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OK. Do the tomatoes automatically climb the net, or do you have to train them and/or tie them to the net?
FYI, I have only used wire tomato cages in the past. I am open to new methods of growing tomatoes, especially if they are less work and have good results. Last year my cherry tomato plants got over 6 feet tall. My wire cages were maybe 3 feet tall. The plants flopped over due to the weight of the fruit, but the plants continued to produce. This year, I need more support for the plants if they grow that tall again.
As far as building a wooden trellis system, yes, I agree, that would be some work. The more I think about it, the more complicated my design in my mind becomes. That's not the direction I want to go. I prefer simple things that work, and I have not figured that out with a wood trellis system for tomatoes.
Also, I am trying to figure out a system that uses free pallet wood, which I have a lot, instead of having to purchase other materials like wire cages or wire fencing to build cages.
Thinking about making a full 4X4 foot bed 9-section tomato trellis system out of pallet wood. Last year I used some wire tomato cages, but they were too short and not strong enough once my tomato plants got over 4 foot tall.
Turns out, ripping 4-foot-long 1/4-inch lath boards/strips from 2X4 lumber is not as easy as I thought it would be. On the table saw, you run into a problem with getting your fingers too close to the blade when ripping the boards. I don't know about you, but my fingers are very valuable to me. So, I would have to make a jig(s) to make it safer. Over the past few evenings, I have watched all kinds of YouTube videos on ripping thin strips using either a table saw or a circular saw. Unfortunately, almost all of them are ripping short 2-foot-long boards whereas I need to rip a 4-foot-long 2X4 pallet wood stretcher.
Anyways, I am kind of stuck on the overall design idea. I am dealing with what I think I want if I had unlimited skills compared to what I think I can actually do. Well, I want to do the project safely and ripping 1/4-inch lath boards is trickier than I thought. If anyone has a good idea on ripping 4-foot-long 1/4-inch lath strips from a 2X4, please let me know. In the meantime, I'm still considering my options and tossing ideas around in my head. Later...
) and our tomato cages just didnt cut it, even with modifications. So we were looking at a couple of options at what we could built that might be better, one being a wood trellis like what you're looking at doing, the other being some wire grid walls to go down the length of the tomato rows. Even looked at modifying some old bed frames we have hangin out and doing a combination. That's my next project once I get the new coop and run built for the pullets.
Thanks for those pictures. Love seeing what other people do with pallets. I get my inspiration from others and sharing projects and pictures gives me new ideas on possibilities.
Well, I should qualify that when I grew determinant tomatoes in my poor lakeside in-ground soil, I was lucky if the plants ever got 2 feet high and had very much fruit. But now I am making raised beds out of pallet wood, filling them with hügelkultur wood in the bottom, and topping them off with a high-quality topsoil and chicken run compost mixed 1:1. My determinant tomatoes last year got about 4 feet high and had lots of heavy fruit on them. They needed a support cage to keep them from falling over. But, even my wire tomato cages were not heavy enough last year, which is why I have looking into building new cages out of wood for this year.
