6 Best Vertical Garden Trellis Nettings For Saving Space That Maximize Yields
Save space and boost your harvest with vertical trellis netting. Our guide reviews the top 6 options to help you maximize yields and support plant health.
You’ve meticulously planned your garden beds, only to realize you’ve run out of ground space long before you’ve run out of seeds. This is the classic hobby farmer’s dilemma: big ambitions, small footprint. The solution isn’t to expand outward, but to grow upward, and the right trellis netting is the key to unlocking that vertical potential. Choosing the right net isn’t just about holding a plant up; it’s about saving space, improving air circulation, and dramatically increasing your harvest without tilling a single new row.
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VIVOSUN Heavy-Duty Netting for Vining Crops
When you need pure, uncompromising support, VIVOSUN’s heavy-duty polyester netting is the answer. This isn’t a flexible, stretchy net. It’s a rigid, woven grid designed to bear serious weight without sagging. Think of it as the structural backbone for your most ambitious vining crops.
This is the netting you reach for when growing heavy producers like slicing cucumbers, winter squash, or indeterminate tomatoes that will be loaded with fruit. Its strength means you can space your support posts further apart without worrying about the middle drooping under load. The 6-inch mesh squares are the perfect size for reaching through to harvest without damaging the vines.
The key tradeoff here is its lack of flexibility. You must install it taut from the beginning, because it has almost no give. This means your support frame—whether it’s T-posts, a wooden A-frame, or a cattle panel—needs to be rock solid. But for its intended purpose, which is season-after-season support for heavy crops, its durability and UV resistance make it a reliable workhorse.
AC Infinity Flexible Net for Training Plants
AC Infinity’s netting takes a completely different approach. Made from an elastic, bungee-like cord, its primary job isn’t to bear weight, but to train and guide plant growth. It’s designed to gently manipulate branches, spreading the plant’s canopy out to capture maximum sunlight. This is the core principle of the "Screen of Green" (Scrog) method.
This net excels with bushy, multi-stemmed plants like peppers, determinate tomatoes, or cannabis, where encouraging lateral growth leads to more flowering sites and a bigger yield. The elastic nature allows you to tuck and weave growing stems through the squares without snapping them. As the plant grows, the net adapts, providing gentle tension that encourages a wider, flatter canopy.
However, do not rely on this net to support heavy fruit. It’s a training tool, not a structural support. If you use it for vining cucumbers, you’ll still need to support the fruit with individual slings or use a stronger, non-elastic net in conjunction. It’s the perfect choice for actively managing plant architecture, but not for passively holding up a heavy harvest.
Gardener’s Supply Titan Trellis for Heavy Fruit
Sometimes, standard netting just won’t cut it. If you’ve ever had a trellis collapse mid-season under the weight of a bumper crop, you understand the need for something truly robust. The Titan Trellis netting from Gardener’s Supply Company is that next-level solution, built specifically for the heaviest of garden fruits.
This is a thick, UV-stabilized nylon mesh with large 8-inch squares, designed to handle serious weight. We’re talking small melons, like cantaloupes or sugar babies, or those massive heirloom beefsteak tomatoes that can weigh over a pound each. The large openings make it easy to harvest bulky produce without a struggle.
The main consideration is that this netting is part of a system, designed to work with their heavy-duty Titan A-frame. While you can adapt it to your own sturdy DIY frame, its strength is best realized when paired with a structure that won’t buckle. It’s an investment, but it’s one you make when you’re tired of replacing or repairing lesser options year after year. This is for the gardener who is serious about growing vertically and wants a system that will not fail.
Ross Trellis Netting: A Classic Garden Staple
If you’ve ever bought trellis netting from a local garden center, you’ve probably encountered Ross Trellis Netting. It’s the ubiquitous, affordable, and straightforward option that has been a staple in gardens for decades. Made of lightweight polypropylene, it’s a no-frills tool that gets the job done for many common applications.
This netting is ideal for lightweight climbers. Think pole beans, sugar snap peas, or smaller cucumber varieties like picklers. It’s easy to cut to size and light enough to hang from less substantial supports, like bamboo poles or simple wooden stakes. For a quick, temporary trellis, it’s hard to beat the convenience and low cost.
The tradeoffs are durability and tangling. This netting is prone to getting tangled during installation and removal, and a particularly vigorous vine can be a nightmare to clear out at the end of the season. It can also become brittle after a season or two of sun exposure. But for its price, it’s an excellent entry point into vertical gardening and perfect for crops that don’t demand heavy-duty support.
Scrog-Pro Elastic Netting for Maximum Spread
Scrog-Pro takes the concept of elastic training nets and refines it for maximum canopy management, often within the controlled environment of a grow tent. While similar to AC Infinity’s net, Scrog-Pro often includes features specifically for this purpose, like adjustable hooks designed to clip perfectly onto tent poles.
The goal here is precision. The elastic cords allow a grower to meticulously spread out a plant’s branches, ensuring every potential budding site receives direct light. By creating a flat, even canopy, you prevent the plant from wasting energy on lower branches that get shaded out. This is less about vertical height and more about horizontal spread to maximize light absorption and, therefore, yield.
While designed for indoor growing, this net can be adapted for outdoor use on a sturdy, square frame for plants like peppers. Its primary function remains the same: shaping the plant. If your goal is simply to get a cucumber vine off the ground, this is overkill. If your goal is to maximize the yield of a single, bushy plant by manipulating its growth structure, this is the specialized tool for the job.
A-iPower Trellis Net: A Versatile Multi-Pack
For the hobby farmer with multiple garden beds and diverse needs, value and versatility are paramount. The A-iPower trellis net often comes in a multi-pack, giving you a large quantity of durable, non-elastic polyester netting for a very reasonable price. It’s the practical choice for scaling up your vertical gardening efforts without breaking the bank.
This netting is functionally similar to the VIVOSUN net—a strong, woven polyester with 6-inch squares. It’s built for support, not for stretching. The real advantage is in the bulk quantity. Getting two or more nets in a pack means you can dedicate one to your tomatoes, another to your cucumbers, and still have some left over to cut for a smaller pea trellis.
This is the ultimate problem-solver’s netting. You can double it up for extra support for exceptionally heavy plants or use it in layers. For example, you can run one net vertically for the main vines and use a second, smaller piece horizontally at the base to give young plants something to grab onto early. It’s a straightforward, cost-effective solution for trellising across the entire garden.
Installing VIVOSUN Netting for Vertical Rows
Putting up a non-elastic net like VIVOSUN’s correctly is crucial; a saggy net is a failed net. Your success depends entirely on the strength of your frame and the tension you create. The goal is to make the net as taut as a drumhead before your plants even touch it.
First, build your frame. The most reliable method uses two sturdy T-posts hammered deep into the ground at either end of your row. For rows longer than 8-10 feet, add a third post in the middle. The key to preventing sag is to run a high-tensile wire or strong rope between the posts at the very top and very bottom of where you plan to hang the net.
With the support wires in place, attach the netting. Start by securing the four corners to the frame, pulling the net as tight as you possibly can. Then, work your way along the top and bottom, attaching the edge of the net to your guide wires every 12 inches with zip ties or strong garden twine. Finally, secure the sides to the posts. This method ensures the tension is distributed across the guide wires, not the netting itself, preventing the dreaded mid-season droop when it’s loaded with fruit.
AC Infinity vs. Scrog-Pro: Elastic Net Choice
Choosing between two excellent elastic nets like AC Infinity and Scrog-Pro comes down to your specific setup and training style. Both are designed to gently guide plant growth and create a wider canopy, but their design details cater to slightly different uses. The decision isn’t about which is "better," but which is better for your system.
AC Infinity nets are often designed for simplicity and adaptability. They typically come with hooks that can be moved to any position on the net’s perimeter, making them easy to fit into various square or rectangular spaces, whether it’s a grow tent or a custom-built outdoor frame. This makes them a great general-purpose choice for someone who wants a flexible training system that can be used in different applications.
Scrog-Pro, on the other hand, often focuses on a more integrated system, especially for grow tents. Their nets may feature fixed hooks spaced for standard tent pole diameters, providing a very secure, no-slip fit. This is ideal for the grower who wants a purpose-built solution for a specific tent size. The bottom line: If you need maximum adaptability for various DIY frames, lean toward AC Infinity. If you’re outfitting a standard-size grow tent and want a perfect, secure fit, check if Scrog-Pro has a model made for your exact dimensions.
Ultimately, the best trellis netting is the one that matches your crop’s needs and your garden’s goals. A heavy-duty polyester net provides the rigid backbone for weighty cucumbers and squash, while a flexible elastic net is the perfect tool for shaping a pepper plant’s canopy for a bigger harvest. By choosing the right tool for the job, you transform a simple support structure into a system that saves space, prevents disease, and maximizes the yield of every square foot you farm.
