Providing Protection to Crops by Using Vegetable Support Net

Benefits of Using Vegetable Support Net

Growing vegetable requires patience, support and knowledge. Even if you are growing vegetable for commercial or personal use, the important thing is that you know what to do. There are different ways of planting and growing plants. Different vegetables require different means of planting, managing, growing and harvesting processes. Some vegetables have climbing vines, while others grow out and spread on the ground. There are also some that can be trained to go up into trellises or vegetable support net systems.

Support mesh placed in vegetable field — It must be taken into account that not all plants are planted or cultivated in the same way.

When Do You Need Vegetable Support Net

If you want to grow vegetable but you do not have enough ground space, using vegetable support net is the best solution. Some vegetables that can be trained for trellising include; tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, pumpkins, squash, gourds and pole beans.

With the right netting and durable plant stakes, you can effectively provide support and protection for your vegetable plants through vertical gardening.

Crop field with plant stakes — The vegetables that can be trellised with the trellis mesh are cucumbers, pumpkins, peas and tomatoes.

Why Do You Need Vegetable Netting Support

Your vegetables need protection that is one of the main reasons why you need to build a protective support system. Vegetable support net allows you to provide the right amount of protection for your vegetables without depriving them of their natural needs like sunlight and regular air flow.

Use of support net is also considered as the best way of training and tutoring your crops. A simple trellis netting made of plastic mesh can be used to keep vegetable crops upright, which prevents them from getting in contact with the ground soil. Additionally, this system decreases the possibility of your field getting attack by pests and diseases.

Vegetable netting support — The support network for vegetables is a good option because it provides sufficient protection to your crop avoiding contact with the ground.

Vertical gardening with the use of vegetable support net is an excellent method for effectively reducing plant stress. Every time you or anyone who works for you tutors the crop through traditional raffia, the leaves of the plants are getting reoriented to find the best solar resources. That causes stress. Your crops need to be free. They need to have freedom to grow and not be disturbed. It is their job to produce vegetable crops and it is your job to make sure that they do not get stressed doing their job. Plants that are not disturbed regularly produce more crop yields. That is because they can concentrate on growing instead of rearranging their leaves to get the best solar resources.

Additionally, row spacing is also put at better use if there is an effective and durable vegetable support net system in place.

Trellis netting installed in a crop field — One of the most commonly used methods to reduce plant stress is the vertical gardening method.

Benefits of Vertical Gardening

If you are using trellises or plant stakes, you are not just providing much needed support for your vegetable crops, you are also supporting them to avoid diseases, keep the vegetable clean, make harvesting easier, make spray with fertilizer hassle-free and make monitoring better.

With the vegetables hanging or climbing up, they are less exposed to ground pests. They are also efficiently protected from rotting because they have less or no contact to the ground soil. In some cases, being above the ground also frees the plants from potential drowning due to over watering.

Learn More About Different Planting, Tutoring and Growing Methods

As mentioned above, there are different ways to plant, tutor and grow your vegetables. You can use stakes, trellis/vegetable support net or you can go for the SCROG method.

Stakes

Using stakes allows for simple support for your vegetable plants. Stakes get stuck to the ground for each plant. You then tie your plant up as it grows. To gain enough stability, it is recommended to use stakes that are six to eight feet tall. Your stakes can be made of plastic, wood or bamboo. Some people even use pipes or other materials that can be recycled and reused.

If you are going to use stakes, you have to do it while the plant is quite young because you would not want to hurt the roots – you will have to drive your stake on the side of the plant. Tying the main stem of the plant loosely to the stake is the best way to go. Use soft ties so as not to cause injury to the stem. Pantyhose strips (about eight inches each) are ideal. Depending on the size of your vegetable, you should set the stakes at two to four feet apart.

The best thing about using stakes to tutor your vegetables is that they can be easily taken up after the season.

Bamboo Stakes — Stakes are another of the methods most used to support crops, because it provides adequate support and stability.

Trellising

Using trellis support gives you the chance to protect and manage your plants properly. As the vegetables grow up, you prevent them from potential rotting and getting attacked by pests and other animals. Vegetable support net systems are preferred by most farmers because they allow vegetable and fruit farming even in small spaces.

Trellis netting — The advantage of using the lattice support network is that the vegetables grow do not rot and are not attacked by pests because they are far from the ground.

SCROGing

SCROGing, on the other hand, is used typically with one plant and it is employed together with other modern vegetable training methods. SCROG stands for Screen of Green and it allows the plant to produce increased yields even in limited ground space.

This technique utilizes a screen that has multiple openings and is usually suspended effectively between the lighting source and the planting medium. The tips of the plant rise up to this screen so that they can be trained/tutored to grow horizontally with the use of LST at the planar surface of the screen during the plant’s vegetative cycle. This vegetable support technique results in nice and flat surface of vegetable growth with several bud sites comparatively in similar distance away from light source. As soon as the inferior surface of the screen is filled with plant vegetation, the lighting gets switched to 12/12. Flowers then can grow vertically – and beautifully – through the openings screen and rising at equal distance and around the same rate from the source of light.

The SCROG mesh is a good idea because it helps the plant to perform better even in spaces that are limited.

Some vegetables that benefit well from SCROGing include; tamarillo plants, cherry tomatoes. Roma tomatoes and Serrano pepper. The best thing about this method is that it lets you produce high quality crops and that means better financial rewards during the harvest season. For personal farmers increased yield even in small space is enough to make them satisfied and happy that they thought of using this method.