Trellising

I have a habit of saving poles from tents/gazebos/etc.  My extended family considers the collection of poles to be humongous and unnecessary.  They have suggested that the poles get tossed as trash.  But then gardening comes along and those poles get used.  I got eye rolls a couple of months ago when I mentioned that I had gotten more poles from someone on Freecycle.  But these poles are stronger than PVC.  And better yet, they are free.

This year I took two sets of arch poles from an old tent and turned them into the trellis for three roses.  The trellis, and now the roses, arch in front of the window for our bathroom.  The window, that for some strange reason, is in the bath stall.  My hope is for those roses to eventually completely block any outside view to that window.  The reason for this is that when the lights are on in the bathroom they create completely accurate shadows on the window.  We have "frosted" the glass but that doesn't stop shadows.  And the window is directly in the line of sight for over half the apartments directly across the street.  So, for now, I don't turn on the lights when I'm in the shower.  Hopefully in a couple of years it won't matter if I do or not because the climbing roses will block any and all views.

Yesterday I took 11 poles, some 1" PVC and PVC connectors and built the trellis for my tomato plants.  I wouldn't normally use anything PVC except the connectors but I didn't quite have enough 1" pole.  My planting beds are 82" x 32 1/2" interior.  And I set the poles in the interior so that I wouldn't hit them with the lawn mower.  There are 2 poles on each end and 2 poles in the center of the long sides. 

Now there were some problems.  The first was that the local hardware stores don't carry an elbow with a 1" offshoot.  So I ended up getting 4 elbows, 6 tees, and 2 couplers.  On each corner, I put a tee on the pole.  Then I cut a 2" section of PVC and put that in.  Then I put the elbow on that, facing 90 degrees from the tee.  On each center pole, I put a coupler, then a 2" PVC section, then a tee.  That way all the poles ended up at the same height with the attachments.  If you are trying to do this, the elbows should face along the long side at the ends.  The end tees should face the short sides.

Okay, that problem solved.  The next problem was two fold.  The first part was that I was short one pole of the correct diameter.  The second was that I didn't want to use the hacksaw on the pole I did have.  So for the end sections I used 1" PVC.  It doesn't look great because of the different colors but it worked just fine.  Also the ends aren't directly supporting the plants, they are keeping the other poles in place and spaced.  When the plants start weighing down on the netting it will just help make sure those pieces stay in place.  And the pieces are short enough that they shouldn't bow out.

Ok, next problem, the poles for the length were about 2" too short for the distance.  I just ignored it because with the connectors it was just about there.  I could have added a coupler and some PVC on one end and made it exact but it was not worth the extra expense.

And the last problem came with assembly.  In the store the 1" PVC connectors had fit very, very snugly.  Of course they didn't fit snugly when I got home and went to assemble them.  For now, I tied the netting tightly from side to side which keeps everything snug.  When I pull everything this winter, I will look at putting a rubberized coating on the insides - enough to grip the poles better.

Now, if you've been counting, I still have one pole left.  Well, it does get used.  And it doesn't have to be the same size as the others.  The last pole I used was 1/2" diameter and as long as the bed.  After tying the netting to the framework, I laid that pole in the center of the netting.  I used a plastic netting that I can reuse but it twists and coils and basically refuses to come down evenly.  So the pole adds weight that pulls the netting down in the center of the tomato plants.  Then as the plants grow, I tie them on either side of the netting as needed.  This is a variation of the trellising I've done for tomatoes in the past.  I'm hoping that it will work through most of the issues that I've had with tying up tomatoes.

Now this framework is only about 3 1/2 feet tall.  You would need 6 more poles to make it taller.  I didn't have enough of the correct size to do it for the tomatoes.  But I do have enough of another size to make the framework much taller for the cucumbers.  The cucumbers will have a trellis of the same design but almost 6 feet tall.  I'm debating whether extra side braces will be needed for that one.

A point to make - I did not glue any of this.  My reason for that is because these poles may be used in different trellises when the tomato harvest is done.  Same for the connectors.  So there is no point in making permanent connections that may result in me having to buy more connectors.

I hope someone finds this useful.  For me it's recycling at it's best.