String Nonet

[Don_Coyote]

We have a sunken patio that i am trying to grow a hop roof over. Previously i had grown some Cascade up the side of a house just running whatever natural twine up to the eaves and even in the second season when the Cascade grew past the eaves and sprawled about full of cones, the twine held until i cut it down that fall.

With the new arrangement i am running sissal twine about 35 feet, a bit more horizontal than vertically. The twine has become saggy after every rain, but i have all 9 lines tied with taut-line hitches and cinch them up every week or so. The first year cascades have made it about 5 feet along the twines (after growing a few feet up the support stakes) and yesterday in some heavy rain three of the lines snapped in the middle.

Searching around forums and google i'm not finding much that looks a little stronger than twine, but not as big as rope (wanting the trellis itself to have limited visibility). Would baling twine likely be able to support the load and last a year or two? Coir yarn wouldn't look too bad, but how durable is it given time and weather? Is it easily available in longer bunches? The places i am finding it all have it precut to 21 or 25 feet.

 

[day_trippr]

I'm on my third season using the same coir cord with not even a hint of deterioration so far. My plants made it to the suspension line (~22' from their roots) a couple of weeks ago and have since exploded with side-arms followed by burrs. By harvest those drops are holding up quite a bit of weight.

But they are drops - pretty much vertical. And they do stretch when soaked but shrink back again when dry.

So coir is durable enough, but I don't know how well it'd work to create an arbor effect unless you provided for the sag in advance by mounting the end points high enough to cover the span...

Cheers!