The Importance of the Grape Trellis

You may think that having to grow your grapes along a grape trellis is a burden, but you will find that the grape trellis makes it really easy to grow and harvest grapes. The grape trellis makes spacing a non-issue in your vineyard. Even in a small backyard, the grape trellis allows you to grow, prune, and pick good grapes.

Aside from providing you with extra working space, the grape trellis is of course important to support your grapevines when they are young and when they have large grape clusters. There is no set way that your trellis needs to look. The vineyards you see typically have the purely functional grape trellis, but you can have a very decorative one in your yard. You can make it out of a variety of materials, such as wood, iron, stainless steel, aluminum, and PVC pipe. You can purchase a prefabricated grape trellis or design your own. The one thing to remember is that you must provide an 8′X8′ growing space for each grapevine and construct the trellis before planting.

The grape trellis you choose should match the local climate. In a warmer climate, you’ll want a larger one. But in cooler climates, a shorter one will handle the weather better. It may be as short as 3′, while the warmer climate grape trellis may be as tall as 8′.

Make sure you plot out your vineyard location before digging your holes. Making a map of your site before digging is a good  idea. Once you know where to dig, you need to go down about two feet. So if you’re putting in 8′ posts, they will rise about 6′ above ground level. It isn’t a bad idea to use concrete to hold at least your end posts in place. After all, it will be a few years before your grapevines have grapes on them. You can add additional strength to the posts by using anchor wires from the ground or shorter posts. Remember to keep 8′ between each of your posts. You will need to run galvanized steel wire in two rows, with one row being a few inches above the ground and one wire being at the tops of the posts.  For simplicity, you can staple the wires to the posts with a staple gun.

Your goal will be to help the vines grow up along the trellis wires. You will have to do some pruning and stringing of your vines at time to get them going in the right directions along the wires. Don’t use anything that could cut your shoot, such as wire, to tie your shoot where you want it. Some cloth or wide plastic strips ought to be enough.

Even for a small crop of grapes, it is a good idea to purchase a trellis. There is a bit of an investment, but you will get much better results. But, be sure if you spend all of this money to buy one, that you don’t screw up your grapes by failing to take the time to properly plan your grape trellis.