Check out my new 10 foot tall bean trellis! I’m so proud of the way it turned out I have dubbed it the Super Sturdy Pole Bean Trellis! This trellis is perfect for beans, peas, cucumbers, melons, squash and any other vining vegetable you might want to grow! It would even make an awesome tomato support!
Instructions to make your own trellis follow a bit of background:
The Super Sturdy Pole Bean Trellis came about because the original Not-So-Sturdy Trellis had come up a little short. Quite literally. Which shouldn’t surprise anyone who has been reading this blog because it should be apparent by now that I have absolutely NO idea what I’m doing!
Anyways, my first attempt at a pole bean trellis was to drive 2 posts into the ground and stretch some trellis netting between them. That worked fine for a few weeks, but pretty quickly the beans outgrew the 5 foot height of the netting and started twisting around each other and dangling in space. It was ugly (shudders)…
So I went to Lowe’s and spent a nice couple hours wandering around as if I knew what I was looking for (a skill that I’ve honed to perfection over the past 41 years). The plumbing department had a lot of neat types of pipe and tubing, but everything seemed to be too flimsy or too big for what I needed. So I wandered down aisle after aisle until I hit the jackpot!
Conduit!
Yep — electrical conduit seemed to be the answer. It was cheap, rigid and precut. A guy working in that department tried to talk me OUT of using it, but now that I have it all set up I’m glad I ignored him and went with my gut.
Instructions to make your own ToA 2.0:
1/2 Inch EMT Inside Corner Elbow
Purchase the following:
- Qty. 3 x 10 foot 1/2″ EMT Electrical Conduit (Approx $2.89 each)
- Qty. 2 x 1/2″ EMT Inside Corner Elbow (About $4.38 each — pictured nearby)
- Qty 2 x 5′ Light Duty Steel Fence Post (also known as a U-post, Approx. $2.47 each)
- Qty 1 x Nylon Trellis Netting (Purchase from box on upper right side of this page!)
- Qty 50 x 8″ Cable Ties (also called Zip Ties)
In addition to the above items you will need a sledge hammer, screwdriver, hacksaw, Sharpie and some scissors or wire cutters.
Drive the fence posts into the ground about 1 foot deep where you want the trellis to be placed. Try to keep them as vertical as possible. How far apart you place the posts determines how wide your trellis will be, so think about it a little before you do it — ie. don’t place them any wider than 10 feet apart!
Closeup of how the conduit pole fits into the u-shaped channel of the U-post
The fence posts have a U-shaped channel running the length of them — hence the name U-post! Your vertical conduit poles will fit into this U-shaped channel quite nicely as pictured nearby. This is the KEY to the structural rigidity of this particular trellis — with 4 feet of fence post attached to the conduit poles it will probably take a hurricane to tip this over! (Update: We experienced hurricane-force 75 MPH+ winds in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike last year and the trellis did not move one inch!)
Before you attach the conduit poles to the U-post you should assemble the conduit frame and attach the trellis netting first. This eliminates the need to do all that assembly from the top of a ladder later!
Screw one of the elbows onto the end of one of the conduit pieces. Place the conduit piece across the 2 fence posts, taking care to align the empty part of the elbow with the u-channel. Align the other elbow with the u-channel of the opposite fence post and make a mark where you need to cut the conduit. It sounds strange to read, but when you get the pieces up there you will understand. Basically you need to cut the conduit crosspiece so when the vertical conduit poles are attached they will fit into the u-channels of the fence posts without anything getting bent. Just take your time and it will be easy — I was able to get a perfect fit the first time!
Use the hacksaw to cut the crosspiece at the mark you made (please use eye protection). Attach the remaining elbow on the crosspiece than go ahead and attach the 2 long conduit poles to the elbows. At this point you should have a giant U shape.
You are almost done! Attach the trellis netting to the conduit frame by either tying it in place or using the zip ties. You want the netting to be taught, but not so tight it bends the conduit. You will be cutting the net at this point — and that is OK. You will also probably need to attach the netting in 2 sections to get full coverage.
At this point you should have a trellis that is completely covered by taught netting from side-to-side and top-to-bottom. The trellis will be holding a lot of weight, so a little care now will prevent sagging and other issues later.
Pole Bean runner growing up the Super Sturdy Pole Bean Trellis
Now get a friend and carry the trellis into the garden and set the conduit poles into the u-shaped channel of the fence posts. Attach it using zip ties (wire or any other type of clamp could work too). And there you have it — your very own Super Sturdy Pole Bean Trellis!!!
Obviously there are many ways you could vary and customize this to suit your own needs. Pole beans just need vertical support so you could suspend strings from the top of the trellis instead of using netting. For cucumbers you could drive the fence posts in at an angle to make picking a little easier. The trellis netting is extremely strong, so you can pretty much grow anything without fear of breaking it.
As always, I’d be interested in seeing photos of YOUR Super Sturdy Pole Bean Trellis installation and would also love to hear your stories about how it is working and how you have customized it.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Totally excellent post about a truly awesome trellis, Brian! What a brilliant idea to use U-posts to provide support as well as anchoring. Thanks for sharing this with us for the Design Workshop at Gardening Gone Wild. We hope to see you there again!
@ Nan — Thanks so much for stopping by and taking a look! I’m looking forward to seeing what other ideas your readers come up with.
Wow, that really is an awesome trellis. It makes me want to dig up some more lawn and get a ‘proper’ veggie garden in! Thanks for sharing and for visiting my blog.
You have quite the set up here. I like the simple yet sturdy trellis. I have used fence posts at the base of a trellis that is supposed to be mounted on a wall. It hasn’t come down in 5 years so I am sure your trellis will hold up remarkably.
@ Jean — Thank you for stopping by. If you don’t want to dig up more lawn you could try growing some veggies in containers.
@ Lisa — Appreciate the info. So far it held up in some very high winds that knocked over the tomato supports. I worry about lightning a little, though. Thank you for taking the time to visit.
I am gearing up to take on my first garden project… started with no idea what to do, but I’ve been reading a lot.
These instructions are AWESOME. I am going to Lowe’s with your shopping list in hand this afternoon… I have a big basement, I think I can assemble most of it while snow still lays on the ground and there’s nothing else I can do!
Brian. Excellent idea. I too have been growing beans, Got some vineing orka to try this year. I never heard of it, so began a search on anything else i’m not aware of that vines on a fence. Your idea is just another one of those things about conduit i had not thought about, other then using it for a way of supporting a shade cloth. Much needed here as it really gets hot for my pickling cucumbers. Had over 2,000 plants on a LONG fence. After that harvest my friends did not want to see another cucumber. This all started 6 years ago to use cucumbers as a trading crop at local stands that sell veggies i was not growing, like those baby watermellons. Gave so many way and that was fun to give. My garden is very clay in soil. Gave up on growing tomotoes as last year we had so much rain, that i lost over 100 tomato plant because it just would not drain. The other 70 or so did fairly well. I do this all myself. Usually those who come by to help is mainly harvest time, and then it’s just pick and run. LOL. I use a bowered gas auger to drill my holes and replace that goop with composted/soil. But last year did alot of 5 gallon nursery pots. 40 something of them in just bell peppers, another plant i could not grow in this aweful soil, leaves dropped, no fruit, what a wasted 2007 year for peppers, so last year put them in pots and WOW did i have a harvest. So looking for 10 gallon pots for tomatoes. 5 gallon is not enough room for Celeberty – my favorite. Anyway, i just grow to give away to about 15 familys and they cann. I live on 140 acres, my boss is now building me a 22×44 greenhouse, so guess he wants me busy. My boss even pays me to do a huge garden, so other then all the work it’s worth it, and it’s good excerse too. Glad i found you website. Very well written too. Thought i’d leave you with a nice link to get pots cheaper. http://www.growerssolution.com/page/GS/CTGY/Containers
Kevin King
Hot Springs, AR
@ JMe — So glad the instructions were useful to you. When you get the trellis up in the garden please drop back in and let us know how the build went.
Reading about gardening is very useful especially during those long winter months. Nothing beats going out and getting your hands dirty though. Gardening turned out for us to be a lot easier than the books and magazines made it sound.
@ Kevin King — Thank you for stopping by. Glad you like the website.
For our smallish garden the trellis works well. The nylon netting is extremely strong and has lasted over winter in perfect shape. This year we are trying peas for the first time and we’ll see how the trellis “holds up” so to speak.
For cucumbers we tied the netting to the top of the garden fence and angled it to the front of the bed and staked it. Basically it was like a net lean-to. Worked out well — plenty of shade for the cukes and so easy to harvest.
I feel like the luckiest person on earth to find your website. I have started to construct your ToA v2.0 and will be placing in in front of my kitchen window. So far it has been very easy, I am making my own netting because no stores in town carry it. Little clothesline and some Gorilla glue seem to be working well. Wanted to say thank you for sharing!
@ TraC — So glad you found the instructions helpful. Once you get it all set up if you could send a photo to photos@meadowwoodgarden.com we would love to see what you did and possibly post it so others can see too! Please keep in touch.
Fabulous! Thank you for sharing this technique!
Got here from Small Homestead.
This made me think that an even more frugal version would be to use an old bedframe – the old spring kind from before there were innerspring mattresses. Fortunately, living in a rural area, I can still find these. Or a crib mattress spring would also work?
Last year I used some crib sides for my trellises… nailed them to my raised beds and the beans and even butternut squash were very happy on them
Luckily, I have access to junk here
Nice looking trellis!
@ Violet — You are quite welcome. Good luck building your own!
@ marci — Junk is good! Super idea and the price is right too! Thank you for visiting.
I am looking for running orka seeds
Perhaps a reader will be able to point you in the right direction! How about it — anyone know where to source these?
I have never heard of running okra, but I have heard of climbing okra which is really loofah. Is that what you are referring to? If so, I have a source.
Excellent! I’ve been looking at making trellis out of EMT conduit and was looking for just a bit more info before I took the plunge. Your site was just what I was looking for!
One question – how do you harvest 10′ high pole beans? Ladder? My wife doesn’t want it over 6′, so the neighbors don’t see it from their house. My garden is inside a 6′ high PVC fence.
I haven’t been able to find those nice corner elbows, though. The Lowe’s around here only have the pull-through corners with the removable cap. A lot more expensive for functionality I don’t need. I’ll have to keep looking for those.
Happy the article helped you out! The pole beans have never gotten to 10 feet yet — they usually stop at about 7-8 feet and are easily picked without a ladder. If they ever grow any higher then yes, a ladder would be in order I think!
Last year I used it for peas instead of pole beans — even easier to pick…
Thanks for stopping by!
Very nice looking trellis! I’m doing mine in a similar way, except i could not find the U posts, so i used a 3ft length of 1/2″ rebar instead. I bought the rebar half way into the ground, then slide the conduit right over it and it fits nice and snug. Then I use galvanized pipe straps ($2 each) to fasten the conduit pipes to the side of my 24 inch beds to give them even more stability. For anyone who can’t find the U posts, this is definitely another option which leads to an extremely stable 8-10ft trellis.
Another good option — thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the idea! Set one up this spring – beans are growing great and I thank you so much for posting this.
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