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42 Comments
It just dawned on me, the hole on top would fill with rain and would inject water 2-3feet into the soil…. Interesting.
love this Luke The Start of the video has me cracking up
OMG! No!!! What about PVC leaching into the soil and then into your plants? PVC is not food safe – it's highly toxic! It contains dangerous chemical additives including phthalates, lead, cadmium, and/or organotins. To make things even worse, PVC breaks down in sunlight, adding micro plastics to your soil. This is a very bad idea. As gardeners, we should always be very aware of soil contaminants. I'd stick to wood supports!
I made a trellis system with pvc fir part if my garden.but i hug with twine then drilled small holes at each spot..capped of one end then was able to fill the pvc up with water.each hole the string directed the water to each plant..i also did crossover pipes to each row so i could actually just fill at one spot to water the complete garden.all the pipe was free but worked great.
While this might work for some folks who aren't gardening for a healthier lifestyle, I think many might agree that limiting the amount of plastic you bring into your soil is a good goal to have.
Oh Peachy — A trapeze device for the squirrels! 😄 🐿️ 🐿️🐿️
Is there a reason not to use t-posts?
I tryed to add a pic but not sure how.
I loved my " trellis to make you jealous" last year!
Great timing!
I was just investigating how to do this.
When I was in highschool, my Dad and I took a large PVC pipe and drilled holes in the side about six inches or a foot up.
We buried the pipe with the holes toward the tomato plant with the holes under ground.
When we watered, we watered inside the pipe so all the water went to the plants. It worked well.
This was probably a two or three inch pipe. We just tied the tomato to the pipe. We didn't prune them.
Now that I grow tomatoes in buckets, I put pipes in for stakes and water through the pipes. The pipe is in a water reservoir in the bottom of the bucket that wicks into the soil.
Dude! Your making me nervous. 😢Please be careful with that drill on your lap. It’s very dangerous 😮you can slip and drill a hole into yourself. But I think you know that. Thanks for the video 😅
You just gave me a great idea for my chickens
This many views should have a lot more likes. People we need our Luke. Please like those videos.
I’m just going to let mine climb up cattle panel. I have them as an archway for winter squashes so the tomatoes can climb up the other way.
I’d use a larger diameter pipe. 1 or 2 sizes up just to ensure the weight of a heavier tomato plant isnt going to collapse it and make a kink. Now if you do happen to get a kink you could could shove a piece of conduit down the pipe and screw it in place to rigid it up again
I tried using furling straps a few years ago, it was bad. Between the weight of the plants, and our frequent high winds, they were always breaking. Now I use the 8-10 ft long green stakes I can get from tractor supply. Very, very sturdy.
Word of advice, you want schedule 40, not schedule 200. 40 is much thicker and sturdier, 200 is very thin and flimsy.
That said, I made 3 enclosures out of schedule 40 pvc pipe, it is 3 years old now, and it is starting to get rickety. I am tearing it down and replacing it with a manufactured metal chicken enclosure that has the combined measurements of my pvc enclosures. Pvc is fun to work with, and is quite cost effective.
I live in zone nine in northern California so I’m growing potatoes and 5 gallon buckets right now. All my leaves have a little brown spots and that’s just the leaves that are left. Most leaves are eaten away. Can you tell me what’s wrong and what I can do about it?
Not saying it isn't a good idea, but you might want to think about some of your arguments. Like, mice and squirrels can only reach the fruit when it's close to the ground (?)
Like, this method is really cheap – only $9 for the PVC plus the cross pieces – and that's just for ONE tomato plant! Pretty expensive trellising, IMO.
I use a green metal temporary fence post and tie a 8ft furring strip to it so I can tie tomato plants to it with some twine. Works well, sturdy, supports the plats well past the top of the structure. When your season is over easy clean up. Cut it down, jerk the posts out of the ground, run what’s left of the plants through the chipper and back into the garden soil. Easy peasy
Its an interesting trelis method but does pvc contain plastic? Been looking up microplastics lately.
My question is how to pick them when the fruit is at the top of the pipe? I guess since the pipe is so bendy, you would just pull it down towards you to pick?
Two problems I can see. First is the breakdown of the PVC piping (do you want plastic particles in your soil?) Also I'm assuming you will take down the "structure" out of season to preserve it… storage might become an issue. If you were to pull the metal pipes out of the PVC pipes, you'll likely enlarge the hole and the metal pipes won't fit as well next year.
Depending on if you have space, what you might want t is consider is a similar idea with the wooden furring strips and stand it up in a pyramid shape (say 3 of the strips). You get more stability (those knots are really only a weakness if you use a single strip) and you're not putting plastic into the ground. You can use the metal pipes to hang off of still and you just wrap the vine around the pyramid.
Come middle of the season let us know how it's going!
I actually stake my squash and zucchini with wooden stakes. This might work for that, great idea. I use the tomato trellis idea that I got from next level gardening
Nice in concept, but pvc leches some pretty toxic chemicals I don't want in my garden
Neat idea. I'll stick to driving in a cheap metal stake (5-7') and attaching the firring strip to it. Makes it more rigid and helps extend the life of the wood by not inserting that into the ground.
Instead of burying the pvc pipe, I cut a slightly larger inner diameter pvc pipe, approx 2 feet and bury it in the ground, knocking out the inside dirt in order to insert the smaller diameter pvc pole. It works great and makes for easy transition to a second seasonal planting after tomatoes.
Are you going do a YouTube demonstration of placing the PVC in the ground?
You can use rebar or 1/2” or 3/4” EMT(in 5’ sections) as a base anchor
Every benefit you mentioned over the furring strips I use sounds great, but I worry that PVC piping may contain "forever chemicals" that I would not want in my garden soil taken up by tomato plant roots.
Interesting idea, but I think I'd prefer to see your actual experience with it over several years. A few thoughts:
1.As others have pointed out, like a lot of plastics exposed to sunlight PVC gets brittle over the years. (Although someone pointed out Schedule 80 electrical conduit does not have that problem)
2. Many of us don't have pickup trucks, so sticking 10 ft things in our cars isn't that doable without some serious effort. That said, it could be made modular.
3. Do the crossbars really need to be so close together?
4. Will it be hard to drive deep enough in the ground??
5. The OSHA inspector will be around to discuss your "crotch drilling" technique.
I've used long sections of rebar for years. No fuss, no muss. I've been using the same pieces for 25 years.
use the grey sch 80 pvc pipe, in the electrical section of your neighborhood home center. Designed for outdoor use. Will last many more years.
Also, clamp that pipe down before drilling it, or at least put it on the lawn and use a foot to secure it. Please do not drill up in midair like that.
In our climate sadly we found pvc gets brittle in one to two seasons then it breaks really easy. Was a bummer. The heat of the sun I guess just bakes it. In a cooler summer climate it may not get brittle. Maybe do a few to test and see 👍
Dumb.. just buy cattle panel, and T posts. Especially if you want it to last.
Black metal will get hot in the sun.
You've also provided lots of perches for birds.
Bees/wasps will get into the top hole unless you cap it.
Just use an 8ft t post. $8.49 at tractor supply atm.
Hi Luke, I find amazing the way you search to improve, even after all the years of experience you have. You did give food for thoughts Thanks .
Good idea but I grow too many tomato plants for this to make sense. I think it would be great for a small garden but I'll stick with good old T post and a Florida weave with basic tomato twine.
I have tried many types of tomato trellises. But 4 or 5 years ago I found the one I've had the most success with. I have 20 foot rows. I place T-Posts 5 feet apart. I place PVC T's on top of each T post. I then use metal electric conduit pipes (10 foot with a connector) and run it through the PVC T's on top of the T-Posts. To trellis the tomatoes, I tie a string around the metal conduit above the tomato plant and use tomato clips to attach the plant. There is an initial investment, but most of it is metal. I expect the PVC T's will eventually crack in the sun, but it hasn't happened yet. I've already gotten 4-5 year and I expect I will get many more years out of it.