Vertical veggies?

Any recommendations on vegetables for vertical gardening?

I always go vertical with Pole Beans (Kwintus is the only one I grow), Cucumbers-all varieties, of course Indeterminate Tomatoes need support-

Are you thinking of types of vegetables or means of growing vertically?

Types of vegetables pod

My choices are snow peas for winter, cucs for summer. I don't have energy to try more but some melons trellis. Also have seen gizmos for vert. gardening--like a large square thing with pouches to put soil and plants in. Wonder if anyone has tried them?? I'd love to grow more veggies with minimally more work :) Janet

Well, I will agree on the common... cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, peas.

This year I will be trying some of the small French cantaloupe on a trellis and intend to support the melons.
I have also done the small sugar pumpkins and the vines from sweet potatoes which just naturally climb.

A bit out of the ordinary for some folks, I grow the Malabar spinach vine. It climbs and makes a pretty ornamental vine as well as edible.

What are you planning to try this year?

Small melons
Zucchini
Pole bean (Rattlesnake)
Jetsetter Tomato
Luffa
Cherry tomato
Small pumpkin
Any other ideas?

Pod I tried Malabar many years ago and it tasted awful--was it the way I grew it?

I have 15 feet of arched rigid metal fencing (horse panels)--7 feet high in middle. Will try to show photo later today.
First year doing this so I am looking for ideas on what to grow there.

bariolio--I like the snow peas idea--I wonder when I should plant them in N. Central Texas. Lake Texoma area.

My "setup"

Loofah! Such fun. I can share a few seeds if you need. Make great gifts, especially for the girls in your life. My friend told me when she used to grow them, after harvest she would cut them in 'slices', cross wise (not length wise), melt down some nice soap, soak the loofah pieces in the liquified soap, remove to wax paper and let set up! Hah!

Gourds, for fall decoration. Big/small or the bird house ones. All do very well on a trellis.

Love the panels. I'm trying that myself this year w/pole beans (Supermarconi). Sungold cherry tom vines get huge. I bet they would be good on an arch like that!

I'll be growing on/with supports:

Charentais melons
Fortex runner beans
More tomatoes than I know what to do with!
California Wonder Sweet Peppers
Peas

I have a few cucumber seeds left over from last year, so I might slip a couple of them in somewhere.

Thanks for the ideas.
Mary the Luffa thing sounds neat.
I'll have room for some Gourds too
Keep the ideas coming

Very neat to see how your cattle panel is set up Vortreker. What will you be using the wooden T post setups in the background for?

There is another one that Darius has posted on her blog that looks incredibly inviting. Scroll down to the August 13th, 2009 post, near the bottom of this page. http://2footalligator.blogspot.com/search/label/Clever%20Ideas Complete with pole beans.

And this photo was scanned from one a lady uses in town.

How cool is that??? Wish I had room.

pod--thanks for the picture--It looks like this will be a back saver for these old bones.

The T post have wires strung between them as my tomato support system.
A life long friend in Alabama sent me 50 different varieties of tomato seeds and I dare not report back to him that I did not grow them out. :) I have tried just about every tom support method out there and this has been by far the best.

Is this the system they call the Florida weave? You tie twine from the wires to hang down and wrap the vines up and around the twine? Do you keep your tomato vines pruned also?

Pod--this is very different from the Florida Weave.
I do very little pruning so as to protect fruits from blazing sun.
Here is what I based my original design on but I have modified it a lot

I will post a photo later in the season to show just how effective this system is.
It is a lot of work to set up but then it's good for many years.

That does look efficient and is logical not to prune the foliage.

I would look forward to seeing it in action.

At least I didn't admire your 'clotheslines' in the background ~ LOL

Now that's an idea. I could use it as a clothesline in the winter. That is, if I weren't so lazy. :)

Vortreker, does that mean that you don't rotate your crops, though? I ended up with problems when I didn't rotate my tomatoes. Lots of fungus and other sorts of diseases. A friend in France has a neighbor whose family has grown tomatoes in the same location for two hundred years and gets wonderful results, but they've also been amending their soil all that time so that may make a big difference.

greenhousegal--my friend in Alabama has been growing heirloom toms in the same spot for 40 years and he constantly amends so that might be a partial answer.

That might be. Our soil is sandy and no matter how much we amend it, it soaks the stuff right up and it's gone the next year! Of course, hot, humid summers aren't the best for avoiding fungal diseases. We have trouble with peaches, too, since we don't like to spray!

We always grew the same veggies in the same spot year-after-year when I was a child. Back then, the only fertilizer was compost and the seaweed we collected from the beach after winter storms, plus if we happened to see one whilest out in the car, my mother would yell: "follow that horse!"

I do try not to plant the same thing in the same place two years in a row, but it would be nice if I could have a permanent set-up for the tomatoes.

Question on the use of metal for a support system. What does the hot sun do to the plants ? I would like to give it a try but the sun in the area gets real hot in late July early August and are a little concern of the results. Has anyone had any experiance with that concern ? Humidity is very hight throught the planting season.

This message was edited Apr 7, 2011 12:03 PM

We are much less humid here than I was in Alabama so fungal disease is not as big of a problem. If I get a nematode problem that will be another problem.

Okyo ~ it is an issue, especially when you are growing tender vines that have tendrils. I do remember a southern DGr posting that a floral vine was dying and she didn't know why. She ended up using a thermometer to see how hot the metal trellis was and it turned out to be blistering her tender vine.

I've grown tomatoes and cucumbers on cattle panels and they don't seem to be harmed by the hot metal. For the most part, when the hottest part of summer arrives, the tomato plants here are done and we are starting a fall crop. By the time they are large enough to tie off, the temps have moderated.

pod,
Thanks for that info

Tell me what type of cables you used on the tomato T posts?

Between the post is electric fence wiring. Guy wires are a real heavy duty wire a ranch supply store gave me from some scrap.
The guy wire is attached to a post 2 feet in the ground filled with cement. I pulled my first few ground posts out.
It is amazing how much pressure is exerted when I tension the wires. When the ground post pulled out the upright landscape timbers snapped in two!!!
Here is what I use to tension the wires. Called a "tension ratchet".

podster the Florida weave looks something like this. Stake, 2 tomato plants, stake 2 tomato plants and so on. Many people use 5' x 3/4" bamboo for the stakes. They are cheap and can be used 2 years. Then you tie a twine to the first stake, take it around one side of the first tomato plant, then the opposite side of the next plant. When you get to the stake you wrap it twice and continue down the line until you get to the last stake where you then tie off the twine. Then you start another twine at the same height and go back up the line wrapping the plants on the opposite side of the first twine. As the plant grow you simply run another line of twine a bit higher up the stake. Don’t get in too big of a hurry as the twine will loosen over time and there is not enough plant growth on the small plants to keep it in place. This is an excellent method if you have a longer row of tomatoes.

Okyo,
I have not had a problem with wire burn on toms. By the time the temps get really blistering the wires are pretty much shaded by the plant. With high humidity in your area it probably would be best for you to do some pruning for air circulation but do it in such a way that the wire is still mostly shaded.

Organic_Joe ~ sounds easy by just stringing twine as the tomatoes grow. Do you prune your plants?

I have seen some that use strands of twine hanging down for each plant and wrap the plant around the dangling twine as it grows.

The Florida Weave is an excellent method. My second favorite.
It's a bit expensive but real heavy duty deep sea fishing line eliminates wire burn on more sensitive climbers. Same with Organic Joe's twine and it is much cheaper.

I'm trying out the FW this summer w/my tomatoes. Due to strong winds in my garden I'm also using cattle panels supported by t-posts w/the FW going through that. That should stand up to the wind! =D Oh, and I found most of my cattle panels piled up in a ditch after we bought this property, so no expense there. And they are fairly rusty, the rust seems to not conduct the heat. I used them last year and they always felt warm but not hot to the touch and it is hot w/no shade in my garden. So just throw your cattle panels in a wet ditch for the winter and let them rust up! I suppose you need to buy the non-galvanized ones first. Or maybe they are galvanized and just old. At any rate, they work!

Good idea on fighting the wind
I vote that we call that the "Texas Weave" :)

This message was edited Apr 8, 2011 11:11 AM

'snicker/snort'! Very funny! If we put empty liquor and beer bottles upside down over the tops of the t-post we could call it a "Red-Neck Texas Weave"! I learned about bottle trees from a Georgia girl--a friend of mine! At the end of the season one might be tempted to use the bottles for target practice. (I'm joking, honest! Its Friday!)