DIY: How to Build a Bamboo Trellis Tower

Here’s a simple, beautiful way to support tall-growing tomato (aka "indeterminate tomato") plants: a Bamboo Trellis Tower, brainchild of horticulturist and garden designer Charlie Thigpen. Bamboo can be surprisingly easy to find, as it grows vigorously and often a little too enthusiastically for the person on whose property it resides.

man training branches to grow inside bamboo trellis
Bamboo trellis tower planted with yellow cherry tomatoes
Bamboo trellis tower planted with yellow cherry tomatoes

Here's a simple, beautiful way to support tall-growing (aka indeterminate) tomato plants: a Bamboo Trellis Tower, brainchild of horticulturist and garden designer Charlie Thigpen. Charlie owns Charlie Thigpen's Garden Gallery, located in Birmingham, Alabama.

Here's how to build your own Bamboo Trellis Tower:

  1. Cut the following using a pruning saw: four 8½-foot poles, four 28″ cross-pieces, four 14″ cross-pieces, and eight 42″ pieces.
  2. Cut the thicker end of each pole into a sharp angle to make it easier to drive into the ground.
  3. Loosely gather the thinner ends of the four poles together and secure them.
  4. Set the bottoms of the poles about 34″ apart and drive them a few inches into the ground.
  5. Using zip-ties, twine, or fishing line, attach the four 28″ cross-pieces horizontally to the poles at about 32″ above the ground.
  6. Attach the four 14″ cross-pieces horizontally to the poles at about 66″ above the ground.
  7. Use the eight 42″ pieces to create an X in the middle of each side of the tower, between the cross-pieces. Be sure to position them with the thinner parts at the top.
  8. Tighten the top of the tower as needed (where the poles come together).
  9. Plant an indeterminate tomato plant in the center. As it grows, keep branches and foliage inside the tower, using twine to help train the growth.

Bamboo can be surprisingly easy to find, as it grows vigorously and often a little too enthusiastically for those on whose property it resides — chances are they will welcome your taking some away. (Still, be sure to ask first!)

Here's another benefit of bamboo: Once the tower begins to break down after two or three years, you can compost it. Simply take it apart and add it to the compost heap.

Can't find bamboo? You can also make this structure from sturdy, mostly-straight branches or rebar. Whatever material you choose, you can also use the trellis for beans, peas, cucumbers, and melons. Just plant around the "footprint" of the tower.

But wait! Before you plant, improve the soil around the tower by mixing in some Miracle-Gro® Garden Soil for Vegetables & Herbs. This will add nutrients, help protect against watering too much (or too little), and pave the way to a big tomato harvest. You'll also want to pamper your plants by feeding them throughout the season with Miracle-Gro® Shake ‘n Feed® Tomato, Fruit & Vegetable Plant Food, which not only contains natural ingredients that feed the microbes in the soil, but also has calcium to help plants grow strong and avoid blossom end rot.

Article by Su Reid-St. John.

Zip-ties, found at hardware and home improvement stores, are an easy way to connect parts of the tower.
Zip-ties, found at hardware and home improvement stores, are an easy way to connect parts of the tower.
Trellis designer Charlie Thigpen redirects the branches of this Sungold tomato plant inside to accentuate the shape of the structure.
Trellis designer Charlie Thigpen redirects the branches of this Sungold tomato plant inside to accentuate the shape of the structure.