SHL Trellis Plants Adventure - Part 1

I have always had a fascination of plants growing on a trellis or arbor ever since I saw in real-life grapes growing on an arbor in California.  Somehow, I do not think that grapes will grow well at the farm so I began to experiment with different plants.  There is a multitude of choices so I selected based on what I enjoy eating.

To start with, I selected long green beans and french beans - both versatile vegetables.  Both these plants produce lilac flowers so I wonder if these types of beans produce lilac or purple flowers.  I also noticed that the angle bean (kacang kelisa ) also produces purple flowers.  Both the long beans and green beans does well planted in polybag, just watch the soil level against the root growth.  Should the roots become visible, it is essential to top-up with additional soil to ensure the plant continues to produce good quality and lots of beans.  Periodic removal of mature leaves will encourage production of flowers and new growth.  These two plants share a trellis well as the trailing vines have similar light texture.

Baby cucumbers are also a favorite, with its crisp, sweet, fresh taste.  They also produce nice, small  yellow flowers.  These plant are really sensitive to the water availability as well as vulnerable to insects which tend to eat the leaves as opposed to my other trellis plants.  The leave have a coarse surface texture and can stick to your clothes easily.  I spray them at least once a week with my serai wangi mix.

The bottle gourd or labu air produces medium-sized white flowers  with a yellow center, which unlike most of the other flowers, have petals that open at dusk and through the evening and closes when the sun rises. 

The leaves are similar to the loofah/luffa or petola plant.  The difference between the two, the loofah plant produces yellow flowers and similar to the bottle gourd, it opens at dusk and closes at sunrise.  The bottle gourd, loofah and baby cucumber can share the same trellis as they have heavier trellis so they can support each other.  It is best not to plant these plants on the same trellis as the long bean or green beans as they can weigh down the vines of the beans,

There are several varieties of bitter gourd and they produce white flowers.  The leaves of the bitter gourd appear to be delicate and has a distinctive shape, with lots of details - rather beautiful.  It is also soft to the touch.  It's tendrils are also delicate and break easily.  The bitter gourd can share the same trellis as the green beans due to their similar lighter vines.

Most times you will find pumpkin grown on the ground, often referred to as a pumpkin patch.  However, these plants can be grown on a trellis, albeit with a little help from "strings" to help support the plant.  Personnally, I prefer the green/yellow speckled pumpkin which you find at supermarkets often labelled as Japanese pumpkins.  It is best to plant the pumpkins on their own trellist as they have heavy vines and much larger leaves.

All these plants are planted in large polybags to ease maintenance as well as ensure maximum fertilization as the fertilizer is placed within the polybag and no wastage.  I can just focus on the weeds that grown in the polybags and use a weed-cutter in the areas surrounding the polybags.  When the plants die off, I just remove the polybag from the trellis and replace with another. 

Being in polybags also mean that I have to monitor the moisture level of the soil more than if it was planted in the ground but the trade-off is worthwhile since it makes preventing it from being overcrowded by weeds much easier.  With all the various colors of flowers and its fancy-shaped leaves, it presents a beautiful trellis to the eyes.  My next addition to the trellises will be honey dew and cantaloupes.  And so the adventure continues......