Wanted: your suggestions for my trellis! (NO ROSES!!!)
 

Guten Tag! I am finishing up a wooden lattice that I built to enclose
our front porch. I used 1" by 2" wood pieces, which are spaced about
9" apart. The lattice starts about 3' above ground level (the height
of our front porch) and continues to about 10' up. (about 7' total of
lattice) Last year I had one section finished in time to tie up a
tomato. Previously, I have only really grown things on the ground.

I am wondering if anyone out there has any suggestions for vegetables
that do a good job of climbing and hanging on to trellises. I have 3
separate sections of trellis:

1) South side - around 8' wide - gets a decent amount of morning and
afternoon light, with some filtered light from about 2-5 pm in Summer,
from a maple tree on the other side of the alley

2) West side (front) - ~ 17' wide - faces the street, with no shade
from trees, but only gets indirect light through Noon. Gets direct
light from about Noon through 9pm.

3) North side - ~ 8' wide - gets indirect light through the day, but is
shaded from direct sunlight by the 2 story house and front porch,
except for a bit of direct sunlight from perhaps 5 to 7 pm.

I live in zone 5b or 6a, and we get just over 3 feet of rain per year,
on average. (38 inches)

Our back yard is very limited in size, and is the only place for our
kids to play, so I am very limited in where I can grow vegetables. I
built the trellis so that I could make use of some vertical space.

I am especially interested in:

tomato varieties

cucumber varieties

vining beans

some small fruited squash

exotic vining fruits?

I am really limited to things that will grow in a year, because we will
probably only be in this house this year and next year. As such,
grapes are probably out. However, I would be interested in any sort of
vining fruit that would do well on a trellis. Thanks!

Wanted: your suggestions for my trellis! (NO ROSES!!!)
 

"slugbug" wrote in news:1141338513.031262.14170
@v46g2000cwv.googlegroups.com:

*snip: what to grow on a trellis*

I've wondered about watermelon, seeing how they love to vine and grow
everywhere, but you're talking about fruit that's too heavy for the
average light trellis like you describe. You might be able to get away
with Sugar Babys, though.

Puckdropper
--
www.uncreativelabs.net

Old computers are getting to be a lost art. Here at Uncreative Labs, we
still enjoy using the old computers. Sometimes we want to see how far a
particular system can go, other times we use a stock system to remind
ourselves of what we once had.

To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm

Wanted: your suggestions for my trellis! (NO ROSES!!!)
 

"slugbug" wrote:

Guten Tag! I am finishing up a wooden lattice that I built to enclose
our front porch.
I am really limited to things that will grow in a year, because we will
probably only be in this house this year and next year. As such,
grapes are probably out. However, I would be interested in any sort of
vining fruit that would do well on a trellis. Thanks!

Hops.

Wanted: your suggestions for my trellis! (NO ROSES!!!)
 

slugbug said:

Guten Tag! I am finishing up a wooden lattice that I built to enclose
our front porch. I used 1" by 2" wood pieces, which are spaced about
9" apart. The lattice starts about 3' above ground level (the height
of our front porch) and continues to about 10' up. (about 7' total of
lattice) Last year I had one section finished in time to tie up a
tomato. Previously, I have only really grown things on the ground.

I am wondering if anyone out there has any suggestions for vegetables
that do a good job of climbing and hanging on to trellises. I have 3
separate sections of trellis:

1) South side - around 8' wide - gets a decent amount of morning and
afternoon light, with some filtered light from about 2-5 pm in Summer,
from a maple tree on the other side of the alley

2) West side (front) - ~ 17' wide - faces the street, with no shade
from trees, but only gets indirect light through Noon. Gets direct
light from about Noon through 9pm.

These exposures:

Any cucumbers, except bush varieties would be fine here, generally no
need to support fruit.

Delicata squash or any of the really tiny mini-pumpkins ("Jack be Little"
and other similar varieties) would be good, and probably wouldn't need
support. The major difficulty with trellising any squash occurs in areas
where squash vine borers are a problem, as normal sprawling vines can
root along their length and survive an attack while trellised vines cannot.

I'm partial to an heirloom pole bean I've been saving myself. You
might want to try an Italian (Roma) type. Johnny's Selected Seeds
(johnnyseeds.com) has a good selection of pole beans.

The Asian 'crispy' melons and various edible Asian gourds would be exotic
things to try. (Several of these to choose from in the Johnny's catalog.)

Tomatoes would need to be tied to the trellis and at least minimally
pruned.

Two tomato varieties I wouldn't do without: Sun Sugar (an orange cherry
that has a unique, fruity taste; and 4th of July, a small early red variety
that produces reliably all through the summer. I was impressed last
year with the heirlooms Anna Russian, Azoycha and Stump of the World.


3) North side - ~ 8' wide - gets indirect light through the day, but is
shaded from direct sunlight by the 2 story house and front porch,
except for a bit of direct sunlight from perhaps 5 to 7 pm.

You could try pole beans here, or maybe Malabar spinach. Probably not
enough sun to be very successful with anything, though I have grown
beans in a somewhat shady spot.

--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)