Better trellises needed

I've been using wood trellises from Lowes for some time now, but this past weekend a stake dowel (of the same material) broke off in one of my smaller plants. It was easy enough to replace, but it makes me worry about my larger trellises. It didn't rot so much as soften at the base and thus snap. So maybe it was in the process of rotting... its hard to tell with this type of wood (which I thought was treated).

I have three plants with large 5' trellises (3 stakes with several row bars) and all are supporting large plants - a huge pothos, and two fairly large monsteras. I am extremely concerned about them now since all of these plants prefer moist soil. The monsteras in particular are quite heavy and definitely need the support.

What kinds of materials can I start looking into that will not rot in my pots and/or that I can use in plants that already desperately need a trellis. One day I'll learn to cut my plants back... until then, I trellis and let them take over, LOL. Ideally a trunk-like object would be great if it wasn't too heavy (and wouldn't rot).

Thanks for any suggestions.

Softening at the base like that sounds like rot to me. I don't think the wood trellises that I've seen around are made of treated wood, so if the wood is in contact with the soil it wouldn't surprise me if they rotted fairly quickly. I usually use metal trellises, they also sell them at Lowes and Home Depot and those work fine. They usually have a black coating on them so depending on how big the vine is they don't blend in with the plant quite as well as a wooden trellis would but if that doesn't matter to you that would be good option. I'm not sure I understand what you mean about a trunk-like object, but that sounds like it would be too thick for most vines to twine around on their own, unless you've got something like ivy that will stick itself to pretty much anything. You could also consider bamboo--I think it doesn't rot as fast as wood. Or get a trellis made of cedar or redwood--they're more expensive but they're more rot resistant (however if you have them in contact with soil, they'll still rot, just a little slower than some cheaper grade wood)

I have made several trellises from large sized bamboo poles; it works well and has a nice 'organic' look. This one is now completely covered with a Sky vine.

I hadn't thought about tying them together with twine like that, good idea. I have used bamboo before but it's so slick that the monstera can't grab a hold of it. The pothos has little "feelers" that come out and can attach to glass even, but the pothos isn't like that (or at least mine haven't been). The vine is fairly large now, about three times the size of a finger in circumference. I'll look for the metal trellises again, but never have seen any large enough (and at the same time small enough for my indoor use).

Will look into trying the bamboo again and just tie the pieces together with twine like you did.

Thanks,
John

John - I have also drilled holes through the bamboo poles and stuck pins through them. The twine will deteriorate and is really only for decoration at this stage.
Where I live I get the large bamboo poles from friends who have large stands of the plant. They are usually commertcially available from nurseries too, though.
Good luck!!

Thanks, what do you use as pins to hold the pieces together?

We have several clumps of wild bamboo around the area, and most folks welcome any you want to take away. I hopefully will be able to acquire some new poles of it.

Rebar, lasts forever! Joints are secured with galvanized wire, then all spray painted.

That'd be cool too. I guess you could also spot-weld it together. Would be a lot heavier for indoor use though, which is where I have to use it for the tropicals.

Ah, yes, there are those plastic stakes in various lengths that could be secured into various shapes.

I have used both long metal bolts and thin bamboo sticks to connect the bamboo poles. Obviously the metal bolts make it really durable.

Thanks guys. And I didn't even think about those plastic stakes that look like rebar.

I think I'm going to go to Lowe's this weekend and just walk around the whole store. Sometimes you can find oddities like this in the strangest places. It doesn't need to be beautiful... my plant can do that on it's own.

I do that all the time!!! I'm always looking for things that can be used in other ways.

Don't forget garage sales.....

I have used stainless steel wire and it has worked extremely well. Of course this is for certain situations, like against a house where you can put a stainless eye hook near the soffit; or in my case I have some very large trellis structures made of painted 4x6; I have the stainless wire arranged so it is standing off the trellis by about 2" so I can keep the trellis clean. For clients, particularly at entry guard houses, the stainless works really well as a method to cover a wall without having the material growing into the stucco.

This message was edited Jan 14, 2008 3:08 PM

This message was edited Jan 14, 2008 3:08 PM

I don't think I could do that indoors though could I?

This message was edited Jan 14, 2008 3:09 PM

This message was edited Jan 14, 2008 3:09 PM