{"id":1200,"date":"2019-09-02T01:45:53","date_gmt":"2019-09-02T01:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/?page_id=1200"},"modified":"2020-04-17T20:38:02","modified_gmt":"2020-04-17T20:38:02","slug":"supporting-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/02\/supporting-plants\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporting plants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why plants need support <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A number of crops (notably\npole beans, pole peas and vining cucumbers and squash) are true vines and their\nspindly stems are totally incapable of supporting them. If they aren\u2019t\nsupported, they will simply grow flat along the ground. Tomato plants are\ncapable of supporting themselves when they are young, but as they get bigger\nand develop a heavy weight of foliage and fruit they will fall over unless\ngiven some support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all of these cases the plants will produce more usable food when kept off of the ground. There is less pest damage, as the edible part is kept well above the soil, which has moisture and lots of hiding places for pests. There is also less disease, which can be encouraged by the high humidity and poor air circulation near the ground, as well as by soil splashing on the plants. The fruits also tend to be cleaner and of higher quality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The only time I have had\nmajor problems with tomatoes in my present garden, was when I experimented with\ngrowing them unsupported on the ground. It was a total mess with major pest and\ndisease problems and I ended up simple removing them without harvesting\nanything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another benefit of\nsupporting plants, is that you can train them low growing, sprawling plants\nvertically upward and so greatly reduce the amount of bed space they need. This\ncan be a very helpful in small gardens, where space is at a premium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The kind of support you need\nwill depend upon the nature of the plant. Does it have tendrils like a pea, or\ndoes it twine like a pole bean. Will it get heavy like a winter squash, or does\nit stay pretty light like a pea. Does it have to be strong to withstand high\nwinds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ideas for support<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a good idea to erect\nany supporting structure before you put your transplants in the ground. Then\nthey won\u2019t be in the way and won\u2019t get damaged by a stray pole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fences<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The simplest method of\nsupport is to train plants up existing wire fences. This works very well and\nmakes the fences look more attractive. It doesn\u2019t work if the fence is intended\nto exclude deer, as they will eat whatever plant parts hang on the outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Structures<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any vertical structure\n(wall, fence, shed, house) can be used as support if you attach netting, or run\nstrings up it. As a bonus the plants will help to soften it visually, and can\neven be used to disguise any ugly feature in your garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Poles<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next simplest supports\nare 6 – 8 foot poles of bamboo, scrap wood, or even metal pipe, stuck into the\nground. These are very versatile and can be used singly, lashed together into\nvarious configurations, or combined with string. When covered in a vigorous\ngrowth of plants they also work very effectively as attractive screens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To make the above structure\npush each pole or cane 6\u201d into the ground to give it some stability. Each one\nwill stand by itself and when connected they become very strong. The first time\nI tried to make this kind of structure, I simply stood them on the ground. This\ndoesn\u2019t work at all, as they  have no\nlateral stability whatsoever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bamboo can (and probably\nshould) be grown in the garden to supply poles for garden use. It must be\nconfined however, or it can become a problem. You can sometimes get free canes\nfrom people who need their bamboo kept under control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As a carpenter I often come\nacross half rotten redwood boards and I find I can rip any sound parts\nlengthwise to make excellent 3\/4 x 3\/4\u201d square poles. These are now my standard\nsupport material. Any wood can be used for this, it doesn\u2019t have to be rot\nresistant (the part touching the ground will just decay faster.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Netting<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is good for supporting\nmany plants as it gives them many places to cling on to, though it usually\nrequires some support itself. You can buy plastic netting for this purpose (you\nattach it to a rigid frame for support), but I prefer to use wire netting It is\na lot more durable and lasts almost indefinitely and it doesn\u2019t get  tangled). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More rigid wire such as hog\nwire or concrete reinforcing wire is actually self-supporting and can be shaped\ninto tall columns, which are quite ornamental when covered in vines. They will\nprobably require a stake or two to prevent them getting blown over by strong\nwind).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wire tunnels<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can also open up these\nwire cylinders and spread them across the bed like semi-cylindrical wire cloche\nframes. The plants will grow up through the mesh and sprawl on the top. This\ncan be covered with plastic to protect the plants early in the season and taken\noff as the weather warms up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pea sticks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A traditional English plant\nsupport is the pea stick, which is simply a slender but sturdy branch of Hazel\nbush (most other kinds of brushwood work just as good) about 4\u2019 tall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The twigs are trimmed of\nbranches on two sides to leave a flat branches support (see illustration). They\nare flat so they can be inserted into the soil in close rows. I like these\nbecause you can make them for free and they will eventually recycle themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corn stalks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Living corn plants provide\ngood support for beans, either in a three sisters arrangement (corn, beans and\nsquash together), or simply as a follow on crop (leave the corn stalks in\nplace).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Posts<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metal T posts can provide\nsturdy but easily moved temporary supports. .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More permanent, stable and\nvery strong supports might be installed at strategic places around the garden,\nfor use as required (perhaps at each end of the bed. These could be 4\u02dd x 4\u02dd\nfence posts, eight feet long and sunk 18 – 36\u02dd into the ground. Screw  metal eyes into them, so you can attach\nstrings (or galvanized wires) between them as needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why plants need support A number of crops (notably pole beans, pole peas and vining cucumbers and squash) are true vines and their spindly stems are totally incapable of supporting … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gardening-techniques","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Support-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1200"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3038,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200\/revisions\/3038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}