Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
comes in lengths 10 feet long. By cutting it to strategic
lengths and using appropriate fittings, you can vary its height
and length. By fitting it over rebar driven into the ground, you
can lift it off the rebar easily in the fall for storage, and
moving it to a different bed is a snap.
Because lumber used to create the beds is eight feet long, the
longest you need the conduit to be is eight feet. This is for the
horizontal piece on top. Meanwhile, trellis heights can range
all the way from two feet for peas to four feet for tomatoes to
even six feet for pole beans. A trellis height of more than six
feet isn't a good idea, as reaching the top would be tiring
or—even worse if a stool is required—dangerous.
The easy way to get a flexible system is to buy 10-foot
lengths of conduit six pieces at a time. Three are cut into an
8-foot and a 2-foot piece, two are cut into a 6-foot and a
4-foot piece, and the final length of conduit is cut into two
4-foot pieces and one 2-foot piece. When done, you have
three 8-foot horizontals, two 6-foot verticals, four 4-foot
verticals, and four 2-foot verticals. In addition to these, for
every six pieces of conduit, you will need six 90-degree
elbows, four screw couplings, and six pieces of 2-foot rebar.
(You can find rebar already cut to length and bundled at
Home Depot and similar stores.)
Once the rebar is hammered into the ground on either end of
the beds, you can completely assemble or disassemble a trellis
of any height from 2-foot to 8-foot in two-foot increments
using only a screwdriver.
Complete Trellis Creation, Step-by-Step
