Technology in the garden - the Gripple system
The Gripple Plant Support System is a simple and strong system that creates highly tensioned wires to create a trellis on a fence or wall to support climbers like jasmine and clematis. It can also be used as a free-standing support systems for plants such as beans, vines and raspberries. It avoids sagging wires and doesn’t need complicated tools.
It’s easy to use, tensions easily by hand, and there’s no need for twisting and knotting of the wire. The clever system consists of the plastic gripples and a tough nylon wire. The wire gets fed through the hole in the gripple, around the fixing point such as a post or through vine eyes screwed to the wall and then back through the second channel of the gripple and tensioned by hand. The gripples have serrated rollers which lock the wire in place. Once it’s tensioned correctly, the wire is trimmed to the right length.
It’s made from durable material. The Gripple itself is made from nylon, which is reinforced with glass-fibre, and inside there is a ceramic gripping mechanism and stainless-steel springs, so again, nothing can rust. The wire is UV stabilised so it won't deteriorate in sunlight and will last for about 15 years. This makes it ideal for use both outdoors and humid glasshouses.
The Garden Trellis Starter Kit Contains 30m of 2.5mm black nylon gripple wire and 4 gripple tensioners, 4 vine eyes, but additional gripples and wires can be bought separately. It supports up to 100 kg. For heavier loads there is Gripple Plus which has more heavy-duty wire and a torq tensioning tool. This is available with galvanised or stainless-steel wire in two rope sizes; 2 mm and 3 mm and 50m in length, tensioned using Gripple Plus wire tensioners. This looks very stylish against a brick wall. Rubber wire caps prevent injuries and protect the ends of the wire, once cut to size.
