Considering a normal sized canteen gourd could weigh 10 lb or more in its green stage, and you could have several on a vine, and the vines will choose their own directions, and you may have more weight on one side than the other---you may want to consider a more substantial support from the ground up. I'm thinking of something like an old swing set frame. The vines themselves can get pretty weighty, and you could easily have more than 100 lbs of gourd on each...

Jan

Thanks for the thought. Maybe I could use a bigger pcv pipe, like three inch. Or, steel pipes. I'm trying to put in something permanent. I'll have to reconsider the weight factor. Also, being a retired senior, I'm trying to do something that's not too physically hard.

Any more suggestions would be helpful.

The sun will make the PVC brittle in a couple or three years. If you want permanent you could do wood uprights with iron cross members and a overlay of 6"x6" mesh fencing. Ron

The heavy support sounds good, but for something really easy, and fast to put up, I used cattle panels. They are 16 ft. long, and 54 in. high, and are made from a heavy gauge wire. I set 2 fencing "T" posts , one for each corner,this is 54 inches apart , I laid the panel down and braced one end against the "T" posts, then I got a helper to hold the in the center to help make it fold while I picked up the opposite end and walked toward the set posts . Then we drove 2 more posts on the outside of the panel, and tied it to the posts with heavy plastic electic tie strips, the kind that you just zip up. We tied it at all four corners, top and bottom.
The closer you get with the ends, the taller the trellis. I have mine set with the walkway about six feet apart,and I raised mine a foot from the ground. I have plenty of heigth this way. I have four panels set end to end, the whole trellis is 16 feet long, and is really attractive. I plant pole beans and cucumbers on it at the start of the season, then when the beans are thru I plant gourds. Here we have plenty of time for them to grow and produce. Season before last I had Speckled swan gourds on it, and last year I had large Apple .
If you would like to see a picture, e-mail me.