How to Build a Trellis System for Vertical Growing

We originally built a “T” frame for our vertical growing for our Peas to grow up on, then after realizing we would turn it into an in the garden green house we added the side supports and canopy to the top to hold up the plastic.

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We decided that our next trellis system will be more simple to make and wouldn’t need so many holes to be dug. I saw someone posting on Facebook picture of them at the Mittleider campus, and fell n love with the design. It was simple and seemed more sturdy. When we talked about having a Mittleider gardening method grow bed devoted to Tomatoes, we knew that we wanted to try something different from the T frame structure. A trellis system seemed to be easier and more stable to build, plus it would be easier to turn into an in the garden greenhouse.

This is what we ended up with so far, this is just the main structure.

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What you’ll need to buy:

(qty 5) 8′ treated 4″x4″

this will be your 4 post and one will be cut down to (4 qty) 2′ long cross knees

(qty 2) 6′ treated 4″x4″

These will be your headers

(qty 2) whatever length your grow bed or vertical growing area is, mine was 12′ treated 2″x4″

This will be your side brackets that will also hold your 3/4″ PVC pipe(thin wall, schedule 40, 200psi) that you cut down to 3″ to hold your 1/2″ PVC pipes (thin wall, schedule 40, 200psi) for your canopy.

(qty 1) 6′ treated 2″x4″

this will be your cross bracket for more support for your upper wires.

Here is a diagram for the main structure:

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I also used 4″x4″ post brackets you can find in the decking area of your home improvement store. This made it easier to put together, because of the post being 4″ you can’t find screws longer than 3.5″ so you will need this metal post bracket to hold it together.

The side bracket that will also hold your 3/4″ PVC pipe(thin wall, schedule 40, 200psi) that you cut down to 3″ to hold your 1/2″ PVC pipes (thin wall, schedule 40, 200psi) for your canopy. This will help turn your trellis system into an “in the garden greenhouse”. The number of hoops you will need is based on how long your trellis system is. So my trellis system is 12′ long, so I did 7 hoops. You’ll need one on each end and one in the middle then add hoop fitting to the center of each section, so add 2 more fittings. If you get snow I recommend you add more fittings to help handle the snow load. Remember if you do get snow, you will want to brush it off to help get the light into your green house.

You don’t always need the middle support board, but if your bed is longer than 10′ you need to add this. One middle board for beds 11′-19′ long, if its 20′ + feet then you will need to add more 4X4″ posts like the what are on the ends every 10′. This will allow extra support. Also you will be able to use 1 continuous upper wire for beds under 19′, but if they are longer than 20′ then you will need to separate the upper wire into sections. This is recommended for security, you don’t want to come out to your 30′ trellis system with 30′ worth of plants on the ground.

For more details on this project, please check out our video below.

Here is our Video on how we made our trellis system:

 

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Also I have uploaded our video on how to build the canopy for the hoops on top of the trellis system:

Resources:

-You can buy the Mittleider course book: click here

-Micro-Nutrient Mix:Click here

Garden doctor book series: Click here



If you have any questions or comments I would love to hear from you!

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Mittleider Gardening: 6 Laws Of Plant Growth

After learning so much from the Mittleider Gardening Course book , these are the six laws of plant growth. If you want to have a successful garden you MUST follow these 6 laws.

Law 1:

Your plants need at least 6-8 hours of sunlight. Every plant needs photosynthesis to survive, so keep that in mind if your planning on growing vertically , and with plant spacing, you don’t want to have plants to close or they will fight over sunlight. From my experience I didn’t follow this step when I had my tomatoes in cages then the ended up dying from blite, because of lack of sunlight, not enough air circulation, and I didn’t use the automatic water system they outlined in the book. So make sure you find a good sunny spot in your yard that allows your plants to get at least 6-8 hours.

Sunny gardens
Law 1- Make sure your grow beds or garden gets enough sun.

 


Law 2:

Depending on your type of crop almost all plant need temperatures from 55-85 degrees, but some like your winter crop will prefer it on the lower end and sweet potatoes and tomatoes will prefer it on the higher end of that range. So this law is basically saying, if your trying to grow sweet potatoes in the PNW like me, then you’ll need to have an in the garden green house. 6 mil clear plastic to cover your crop will help you have great success. Or if your in the south and its getting high temperatures, you will need shade cloth so your plants won’t burn.


Law 3:

Plants need water, but just not any water. Scheduled watering, it is best like humans to be able to feed your plants on a schedule. This is why in the Mittleider course book, they talk about have an automatic watering system. For our garden, I had each grow bed on a different zone water timer. This ensures that your plants don’t dry out, this can also help your tomatoes not get blossom rot. By using the automatic water system they outline how to make, you can save 40% more water that traditional gardens.

automatic watering system
Law 3- I have my automatic watering system all hooked up on a water timer, to ensure my plants gets the water then need


Law 4:

Make sure your plants have sufficient air circulation, you can do this by adding sand, or other amendments to your soil, proper drainage is very important or your plants roots will drown and rot away. In my garden I have soil beds made out of 1/3 soil, 1/3 sand, and 1/3 compost. I also have grow beds made out of 75% sawdust and 25% sand. This summer will be the first time using soil beds, for me the sawdust and sand works great because of all the rain we get. We want to test out to see if which growing mediums have the highest yield.

potato barrel soil
Here you can see that the 75% sawdust and 25% sand allows enough air for your plants to grow and produce a lot of vegetables. This is our potato Barrel we did last year that we got about 18X yield from, we only planted 1lb of seed potato and gained over 18 lbs of red potato after subtracting the bucket weight.


Law 5:

Plants need nutrition all season long, so make sure you fertilize on a regular basis. That is usually the problem when people don’t have a successful garden, they only fertilize once at the beginning and assume the plants will be fine. Its like playing a sport, the harder you play the more thirsty your body becomes. This is why in the Mittleider gardening method they talk about the 16 nutrients plants need. Airborne nutrients is Carbon(C), Oxygen(O), and Hydrogen(H). Primary Nutrients are Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K). Secondary Nutrients are Calcium(Ca), Magnesium (Mg), and Sulfur (S). Trace Elements needed are Boron (B), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), Zinc (Zn), Molybdenum (Mo), and Chlorine (Cl). The book goes into greater detail of why each of these nutrients are needed. I love using the pre plant fertilizer and weekly feed, you can mix your own based on the list of minerals needed or you can buy it already mixed for you (click here for the micro nutrient mix). Even if the Mittleider Method weekly feed doesn’t interest you, you can still benefit from the Garden Doctor vol. 1-3 . In these 3 books they talk about nutrient deficiency you may have based on the look of your plant. The Garden Doctor books are full of pictures and great information on what your plant needs. Like humans we feed our body the nutrients it needs to perform and we need to do the same with our plants.


Law 6:

Keeping the competition at bay, for example don’t allow weeds, insects, animals, etc to overtake your garden. This is sometime easier said than done, but your plants need to have a clean area to grow without bugs, weeds, and animals to worry about. You can use many organic choices out there to deal with this, from fences, netting, to Down dish soap mix to kill bugs, or to just pulling out the weeds by hand your garden can thrive and be productive. This is one more reason I love using sawdust and sand as a growing medium, it doesn’t allow weeds to take over your garden.

 

All of this information can be found in the Mittleider Gardening Course book (click here for the book)

Resources:

-You can buy the Mittleider course book: click here

-Micro-Nutrient Mix:Click here

Garden doctor book series: Click here

If you have any questions, please leave me a comment or come join our face book page!

Link to Mittleider Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MittleiderGardening/

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Setting up a Seed Starting Area

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I wanted to grow my own organic veggies for my family, but sometimes the cost of starting a garden can be really high. So I was on a mission to find short cuts in in keeping the cost down. I used reclaimed material from our old deck that we tore down, re purposed wire racks I bought off craigslist when we first bought our house, and used emergency blankets around the shower and as the door to keep the heat and light in. I made these racks easy to remove so we can have our shower back during the summer. This bathroom is in our basement where it is really cold and we don’t heat the down stairs to save energy($). Click here for the post and video on how I made these grow lights.

Here is a video that I did on how we set up a seed starting area:

 

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