Cattle panel trellises don't work. Here is the reason and fix.
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- Опубликовано: 20 мар 2024
- In the world of gardening, trellises are a common tool used to support climbing plants like cucumbers, beans, and peas. While some gardeners opt for creative solutions like using cattle panels as trellises, there are downsides to this approach.
One of the main issues with using cattle panels as trellises is that the spacing between the wires is often too wide for young plants to climb. This can lead to plants becoming tangled, stressed, or even damaged as they try to find support
Additionally, the rigid structure of cattle panels can block sunlight from reaching surrounding plants, limiting their growth and yield. This can create uneven conditions in the garden and hinder the overall health of the plants
while cattle panels are durable, they may not always be able to withstand the weight of heavy vegetables like pumpkins or watermelons. This can result in the trellis bending or breaking, causing damage to
"Furthermore, the solid structure of cattle panels can block sunlight from reaching neighboring plants in the garden. This lack of sunlight can hinder the growth and development of surrounding plants, creating uneven conditions and impacting the overall health of the garden."
In conclusion, while cattle panels may seem like a convenient option for vegetable garden trellises, their drawbacks in terms of plant support, sunlight exposure, and durability make them a less-than-ideal choice for a thriving garden. Consider alternative trellis options that provide better support and promote healthy plant growth in your vegetable garden 
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My panel arches work just fine for me. I'm a 5ft, 100lb woman and I had no issues putting it up by myself with 5ft stakes. Yes, I need a ladder when the vine reaches the top, but that vine is near the end of it's production and it's successor is already coming up in the rotation. As for shade, I think that depends on what grow zone you're in. The plants on the other side of mine actually produced better during the hot summer months due to having a natural shade cloth. Panels are also great for growing sugar baby watermelon vertically. They're sturdy enough to easily and securely hammock the melons as needed. (You do have to keep a close eye and not let them get stuck in the panel squares as they grow before you hammock them). I do appreciate the video though, and will keep it in mind for future additions to my garden. I'm always grateful for new ideas.
Hey Julie. How do you secure the watermelons? I admit I’ve never done that and was thinking about it this year.
@@bellesbackyard3264 I use pieces of pantyhose to make the hammock and S-hooks (pieces of wire hanger will work too) to secure it to the panel. Wish RUclips would let me post a pic for you, but I'm sure there's videos about it you can look up.
Hey. Thanks. If you have any you can send it to Bellesbackyardgarden@gmail.com
Seems like it took a lot of thought and effort to come up with this list of cons. My husband just built us some raised beds and did cattle panel trellises between them. The panels were the quickest and easiest part of it. They look great and I'm excited for everything to start growing and climbing on them.
I agree with the connection between the raised beds because the area between will not be planted in. I hope it does well and am excited for the new garden for you. Let me know how it goes. I’d love to see pictures and use it as an update on a video I’m doing mid season. You can send them to Bellesbackyardgarden@gmail.com if you’d like.
Good luck!
brought my 16 footers home in my short bed truck. It can be done.
yep, one end right behind cab, bend it so other end against tailgate. Then tie down just in case you hit a bump and don't want it popping out. Done this a couple times.
You’re making cattle panel trellises seem difficult. They are not. I have 4 of them in my garden to grow pole beans, spaghetti squash, snap peas and flowering annual vines. They’ve worked great for me for the past 4 seasons and are still holding up fine, even in the harsh weather of VT.
I used a 5 1/2 ft Ford pick up to transport the cattle panels from Tractor Supply.
We use 2-8ft cattle panels per arch and use heavy duty zip ties to attach them to each other in the middle/top of the arch. We used 4-5ft. T-posts (one at each corner of the cattle panels and drive them into the ground using a manual t-post pounder. I’m no spring chicken either. Easy peasy stuff.
Thanks for the input. 8’ panels could make it a whole lot easier. Ours here are all 16 footers. Do you have any pictures? I would like to do a follow up video and use your set up as an example. You can send them to me at Bellesbackyardgarden@gmail.com.
I believe its all in your garden style. I inherited several cattle panels and t-posts. My t-posts are only 6 feet long, and I also have a t-post driver. I have 3 stationary cattle panel arches in my garden that I rotate cherry tomatoes, pole lima beans, and cucumbers/melons on every year. I see where this was good for your small space, but my small garden is twice the length of yours. I have 9 raised beds and a straw bale garden with 12 bales. Cattle panels are placed through out my space, some horizontal and some in arches. I like that my cucumbers get some shade (one side shades the other) for part of the day. I can grow lettuce in grow bags underneath the arches in the shade.
Wow! That is quite the garden! Not your typical like the one we are using for a small backyard example. Would love to see some pictures.
What’s your favorite variety of cukes and cherry tomatoes for your arches?
You can send it to Bellesbackyardgarden@gmail.co. I’d love to see it.
I grow Sweet 100's and sungold ever year. This year we are trying Napa Chardonnay and Toronjina this year also. I love Boston and National Pickling for my pickle relish and Tasty Green for my slicing cukes. I will take some pictures this weekend after the rain and send them to you. It's only about a 20 x 60 garden space. @@bellesbackyard3264
Just sent you some pictures I took yesterday. It's almost time to plant!@@bellesbackyard3264
Just saw it. Thank you. That looks incredible. I’ve never tried the Napa Chardonnay before. What zone are you in? I’m in South Alabama. The zone is still up for debate. LOL.
That space must look unbelievable mid season.
We have several cattle panel trellises. They work great. And look pretty when everything is growing. Never had a problem with them.
I for one got exactly what I needed out of this video. Something OTHER THAN a cattle panel trellis WILL work best for me at this time. HOWEVER, I must say, the cattle panel trellises are nice looking and it seems to me, they are a good solution for some situations. Thank you for doing this video. I wish people would have paid attention to what you actually said. People did get mad. This world is filled with people who have no ears to hear or eyes to see and are excessively experienced at becoming emotional rather than thinking and not all of those people are Leftists. Bless God America and thank Him often and He will bless you.
Thank you for showing another way, to grow vertically! I like variety, and that’s what I see, different ways to neatly grow food!
Thank you. I’m glad it helps. Let me know if there is anything else you may want see.
How to fix the small challenges of cattle panel trellises with something WAY more complicated.....(and less efficient....)
If this is WAY more complicated for you, then you should never use power tools and avoid the lumber section like the plague.
@@sicottish Lol
I tried the cheap, lightweight ladder mesh last year as a cattle panel alternative. I was amazed that it stayed up all year, even though the ziptied together pieces looked a little wonky, but one problem I noticed was that all of the plants want to lean to the south, so a tunnel that opens up on the east and west sides means things don't want to grow up the south side of the tunnel. They constantly want to pull away toward the south. They can be coaxed up to a point, but at a certain point, it just wasn't worth the fight.
To each their own. Been using cattle panels for years with great success and ease. Big fan of electrical conduit framing too, cheap and easy.
Would love to see the electrical conduit setup and how you use them. If you like you can send them to Bellesbackyardgarden@gmail.com. I’ll definitely give you all the credit!
Happy growing
I love my candle panel and T post. It’s windy and wet in Missouri. That wood wouldn’t last two years. Plus, I love shade, and so do my propagated plants. I even put shade cloth on the tops..
My vining stuff goes on the fence. We have an acre fenced in so lots of vertical space. I have a couple of cattle panels but they are not arched. They have grapes run down them or blackberries and raspberries on them and it’s just a 16’ run of them. I don’t understand the arch stuff. For starters makes it hard for short me to reach the stuff at the top.
😃🎉 Excellent
I subscribed to your channel and gave a like 👍 Many blessings to you and your family 🙏
Thanks for the kind words!
@@bellesbackyard3264 You're Welcome 😁
I have two arches that go between raised beds over the walkway and also cut a few in half (8') and put them on the back of a few 8' beds on t posts. The shade factor is an important part of my garden plan. T posts, post pounder wire fasteners... Very sturdy, easy to put up or take down to move, no rotting wood, inexpensive. Win win
Would love to see the layout. If you have pictures you can send them to Bellesbackyardgarden@gmail.com. I’m going to to do a follow up vertical garden video using other gardeners layout and photos.
You can say what zone, your layout how you use it etc.
I use 4 arches than span over archway you walk under (not wasted garden space.) So they each take up one foot in their respective gardens. I can grow from both sides, meeting overhead just about end of season in Michigan. You literally pick tomatoes above your head. I used no expensive lumber no framed anything. One cheap t post at each end of the arch and some rebar shorts to keep them straight. They have lasted years and are one of the best parts of my whole garden system as they free up the beds for ground items like potatoes or zucchini. I do use some 8 foor x 50" on the outsides of thr beds, in a vertical fashion, for beans, cucumbers, and peas, using 6 foot posts so they are not right against ground. The plants don't need it for the last 6 inches.
I take a lot of advice from online people who share and don't often make any contrary comment, but I do respectfully disagree with arches being bad. Only if you don't do them right. Not over garden, over walkways.
Good idea, but how did you get those 2x4x10's home?
Your idea is neat. Did something similar with netting for the tomatoes. We are country folks so a truck & trailer are always available. We have 3 trellises of 2 panels each. 2 of them are are running E to W. Actually the N/S facing is good because I plant heat sensitive plants in the raised bed on the shaded side of of the trellis. I just arrange it work for my garden.
I strapped a 16ft panel on top of my Toyota Rav 4 and bent in in a tear drop shape and gently tied it down to a roof rack. Got home and once i got it home just bent it back just a little to get the perfect arch. I definitely agree thag if you have a smaller garden and are a beginner gardener id pass on it. But if you got the space and the know how then id go for it. Building a 8ft tall vertical trellis id argue is just as much work then setting up a 4 post cow pannel trellis. But to each their own. As long as your outside and getting your hands in the dirt thats what its all about!!
Hmm… my husband put ours up by himself- I don’t think I helped at all (if I did, it was in a very small way, as my hands are too weak from arthritis). We didn’t use 7’ T-posts either (5 or 6’ at most). I also don’t need a ladder to pick my beans that are dangling from the top. This has been a blessing for me! If he hadn’t put it up, I wouldn’t be able to grow green beans.
None of these deter me whatsoever!!!
The panels bend easily into a truck, an adult can easily install it, the year after planting cukes you can rotate to pole beans, shade won’t be a problem until end of summer in which case you can use the shade to your advantage to grow shade tolerant crops behind it, pretty easy fixes
Just saw your video with your trellis. Great work! I agree with everything you said. However for the small beginner Gardner that has a 15x20 space or less I still believe going thin and vertical is more productive per sq ft.
Keep up the good work.
As we expand next season into a 3/4 acre Victory garden I will be using cattle panels since it is on a larger scale.
@@bellesbackyard3264 True, whatever works for everyone's garden. That's one of the cool things about gardening, you can design it however you want. I must have just been grouchy before my coffee this morning when I commented haha cheers man!
Between the high heat and winds rotting the cording plus termites destroying the ground contact wood, this "solution" would not be practical or cost effective for my area but I appreciate your effort. Thank you kindly.
Sounds like a great idea and is probably the path of least resistance for the Delima I have been wrestling with this season!
Glad it helped! What’s the delima? Anything we
Can help with
Sorry, can't agree with much of this. Yes, it's work to get them from the store to home, and yes, they are unwieldy, but I use 5' t-posts and it's easy for a 70-yr-old woman to get those into place. I do plant the same plants on them year after year because my soil is healthy thanks to lots of homemade compost. They're not too big because they are over the paths in my backyard garden. Nothing else is as sturdy and inexpensive as a cattle panel arch, and they look great! 💚
Definitely agree with the compost if it’s in the same spot. Very few people pull that off correctly. What’s your secret?
@@bellesbackyard3264 I don't think it's a secret...my compost is garden waste, chicken manure, and degraded straw, layered and left to sit for the year and then laid on the garden beds in late winter. Black gold!
this video is kind of hilarious to me because I am living on 0 income I have no vehicle and I just built one BY MYSELF spent no money (found a big panel that was rusty (so what) found some corrugated metal that was going to the dumps and I built some raised beds with it I didn’t not need a big pole to go into the ground I took broken broom handles and hammered them into the four corners then I used a long 1inch pvc pipe we had being thrown away for the legs and the pvc goes over the broom handles and it is solid as a rock I cut little slits in the pvc for the cattle panel to fit into so the pvc wasn’t sliding against the panel and it has a grove to sit in check out my Chanel I’ll upload a video of it. It’s a garden it doesn’t have to be expensive I’ve spent close to nothing and I’ve done more than u can imagine with $0
A pro for the cattle panel trellis for my area is it doubles as a cover from hail on my raised bed garden. All I do is zip tie a layer of hail netting over the panels and I can grow without a worry from hail.
That is fantastic!!! I never thought of that.
What zone are you in (or state)?
Can I use that for a follow up video I’m doing?
Also what is your first name to use?
Thanks for the comment.
I love my panels
Got home very easy
Your problems are not problems at all
Smash, next question ❤
There are solutions for literally everything you just said.
Agreed. That’s why we are a community. How would you solve the issue of a dedicated 16 sq ft of growing space and have 0-5% sun obstruction.
I am doing a follow up video on recommendations made by our visitors and would like to hear yours. If you like, you can send me pictures and what you are doing to Bellesbackyardgarden@gmail.com. Would love to include it.
I brought my cattle panels home by folding them in half and attaching them to my roof-rack with zip ties.
The spacing of the wires is fine by me, at least for cucumbers, squash, beans and tomatoes, which have large leaves.
I agree that it doesn't make sense to cover your whole yard with them, but it does make sense to put them over paths, where they're mostly just going to be shading on paths rather than adjacent garden beds. You can put tall plants on the north side of them, like sunflowers, tomatoes, tomatillos, pubescens/baccatum peppers, asparagus, maybe a fruit shrub or small fruit tree... Sunflowers are 7-12ft, tomatoes are 5-12ft, tomatillos 5-8ft, pubescens peppers 5-8ft, baccatum peppers 3-5ft, asparagus 3-5ft, these should be able to compete against the trellis plants for part of all of the growing season.
If the beds are oriented east-west.
bed #1: tall plants
bed #1: vines climbing up cattle panel
cattle panel over path
bed #2: vines climbing up cattle panel
bed #2: short plants
path
bed #3: tall plants
bed #3: vines climbing up cattle panel
cattle panel over path
bed #4: vines climbing up cattle panel
bed #4: short plants
Short plants would be like zucchini, peppers, eggplants, greens, onions, root vegetables, etc.
I've found them to be strong enough for winter squash, and even small pumpkins. I haven't tried growing large pumpkins on them, but I just don't grow those in general.
I've been okay with hammering t-posts into the ground. Just need a sturdy step-ladder to reach to the top. It's true that certain steps are a 2 person job though.
Also crop rotation is not really an issue. Beans, squash, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers is already 4 different things. You could do annual flowering vines as well, like moonflower. I've also been considering sticking my containerized passionflowers by them. Maybe you could also try fruit vines like hardy kiwi or grapes?
Not that there's anything wrong with your trellis either, I could see it coming in handy.
They are becoming so hot.. plants are burning wherever it touches to the panel..
Nobody should drive T posts into the ground with a sledge, the correct tool is a T post driver. You can put screws into wood with a hammer, but a screwdriver is best. Right tool for the job. Also, crop rotation within a growing space as small as a home garden is pointless. Any pest that would be of concern will easily impact plants grown 20, 40, or 60 feet from where the crop was grown previously. Healthy soil amended with quality compost and cared for by not tilling it to death annually will do far more to prevent any recurring pest problems. Last comment, for the sake of anyone unsure about what the "cons" stated here mean for them, is that when the plants are young and small and the angle of the sun is lower to the horizon they are too small to shade anything - and the thin wire of the panels won't either. Later in the season, when the plants have grown up enough to produce the sort of shade mentioned, the angle of the sun in most of the US will be higher and the amount of shade impact is minimal. I'm in northern NY with very low spring/fall sun angles and by June it's no longer an issue. I appreciate differing opinions, but the facts don't support this man's arguments.
I love my CP Trellis. I don’t believe my watermelons and cantaloupe are going to climb a paracord. Cattle Panels for the W
Your trellis will have problems during Hurricane season around my house The wind here in SE NC can be brutal lolrofl
Lol your hating on the simple cattle panel was hilarious. I want to see the part of your video where you lifted that heavy and expensive bunch of treated lumber up by yourself and put it in the ground without help. Be sure to do a video in the next year or two on how that string rotted and fell apart and you had to re string the whole thing. Are you going to dig up and move it since as you say that you can’t plant same thing two years in a row. If you have a great idea or design for a trellis just tell us. You do not have to make up trash talk on another design to try to make yours seem better.
Tractor Supply delivered my Tractor Panel FOC! What are you talking about? Works perfectly fine in my raised beds. Your "fix" will not last one summer, esp the cheap looking string (cord?) you have there, let alone the lumber in the soil and the water it gets from the runoff.
You can say you like something without dissing another. You sure put a lot of effort to come up with that list. Cattle panels work great. I have 5 in my backyard
I disagree with the points sir.
Especially on driving your T-Stakes.
I highly appreciate your input, however, for anyone watching, do not be discouraged on cattle panels. Just do not spread them too far apart or it can be problematic
Hi Adrian. Thanks for the input. Can you tell me how far apart you set your panels? And don’t have a picture? I’m getting a lot of responses of different ways these are being built. And I think I’m going to do a follow up video.
Would like to use yours as an example. You can send it to Bellesbackyardgarden@gmail.com
@@bellesbackyard3264 Sure, when time allows I wouldn’t mind sharing. I’m wrapping up a project in the next week, and I’ll share a photo for a smaller 14x34 ft garden using a cattle panel set up at the end of the east garden.
Not a great argument, I think you should have said is that cattle panels don't work for you! The points about transportation are exaggerated and as the comments demonstrate many people have no issues with getting cattle panels home and installed
. When planning a garden you always look at the path of the sun, so why would I install cattle panels in a way that shades my plants? I do like the fact that you are open to counter opinions. Best of luck with your garden.
I a million percent disagree. I assemble mine by myself and they are the best trellising system.
Just because you are incompetent to use cattle panels to trellis doesn’t mean that they are a useless trellis you will have to rebuild your trellis because it will rot out
It’s not that they don’t work, you are too lazy to put them up.
Not impressed w your version at all arch trellises are the WTG
Dude, pounding a post into the ground isn't rocket science. Your own wooden posts also have to be fairly plumb. You don't like arches, that's fine, but don't expect us to believe that if we put in an arch, we can only use that space for cucumbers. You absolutely can plant more than one thing in that space. Also, not all panels are the same size. I can fit my 8 ft panels into my small Honda suv. And most gardeners know to account for the track of the sun. Again, not rocket science. Personally, I like to put arches between beds, which gives plenty of space for the leaves to receive sun all day long, while providing me with some shade relief. Also works well over tables and seating in the social and lounging areas of the garden.
Whatever floats your boat. I got both. I like cattle panels because you can make green houses and trellis and pens. No problem transporting them. Put 8 of them in the back of my truck no problem... I'm glad you have different ideas but don't bash other people's ideas because you think yours is better. In this case your idea is not better it's something we have all done before. We've all thought about it before in the prepping community and this is nothing new.. the only difference between yours and mine is you use paracord and I use natural materials such as Vines and wood that I have naturally cut, It looks better and it's free.. Something for you to think about.
Sorry but these excuses aren’t very good. There are easy fixes
And growing vertical you can plant closer.
All I heard was excuses!! I don't know where you live but where I live pretty much everyone has at least one!!! I don't know why any man wouldn't have at least one truck!!! And trailers for that matter!! What do you do pay everyone to move your stuff and go to the hardware store for you?!? City people make me laugh!!!