Main line for hop trellis?

Ok, so I have 3 poles along the top of our back yard (which is a hill). I'm stringing line accross the poles, then two lines to each plant from the main line.

Trying to figure out what to use for the main line. Not sure what will take the weight. Trying to do this on the cheap. I've spent enough as it is. I have 15 Rhizomes.

I might use that thin aircaft cable but without buying a come along pully, I don't know how I'm going to get the line tight enough.

I bought 25 feet of 1/8" galvanized cable, 11 cable clips, 7 rings, and 2 eye hooks for around $45. The cable was 0.80 a foot and the clips were like 0.70 each. If you are going to tie your drop lines to the cable directly then you would only need the eyebolt, 4 clips, and 2 eye hooks.

I had a couple questions on this subject.
So it's okay to attach the twine to the cable without worrying about it slipping or otherwise moving on the cable?
Also, what about the tension of the twine? I've seen some suggest the twine be relatively taut, while others pretty much just let it hang. Does it matter either way?

Thanks!

You can tie them directly to the main line if you are comfortable with your knots.

I used rings on mine and brought the line down to the post where it gets tied off, this way I can raise and lower the bine during harvest.

I would recomend drawing anchoring the drop lines at both ends and have them relativley taught. When the wind blows it is going to push on them and I imagine it will pull on the root system since that is the only place they are anchored on the bottom.

Denny's Evil Concoctions said:

I might use that thin aircaft cable but without buying a come along pully, I don't know how I'm going to get the line tight enough.

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I use 3/32 cable for the backbone of my trellis with the type of cable crimp that you smash with a hammer, I forget what they are called. I got the 3/32 cable for $.32/foot at ace hardware. As for the come-along, that is what they make turnbuckles for.
-ander

I used two strand twisted wire. Similar to barbed wire without the barbs. Wire rope (cable) is to expensive for my budget. Wire takes the tension fine and is heavy enough for livestock. Hops will not be a problem.

Yeah, ok, should have though of turnbuckles (smacks forehead with palm of hand).

Can you not just use rope? Or heavy twine, then cut it down each year? Im a first time planter and mine are just now breaking the ground, was hoping to use heavy rope.

Taipans said:

Can you not just use rope? Or heavy twine, then cut it down each year? Im a first time planter and mine are just now breaking the ground, was hoping to use heavy rope.

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Wire for the suspension line. Mostly anything else will
stretch, and sag within a few weeks....no matter how taught....especially
when the real weight shows up late summer:rockin:

I had a brilliant idea this afternoon while planning out my trellis. I was going to use aircraft cable and thimbles and rings (etc) to get places to tie the twine onto, but then realized that chain is already perfect for this. I picked up a 50' box of chain for $15; it says it's rated for 90# of weight. It's pretty light stuff (not the lightest they had) but it should be enough for my 3 hills.

I'm a tiny bit worried that the bines may get to the top of the twine and start running along the chain, and then get clipped if the chain flexes in the wind. However, the chain is going to be 17'+ up so I can afford to lose the last few inches

In the same area of the store they had plastic-coated guy wire, so I grabbed 50' of that. I ran it through eye hooks and cinched it onto the chain; when I get the poles up all the way I'll position eye hooks on the pipes to keep the tension on.

I used 1/8" aircraft cable with a 340lbs. load, and S-hooks for my twine lines

karbinator said:

Wire for the suspension line. Mostly anything else will
stretch, and sag within a few weeks....no matter how taught....especially
when the real weight shows up late summer:rockin:

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Thats a good point, I guess that doesn't matter much to the guys that are training straight up.

I will share my trellis info with you all, might help, I planted 2, 20 foot 4 inch pipe, 32 inches in the ground, used sackcrete around the pipe, tamped it in real tight while keeping the pipe plumb, welded a 3/8 inch flat plate on top, welded a 1/4 inch by 2 inch suare washer to the very outside edge on top of the plate, used telephone guidewire as main line, turnbuckle on one end, bought 2 of the mobile home anchors that screw into the ground ( 6 bucks each from mobile home parts place) used the same guidewire to hook into the washer at top on both pipes, used 1 turnbuckle on each of thes and pulled tight, this trellis will hold all the weight your hops will ever put on the main line, my roe is 50 feet long with 12 rhizomes, 2 each of thesame rhizome, 3 feet apart, and 6 feet on different varieties, hope this helps.I just tosswed bailing twine over the main line, drove a 1inch piece of angle iron in the ground at the hole of the rhizome and did the same about 4 feet away from the row to tie the other end to, welde a 1/2 inch washer to each angle to tie the twine off tight, it will not slide down the main line.

jagg said:

I will share my trellis info with you all, might help, I planted 2, 20 foot 4 inch pipe, 32 inches in the ground, used sackcrete around the pipe, tamped it in real tight while keeping the pipe plumb, welded a 3/8 inch flat plate on top, welded a 1/4 inch by 2 inch suare washer to the very outside edge on top of the plate, used telephone guidewire as main line, turnbuckle on one end, bought 2 of the mobile home anchors that screw into the ground ( 6 bucks each from mobile home parts place) used the same guidewire to hook into the washer at top on both pipes, used 1 turnbuckle on each of thes and pulled tight, this trellis will hold all the weight your hops will ever put on the main line, my roe is 50 feet long with 12 rhizomes, 2 each of thesame rhizome, 3 feet apart, and 6 feet on different varieties, hope this helps.I just tosswed bailing twine over the main line, drove a 1inch piece of angle iron in the ground at the hole of the rhizome and did the same about 4 feet away from the row to tie the other end to, welde a 1/2 inch washer to each angle to tie the twine off tight, it will not slide down the main line.

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that sir is what we call overkill....very nicely executed

Thank you, it was a lot of work, but it should last at least my lifetime

jagg said:

Thank you, it was a lot of work, but it should last at least my lifetime

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that's the point....the last part of IMHO of overkill is doing the guy wires for the 4x4's

Overall I'm satisfied, and my babies are loving it

I had to throw together a cheap trellis this year due to budget constraints. I'll build a better one next year.

I used two 10' fence rails (used to run along the top of a chain link fence) at $10 each. I used cheap poly rope for the main line (only 3 plants this year) $3. Did not plant the posts but instead set them on treated that I buried slightly, had that laying around. Then I set up the poles and had two guy wires (ropes) coming down, one went about 8' back and to the right and attached to the fence (at a corner post) and the other went 8' or so back and to the left and tied to a PVC pipe cut to use as a stake (Until I can get the twist in stakes, which I plan to get in the next week or so and swap out). I did the same on the other side.

I then threw some jute twine over the rope (no rings) and staked down both ends, letting the twine be a bit loose.

Overall the project probably cost me $30 to do, maybe $40 if you had to buy everything. Cheap and it works, ugly as sin though (used a yellow rope...) It will get updated, but just shows you can make a 50' long trellis for fairly cheap. It seems fairly secure, only 10' tall but they are only first year plants. Also will be throwing some more twine over it to run sugar snap peas up.

I can create my own thread and post pics if others are interested.

I wonder if I should've used guy wires. I can't believe how flexible 4x4s can be. Well, next year, when I have to extend the trellis, I figure I'll be using galvanized pipe rather than the cable.

ChrisS68 said:

I wonder if I should've used guy wires. I can't believe how flexible 4x4s can be. Well, next year, when I have to extend the trellis, I figure I'll be using galvanized pipe rather than the cable.

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As soon as it cools down tonight, SWMBO and I are doing the guy wires for our 15' tall 4x4 trelis....we'll see how it goes