Interium mini trellis

One of the blocks in smooth propogation from seeds was as they grew up and immediately started twining on one another.. it was always difficult to untangle them with out injury to one or the other..
so I started poting them on earlier.. at like 6- 8 leaves.. I still needed a mini trellis to supportthem for up to a month or more.. so I started making these little spiral items... ( Hi to Blue )...
they are pictured being made here...firm and securely anchored to the pot/soil.. providing support for the young ones.. upon leaving the sprouting trays.. ..
Here's the linkto it... click on apicture to start the slide show or to read the discriptive text..
http://flickr.com/photos/gordonhawk/sets/72157604223756657/

Gordon


This message was edited Mar 23, 2008 11:06 PM

Hi Gordon,

Very clever! Definitely worth copying. I also use plastic 2l bottles to start my seed in. After lots of "too big" holes, I started using hubby's soldering iron. It works like a dream. Needless to say, he had to buy a new one for soldering. LOL!

Elsa

What a fantastic idea and I really like that you showed how-to photos... You can almost make the spiral as long as you want or bend it into an arbor.. So many workable possibilities with roll of wire.. Thank you..

A.

Thanks for the wonderful idea. I have been buy all sorts of trellises and this will work much better than most.

Dorothy

What a great idea! Thanks for sharing the how-to.

Ditto .. something to do tonight when I try not to think of everything that's gonna get fried tonight by the frost.

X

Ouch - X - hope everything came through last night.

Gordon, ditto to above - thank you. We're always looking for aids to snarls around here - the combination of step-by-step instructions with photos definitely puts it in the sticky next time I get in there to edit. Gourd - your idea about coding more mature vines with colored straw sections so the gardener can identify one vine from the next should go into the "Snarl" subsection, too.

X - how are your vines this morning?

Luckily all the mg's are in the greenhouse .. it's too early to tell at the moment about the stuff outside. I won't know until later on this morning whether the newly emerging brugs, elephant ears, canna and ginger will be ok. They look ok .. but until the sun hits them I won't know for sure.

We always get a frost around Easter so I resisted the urge to start planting out all my seedlings the last few weeks when it was in the mid to upper 70's.

Everything survived!!!

X

This message was edited Mar 25, 2008 10:04 AM

Oh that is great news.. I put out some seedlings also and it looks like they have made it the last three weeks, but, I've been covering the raised beds every time the weather is even anywhere in the 30's. Hopefully that was the last of the cold weather here. I'm leary on taking some of the mgs out though. I did see a couple of volunteers in the veggie beds and they look fine, so maybe I can do that. I was afraid of the night time temps.

Gordon,this is a WONDERFUL idea! You have addressed a problem so many of us have with our MGs.Thank you!

Gordon,Picked up the wire from Lowes and am ready to go.What size bottles do you use?How many ozs. or liters?Thanks again for the great idea?

Hmm .. you can pick up a slinky at the dollar store .. wonder if that would work?

X

Sorry,didn't read carefully enough! I see it's 1 liter.
A slinky might work,but the beauty of this wire is it will stand up on its own.it does not collapse.The slinky will have to be attached to a stake.Pretty much like what is shown here.
http://www.spiraclimb.co.uk/

Golgi... well I start mine off in growing in cells... then they go to a 2" x 2" pot...then into the one liter bottles... and I use the two litter bottles... just the bottom 2" ... as saucers here inside but if you were in a greenhouse or outside you can skip the saucers. ... the funny shaped bottoms of the 1 liter bottles fit right into the same shaped 2 liter saucers... the MG's can stay in the 1l.bottles till they go out...other items I'll run them into the two l bottles on their way...the big fast growing items like the brugmansias.. there's only a2-3 week framework that they can be on a small trellis... before over running it..
For the one liter bottles I wrap it tightly around a 2 1/2 "dia log or whatever is2 1/2 "in your potting shead ( spring time house )
I like to keep the pot on the small size... that way there is sure to be drying out inbetween... as they root and respond to the changes in water.. to spark their growth..the other thing I do to assure they get dry inbetween.. is I have 3 times too many plants to manage in my given space and available time...
if nothing else the colored wire adds abit of sparkle ( Bling Bling ) to the plants
good luck..