Wisteria advice please!

Having recently planted a foot high wisteria against a wooden trellis fixed to a sunny wall, it's gone crazy and seems to be growing a centimetre or so a day! Great, and I plan to grow it up, pruning side shoots until it's the height I want and then training it left and right...

But I wonder if I should feed it through (in and then out again) of the wooden trellis while at this young stage, or whether I should just wire or loosely string it against the trellis.

I assume that once the main trunk gets thick enough that it supports itself and therefore putting it against the trellis would be better, rather than risking it growing inside the trellis and eventually snapping through it?

Thanks for any advice
Matt

 

Hi
I grow wisteria
I have trained it up a huge rose arch I have actualy trained it around the post so as its gets older will look realy good as a snake twisting around .

Yes if you weave in and out of the trellis it would eventaly move it about. so loosely tie in for now on the out side

If training up a wall you will have to fix wires and eyes to support the main branches that you want to train left and right these would have to be permanent , plus if you have down pipes from the guttering they will twine round those as well just so you know but the main trunk would eventualy be fine.

Spruce

 

I agree, tie to the trellis rather than weave in-and-out. Otherwise the trellis will be a constriction once the trunk grows thick.

In my experience those really long shoots tend to die back I'm afraid, so they probably won't all become the final stature of the plant, but here's hoping :thumb:L

 

just a thought, though I will readily admit I have only experience of one wisteria:

Our plant here only winds one way. If I wrap a stem the wrong way, it seems to stop growing, as the plant tries to "untwist" it. If I wrap it the right way, it carries on growing well. So have a look at which way the new tendrils are spiraling, and take that into consideration if you decide to "wrap" around anything.

 

all very useful

tips thank you all. It seems to go clockwise, so I'll make sure I don't force it the 'wrong' way, and good to know I should just tie it to the trellis. Thanks

 

They all go the same way, don't them? Opposition for North / Southern hemisphere though. I thought it was 'coz the pointy bit tracked the sun - so from East to West

Or are there some that go anti-rightway ?

 

No, not come across that before, but enjoyed watching & listening, thanks

Just in case you ever need the trivia in a quiz:

wisteria brachybotrys and wisteria sinensis twine anti-clockwise, whereas wisteria floribunda twines clockwise. The clockwise gene in wisteria floribunda must be dominant as all the hybrids twine clockwise too.

Courtesy of "The Garden" May issue, which coincidentally I happened to read today :thumb: