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kellynola_gw

Using Vegetable Ladders

kellynola
15 years ago

This is my first year with a garden and though I followed Mel's book for the most part, I bought some tomato and vegetable ladders from Gardener's Supply instead of building a trellis. Has anyone else used these in their SFG with success? Any tips?

Thanks!

Comments (8)

  • dutchess_9
    15 years ago

    What is a vegetable ladder??? Do you have a picture?

    Here is a link that might be useful: How my garden grows!

  • eaglesgarden
    15 years ago

    I believe granny actually used some real ladders in her garden for cucumbers. I could be mistaken though! ;-)

  • anniesgranny
    15 years ago

    I haven't used the (real) ladder yet, but plan on putting it in the squash bed and sticking a bird house on top of it. I originally planned on three ladders of different colors, one for each hill of squash, but decided that would be a bit much for the small space, so I'm using one unpainted one...it will match the half-barrels in the garden. If that works well, next year I can add another one or two.

    Granny

    Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

  • riley17
    15 years ago

    I have an old rickety wooden ladder in my garden for my pickling cucumbers. I tied twine to the nails that stick out on top and buried them under some rocks straight down the sides of the ladder. It seems to work pretty well, and then in the cooler shady area underneath once your vines get going you can plant some lettuce or spinach. : )

  • greenbean08_gw
    15 years ago

    I picked up an old stepladder for free on Craigslist a couple weeks ago that I'm going to use for spaghetti squash or pumpkins, not sure yet.

    I think the ladders the OP is referring to are not anything like a real ladder. They look pretty neat, but a bit spendy for my taste (but yay, support my home state :-) I think my friend's stepfather works at GS these days).

    Here is a link that might be useful: Gardeners Supply search page

  • kristint
    15 years ago

    Clearly, no one knows what you're referring to, but I do! I'm about to order a set of tomato ladders from Gardener's Supply, and plan to use them in a SFG. Sorry I can't tell you how they work yet. It's my first real attempt at SFG, and I'm a bit skeptical that a tomato plant can be kept to 1' diameter, without a lot of pruning, but we'll see. I'm going to build a trellis for zucchini and cucumbers. Good luck!

  • anniesgranny
    15 years ago

    Oh, I knew what she was referring to, but I don't know why they call them ladders. Actually a piece of concrete reinforcement wire bent into a U shape would be as effective and much less expensive. At around $10 apiece those "ladders" would run a good $250 or more for the tomatoes I'm planting.

    Granny

    Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

  • kellynola
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    There's a link below to the the tomato ladders.

    The vegetable ladders are a bit shorter. I'm trying them on cantaloupes, peppers, eggplant, and zucchini. I'll have to post some pics when the plants are bigger and report on the success (or failure) of my venture.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Ladders

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