trellising
Jay
Thinking some sort of greenary might be in order.
Some sort of vine? If so which is best? passionfruit, grape, other?
How on Earth do you attach it?
~misfit~
> On Wed, 1 Oct 2008 02:28:59 -0700 (PDT),when reading "nz.rec", I'm
> certain I caught a glimpse of "Jay <Jaze...@gmail.com>" saying:
>
>> Just got some to put up at the end of the new deck.
>> Thinking some sort of greenary might be in order.
>> Some sort of vine? If so which is best? passionfruit, grape, other?
>
> fruits are wonderful. But it depends on how much sunshine your new
> vine will receive and the height and width of your trellis.
I have to agree with the passionfruit thing. It does like full sun though
but will make do with slightly less if need be.
Grapes are hard work for little reward. They're deciduous, dropping lots of
leaves and birds / wasps / ants will usually beat you to the fruit. Also the
pruning of grape vines is quite a science, if you get it wrong you'll get no
fruit.
>> How on Earth do you attach it?
>
> Attach it to a stake high enough to reach your trellis. Use something
> like cotton or string that will rot away instead of strangling your
> plant as it develops.
I use a stretchy stocking-like material that I bought from Mitre 10. It's
soft and won't hurt the stem and you remove it when it's no longer needed (I
use it for tomatoes too).
> After it reaches your trellis and starts climbing just pull through or
> push the climbers back into the trellis.
It's tendrils are amazing and will grip for itself once it gets to the
trellis. Passionfruit vines are evergreen and are gross-feeders. They like
lots of organic material in the soil you're planting into and a
side-dressing of high nitrogen, preferably organic fertiliser in spring when
they start their growth phase and a fert with some potassium as well as
nitrogen in mid / late summer as they're flowering / setting fruit.
When establishing just remove all lateral growth until it reaches the bottom
/ middle of the trellis, then pinch the top out and it'll spread. Feel free
to guide it to where you want it to go.
One thing a lot of folks don't realise about passionfruit is that they bear
fruit only on new wood, the current season's growth. Therefore, each year,
in early spring, cut the vine canopy back by between half and a third
depending on how well you intend to feed it (it's great time to shape and
direct it too). That way it'll produce a decent amount of new growth without
overextending itself, bearing lots of fruit. Most people just plant them and
leave them to their own devices and wonder why the fruit volume decreases
year by year and the vines get straggly. You got to cut them back early each
spring to get fruit, it's simple and only needs doing once a year.
Luck,
--
Shaun.
DISCLAIMER: If you find a posting or message from me
offensive, inappropriate, or disruptive, please ignore it.
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bugalugs
They also need a lot of water when they are fruiting otherwise they will
abort some of the fruit. While I had a lot of fruit last yeay I lost
about 15%. They never ripened just turned grey and dropped on the ground
~misfit~
> will abort some of the fruit. While I had a lot of fruit last yeay I
> lost about 15%. They never ripened just turned grey and dropped on
> the ground
Good info, thanks. I'm growing them for the first time (other than a
neglected vine at a flay I once shared) so must remember that. One fruit
type I was reading about (forget which) said to not water plentifully while
setting fruit for maximum flavour. I'm glad I didn't mix that up. :-)
Cheers,
~misfit~
[about passionfruit]
> They also need a lot of water when they are fruiting otherwise they
> will abort some of the fruit. While I had a lot of fruit last yeay I
> lost about 15%. They never ripened just turned grey and dropped on
> the ground
I've been having problems with my three 40cm plants. The centres were
getting eaten out overnight. My first step was to sprinkle circles of slug
and snail bait around them and do nocturnal checks / stomps. That worked
quite well and instead of getting shorter they stayed the same height for a
while.
However, as tended new growth appeared I noticed that it was still getting
eaten. <grrr!> On resuming the nocturnal checks I discovered earwigs eating
the new growth! This was new to me, I'd always assumed they were detritus
feeders rather than grazers. As they're considerably faster than snails
nocturnal checks aren't getting them all and snail bait doesn't interest
them. Has anyone got experience with earwigs eating their plants and control
of the little blighters? The plants are struggling to come back from the
snail damage but are being nipped in the bud by the earwigs. With one plant
I think I'm going to have to let a lateral shoot grow and train that as the
main shoot as it's been seriously abbreviated.
TIA,