florida Weave Tutorial

I was trying to remember exactly why I did not like having 3 plants between the uprights and I finally did. (Swift like a rock, huh?)

My rows that first year ran east-west. We get pretty strong prevailing winds out of the west. That meant that the wind would push all three plants up againts (or towards) the the east post in each group. Since they were only 3 feet apart, that was a big mess and nearly impossible to sort out which plant which tomato was on once they were taller.

I did try to take some twine and tie around the horizontals between the plants, but by then they were big enough and heavy enough that I broke several branches so I gave that up.

Now I cross the twines between the two plants as I am running it and that also helps keep the plants more upright.

Bets

Good stuff! Thanks so much for the heads-up. THIS is exactly why I'm posting this stuff, I knew I was going to make some pretty big mistakes. And to think I agonized at the store over which diameter PVC to get since I thought 1.5" / 1.25" looked better but I went with the 1.5/2 "to be sure". LOL That's why I call myself a noob. :)

Initially I was going to use a 10' length of conduit tubing with some notches cut in it for each plant. In hindsight perhaps that was a better idea. I do have 10 lengths of the tubing currently. I'm wondering if I could alleviate my mistake by staking up the middle plant in each group of 3? Or perhaps cut a few up and sink them inside the 2" sleeves to stabilize them?

Nice pictures. I like to see how your garden is going since it's my first year trying too.

I agree that your anchorage is light. Good luck :-)

I really liked your ingenuity for tightening the lines but as the season progresses, I've found it unnecessary.

I strech mine tight, doubled as yours is, except as the plants grow up to each string level, I twist the lines between each plant and if possible between each stem as they grow up to and through it. Works fine though a twist tie here and there is handy.

I have never used conduit tubing so I can't really give you a good evaluation on how it would work. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "Or perhaps cut a few up and sink them inside the 2" sleeves to stabilize them?" Would that be between the sleeve and the upright that is in it? Not sure how that would work.

Ahhhhh. If you mean sink the conduit into the 2" PVC sleeves and leave it long enough so that the 1.5" is slipped down over it? That might help. But you still have the flexibility of the upper part of the 1.5", Unless you are leaving the conduit long enough to reach the top of the 1.5" Does conduit flex?

One year when we built a hoop house with PVC pipe, we actually sunk 3' lengths of 2" pipe into the ground 18" and then put the 10' length of 1.5" into the sleeve we had pounded into the ground and bent it to reach one on the other side and connected them at the top so we had a 20' arch. So, I think your end posts will still be too flexible unless you replace them, or add a t-post or something inflexible to the ends of your row.

But if your bottom sleeve is stable, that might not be much of a problem. (Unless it breaks at a slit.)

Bets