"Bob Hobden" wrote:

We use square metal poles similar to scaffold poles and I just
bang them in from on top of a step ladder each year, 4 poles across 20ft row

Do your farm supply places have "T-posts?" They're metal in various
lengths, T-shaped in cross-section, with a plate near the bottom to act as
an anchor. Drive with a sledge from a ladder (for the tall ones), or with
a weighted pipe with the end plugged that fits over the post. I bought a
lifter to pull them at season's end- just a lever on a stand. I grow pole
beans on a teepee, since I have a *lot* of maple saplings in a back lot.
Six eight-footers, bottoms in a 4-foot circle, tops tied together make a
strong support; even a passing hurricane didn't topple them. Full
disclosu I was west of the worst of it; only 40 or 50 MPH winds.
(Apologies for not using metric units; we coloniels haven't converted to
any great extent, though automobiles made elsewhere are forcing me to buy
metric tools.)


--
Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/4 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G