Wanted: your suggestions for my trellis! (NO ROSES!!!)

Guten Tag! I am finishing up a wooden lattice that I built to enclose our front porch. I used 1" by 2" wood pieces, which are spaced about

9" apart. The lattice starts about 3' above ground level (the height of our front porch) and continues to about 10' up. (about 7' total of lattice) Last year I had one section finished in time to tie up a tomato. Previously, I have only really grown things on the ground.

I am wondering if anyone out there has any suggestions for vegetables that do a good job of climbing and hanging on to trellises. I have 3 separate sections of trellis:

1) South side - around 8' wide - gets a decent amount of morning and afternoon light, with some filtered light from about 2-5 pm in Summer, from a maple tree on the other side of the alley

2) West side (front) - ~ 17' wide - faces the street, with no shade from trees, but only gets indirect light through Noon. Gets direct light from about Noon through 9pm.

3) North side - ~ 8' wide - gets indirect light through the day, but is shaded from direct sunlight by the 2 story house and front porch, except for a bit of direct sunlight from perhaps 5 to 7 pm.

I live in zone 5b or 6a, and we get just over 3 feet of rain per year, on average. (38 inches)

Our back yard is very limited in size, and is the only place for our kids to play, so I am very limited in where I can grow vegetables. I built the trellis so that I could make use of some vertical space.

I am especially interested in:

tomato varieties

cucumber varieties

vining beans

some small fruited squash

exotic vining fruits?

I am really limited to things that will grow in a year, because we will probably only be in this house this year and next year. As such, grapes are probably out. However, I would be interested in any sort of vining fruit that would do well on a trellis. Thanks!

Reply to
slugbug
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"slugbug" wrote in news:1141338513.031262.14170 @v46g2000cwv.googlegroups.com:

*snip: what to grow on a trellis*

I've wondered about watermelon, seeing how they love to vine and grow everywhere, but you're talking about fruit that's too heavy for the average light trellis like you describe. You might be able to get away with Sugar Babys, though.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

Hops.

Reply to
Harry Chickpea

South side: melons, pole beans, cucumbers. Melons and cucumbers prefer rich soil, and all prefer light soil (sandy). Secure the melons to the trellis. Galia melons (green inside) do well in the North. West: butternut squash, acorn squash and more pole or runner beans. Make sure you get always the vining variety, not the bush variety, for beans of for cucurbitas. Most of the time the seed packet will state (e.g., for beans, bush or pole). North: it is possible that akebia will grow there, or schizandra, but you will not get any fruits or berries in time. It is not sunny enough for vegetables to grow there. Schizandra is a good-looking vine.

Reply to
simy1

These exposures:

Any cucumbers, except bush varieties would be fine here, generally no need to support fruit.

Delicata squash or any of the really tiny mini-pumpkins ("Jack be Little" and other similar varieties) would be good, and probably wouldn't need support. The major difficulty with trellising any squash occurs in areas where squash vine borers are a problem, as normal sprawling vines can root along their length and survive an attack while trellised vines cannot.

I'm partial to an heirloom pole bean I've been saving myself. You might want to try an Italian (Roma) type. Johnny's Selected Seeds (johnnyseeds.com) has a good selection of pole beans.

The Asian 'crispy' melons and various edible Asian gourds would be exotic things to try. (Several of these to choose from in the Johnny's catalog.)

Tomatoes would need to be tied to the trellis and at least minimally pruned.

Two tomato varieties I wouldn't do without: Sun Sugar (an orange cherry that has a unique, fruity taste; and 4th of July, a small early red variety that produces reliably all through the summer. I was impressed last year with the heirlooms Anna Russian, Azoycha and Stump of the World.

You could try pole beans here, or maybe Malabar spinach. Probably not enough sun to be very successful with anything, though I have grown beans in a somewhat shady spot.

Reply to
Pat Kiewicz

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