New to gardening and first post. Got started with a little aerogarden in January and this is fun! So fun, I got a tower garden with lights on craigslist, used for 1 season for $350. A few hours of scrubbing and she's as good as new.

While awaiting my heirloom seeds, I decided to build a trellis to keep me occupied. Guess I was pleased with how my design turned out so deciced to post in case someone else is looking for one. A bit hard to see in this photo, so click on the pictures to enlarge them.



A close up, easier to see...



This should take 20 minutes to shop in person and about 90 minutes to complete. That said, if I knew the trellis for the tower garden flex would fit, I would gladly have paid $50 more for a ready to go setup from the manufacturer, but glad to have saved the money. Also, I'm guessing that one won't fit as the as the tower garden home is smaller.

What's needed:

3 x 36" threaded rods (these need to be smaller than 5/16 to fit. I used 5/16, which can be forced, but I didn't want to risk it so used a tap/die to make threads and not lose plastic, except where the threads were, maintaining the structural strength) - $3.70 each

5 x 5' 1/2" pex tubing - $2.24 each

6 wing nuts for the threaded rod - $1.28 each

21 washers $3.85 for a package of 25

3 nuts for threaded rod - 40 cents each

9 plastic coated wire coat hangers

optional - pex clamps - ~$4 for a pack of 10
----
total cost was about $35ish

How it's made:

1. The existing wing nuts and screws are removed.
2. A 36" threaded rod with a nut about 1.5" up is inserted into the hose and tightened into the new wing nut, just as the old screw was. Basically the threaded rod with nuts replaces the screw. The nut is below the washer in this pic.



3. Repeat for other 2 holes
4. Cut 3 pex rods into 3' lengths and these will be paced over the little nubs that are in between the screwed in items and they will hold themselves up, so now you will have 6 'poles' built. You can add a pex clamp at the end as shown below, optionally, to snug it up more, but absolutely unnecessary.



5. Cut the remaining pex into 9 equal pieces about 10-11" in length, but make sure they are all the same length and try to cut them evenly and not at angles.
6. Now start stacking the items for the rods as follows from bottom to top.

-washer, pex piece, 2 washers, pex piece, 2 washers, pex piece, 2 washers, wing nut
-repeat for other 2 rods

see the stack below



The top part with the wing nut.



7. Now remove one of the 3' pex tubes and put it next to the assembled rod.
8. Make a mark at each point where there are 2 washers.
9. Drill the holes. Just large enough for the wire hanger rod to go through easily. All holes must be aligned top to bottom and side to side.

-for the bottom drill the holes at the mark. They will be 120 degrees apart, or if you make three marks,
-for the middle hole, go up 1/8" from the mark to make the holes
-for the top hole, go up 1/4" and at least 1/2" from the top.

the adjustments are needed to account for the fact that the 2 washer areas are where the wire hanger rods will go.

How the holes are, basically each hole should point at the next pole.



10. Use the pex pole you made holes in to mark the other 2 3' pex tubes.

11. Reattach 3' pex tubes to nubs.

Now you are ready to make the horizontal portions.

12. Cut coat hagars so that you have a total of 9 straight 26" pieces.

13. Bend each wire at a 120 degree angle. You can use the tops of the poles to get the right angle.

14. Insert the hooks through the holes in the 3' pex tubes and the ends under each stack of 2 washers.

15. Make hooks on the end of each wire, so that the straight portions are exactly 12" long and wrap around the threaded rod on the ends. (each wire has an extra 1" on each end for this purpose and see the wing nut picture to see how the hooks go)

16. After all wires are hooked around the threaded rod and sandwiched between the washers, tighten the wing nuts on top.

17. Take 6" to 8" pieces of scrap coat hanger wire and bend them in half and insert into the tops. This helps it keep aligned, but isn't required.



18. Take some time to straighten out the wires and enjoy.

Some things hung to test strength before I straightened the wires. I think each segment could hold 10 pounds if needed. The coffee cups and stuff weigh about 4 pounds altogether and maybe 1/4" of deflection.



If the rod is too short, like the below, you can cut the top level tubes a bit so that the end protrudes just a little bit from the wing nut.

One more thing.. once the trellis is made, it's a 5 minute job to restore to factory original, just by replacing the original screws and wing nuts.

Re-installation is maybe 10 minutes to get everything lined up.

I used about 1' spacing between 'layers' by using 11" pieces, but you can make them as close and as may layers as you would like.

Also, if you want to make a W shaped trellis, the holes can be drilled to they are 2" to 6" lower than the washers to get a nice design.

Better pics - click to see detail

Nice job . Show pic's once things are growing. What do you plan on growing up the trellis?

Thanks Bob,

Looking forward to posting pics of my first grow in this contraption.

For the bottom 4 pots, I've landed on tomato, eggplant, bell peppers and cucumber, since I can let them spill onto the floor as there's no plants below to block out.

Still deciding on the 2nd row up, but likely go with smaller plants there and from the 3rd /. 4th one up, I'm going with lettuces, kale, chard, spinach, etc. Microgreens in the very top.

I might do some hot chili peppers and something else brightly colored either red or yellow. Want to grow squash as well, but maybe on the next run.

Seeds should arrive tomorrow and I've picked up some 7gal reliance water jugs to make getting RO water from Whole Foods a bit easier. Using RO because my body doesn't care for chlorides and fluorides and I assume the same for the plants. At 39c/gallon, not too bad, even if I were to use 50gallons every 3 months. Have no idea what the draw from the plants and evaporation will be but will see.

Btw, Looks like we are close by, as I am maybe 20 mins from Vernon.

Forgot to sat to the site and hope you have great luck with your garden.

Thanks Bob,

Glad to be here.

Just as an update and PSA for tg owners…. Don't over-tighten those casters!

…loaded the unit with water to test the pump while I get the seeds started. All was well, pump worked, fairly quiet and water flow looked good, reaching all pots.

An hour later, the risks of buying a used device have manifested themselves.

Had a slow weep, maybe a half oz per hour weeping out from the base of one of the casters. Emptied and disassembled and it appears there are hairline cracks surrounding the embedded nut that the casters screw into. A result of a combination of a bad design and someone having overtightened a caster. Can't fault the prior owner, as the design has a caster with a 1" threaded rod, but a hole that bottoms out into plastic at 1/2", and if overtightened, creates stress cracks. It's evident that this was a problem prior to me, as that caster bolt was the only one showing oxidation and I could see some brown inside the hole, where nutrient water may have seeped into the cavity.

No biggie, a little CA glue on the outside and food safe 2 part epoxy on the inside to seal and strengthen the area. Filled the hole with epoxy up to the bottom of the threads, in case any leaks there.

Poor design though, not including spacers or washers to prevent the screws from inadvertently being over inserted, causing the unit to crack. Better yet, a longer nut, like an acorn nut and thicker plastic reinforcements would be a welcome improvement, so the caster bolt only bottoms out into the metal nut.

Plenty of time for it to cure as the earliest germination is 2+ weeks and it seems having the roots and seedlings be at least 2-3 inches and robust to best bet for them survive the transplant into the tower.

1st signs of life..

My little seedling production site..



1st signs of life! Who knew a few little sprinkles of green could add a little sunshine to an already bright area.



What's been planted... top is right





TG layout

Amazing level of organization!

Thanks purpleinopp!

Kind of get forced into it since certain plants have to go in certain places. Also, since I'm a new gardener, I was worried I wouldn't be able to identify them after the fact. As a result, I'll be putting some labels next to each plant as well.

Lesson learned... Next time, I'll just use those plastic flags I can push into the cubes to keep from having to write everything out 3 times. Or maybe diy, using printer labels on a toothpick or something inert so I don't have to retype each grow or look up the seed counts, germinations, etc.

My pleasure! Repetition helps with retention, so you'll probably just remember a lot of your plants and a lot of their details soon.

Took the little guys for a little road trip for a concert and a little fun in the sun to harden them up a bit and a couple are a bit leggy from the spillover light source from the little aerogarden. I do rotate them 180 degrees each day, but I may need to make one of those sprouting kits so that the ligths can be closer and maybe warm them a bit for the less cold loving varieties.

Right now they are listening to Mozart. I can tell already the single seed of cucumber in the top right of the box is going to be a troublemaker.



Remaining to sprout are cilantro (old seeds from 2018, so hope they sprout), celery, green beans, bibb lettuce, spinach and one of the green onions. The remainder have shown their faces.

This is day 8 since planted for anyone keeping track (and a note to myself).

Very inspirational!

If you find it convenient, you can make a plant list on this site and add notes, make sub-lists. When you look up a plant in the plant database, there's a big blue button to add it to your list. I use mine a lot.

Thanks! Great tip on the plants list. I briefly saw the database and all the other resources on this site and haven't spent time learning much yet, but will definitely look at that now.

Sam

My pleasure!

Saw this interesting article on plants and music.

https://dengarden.com/gardenin...

There was a recent mythbusters where this was tested and I believe death metal had the most positive impact on growth. Thankfully, classical music was second, with particular attention to violins.

--excerpt for those that don't like to click--

The Effect of Music on Seed Development

Dr. T. C. Singh also discovered that seeds that were exposed to music and later germinated produced plants that had more leaves, were of greater size, and had other improved characteristics. It practically changed the plant's genetic chromosomes!

Working around the same time as Singh, Canadian engineer Eugene Canby exposed wheat to J.S. Bach's violin sonata and observed a 66% increase in yield. Canby's research reinforces Singh's findings.

Do Plants Like Rock Music?

In a 1973 experiment by Dorothy Retallack, then a student of Professor Francis Brown, three groups of plants were exposed to various types of musical sounds.

For one group, Retallack played the note F for an 8-hour period.
For the second group, she played similar note for three hours.
The third controlled group remained in silence.
The first group died within two weeks, while the second group was much healthier than the controlled group.

Classical Music vs. Rock Music for Plants

Fascinated by Retallack's findings, two other students went on to do their own test. Plants exposed to Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, and Schubert grew towards and entwined themselves around the speakers. Another plant group grew away from a speaker that played rock music. That group even tried to climb a glass-walled enclosure in what appeared to be an attempt to get away from the sound.

Retallack later replicated the experiment with rock music (like Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix) on a variety of plants. She observed abnormal vertical growth and smaller leaves. She also observed the plants to have damage similar to that associated with excessive water uptake. In the experiment, marigolds died within two weeks. No matter which way they were turned, plants leaned away from the rock music source. These findings were documented in Retallack's 1973 book The Sound of Music and Plants.

One study found that plants grew away from speakers playing rock music.

What About Country and Jazz?

Plants that are exposed to country music have the same reaction as those who are subjected to no sound at all, showing no unusual growth reaction.

According to some studies, jazz music appears to have a beneficial effect, producing better and more abundant growth. The science television show MythBusters did a similar experiment and concluded that plants reacted well to any type of music, whether rock, country, jazz, or classical. Their experiments, however, were not thoroughly conducted and are highly debatable.

"Strangely, plants' musical tastes show a remarkable congruence with those of the humans reporting them."

— Daniel Chamovitz

Music for Plant Growth in Practice

DeMorgenzon wine estate in Stellenbosch, South Africa, uses baroque music to enhance the ripening process. They believe the vibrations help not just of the plants but also in the soil and produce good fungi and bacteria in the soil that are vital for healthy vines, which encourages better and stronger root development, resulting in vigorous growth and better fruit. Many commercial growers play music for their crops, regardless of the fact that there are no reliable studies to support the idea.

How Can Plants Hear?

How could music affect plant growth if plants don't have ears? To explain how it may work, let us look at how we humans receive and hear sound.

Sound is transmitted in the form of waves that travel through a medium, such as air or water. The waves cause the particles in this medium to vibrate. When you switch on your radio, the sound waves create vibrations in the air that cause your ear drum to vibrate. This pressure energy is converted into electrical energy for the brain to translate into what you understand as musical sounds.

In a similar manner, the pressure from sound waves create vibrations that could be picked up by plants. Plants would not "hear" the music; they would feel the vibrations of the sound wave.

Vibrations and Protoplasm

Protoplasm, the translucent living matter of which all animals and plant cells are composed, is in a state of perpetual movement. The vibrations picked up by the plant might speed up the protoplasmic movement in the cells. This stimulation then could affect the system and improve performance, such as the manufacture of nutrients that develop a stronger and better plant.

Different forms of music have different sound wave frequencies and varying degrees of pressure and vibration. Louder music, like rock, features greater pressure, which some people think might have a detrimental effect on plants. Imagine the effect of strong wind on a plant compared to a mild breeze.

Interesting read.

It is. The genres of music are so vast, and whether a song belongs in this one or that one is mostly subjective. Especially classical. Does it need to be old, or just orchestral? What do we do with an homage like Rock Me, Amadeus? Is there opera music in Rocky Horror Picture Show? Some of the people in the R'n'R HoF would be laughed at by those who many would say are the real rockers. Can you fit a knife in between jazz & funk? Rock and blues? ; )

These types of conclusions seem more about the mood of the music, than the style. Some music is undeniably sad, or violent, or exuberant. It would make sense, to a human, if plants preferred upbeat music, from the vibe and/or the beat, tones, types of instruments. And are the plants getting happy vibes from the people doing the experiment? Plants @ my house do seem to respond to happy music of all genres.

Does some music more closely replicate the humming of the earth?
https://www.earthmagazine.org/...

It's fascinating!

I saw a documentary on the root brain hypothesis and vaguely recall it from a graduate botany or biochemistry class and it seems they are pretty capable beings.

One interesting segment was on a chemical signal that allowed them to effectively communicate in mass over a large area. If an ant chewed the roots or stems (can't recall exactly), either a chemical in the ant's saliva or something (may have also been the type of damage inflicted) triggered a chemical reaction in a tree in a forest to start producing a hormone that caused the release of sap, stopping the ants by gumming up their pincers, as a pre-emptive survival mechanism. At the same time, another simple chemical like alcohol or something was released from the leaves and this triggered chemical reactions in neighboring trees, until it propogated several square miles in a large forest where the trees were all producing sap, overnight.

Another showed a fast motion sequence over several days that showed the plant root tips probing around, looking for nutrients, and then growing branches upon branches upon reaching water. Really basic, I know, but to see it in real time, it really looks like exactly what an animal would do and very clever, but with the superpower of being able to grow wherever it was an advantage and in different shapes, depending on the situation. All triggered by a series of chemical reactions. Amazing to me.

Similarly, the the leaves and their motion in real time are amazing, but not as varied. Perhaps because there's less variability in the air vs. the soil, requiring more probing, or different needs, I don't know.

Day 14 and remaining holdouts are 1 cilantro, 2 spinach varieties, 1 kale and the provider green beans.




There is a fuzzy white growth on the provider green beens.

Anything to worry about? Some type of fungus? Not spider mites I hope? Will quarantine this one by itself for now.

Day 18

Some seedlings have started to crowd each other our for light, so transplanted the larger ones to their next home.

Tossed the moldy bean seed. Seems I may need to maybe wash or scrub them clean the next round as I assume it was some sort of mold.