Catenary trellis

Sweet Tatorman's picture

I use a lot of baling twine in my gardening; laying out planting rows, Florida weave supports for tomatoes and peppers. Any given piece of twine usually gets used at least 3 years for various tasks. The final use is often for incorporation in a catenary trellis. Photos provided are pretty much self explanatory. The plant being trellised in these photos is Malabar spinach which is a twining vine, i.e., no tendrils.

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Sweet Tatorman's picture

Detail

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Sweet Tatorman's picture

Bracing of the end T-posts is very necessary.

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alice's picture

I love your gardening photos, there is usually something really beautiful to admire. What a lovely trellis.

Over here people trellis climbing beans such as haricots, and peas. Some people build pyramids to grow them up the sides of.

Sweet Tatorman's picture

Here is what it looks like one month on. The vines have reached the top of the trellis and are wondering what to do next. What they will do is drape back down to the ground. Grown as an annual the vines will reach about 10'/3m here. As a perennial in the tropics it reportedly can reach 30'/9m. Malabar spinach is native to tropical Western India. I find it a very attractive plant and can imagine that it would be grown as an ornamental by some.

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Sweet Tatorman's picture

A closeup of the jade green leaves and magenta stems.

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Sweet Tatorman's picture

The photo below illustrates why that corner bracing is so necessary. Note the sag in the catenary under the weight of the vines. The trellis now acts almost as a solid sheet in the wind. It may get put to the test in the next few days if the remnants of the hurricane now in the Gulf pass through my area as currently forecast. So far, I have never had one come down it the wind.

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David Trammel's picture

I still have the seeds you sent me, just haven't had a good place to plant them. How does it do with shade?

I'm hoping to move in to my new place this Winter/Early spring and have found out its much more shaded than I'd planned. Looks like I'm going to be doing vegetables which don't need much sun going forward. On the plus side, I'm going to be having 3-4 times as much space.

Sweet Tatorman's picture

AFAIK, Malabar spinach is regarded as a full sun plant. That said, I suspect that it would probably still do OK at 50% sun/shade in a generally sunny climate. It seems it has been some years since I sent you those seeds. Possibly they are past their "Use by" date. The oldest seed I have ever used was 4 y/o which had rather reduced % germination. I'll try to remember to save some seed this Fall in case that you need fresh.