I don't know that I can help with this but I'll try. I've never used a trellis with horizontal wiring only but see no reason why it wouldn't work. I like a 6 in. grid on mine so I would space the wires 6 inches apart if I were doing it that way. You want the wire to be sturdy enough to survive the vines being pulled off. I use a lot of rebar panels for trellis. It rusts but that doesn't bother me. I know it would some people. If you could find something like these cattle panels at a reasonable price they would be ideal. The ones on that page are only 16 ft. long but I know that some makers make them longer.

Thanks for your response. I really like the look of the trellis in the link below (lots of pics...sorry. It's about 80% down the page with the title 'Wire Trellis with Pink Jasmine Vine'

I have four posts and would like to wire it like the one on the link. Don't know if I need a vertical wire though. And if so, how to attach it without pulling on the top and bottom wires. Any tips would be welcome!

Here is a link that might be useful: trellis

I would use cattle panels myself.

I would think that you'd need the vertical wires.

I have a wooden arbor that has horizontal only "bars" on it and they do not climb it well at all.

They shimmy right up wire though.

Use key hole screws evenly spaced about every 6 inches up each side of the posts and then run the wire through them horizontally. You should be able to screw them in by hand easily. The plants will wrap around this just fine. As long as the posts are secured firmly in the ground it will be sturdy. Besides, wire is so cheap you could always restring it each spring when its time to rip down type 3 clems if you need to. There is no need to run string vertically bc there will be plenty of wire for the plants to cling to. I like the support in the link. I think I might try this myself. Thanks for sharing!!

It looks to me like they used turnbuckles in the photo in the link which would make it easier to make the tension even. It also looks like the wires are spaced at 4" rather than 6", though I don't know that the closer spacing would be needed for a clematis.

What guage of wire would you recommend? My posts in the ground are not going anywhere so I'd like my wiring to be permanent as well.

I know that the gauge wire in concrete reinforcing mesh works well, but you'd have to do some research to find out what that is since I don't know. I have also used light weight cable that had previously been used in a garage door to spiral up a homemade obelisk, but that is a bit of overkill. ;>) You do want to use wire that is galvanized (less expensive and more common) or copper if it is going to last a long time.

Probably 7 or 8. It's about 1/8 in. Your choice, but I would look into the stock panels first.

I like the idea of the livestock panel used as a trellis. What is used as support for the panel? I notice there are Tposts, or can re-bar be used? I'm a female and need something easy that I can install myself.

I don't use livestock panel, but have used panels used for concrete reinforcement. I have used a wood frame on some, but many of my clematis supports are held up by rebar. I prefer that to t-posts because it is narrower and I find the clunkiness of t-posts unattractive.

My most frequent type of clematis support is an obelisk made of rebar or slightly narrower steel rod, cut to length with a hack saw and then attached together at the top with concrete tie wire or a hose clamp or a zip tie. I usually spiral a wire up the structure so that there is something extra for the clematis to cling to.

nhbabs, do you have any photos of your obelisk contraption? I've seen obelisks but the ones I've seen aren't very tall.

Jilljohn, I do, but right now I am out of town without my regular computer where my photos are stored. It may be a couple of weeks before I can get them up. Mine are about 6-8', but I could make them taller as the steel I mostly use comes in 20' lengths which I cut in half and then shove a foot or two into the ground.

Jilljohn -Here's the photo of a couple of my homemade obelisks:
{{gwi:586071}}From June 5, 2012

Definitely rustic, but as you can see the barn behind doesn't yet have final siding on it, so it's appropriate to this old farm.

nhbabs,
Impressive! You're obviously talented with metal. Thanks for posting. I'm a visual person. Is the plant planted inside the obelisk or at the outside edge?

Inspirational!