Heavy Fruit
Support heavy fruits on shelving, in netting, or with rags or old nylons. If left unsupported, their weight will drag the vines down from the trellis.
Short cages
Short cages originally marketed for tomatoes are perfect for shorter plants like 2-foot-tall flowers, bush beans, peppers and eggplants.
“A” Structure
A six-foot-tall structure in the shape of an “A” is especially helpful for harvesting fruits on that hang down, like pole beans and cucumbers, since the fruits are so much easier to see than “lost” somewhere in bushy plant foliage.
Cane Berries
Spread upright berry canes evenly along the trellis wire for good airflow of developing foliage that’ll bear blossoms and fruit. At the top of the trellis wire, prune strong new canes to a foot to redirect growth to fruiting sideshoots instead of even longer main vines.
Tomatoes
“Determinant” varieties will grow to 3 or 4 feet tall so one 5-6-foot trellis will usually suffice.
“Indeterminant” varieties may extend to 8 or 10 feet high, so I stack a second trellis on top of the first one.
Upright and Horizontal Stakes
To anchor a long row of trellised plants, I stake one corner of each trellis with an upright stakes and then tie in additional ones horizontally at the top of each trellis and stretching along the whole batch.
This technique effectively sturdies the entire row of plants as they develop through the summer, and it’s especially helpful later in the summer and fall when the plants are huge and full of heavy fruit. I’ve done this ever since the year that the Santa Ana winds blew down my whole row of plants following my deep watering.
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