Some Plants Need More Support Than Others to Grow to Their Full Potential

The first time I ever planted cucumbers, I just sowed the seeds and kept the soil watered. I wasn't fully convinced these things would even grow.

Fast-forward like 30 days, and I was jumping into my minivan and racing to Lowe's to pick up some kind of tomato cage or wooden stakes to save my sprawling cucumber plants that had collapsed overnight.

That's how I learned the hard way that plants, like children, need structure; if you fail to give them the support they need, sooner or later, you're going to face some kind of meltdown.

Give Plants Support Based on How They Grow

Large plants, especially fruiting plants, will take up space above the soil in one of two ways: growing wide or growing long.

Plants that grow wide

This category includes peppers, zucchini, and broccoli. They don't necessarily need a garden trellis to themselves, but they often do benefit from some kind of support to help them stay upright.

Plants that grow long

These are ones that grow on indeterminate vines. The word indeterminate means what it sounds like: not yet determined. In other words, these vines can be long, very long. This applies to vining plants like tomatoes, cucumbers, winter squash, and pole beans.

These plants need to grow up or grow out (or both, like in the picture below). In other words, if you don't give plants that grow long some kind of trellis that they can climb, they can easily spread out over an entire raised bed.

I recommend using a raised bed and providing some type of trellis for the plants to cling to—this more than doubles your available growing space because you can now plant these guys every 12 to 18 inches.

Advantages of Using Plant Supports

In addition to helping you make the most of your garden space, giving plants support structures like trellises comes with numerous advantages, including the following:

∙Keeps plants healthier (the worst place for leaves and fruits to be is in direct contact with the soil)

∙Gives every plant (including those growing around the trellised plant) better access to sunlight and more airflow

∙Maintains a more tidy appearance for the garden space

∙Makes it easier on you to tend and harvest because the leaves and fruits are held in place

∙Helps plants bear heavy fruits so they're less likely to break off

Lastly, you can find plant supports available to suite all budgets. You might even already have supplies around the house you can use to make DIY trellises for some of your plants. Otherwise, you can find kits for sale that are easy to assemble and super quick to install in your garden space.

Plants That Need Support in Each Growing Season

Let's look at the most common plants you might want to grow that will need support in your garden space. I've broken these plants into categories based on when they like to grow to make it nice and easy for you to visualize what type of large plants you can have in your garden space and when.

For reference, here's a breakdown of the growing seasons:

• Cold Season - Average high temperature below 30°F; guaranteed chance of frost/snow
• Cool Season - Average high temperature between 31°F and 64°F; likely chance of frost/snow
• Warm Season - Average high temperature between 65°F and 84°F; no chance of frost/snow
• Hot Season - Average high temperature of 85°F or above; no chance of anything close to cold

Cool Season Bush Plants That May Need Support

These cool season favorites are plants that grow wide instead of long. Even though they don't need something to climb on, they may need stakes or small trellises to support to keep them upright, especially if you live in a windy area.

To stake plants, simply drive a wooden stake in the soil beside the plant and tie the plant to the stake gently with some soft twine.

The plants that may need a bit of support during this growing season are:

∙Broccoli

∙Cauliflower

∙Brussel Sprouts

∙Kale

Cool Season Vining Plants That Need Support

These cool-season favorites grow along vines, and if their delicate little tendrils can't find something to cling to, the plants will slow or even halt their growth.

While metal obelisk or panel trellises are ideal for growing these vining plants, you can also install something lighter like a bamboo or wood teepee-shaped structure.

Make sure you install trellises before you plant your beans or peas to avoid damaging their shallow root structures later. I like to plant 3 to 4 peas or pole beans around the outside edge of an obelisk trellis.

The plants that will need support during this growing season are:

∙Snow Peas

∙Fava Beans

∙Sugar Snap Peas

∙Sweet Peas (non-edible flowering plant)

Warm/Hot Season Bush Plants That May Need Support

About half of the fruiting plants you might want to grow in warmer weather will grow wide instead of long. Even though they don't need something to climb on, they may need stakes or small trellises to keep them upright.

Tomato cages are typically fine for supporting determinate tomatoes unless you're growing a variety with really heavy fruits, like beefsteak tomatoes. Then you might want a short metal trellis instead.

The plants that might need some type of support during these growing seasons are:

∙Peppers

∙Determinate Tomatoes (bush type)

∙Eggplants

∙Squash

∙Zucchini

∙Bush Beans

Note: Zucchini and squash are two plants that tend to take up the most horizontal space in the garden. It’s for this reason that I often plant these outside my raised beds, in more of a row-garden style in the ground.

Warm/Hot Season Vining Plants That Need Support

You might be able to get away with building your own little teepee-like structures or obelisks out of bamboo or scrap wood for your cool season climbers, but those same flimsy supports aren't going to cut it for your warm season vines.

Cucumber vines can quickly cause a bamboo trellis to topple over under their weight, and indeterminate tomatoes will soon outgrow tomato cages. (You can read more about why tomato cages are not a great idea for vining tomatoes here.)

Our favorite type of support for these warm/hot season vining plants is a metal garden trellis that's at least 6 feet tall. Metal provides a much sturdier support structure, the kind that your more ambitious climbing plants crave in order to reach their fullest potential in the garden. (Not to mention that you'll get to enjoy metal trellises for decades to come, as opposed to the season or two that DIY trellises tend to last.)

If you're set on DIY'ing supports for these fruiting plants, I recommend setting up a Florida weave—that's a super fun way to grow a lot of fruiting plants in a small space and give them all the support they need.

Whichever type of structure you're using, you'll want to come out weekly and attach your growing plants to their supports with some twine.

The plants that will need support during these growing seasons are:

∙Indeterminate Tomatoes (vining type)

∙Coral Vine (flowering plant)

∙Cucumbers (pole variety)

∙Gourds

∙Melons

∙Nasturtiums

∙Passion Vine (flowering plant)

∙Tomatillos

Tips to Install Large Garden Trellises

∙Find a buddy to help you.

∙Install arch trellises before adding soil to your raised bed, if possible. Otherwise, dig out soil from your bed, install the trellis, and backfill. Panel trellises and obelisk trellises are much easier to install each growing season as needed because they're much lighter.

∙Ensure the base of the trellis is buried at least one foot deep.

∙Use metal stakes to help secure the trellis in place if your trellis kit provides them.

∙Make sure to install any trellises before you plant for the upcoming growing season to avoid hurting your plants' roots.

How to Attach Plants to a Trellis

Some plants want to climb and will be perfectly fine wrapping tendrils around rungs on their own. Other plants will need a bit of help from you, especially when they're young.

I recommend twine to hold plants like cherry tomatoes or sugar snaps in place because it's gentle on stems. You don't want to use something that can rub or damage tender vines and leave the plant vulnerable to disease or pests.

The best way to tie your plants up is by looping the twine around the metal rung and then crossing the two ends before wrapping around the plant stem—think like a figure eight—and tying in a bow. Leave some slack in the twine instead of pulling tightly to give the plant room to grow and sway in the wind.

Growing Up in the Garden Is Magical

If you're planning on growing any of the plants in this post, I recommend buying your stakes, twine, and trellises now. That way, you aren't shopping around in June when your tomatoes are really taking off and realizing that you can't find what you want.

Then, just help train the plants up the trellis or add stakes as needed—and watch the magic happen! Your plants will feel all the love and support from you that they need to grow to their fullest potential.

We've got lots of trellis kit options in the Gardenary shop. Thanks for supporting us and helping to make gardening ordinary again!