Bushes and dwarfing plants are nice but I tend to enjoy vigorous vines and climbers. Plus I've read rumor that pole/vine varieties of annuals like beans and cherry tomatoes produce more (and are higher up when harvesting!) than their bushy kin. However, trellising is a MONSTROUS task that I'd prefer to do without or keep to a minimum.
As I understand it, most climbers are naturally accustomed to sprawling over nearby bushes a lot like black berries do but at an early stage in a forest garden there might not be much in the way of larger
perennial trellises. I also wonder if reaching into a thick bush to harvest sprawling, random beans would be the most efficient use of ones time.
SO an annual
trellis that would also produce a compact yield might be the way to go early on. The 3-Sisters seems like a reliable template to spiral off of and it is really why I started thinking about all of this.
Amaranth seems like a very promising plant for trellising on to. Last year I was pretty amazed at how thick and sturdy their stalks can get. There are also a diversity of amaranth varieties that are either specialized for leaf production or grain production (or both!). However, the one season that I grew amaranth, I noticed that in the first few weeks after coming up the plants just languished at about 4inches before rocketing up to 6ft. If this is a recurring theme with amaranth than it could be a problem for growing alongside fast growing beans or peas. The amaranth COULD be sown a few weeks before the legume to give it a leg up as well. I've also read rumor that the Amaranthaceae family is somewhat antagonistic to the bean family although this certainly needs more looking into.
Tall growing and indeterminate tomatoes might be a good match because they are also slower to start up AND amaranth is said to harbor beneficial insects, which I can certainly see being the case when their flower stalks start opening up (huge surface area for bug hideouts). From my little
experience, amaranth leaf stalks tend to be sparse and fairly fragile compared with the stalk so the tomatoes might not be able to find their way up but not having to drive stakes into the ground would solve half the issue.
Quinoa is similar to amaranth and part of the same family although apparently more finicky and shorter (<4.5ft).
~ I am most interested in these two at the moment just because they seem to have double potential as salad greens AND pseudo- grains. I also wonder if good trellising traits could be bred to create specialized, highly productive vertical growing spaces for climbers. I'll certainly be experimenting when spring rolls around but for now I'd really like to know about other peoples experiences with these plants.
Other Potential Annual Trellises
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Sunflower
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Sunchoke
- Flower stalk of
2nd year cabbage grown for seed? (Biennial but same concept)
Those are the few off the top of my head but there has to be more. Good climbing-mates for each species would also have to be considered.
