How to Build a Hydroponic PVC Trellis

Hydroponic gardens offer contained, controlled growing environments for home gardeners, allowing growers to raise plants, vegetables, herbs and fruits indoors, year-round, with artificial light and no soil. Hydroponics systems instead use liquid minerals and chemicals in water to provide nutrition to plants that are rooted in a "growing medium" that's not unlike little bits of gravel or Styrofoam. Vining plants -- such as melons, cucumbers and tomatoes -- growing in a hydroponic system need structural support, just like they would outdoors. To accommodate a trellis in your grow room, consider making one supported in heavy buckets on either side of the plant or either end of the plant row. Use light, inexpensive, interior-appropriate materials like PVC pipe and netting to provide a simple trellis for plants in your hydroponic garden.

2 pots, 3 gallons each
Topsoil/gravel/glass marbles for ballast
2 lengths of PVC pipe, 4 feet long
Trellis netting
Ties
Scissors

Instructions

- 1
  Fill two 3-gallon pots with topsoil, gravel or decorative glass marbles. Push 3- to 4-foot lengths of PVC pipe into the pots and secure them to build your trellis supports. Put these supports at the sides of your hydroponic system.
- 2
  Cut a piece of trellis netting 1 foot longer than the space between the two supports. This netting will provide your trellis structure.
- 3
  Wrap one end of the netting twice around the first PVC pipe. Use twine to secure the netting every 2 to 3 inches, from top to bottom. Stretch the netting to the second pole, wrap it around the pole and secure in the same manner. Don't worry about it not being taut while you're securing the netting with twine, as you'll be able to slide the buckets out to adjust the net's tautness later. Nevertheless, pull the netting tight before you move to Step 4.
- 4
  Run a length of twine from the top of one PVC pipe to the other, threading it through the loops of netting as you go for additional support.
- 5
  Tie the vines of your plants to the netting in upward and outward formations. Use lengths of twine for the ties, and tie the plants loosely to avoid damage to stems or leaves.

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