Greenhouse Roof Cane Supports

thingiverse

One of the biggest headaches I face in my aluminum greenhouse is dealing with top-heavy fruit-laden plants like tomatoes and cucumbers. Bamboo canes work great, but sometimes the sheer weight of the fruit makes the pots and canes tip over, damaging both the plants and the fruit. A simple anchor for the canes is what's needed, but fixing to the greenhouse, especially at the meeting of the end "walls" and roof, without damaging or weakening the aluminum frame is a challenge. Plus, making something that's easily (re)positioned or removed is another problem. Some experimentation led me to this solution. Some simple 3D printed parts firmly attach to the roof, providing an anchor to support a 12mm dowel or cane where vertical canes can be tied as needed. The end clips and joiner all have M6 x 1 threads that accept the thumb screws or any other M6 threaded bolt or screw. Experimentation showed that the clamps work more reliably with the printed thumb screws than with metal bolts. There are two versions of the intermediate clips. My preferred solution uses long M6 cropped head greenhouse bolts and nuts, which I initially had trouble finding. The second version uses an M5 screw and hammerhead nut. Both work equally well. The joiner came later in the design process when it finally hit me that there was no way to insert the dowel through the clips along an entire side of the greenhouse without taking some of the glass out. (Doh!) The prototype (pictured) was printed with PLA and appears to be standing up to the rigors of temperature and sunshine really well so far. If they finally give out, I'll probably reprint them in PETG.