posted 2 years ago
Best thrifty support depends on durability wanted -- if only for a couple of years, unprotected bamboo would do, but for longer, perhaps a PVC pipe (bottom end closed!) protector, long enough to protrude above the soil line. Insert choice of pole (old wooden broom handle, perhaps, painted with polyurethane for ultimate service life); wire on a durable moisture collar to keep the pipe interior dry (a bit of bike tire innertube, perhaps). Dress exterior of pole with sphagnum moss or coconut coir, held tightly on with1/2" black bird netting. Plastic snowplow marking poles are durable, but too thin and slick to hold the coir well. (Am I preaching the coir to you...?) Only a huge specimen would feed though the aerial roots, as well as the buried ones. But perhaps they uptake water (as well as support ascension)?