Supports for Large Vines

I'm a new gardener in a new house, so I have very little in my garden and no trees (that is, of any significant size), landscape objects, garden structures, etc. to work with. To boot, my fence is vinyl, so I can't very well grow things on it (right?) because it's slippery and I can't nail things to it. Also, I don't want anything growing directly onto the stucco on my house.

That being said, I'd love to grow Sweet Autumn Clematis (http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/683/), and Wisteria, and I already have 2 Campsis vines, but I don't have anything at all that will support vines of this size.

I am considering building a teepee made of metal electrical conduit piping, staked to the ground with rebar and lashed together with zip ties. Does anyone know if a structure like this would work with something large like these 3 vines? Can I train them to take over the structure, and then just prune them occasionally to keep it in bounds since they are definitely supposed to be bigger than a 10' tall teepee?

Thanks!
Christy

Christy, I made my trellis out of conduit also. This picture was taken 1 month ago.
I painted it black, crushed the ends so water didnt get in.
I tied it together with coated solid wire, zip ties would have fallen down the pipe, with my design.

chris

I banged the 10' pipes about 1 foot inground.

This was taken about 1 week ago. Filled out alot.

Chris, your trellis is great! I never even thought about a trellis, only a teepee, since I didn't know how to join the conduit together. Now, what exactly is coated solid wire? Did you just wrap it a lot and tie it somehow? And how did you crush the ends of the coduit? Do you find that it's supporting the weight of the vine well?

What kind of vine are you growing? It looks like it's thriving! But then again, you're in Georgia! My sister is a few hours from you, and it seems like everything does well in her yard, as long as it's not planted directly in that famous Georgia clay!

Coated solid wire...copper wire from home depot...sold by the foot off the main roll. There is stranded wire and solid wire. Solid is stronger. It is coated in black plastic or vinyl.
Yes, I just wrapped in around and around the joint, then use pliers to twist the ends together a little. (pic #2) probably 12-18" per joint.
A small sledge hammer will crush the ends easily.
The trellis is very strong. I can sway the whole trellis foward and back but it is now way comming out of my georgia clay, which is as if I put it in cement. LOL
The hardest part was standing on the ladder to get to the top of the 10' pipe to bang it in the ground. I used a 6' ladder and had to hold the sledge higher than my head. My arm was dead after the 4 pipes.

I have a crossvine (perennial) growing underneath and a moonvine (annual) growing on top. What you see is the moonvine because the crossvine is still a baby.

In hindsight, I would have put 1 more pipe across the top. I ended up using some of the wire and making a top bar for the vines to hang on.

chris

Thanks again, Chris. I really appreciate any ideas I can get! I looked up Crossvine (that one is new to me) in PF, and I see that it's also a very large, woody vine. Do you know how it compares in size (by which I really mean sheer mass) to a wisteria vine? I wonder if they are somewhat similar. I look forward to hearing how your trellis fares as your vines both get bigger.

I believe the wisteria is bigger than the crossvine. Though I am not sure.
The moonvine will die this year and I will plant another one in front of the trellis next year.
Unless my crossvine has enough growth to grow by itself on there, I just didnt want it to look empty all season.

I bet the "vines and climbers" forum has loads of pictures of trellis designs that people have put together from all kinds of things.

This message was edited Jul 27, 2007 1:36 PM

Hi Gardeningmommy, there are any amount of trellises either to buy ready made or flat pack or even make your own, for a start, dont let your Vynil fence put you off, you can run some chicken wire along it or just pannels of, and use plastic tree/shrub ties to fix it to the fence so you can let things grow along/up or scramble over it, if the fence needs a wash/work etc, you just undo the ties and lay the plants flat till works done then retie it back again, but, there are rose arches, teepees, trellis that you can fix to the stucco, all different shapes and sizes to suit the type of vine/climbers that require large/small trellising, you can get arbours etc flat pack or ready made, so there is something to suit every pocket and need, as to the type of vines/climbers you wish to grow and the three you mentioned, all but the Wiseria will grow up and over a very light weight frame work, however, your idea for Wisteria will require a very strong trellis or pergola/wooden frame as this really is a tough vine once it gets established, it truly is beautiful, however, care should be teken as to where you grow it and after a few years, how to prune it as once it gets going, it will really romp away, it does to my mind look much better if grown up and over a strong canopy where you would want to sit in the shade as the flowers look best when they are allowed to hang down to show off their long trusses of flowers, some are longer than others and come in several colours, but if you can make a large enough arbour/frame, then they are stunning when in full flower, I know a lot of people are worried about the size these grow to after a good many years, but like all plants, they just need the right care and attention. I would sugest you go along to your librery/book store and have a look for some books on shade/ garden constuctions etc to give you some ideas, these can be as complicated or as easy as you want, but what they will give you is a great many ideas to get your thoughts going. hope this helps you and good luck. WeeNel.

Thanks everyone, lots of great ideas here. Just dropped into this forum for a minute and already I've got answers to my problems.