greenfoot wrote:
Is there any limit to what vines can be effectively trellised, short of
watermellons? I planted two butternut squash seedlings this year. Of
course, they have run the whole length of my 12x24 ft garden. What is
interesting is that they have climbed up my 6 foot tomato cages, across
the top and back down before moving further out.

I was amazed to find two full sized butternut squashes hanging from the
vines a few feet above ground in the midst of my tomato plants. They
are as big as any I've seen at the grocery store. The vine stem was
noticably thicker and stronger on these ones, and there was no problem
supporting the weight. I usually trellis cucumbers, which works quite
well, but I had no idea a squash that size would work so well. The
only problem is that I would need a 30 foot trellis for these!

Anyone trellis anything bigger? I'll post pictures to the .binaries
group if anyone is interested.
GF


I'm curious about this business of trellising squash, as I've never done
it with any cucurbits other than cukes, but many people say it can be
done. It doesn't seem like it would help much for squash that don't get
really "viney" (such as zuchs or yellow squash), while the ones that do
spread out put down supplemental roots that I imagine might be important
to the overall health of the plant. I believe commercial growers often
use plastic mulch with summer squash but not with pumpkins or other
winter squash for this reason.

In your case, it appears the squash still have plenty of "feet on the
ground," they just take a little detour over the tomato cages along the way.