The cost of trellising - Page 2

Marcus1 · February 27, 2015

Marcus1 · February 27, 2015

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My son finally got some pictures to post of my trellis set up. I have very little time for maintenance once harvest starts so this works for me with very little labor post plant out. I tried stake and weave a couple years and just couldn't find the time to continue weaving through the season. Thus the tomato plants would tumble over themselves and make picking difficult. With the trellis the plants stayed between the double fence with very little training and made picking much easier. Also a pic of how I do my cages for my indeterminate plants.

maf · February 28, 2015

Commercial greenhouse growers always pay someone to prune and train the plants. They would not do so if it was not economically viable. I know outside growing is different, but once the infrastructure is in place, if it was done properly annual maintenance of a trelissing system would be minimal.

Most of the pruning and training associated with a trellissing system can be combined with a daily walkaround inspection, which may be a benefit in that the worker will be forced to look at every plant while he ties it in, rather than just walking past and not noticing anything.

Marcus1 · February 28, 2015

maf, You touched on the very reason why I set up the trellis the way I do. LABOR. It is my greatest obstacle every year. I run ads in the paper, signs on the farm, even post help wanted fliers at the local Ag college and am lucky to find even a few workers. Nobody seems to want to work outside on a farm anymore. I don't think it's what I pay, the one worker that has stayed with me the last several years is making about 600 cash a week but even he misses way to many days during harvest season.

Marcus

Cole_Robbie · February 28, 2015

wow, I don't make $600 a week as a market grower. I should just come work for you.

luigiwu · March 7, 2015

Marcus, what happened to your pictures - they don't show up for me anymore.

I wanted to ask how far apart is the double fence and do you do anything else to "train" them to either stay between the two fence or support itself on either one?

Worth1 · March 7, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by luigiwu

Marcus, what happened to your pictures - they don't show up for me anymore.

I wanted to ask how far apart is the double fence and do you do anything else to "train" them to either stay between the two fence or support itself on either one?

I can still see them.

joseph · March 7, 2015

I grow all tomatoes sprawling. I can't afford the materials nor the labor to trellis them. The return on investment just isn't there for a field full of tomatoes. If I were growing a few dozen plants they'd be trellised on hog fencing held up by t-posts. I lose on average perhaps 15% of fruits due to contact with the ground: Much more than that on some varieties that are new to my garden. It is super arid here, so I don't have to worry about moisture-loving micro-organisms. Invertebrate animals only cause problems to fruits that touch the ground. The vast majority of what I grow are determinates. I have selected over the years for arching vines which tend to keep the fruits out of the dirt, and for varieties that thrive here in spite of being covered with soil from sprinkle irrigation. I have more space available than I can plant, so I space rows 6 feet apart with plants 3 to 4 feet apart in the row depending on variety. This year I'm planning on growing some indeterminate plants. I think I'll increase spacing between rows to 8 feet.

Marcus1 · March 7, 2015

luigiwu, I have the two fences 10" apart. The plants are spaced two feet apart and the rows are on 5' centers. I plant out about May 15. If I have the labor or time we go through the rows and stuff any growth that escapes out of the fences back in every two weeks or so. Last year there was no stuffing due to a lack of both time & labor. The plants stayed in pretty well and were just about to the top of the fences, they produced well but did have some black spot right at the end of the season. Once harvest starts there is no time for maintenance, its all about picking. I used to sprawl most of my plants but I have found keeping them off the ground makes it easier to spray( I can get the under side of the leaves) and much quicker to pick. The investment in time and labor at the start gets me many more number 1 toms. That is my goal, people are picky, if the counter is full of no. 1s I sell twice as many. The no.2s are sold by the box for canning or are donated to our county food bank. I don't know why the pictures aren't showing they worked before. Cole, You would be welcome to come work on my farm.

Good luck everyone
Marcus

Cole_Robbie · May 6, 2015

Using the pic that Marcus posted above, which isn't there anymore, I came up with this year's idea for cheap trellising:
http://i.imgur.com/x86ZchV.jpg

The gray pipe is 3/4" pvc conduit. I used it because it has UV inhibitors in it. The fittings for it are different though; I had to use white pvc tee fittings. The sides are 5' sections driven 1' into the ground. I am going to run string down each side. I used a 1/8" drill bit to drill a hole in the conduit, and then made a loop with baling wire. I only had to run the bottom strings today. I will add more as the plants grow. The tee at the top allows me room to expand higher. I anchored the end posts to the chain link fence behind them with pieces of chain.

Each PVC post is about $4. I spaced them every twelve feet. The baling wire I used for the loops is very cheap, and I am using the cheap baling twine along the sides. Depending upon how much I expand it, I am thinking I can trellis indeterminate rows like this for less than 50 cents a row foot. The pvc posts should last for many years.

Gardeneer · May 7, 2015

Trellising, I think, can be advantageous when you are growing in rows. It can be less costly than good sturdy cage(s), BUT you have to work harder ( to train, tie).
I am , eg, growing in raised beds arranged like Maze, as a design element. So trellis is out of question for me.
Also trellis is a sort of permanent structure. So moving it around takes a lot of work.
JMO

BigVanVader · May 7, 2015

I prefer single staking myself, I keep planning to try new methods but I keep going back to single stake. It really isn't that time consuming for me but I only have around 65 tomato plants. I normally tie each one 3 or 4 times, every 2 feet or so. When they hit the top of the stakes I just let them do their thing or sometimes top them if they are loaded with tomatoes. I try to get all my stakes for free, most are just random metal pipes/t-post etc that others were going to throw out but I have bought some metal conduit to make post.

February 27, 2015	#17
Marcus1 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Colorado Posts: 124	[IMG][/IMG] My son finally got some pictures to post of my trellis set up. I have very little time for maintenance once harvest starts so this works for me with very little labor post plant out. I tried stake and weave a couple years and just couldn't find the time to continue weaving through the season. Thus the tomato plants would tumble over themselves and make picking difficult. With the trellis the plants stayed between the double fence with very little training and made picking much easier. Also a pic of how I do my cages for my indeterminate plants.

March 7, 2015	#21
luigiwu Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: ny Posts: 1,219	Marcus, what happened to your pictures - they don't show up for me anymore. I wanted to ask how far apart is the double fence and do you do anything else to "train" them to either stay between the two fence or support itself on either one? __________________ Subirrigated Container gardening (RGGS) in NY, Zone 7!

March 7, 2015	#23
joseph Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2013 Location: Cache Valley, N/E of The Great Salt Lake Posts: 1,244	I grow all tomatoes sprawling. I can't afford the materials nor the labor to trellis them. The return on investment just isn't there for a field full of tomatoes. If I were growing a few dozen plants they'd be trellised on hog fencing held up by t-posts. I lose on average perhaps 15% of fruits due to contact with the ground: Much more than that on some varieties that are new to my garden. It is super arid here, so I don't have to worry about moisture-loving micro-organisms. Invertebrate animals only cause problems to fruits that touch the ground. The vast majority of what I grow are determinates. I have selected over the years for arching vines which tend to keep the fruits out of the dirt, and for varieties that thrive here in spite of being covered with soil from sprinkle irrigation. I have more space available than I can plant, so I space rows 6 feet apart with plants 3 to 4 feet apart in the row depending on variety. This year I'm planning on growing some indeterminate plants. I think I'll increase spacing between rows to 8 feet. Last edited by joseph; March 7, 2015 at 02:17 AM.

February 28, 2015	#18
maf Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: England Posts: 512	Commercial greenhouse growers always pay someone to prune and train the plants. They would not do so if it was not economically viable. I know outside growing is different, but once the infrastructure is in place, if it was done properly annual maintenance of a trelissing system would be minimal. Most of the pruning and training associated with a trellissing system can be combined with a daily walkaround inspection, which may be a benefit in that the worker will be forced to look at every plant while he ties it in, rather than just walking past and not noticing anything.

February 28, 2015	#20
Cole_Robbie Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Illinois, zone 6 Posts: 8,407	wow, I don't make $600 a week as a market grower. I should just come work for you.

May 6, 2015	#25
Cole_Robbie Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Illinois, zone 6 Posts: 8,407	Using the pic that Marcus posted above, which isn't there anymore, I came up with this year's idea for cheap trellising: http://i.imgur.com/x86ZchV.jpg The gray pipe is 3/4" pvc conduit. I used it because it has UV inhibitors in it. The fittings for it are different though; I had to use white pvc tee fittings. The sides are 5' sections driven 1' into the ground. I am going to run string down each side. I used a 1/8" drill bit to drill a hole in the conduit, and then made a loop with baling wire. I only had to run the bottom strings today. I will add more as the plants grow. The tee at the top allows me room to expand higher. I anchored the end posts to the chain link fence behind them with pieces of chain. Each PVC post is about $4. I spaced them every twelve feet. The baling wire I used for the loops is very cheap, and I am using the cheap baling twine along the sides. Depending upon how much I expand it, I am thinking I can trellis indeterminate rows like this for less than 50 cents a row foot. The pvc posts should last for many years.

May 7, 2015	#26
Gardeneer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: NC - zone 8a - heat zone 7 Posts: 4,919	Trellising, I think, can be advantageous when you are growing in rows. It can be less costly than good sturdy cage(s), BUT you have to work harder ( to train, tie). I am , eg, growing in raised beds arranged like Maze, as a design element. So trellis is out of question for me. Also trellis is a sort of permanent structure. So moving it around takes a lot of work. JMO

May 7, 2015	#27
BigVanVader Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Greenville, South Carolina Posts: 3,099	I prefer single staking myself, I keep planning to try new methods but I keep going back to single stake. It really isn't that time consuming for me but I only have around 65 tomato plants. I normally tie each one 3 or 4 times, every 2 feet or so. When they hit the top of the stakes I just let them do their thing or sometimes top them if they are loaded with tomatoes. I try to get all my stakes for free, most are just random metal pipes/t-post etc that others were going to throw out but I have bought some metal conduit to make post.