6 Best Netting Supports For Pea Plants That Old Gardeners Swear By
Explore 6 time-tested pea netting supports that veteran gardeners trust. Learn how to choose the right structure for healthy plants and a bountiful harvest.
There’s a moment every spring when you realize your beautiful, lush row of pea plants has become a tangled, sprawling mess on the ground. It happens fast. One day they’re reaching for the sky, and the next they’ve collapsed into a heap after a heavy rain. Providing strong, early support isn’t just about neatness; it’s the single most important step you can take to guarantee a heavy, healthy pea harvest.
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Why Strong Pea Support Prevents Disease & Pests
Getting your pea vines off the ground is fundamentally about airflow. When plants are clumped together on the damp soil, air can’t circulate. This creates the perfect humid environment for fungal diseases like powdery mildew to take hold, turning your vibrant green leaves into a sad, chalky mess.
A strong trellis system lifts the leaves and stems up into the breeze, allowing them to dry quickly after rain or morning dew. This simple act of vertical gardening is your best defense, dramatically reducing the need for fungicides or other interventions. Clean plants are productive plants.
Furthermore, a tangled mat of peas on the ground is an open invitation for slugs and other crawling pests. They thrive in the damp, dark shelter the leaves provide and will happily chew through pods that are within easy reach. By lifting the vines, you make it much harder for them to get a meal. You also make it easier for you to spot and pick the peas, which prevents pods from over-maturing and signaling the plant to stop producing.
Tenax Hortonova: The Professional’s Choice
If you walk through a small commercial flower or vegetable farm, you’ll likely see Hortonova netting. It’s a lightweight, UV-stabilized polypropylene mesh that comes in large rolls. This is the go-to for people who need to trellis a lot of plants efficiently.
The beauty of Hortonova is its strength-to-weight ratio. It’s incredibly strong and won’t sag under the weight of a fully loaded pea crop, but it’s light enough for one person to handle easily. You simply unroll it along a line of sturdy posts and pull it taut. For a long row of peas, nothing is faster to set up.
The tradeoff is that it’s still plastic. While it’s reusable for several seasons if handled carefully, it can be a real pain to clean and store without creating a tangled nightmare. At the end of its life, it has to be thrown away, which is a consideration for gardeners aiming for a zero-waste system.
Zareba T-Posts for a Sturdy, Long-Lasting Frame
Netting is only as good as the frame that holds it up. While wooden stakes work, they rot at the ground level within a few years. For a truly permanent and reliable system, nothing beats standard metal T-posts, the kind you find at any farm supply store.
These steel posts are designed for livestock fencing, so they can certainly handle a row of peas. You drive them into the ground with a post pounder, and they stay put. The little nubs running up the post are perfect for catching the edge of your netting or for tying off support wires.
Investing in a dozen T-posts is a smart move for any serious gardener. One year they’re holding up your pea trellis, the next they’re supporting tomatoes or forming a temporary fence to keep chickens out of a new bed. They are a multi-purpose tool that will last for decades.
Gardener’s Supply A-Frame for Maximum Yields
An A-frame trellis is a classic design for a reason: it doubles your growing space. By creating two angled growing surfaces that meet at the top, you can plant a row of peas on each side, effectively maximizing your harvest from a single garden bed.
This structure creates a tunnel of shade underneath, which helps keep the soil cool and moist. This can slightly extend your harvest season as temperatures rise. Harvesting is also a breeze, as you can simply walk along each side and pick the pods that hang on the exterior of the frame.
You can buy pre-made metal A-frames, which are convenient but can be pricey. Alternatively, building your own from wood and a section of cattle panel or sturdy netting is a straightforward weekend project. The main downside is storage; they are bulkier and more awkward to put away in the off-season than a simple roll of netting and a stack of T-posts.
Ross Trellis Netting: A Versatile & Light Option
For smaller gardens or raised beds, a giant roll of professional netting is overkill. This is where Ross Trellis Netting, or similar brands found at local garden centers, comes in. It’s a lighter-duty nylon or plastic netting that’s perfect for a 10 or 20-foot row.
It’s affordable and easy to find. You can cut it to the exact length you need with a pair of scissors and it’s light enough to be supported by sturdy bamboo canes or lighter wooden stakes. For a beginner gardener or someone with just a few pea plants, this is an excellent starting point. Just be aware that its lifespan is limited; expect to get one, maybe two, seasons out of it before the sun makes it brittle.
Bamboo Canes & Jute Twine: The Classic DIY Setup
There is an elegant simplicity to building a pea trellis from nothing more than bamboo and twine. This is the traditional method, born from using what’s available. You can create tripods, a flat "fence," or any shape you can imagine by lashing the bamboo poles together.
Once the frame is built, you simply weave biodegradable jute twine back and forth to create a grid for the pea tendrils to grab. The process is meditative and allows for infinite customization to your specific space. At the end of the season, you can snip the twine and toss the entire plant-and-twine mass directly into the compost pile.
The obvious tradeoff here is time. Weaving a large trellis by hand takes a lot longer than unrolling a pre-made net. The structure is also less rigid than a T-post system and may require extra bracing in windy locations, especially when the plants are heavy with pods.
Tractor Supply Cattle Panel: A One-Time Purchase
If you want to build a pea support system that will outlive you, buy a cattle panel. These are 16-foot-long sections of heavy-gauge, welded wire fencing. They are incredibly rigid, completely weatherproof, and will never, ever break under the weight of a vegetable crop.
You can install a panel vertically between two T-posts for an indestructible, wall-like trellis. The 6-inch square openings are perfect for reaching through to harvest from either side. This setup is a one-and-done project that will be ready for you year after year.
An even more popular method is to take a full panel and bend it into an arch, securing the ends to the ground with rebar stakes. This creates a beautiful and productive tunnel to walk through. You can grow peas up the outside, and later in the season, you can grow pole beans or small vining squash. The initial cost and the difficulty of transporting the large, awkward panel are the only real downsides. This is an investment, not an expense.
Pro Tips for Setting Up Your Pea Netting System
Install your support system when you plant your seeds. Do not wait. Trying to weave delicate, 6-inch pea seedlings into a trellis after the fact is a recipe for broken stems and frustration. Give them something to grab onto from day one.
Go taller than you think you need to. Many pea varieties, especially sugar snaps and heirloom telephone types, will easily grow over 6 feet tall. A 4-foot trellis will leave you with a massive, tangled clump at the top that eventually flops over. Aim for a 6 or 7-foot support structure.
Your netting must be pulled taut. A loose, saggy net will just droop with the plants, defeating the purpose. The frame (whether it’s T-posts or a wooden A-frame) needs to be solid and immovable. The netting should be stretched tight between the supports like a tennis racket string.
Finally, give your plants a little help at the beginning. The tiny tendrils of a young pea plant can sometimes struggle to find their first grip. Gently guide the first few leaders and wrap them around the netting. Once they get a foothold, they’ll take it from there.
Ultimately, the best pea support is the one you actually put in place before your plants need it. Whether you choose a permanent cattle panel arch or a simple, compostable bamboo and twine setup, the goal is the same: get those vines climbing. A strong trellis is your ticket to a clean, disease-free crop and a harvest that’s a joy, not a chore, to pick.
