Gardening: Built Trellis and Future Greenhouse Frame for Stringing Up the Cherry Tomato Vines

in gardening •  7 years ago  (edited)

The cherry tomato varieties planted in the garden are growing well. I built a trellis frame to hang strings from for the cherry tomato vines to climb. You can see one of the trellis beams that I placed unsecured on top of the trellis frame. that trellis beam will be used for two cherry tomato rows below it. A string will be hung for each cherry tomato vine to climb. Eventually the trellis frame will be skinned with clear plastic to make it a greenhouse to extend the growing season and for additional protection from wind, pests, possible pollutants, and the occasional storm.

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Trellis for Cherry Tomato Varieties

In the picture below you can see one of the Sakura cherry tomato plants already has a few flowers. In the picture on the right you can see the bottom leaf has a new branch starting to grow where the leaf stem meets the main stem. This new branch will be pruned so the cherry tomato plant will grow up and down the trellis string in one long vine. The cherry tomato plants can be grown closer together and produce more tomatoes using this method. I am also growing Sugar Rush, Candyland, Jasper Hybrid, and Sweetie varieties of cherry tomato this year.

Tripods: The Structure Basis

The lumber and rocks were harvested from the property. I'm using tar infused bank line rope to do the tripod lashings. In the picture below you can see a pair of tripods. Four tripods will form the four corners of the trellis - they are very stable when positioned properly.

tripod_pair.jpg

Tripod Lashing

In the picture below you can see how the tripod legs are lined up and lashed together at one end. Watch the video below if you would like to see how this was done.



Click to watch the Video

Four Tripod Trellis Frame Design

In the picture below you can see the cherry tomato garden before building the trellis frame.

starting_over.jpg

In the picture below you can see the back or north side view of the trellis frame. Notice the four tripods used for the corners. Large rocks will eventually be positioned to secure each tripod leg. The frame is very stable as is for now, but when it is turned into a greenhouse, the plastic sheeting will act as a large sail for the wind to catch.

greenhouse_frame_backview.jpg

In the picture below you can see the west side of the trellis. The four beams that are lashed to the tops of the tripods form the roof frame - and join the tripods into one structure.

greenhouse_frame_truewest.jpg

In the picture below you can see how the tripod legs are lashed together where they cross. The trellis frame was stabilized and strengthened with these structural lashings that turn the pieces into a single unit.

cross_lashing.jpg

In the picture below you can see the view of the trellis frame from the south west corner.

greenhouse_frame_southwestcorner.jpg

In the picture below you can see how the roof beams are lashed to the tops of the tripod. The structure feels more solid after each added lashing.

roofcross_lashing.jpg

In the picture below you can see the north-east side view of the cherry tomato trellis.

greenhouse_frame_northeast.jpg

Next Steps: Pruning and Stringing up the Cherry Tomato Vines

The next post for the cherry tomato garden will be about stringing the cherry tomato vines and pruning the sucker branches. There will also be a post when the clear plastic skin is added to turn the trellis frame into a greenhouse.

Have a great day!

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Thanks @pennsif - that's awesome - many more sustainable projects on the way :)

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These tripods are really cool! I like how you lashed them together. I hope the cherry tomatoes appreciate the nice work!

Thanks - tripods are awesome - solid and so many possibilities. The tomato rows are getting drip irrigation and heaped with matured compost soon, so they should be very happy :)

Great post @jackdub. Your posts are like a DIY video so much detail. Excellent content! It will be interesting to see the tomatoes as they get taller and grow up the trellis

Thanks - they're really starting to take off with the warm weather. I'll have to keep up with the pruning and stringing, but it will be cool to see the trellis full with vines and cherry tomatoes :)

Hay man, you've been busy! I can see a lot of work has gone into that structure... From a distance i thought i was looking at an Army Assault course lol.
Your posts are becoming a great catalogue of progress in which we can see you develop and thrive...Nice job.
GOOD LUCK man.

Thanks @preppervetuk - yeah I keep digging in - setting myself up for easy living with a full bounty :) It does have that boot camp training tower look to it - triangles are great to build with, they do a great job of dispersing the load. I'll have to do a homestead update post soon, we've been out here for a year on July 5th :)

Wow, that's some serious trellis! It's cool how you tied everything together. Also love how you source the lumber and rocks from your own property. Can't wait to see once the trellis is full of tomatoes!

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SO much work going into your gardens i love seeing you updates and all that your doing wishing you huge crops

It is amazing how you make good use of your land. That is one of my dreams to live the rest of my life on a quiet piece of land and tend to a garden. Didn't know cherry tomatoes needs some sort of frame to climb up to. I have cherry tomato in a pot that looks healthy I should give it a small frame to climb up to.

Some nice way to make your farm products grow properly. These minute things help to get good products..

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Nice trellis. Look forward to the transition to greenhouse post