How To Build A Pea Trellis

New to the Homestead garden this year is to grow my very own Poppin’ Peas.  My past gardening efforts have centered on Tomatoes, Peppers, Lettuces and Herbs, but with a new garden area to expand into, peas are at the top of the list of things to grow.  Along with radishes, beets, carrots and spinach…more on those at a later date.

Today we are concentrating on how to build a support for your peas.   The type of peas I bought are a dwarf-low-shrubbery kind (Green Arrow), and they will need a trellis to climb onto.  If a package of pea seeds says you don’t need to support them..pfft, they are wrong.  Peas are a naturally climbing plant that need to be supported in order to grow into healthy, productive plants.

Not wanting to spend hard-earned moolah on an overpriced garden center trellis (I am cheap after all), I opted for a DIY trellis that I had set up in less than 10 minutes…all from materials I had on hand in the shed.

DSC09671_ASince my pea plants are a dwarf variety, I used 4 foot long tomato stakes (tomato stakes are useless for tomatoes, you are better off caging them as they soon snap the stakes with their weight or grow too tall for them) and some durable string.  That is all you need.

DSC09672_AStep one ~ push the stakes into the ground at least 8″ to 10″ deep and spacing them at least a foot apart.

DSC09676_AStep Two ~ take the string and tie it to one of the end stakes, fairly low to the ground, about 4″ up.  Don’t cut the string yet as you need a good length of it and you don’t want to waste any.  Travel the string across the stakes and loop it around each one until you get to the other side, keeping the string fairly taut.  Cut the string leaving a 6″ tail and knot securely.

Step 3 ~ move up about 8″ and do the same thing.  Depending on how high the stakes are and how tall your pea variety will grow determines how many times to repeat the above process.  Be mindful that for larger pea plant varieties, you may have to opt for a sturdier trellis, something tepee-like.

DSC09677_AOnce the peas start growing (they grow fast too), train them to find the string and soon they will be climbing happily up on their own.  Me, I can’t wait for that fresh-from-the-garden-taste of yummy Poppin’ Peas!

5 thoughts on “How To Build A Pea Trellis

  1. beautiful day lilies (?) in the background. My pea trellis consists of metal conduit tie wired around chicken wire LOL. Not pretty but effective year after year:)

    • Yes, lilies in the background, Tiger Lilies. They were here when we moved in. I added a few Iris plants about 10 yrs ago, the but lilies take over if not kept in check. I pulled up a dozen last year and transplanted at the cottage and also took another dozen up a couple weeks ago. Doesn’t look like I made a dent in the patch 😛 Metal conduit and chicken wire sounds like it will last a loooong time 🙂 and you are just a frugal as me 🙂

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  3. Thank you for the idea! You had suggested a teepee structure for taller pea plants… Is the technique with the string the same?

    • Hi Nichole – yes, just wind the string around the structure and spiral up the teepee with it 🙂 Happy Planting!

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