Kiwi trellis installed

Hardy kiwis are vines.

Kiwis?

In Wisconsin?

You betcha.

Hardy kiwis are a sprawling plant that, given time and neglect, can take down a building with heavy vines and fruit. Mine are wispy things that I fear won't survive the summer, much less the winter. But with faith and a credit card to buy new ones next spring should something die, Jay, friend Dale and I built one heck of a trellis last weekend.

The kiwis are planted on the north side of my asparagus bed. They are in the raised bed because Dale told us they don't like to be in compacted soil, so I put them where they won't be trod over.

Using cedar 4x4" posts and fencing supplies from Farm and Fleet, we put together a handsome trellis that should last for years to come.

For now, the plants are merely staked, they haven't even reached the lowest wire. As they grow, I will train them along the wires.

Kiwis are male and female, one male for up to nine female plants. I have two varieties of females, and each has it's accompanying male. They all flower and smell divinely. This will be an exercise in patience however, it will be some years before we taste the delicious fruit.

Trellising tomatoes (string trellis) Part 4

If you just discovered this blog, this is Part 4 in a series on growing tomatoes in the home garden. Check out the earlier parts:

• Part 1 (intro
• Part 2 (pruning)



This year's trellis with netting
along the edge of my garden. Next year
I'll position it down the center with plants
on either side.

• Part 3, (trellising, why bother?)

Well, this series got a bit side-lined by an out-of-town vacation and garden work. I should write something like this in the winter when we're all looking for some reading about summer.

Anyway, pictured at right is a trellis I built from an idea from my friend Diane. I built one of these last year to support beans, but they didn't grow a hill of...

I used this 10-foot long trellis to support a climbing variety of tomatoes that I don't recommend. (Olds Trip-L Climber. It splits at the shoulders and this year for me, it didn't yeild much). The trellis, however, did the job and I have an idea of what to do next year.

In a previous blog post, I lay out how to build this type of trellis, down to the parts and cost for each one at Home Depot. 

In my small garden, positioning the trellis is important, and here are the changes I'm making next year.

You can order these from Territorial Seed Company.

I have 4-foot wide beds. I'm going to position the 10-foot long by 5-foot tall trellis down the middle of one bed. Then, I'll alternately plant indeterminate tomatoes a foot from either long-edge of the bed. Instead of the netting, I'm going to tie a cord to the top of the trellis and drape the cord down either side of the trellis.

As the plants grow, I'll prune viciously and use tomato clips to direct the remaining vines up the cord.

Just in case you're wondering, I do not get anything for mentioning products or stores. I just tell you what I like.

1. Intro to varieties and classifications
2. Pruning
3. Trellising I - why bother?
4. Trellising II - string trellis
5. Trellising III - those crappy tomato cages
6. Pests and diseases
7. Watering

Trellising tomatoes (why bother?) Part 3

If you just discovered this blog, this is Part 3 in a series on growing tomatoes in the home garden. Check out Part 1 (intro) and Part 2 (pruning).

There are several reasons to trellis tomatoes. Determinate tomatoes, also known as "bush type" tomatoes, have a generally upright postion while growing and bearing young fruit, stop getting bigger but tend to flop over as fruit matures and gets bigger. 


Indeterminate tomatoes, on the other hand, never stop growing. Check out good old Wikipedia for more info on tomato classification.

One of the main reasons to trellis either type of tomato is to get the plant, leaves and fruit off the ground. In my five years of growing tomatoes on my own (that is, not with mom's guidance on the farm) I find this protects them from:

• soil splashing on leaves, which can infect the plant with early blight.
• keeps plants tidy, out of paths or from crowding other plants.
• keeps fruit up off the ground away from the soil (potential rot issues) and animals (though chipmunks climb into my plants to steal fruit anyway).

Trellising also helps increase airflow and sun exposure, both of which help decrease the likelihood that a fungus will attack the plant. 

Indeterminate tomatoes, such as these in my community garden
plot, need to be trellised to keep them in line.

Finally, good trellising will keep plants from touching one another so you don't get those back seat arguments that start with "Mommmmmm, he's touching me." Seriously, keeping plants from touching can reduce disease transmission from plant to plant.

Here's a great resources from our own UW-Extension on growing tomatoes in Wisconsin. 

If you're convinced that trellising is a good idea, stay tuned for the next two parts of this series:

• My version of a string trellis and how to build one
• Those crappy tomato cages

If you'd like to learn more about growing veggies in person, check out Madison FarmWorks and their Urban Gardener series of classes. It's one thing to read a blog post, it's another to get into the field, see their best practices in action and most importantly, ask questions.

If you liked this, please subscribe to the blog so you don't miss any of the rest of this tomato series!