That picture was taken when I first started using this system and is only to show how the pegs are attached to the top rail. The rail in the picture joined 2 rows together and 1/2" metal conduit was fastened on top of the rail with cable ties up and down the length of the rows. The plants were supported by springs attached to the conduit and tomato clips. No problem with the conduit supporting the tomatoes this way, but I had problems with string failure on several plants when the stems were fully loaded with mature fruit. That can be disappointing.
Now I attach the pegs to the 1/2" metal conduit. It's purpose is to keep the posts 4' apart (my post spacing) and the ground does the same thing at the bottom. (for your posts in buckets, just attach a piece of conduit from the bucket post to a ground post with self-tapping hex screws to lock it in place at the bottom.)
I use vegetable netting as you can see in the picture. The netting is 59" high and is attached to the posts using nylon cable ties. One at the top of the netting, one at the bottom of the netting and one in the middle. Except for the end posts where the netting has a cable tie every 6 inches. The netting is attached to the posts starting 10" from the ground; this makes it easy to hoe and weedeat around the posts and plants without the netting getting in the way. The netting stops about 6" from the top of the posts and is not attached to the top rail at all. When the plants are attached to the trellis thier weight is transfered to the posts, not the top rail.
This is the third year for the trellis (it's uv resistant and doesn't stretch) and it is still as good as new. I use it for pole beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes.
With pole beans I plant on both sides of the trellis so the weight is about the same on both sides of the posts. The trellis verticals are 5" apart so I plant the beans 2 seed per hill with 10" between hills and offset the hills on the mating row by 5". I don't thin the hills. The beans will for the most part find the trellis and start climbing it on their own as soon as they start putting out runners. The few that don't find the trellis just need a little help when their runners get long enough to stick the runner through the trellis. This is so much easier than stringing beans, there's no comparison. I don't use any fertilizer on the beans. Excess fertilizer will give you a crop of vines instead of beans. The beans will grow to the top of the trellis and produce a crop of beans. Leave them alone for a couple of weeks after this crop then water and they will grow back down to the ground and produce a second crop and should still be making beans when frost hits.
For cucumbers I also plant a row on each side of the trellis. 2 seeds per hill and 10" between hills with mating rows staggered 5". When the hills of cucumbers have their first true leaves, I thin to one plant per hill unless there is a skip in the row, then I leave 2 plants in the hill to cover the skip. What I want is 2 rows of cucumbers with mostly 1 plant per hill 10" apart. As the cucumbers grow, I remove all suckers and use a tomato clip to attach the plants to the trellis. One plant pruned to a single stem for each vertical with plants from different rows on
the next vertical. Doing it this way the plants grow from 3 to 5 inches per day depending on the amount of sunshine. The tomato clips are reused and moved up the trellis to guide the growing tip. Each leaf node will produce a fruit cluster, a sucker and a finger which the plant uses to attach itself to the trellis. Again I don't use any fertilizer with cucumbers. The only problem with doing it this way is when they start producing they have to be picked twice a day to keep them from getting too big from one day to the next. I spray every week to ten days with a garlic, pepper and sage tea with horsetail tea and lacto baccillis inocculant added to protect new growth, control insects, and prevent mildew and disease. Grass and weeds are allowed to grow in the middles to act as a trap crop for insects but are removed from the beds until the cucumbers are established and dominant, then the grass and weeds are allowed to grow on the beds as well to act as a living mulch, trap crop and become the next crop's fertilizer. Bugs have to eat too, give them something other than your vegetables and everyone can be happy. Claud
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