What do you think of my trellis design?

I put this together with SketchUp, which turned out to be easier to use than I expected. Once I got the hang of it, it was a lot of fun to play around with.



The spacing is different on the two sides on purpose. The far side will be two plants of the same variety. The near side will be split between two varieties. Variety A will be the left of the near side and the left end. Variety B will be the right of the near side and the right end. So, there is enough space for 2 plants each of 3 varieties.

I'll use a 16' 4"x4" post, sunk 3' in the ground. Then a 10' 4"x4" across the top and the angle braces will be 4"x4" as well.

I was going for the simplest structure to support the most plants. Sinking one post in the ground and using a bunch of eyebolts seemed easier and cheaper than doing two posts with a cable strung between them.

So, what do you think?

Looks Ok, maybe use large nails driven in to the top of your horizontal 4x4, then you can just toss your string right over the top and fasten to the ground and not worry about eye bolts.

Nice design, but not high enough for the plants... they will all entangle at the top and you will not know which one is which. It's ok if you don't care and throw them all in the same beer batch.

Well, I figured they'd grow together a bit at the top. My plan is just to separate them the best I can when harvest time comes.

I'm hoping to get at least one early maturing variety, so I can maybe get a couple plants harvested and out of the way before the others get that far along. They'll probably still grow together a little bit.

If I could find a longer post to make it taller, I'd totally go for it. I'm just not sure where to find something like that.

Harvesting over 14' tall is going to be hard enough anyway....unless you own a bucket truck.. Only issue I really see is if you lean a extension ladder on the cross member it may want to twist the thing,,,,might be better with two posts.

You will definitely have things tangling on each side but you could probably keep the two halves separated. If you went with two varieties, it should be no problem. Otherwise, just plan on not knowing exactly what hops you are using.

signpost said:

Well, I figured they'd grow together a bit at the top. My plan is just to separate them the best I can when harvest time comes.

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If they're the same variety, it does t really matter if they tangle at the top.

I have a hell of a time trying to untangle my cascade from zeus. They're both super vigorous and like to hug. It's a HUGE pain to do this. Glad I only do it once a year!

Maybe you can make it a telescoping pole, different size pvc pipes with locks at different heights. Then you can lower it to the 14 foot mark (or lower for harvest ) and still get full height. I like the design and I think you have a lot of growth potential on the trellis from multiple plants. Mine usually end up measuring between 20 and 30 feet.

That' similar to my first setup however I didn't have the cross beam and as others have said they all tangle up at the top. For what it's worth I took my single pole set up down and replaced with 2 poles and a marine-grade rope between them. All together it was less than $50 and I used pressure treated posts. If you have the space you might consider just ging straight to the 2 pole setup.

Man, I can't find 16' posts anywhere. I can only find that length in a 4"x6" for almost twice the price of what a 4"x4" should be.

But I might have to go that way.

I'm checking my last option this afternoon. There is a Menard's that might have them according to their website.

Same here, I hit home Depot the other day to get some wood for boxes and stuff for the trellis and the 2x8's were splitting, crappy looking and the 4x4/6's were only 10 ft long. Leaving me with 7 ft workable. I'd rather have a solid post instead of bracing two together. I have to hit lowes yet and see what they have. I am going to just get the boxes of 2ft x2ftx 16-18in to put around the hops when I plant them. I just put the rhizomes in pots yesterday to get them started. Still debating on a trellis design.

Finally found them! Menard's has them. So, now I will go back on Saturday with my friend who has a truck. Then we'll go build the trellis and get the plants in the ground.

BrandonMH said:

Same here, I hit home Depot the other day to get some wood for boxes and stuff for the trellis and the 2x8's were splitting, crappy looking and the 4x4/6's were only 10 ft long. Leaving me with 7 ft workable. I'd rather have a solid post instead of bracing two together. I have to hit lowes yet and see what they have. I am going to just get the boxes of 2ft x2ftx 16-18in to put around the hops when I plant them. I just put the rhizomes in pots yesterday to get them started. Still debating on a trellis design.

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Maybe check with a local lumberyard?

I checked all of the lumberyards around me and none of them have 16' posts, unless I wanted to go for 4" x 6" which of course costs more than a 4" x 4" would cost. I knew Home Depot didn't have them either, even though everybody I know told me they were sure HD would have them.

I just happened to look on the Menard's website, even though I was sure I'd strike out again. BUT, the website said they had them in stock! I called to ask somebody to be sure, and the person I talked to said, "No. We don't have any."

Great.

But I was getting desperate, so I decided to go and check in person. And they have them!

So, I'll go back on Saturday when my friend can bring his truck and we're going to build this sucker.

Nice, grats on finding some. HD's wood seemed a little thin, they may be getting a shipment in soon. Although I did not see a spot for them there. I guess I could drill and tap a threaded rod and attach the two 10ft pieces and use braces screwed into each. I will keep looking around. Also, the local lumber yards closed up years ago, as far as I know.

In the past, I have spliced together 8' long 2x4's to make 16' to 20' long 4x4's. Obviously, you have to stagger the joints. so you start by cutting 1 8' in half and splicing it to the bottom of another 8'. Then splice a second 8' to the upper half of the first. Continue until you get to your desired height.

Some advice I learned the hard way...use decking screws not wood screws or nails. They latter rust and/or pull out. Use 2 more screws than you think you need. What the heck, slap a little construction adhesive in there for furn. At the joints, take another piece of 2x4 scrap (1' long) and put that over the joint for a little extra support, at least the bottom one.

Thanks for the info. I am going to keep looking but keeping that idea on the back burner.

With the help of a good friend that has a truck, I finally was able to go pick up the lumber for this build. Then we went ahead and put it together. Here are some pics of the build and some close ups of my plants that have been in the ground for a week.

Here is the spot with plants in the ground, but nowhere for them to climb:


Then we got it assembled and in the ground (yeah, that's me):


Then we straightened it out and anchored it to the ground while the concrete sets:


Here is another angle, showing the community garden (prepping to start planting stuff in a couple weeks) in the background:


And here are the plants just poking through the rice hulls and hay, all from Great Lakes Hops. They were awesome to order from, btw.

Plant #1 - AlphAroma:


Plant #2 - AlphAroma:


Plant #3 - Canterbury Golding (supposed to be good for shorter trellis designs):


Plant #4 - Canterbury Golding (supposed to be good for shorter trellis designs):


Plant #5 - Cluster (early maturing):


Plant #6 - Cluster (early maturing):


I'm so psyched to watch these things grow. I'll get some twine strung up sometime in the next week. My 3-year-old daughter was ready to head out to dinner before I was able to get that part finished up. No big deal, though. The biggest of the plants aren't more than a few inches anyway, so I have time to get the twine up before it's really needed.

BTW, that thing was heavy as hell once it was assembled. Luckily, we only dropped it once as we were trying to stand it up. Nobody was hurt (my daughter was nowhere close as we did that step), and we succeeded easily on our 2nd attempt. It got a little twisted as we were adding the concrete, but we got it straightened out enough that it looks nice and matches the layout of the plants that were already in the ground.

One other thought. I did make sure to set it up to be ready for expansion/spreading out the plants, if I feel the need to do that in the coming years. I figure, at some point, I can build another identical set up and string some cables of some sort between the ends of the two T's. Then, I can either do a single row of plants down the center with bines going either direction to the cables (similar to setups I've seen in pics of commercial farms - although not as tall, obviously). Or, I can do two rows of plants, directly under each cable. Either of those setups could potentially help avoid plants of different varieties from getting tangled at the top.

Anyway, ... :rockin:

More hop growth (at least a little bit) and I got the twine strung up. Here are the pics to make this thread take longer to load:

AlphAroma #1:


AlphAroma #2:


Canterbury Goldings #1:


Canterbury Goldings #2:


Cluster #1:


Cluster #2:


Trellis with twine:




I'll try and lay off on the pics at this point. I really wanted to get a couple with the twine strung up, but figured while I was at it, I'd update the plant growth as well.

I think I am going to go with this same design. Does anyone think if I went less than 3 ft deep and concrete it in, it will be ok? I will only have three plants on it max, two right now. Perhaps six in the future but maybe not.

I was tempted to go shallower, but I'm glad I went the full 3 feet deep. Once we stood it up and dropped it in the hole, we weren't worried it was going to fall over at all while we prepped the concrete. I'm not sure it would've been as stable if I had dug the hole shallower.

That's kinda what I figured. Although my cucumber trellis I built last year, I think I went 3 ft with one post, the 3rd one was not fully 3 ft, and it doesn't take tons of weight and still standing, we have had some pretty strong wind storms lately too. I think I have that family tendency to overburdened things. Like the boxes for the hops...I doubt they will not fall apart.