Building Grape Trellises - Sturdy supports for grape vines

[@bryanc9926]

This reminds of Red Poppy Ranch KZbin channel, but with a little different stuff. Love it and keep up the good work.

[@homesteadohio]

I've never heard of them until now. Thanks for the comment!

[@doityourselflivinggardenin7986]

I've done the upper and lower cordons and they didn't work out well. The bottoms get shaded, causing disease issues, and the top grapes do not ripen at the same time as the bottom. Generally, a two wire system is for grapes grown with vertical shoots, with only a lower cordon. I switched over to a T trellis. That gives me over twice the capacity for grapes, while providing air flow under the vines. I'm still early into using them (4 years), but so far they are better than a single wire system. The T trellis is generally only used non-commercially because machines cannot harvest the grapes from them. Best of fortune with your vines.

[@homesteadohio]

I have started another 240' of grape trellises (4x60' rows) and have been thinking of making them "T" style, I may have to give it a shot. Thanks for the comment and thanks for watching too!

[@doityourselflivinggardenin7986]

@@homesteadohio I am also trying out another type of trellis system where the rows are joined together to form a continuous top layer. I wouldn't go out and try this until I get results to share, though. So far it looks promising in being able to get more leaves for grapes and allow maximum sun exposure for leaves. However, I think it will be very difficult to cover with netting if the birds decide that it is a buffet. I am also not sure if the actual grapes themselves will get enough sun. My experience so far with my grapes is that the grape clusters don't need as much sun as some articles say. I have a few Marquette grape clusters that have ripened just fine under the canopy of leaves (they hang down under it), but they are newer vines that have not filled-in yet. It is still too early to tell how the grapes will develop for when I get a lot of leaf coverage. My guess is that my pruning technique for them will be trial and error to balance leaves with grapes. As an aside, one year I followed some KZbin instructions for pruning leaves out so the grapes would have more sunlight to ripen. It had the exact opposite affect for mine. There were not enough leaves to ripen the grapes. I deduced that this type of procedure might work well for commercial type vineyards where their vines are old, have big root systems, and the cordons are short with few clusters. But with a large younger vine with longer cordons, it needs those leaves to ripen the grapes. Like everything else, one must be careful when taking advice. Sometimes we cannot see the differences that allow somebody to do one type of technique successfully. Right now I have some Frontenac grapes under a canopy and they are doing fine and ripening normally. Things may change as the large trellis system goes forward with more vines. The one thing that is important is to keep the rows going north to south. Otherwise, grape ripening will be different from one side to the other. I learned this the hard way many years ago before there were a lot of articles and videos about growing grapes. As far as my large canopy system, it may not matter at this point because the vineyard becomes a continuous square with most of the leaves exposed at the top of canopy. Another issue I might get is not being able to spray effectively if it is needed. With that being said, I rarely need to spray. With this system, the vines are also higher, allowing a lot of air to circulate under the vines and allowing me to pick them just above my head. I never have mildew problems this way, where I was always battling it with the two wire system, especially on the lower cordons. We have had constant rain since spring and there is no mildew. So I guess there are pros and cons with any system. It is always good to watch somebody else through the trial and tribulations with a new system so we don't make similar mistakes and to learn the tweaks as they go. That's kind of what I am doing with this new system. I'm a small scale homesteader so I am not worried about picking with machinery. My goal was to make it easy to pick (above my head) and to shade-out weeds under it. Another plus is that it may keep the soil from drying out as quickly when we have droughts. We'll see what happens going forward. One other point... research the grape varieties extensively. Again, I learned this the hard way. For the first four years when I started (a very long time ago), I could not keep vines alive. They would die to the ground every year and some would try to come back the following spring. Very frustrating and there was nobody I could talk to about it. I gave up for a while and then tried again in another location with only one vine. I still have that vine. I had been purchasing vines though mail-order catalogs and they listed them as being able to grow in my zone. Well, it isn't all about zone. It is also about soil and micro-climates. Furthermore, they lie about zones and they also send you the wrong vines. To top that off, half were shipped with dead roots. Ugh! I was sooo frustrated. Double A Vineyards has a good website where you can see the ripening times for grapes. That is critical for people living in shorter growing seasons. I had been purchasing later ripening grapes and I could never get them to ripen before they spoiled on the vine. Another trick I learned was to get listings of grape juice for sale in the vineyards closer to me. They group the juice purchases week-by-week based on when the grapes ripen. I simply cannot grow grapes that ripen in their later picking category. Another thing I learned is to look for "vigorous" growing vines. That too is listed with Double A vineyards. I have heavy clay soil. Things simply grow slower here. When you use both knowledge streams and put them together, you will get grapevines that work. With that being said, they listed St. Pepin as being vigorous. It is not. It is somewhat hardy for temperature, but no, it is not vigorous enough for my soil. I am in the process of cross-breeding it with Itasca to get a better vine. Another problem with St. Pepin is that it has female-only blossoms. You need a pollinator for it. The problem with that is I have earlier blooming grapevines. Yeah, grape production is weak on that vine... that is also not a vigorous grower. The good news is that it makes an excellent wine that ages very well. That is why I am cross-breeding it. I hope to improve vigor, retain its flavor, and have perfect blooms. Yeah, I know; it is a long shot. However, I have doing things like this for 40 years and I have had some successes (along with a lot of duds). I also found that some vines are too disease prone and need a LOT of spraying. I got rid of them. As a homesteader, I simply cannot coddle plants anymore. They like it here or the leave. I will spray once or twice a year, but never every week. Another tip is to make rooted cuttings from the extra stems on a shipped bare root vine so you can hedge your bets. Some bare root vines are shipped with dead roots, but the stems are still alive. They will begin to grow a shoot and then die. Instead of waiting an entire year for a replacement, you will have one or two backup vines you will be able to plant if the original does not grow. I have done this numerous times and it saved my butt a couple times. Again, I had to learn the hard way. One thing I noticed is that my rooted cuttings outperformed the bare root original plants significantly once they were put outside in the vineyard. Wait until they are one-foot tall, though, and grow them outside as soon as the weather is appropriate. Best of luck with your new vines!

[@homesteadohio]

My grapes are an experiment, at least the first vines I planted were. They have taught me a few things that I will be changing on the next ones. Unfortunately my next set will be running East and West but that has to do with the shape of my property and some already established structures and features. You have a lot more experience with grapes than I do, the 9 plants I have in the ground are my first attempt at growing vines. I hope that some day I'll gain as much knowledge as you when it comes to grapes and maybe try to develop a hybrid that will work on my homestead. I have watched tons of videos on grapes and I try to take a little bit of everything and incorporate it into what I'm doing, but there can be a lot of opposing views on things. My soil also suffers from a lot of clay and quite high acidity. I plan on getting the ball rolling on soil amendment, long before planting my next batch. I've got a lot of work to do, I only wish I would have started it long ago. I'll have to check out Double A Vineyards and see what they have to offer. Thanks for the information and thanks again for watching!

[@markwolverton7456]

Great video. Been trying to grow grapes myself. Yours look great thanks

[@homesteadohio]

Thanks! They've been having some trouble. The Japanese beetles have been tearing up the leaves this summer, and I've been spraying them for leaf rust. I hope they do much better next year. They're such a slow crop, usually 3 years before there's a good production. Thanks for watching!

[@shwa8157]

Simple and effective! Very nice

[@homesteadohio]

Glad you like it!

[@mdspider]

Thanks for the video.

[@homesteadohio]

Thank you for the comment and thanks for watching too!

[@erwinbrubacker7488]

Looks like work.

[@homesteadohio]

If you enjoy it, is it really work? Thanks for watching!

[@eliinthewolverinestate6729]

I subscribed. After seeing the post frame and trelises. I u.f.o. prune my cherries.

[@homesteadohio]

Thank you! I just picked up my polycarbonate panels for the roof today but the weather isn't right to do the outside stuff today, maybe next weekend!

[@erwinbrubacker7488]

Geee, is that close enough to the top of post !

[@homesteadohio]

I think so, I don't see any reason to have the post any taller.

[@i.eduard4098]

Is that paint on the wood? How do you protect the wood?

[@homesteadohio]

It's pressure treated but not with arsenic.

[@laurastark210]

What is direction of the lines? East to West? Or South to North?

[@homesteadohio]

These are sort of NNE to SSW, not quite N-S. I'm preparing to plant a bunch more vines in a different area, with the trellises running E-W. I will be planting a few more that will run E-W but the rows will be curved around the point of a hill to maintain the same elevation, sort of a terraced setup.

[@erwinbrubacker7488]

​@@homesteadohiodo they call that keyline, not sure ?

[@SmallCaliberArmsReview]

@@erwinbrubacker7488 I guess it could be, in a way. Thanks for watching!

[@markroe7541]

North south east west?

[@homesteadohio]

I've heard both ways. These vines actually run NE to SW. MI bigger Vineyard has rows running E-W. I plwn on putting in more vines next year and they will probably run E-W too but it's more for controlling soil erosion and the spacing should prevent them from shadowing each other out.