Home Trellis System

Put them in yesterday, GF said "nice, now it looks like a Christmas Tree in our back yard". Pics to follow.

 

I noticed a few of yall use wire to anchor the posts and to run between them as well. What do you use? Will the 20 guage galvanized steel wire work? Thanks for the feedback.

 

I have found chain link fence top rail to be an effective hop trellis. It can be easily setup, disassembled and stored after harvest. Using a 10' and 5' piece of top rail for the vertical section the trellis is 15' height and 10' wide. By removing the 5' sections, with the help of a friend it can be lowered to 10' for a safe and partial harvest.

 

Bernie - how do you keep it vertical? Is it braced, anchored, ?

 

I went with the full-on homemade arbor set-up....17 ft long, 5 ft wide, 12 ft tall. Six strings hanging down for the vines to climb.

 

HOW DID YOU BUILD THIS DNuggs? Did you use 2x2s or 4x4s for the legs/posts? Did you use concrete to set the legs in the ground? Are the top boards 1x4s? Are the side aprons 1x8s or 1x12s? What kind of wire did you use? are they attached to only the top? How did u attach?

 

I use electrical conduit with extensions for teepees 6 lines per pole and it works well. For a straight line of bines the cheapest I think is cut bamboo tied to steel stakes that are driven in the ground and have the bines runs along the lines to another set of bamboo. Etc. Pretty high and solid and cheap.

 

The posts in the ground are 4x4's that stick up about 11 feet with another 2 feet in the ground. The side boards are 2x10's and run 12 feet from post to post. The bracing at the top is made from 2x10's, bracing at the bottom 2x4's. The "roof" is made of 2x3's though I don't remember the spacing on them. No concrete to set the posts...just gravel and rock. The climbing wires are actually choir rope....mounted to the ground with simple garden stakes and secured at the top by an S-hook attached to an eyebolt so that I can easily take the vines down for harvest. Took 1 weekend to cut, drill and stain everything, another day the following weekend to actually put the thing up. It's been in the ground 3 years and hasn't budged an inch, even with a few hurricanes and New England snow storms.