Hi all, well, I did it, I bought a Mars grape vine. She’s already quite tall so as soon as I get her in the ground I’ll have to be pretty confident with my trellis choice/size. So of course I’m worried I’ll do it wrong.
I know in Ohio there’s a few methods recommended, and overall there are TONS of options, so I’m swimming in possibility.
Here’s what I stole directly from my extension office: “Vines are trained to a particular system by pruning and tying the canes to the support system. In some methods of training grapevines, the canes are tied to wires above the trunk and arms of the vines. Such training works well where grapevines are to be grown on a fence or in an upright position. In another method of training, the canes are tied to the wires and the fruit bearing shoots are allowed to droop or hang down. A third method is the cordon type training system. Here the fruiting canes are developed from a horizontal extension of the trunk called a cordon. If canes are pruned long, they can be tied to the lower wires. If pruned short, they hang free. One of the most common training systems is called the single curtain/cordon bilateral system.”
Are there names for the methods listed above? Is one better than another? My goals and priorities are: 1: Allow grapes to be harvest-able by kids (so low without being too low) and 2: Use the trellis/vine as a makeshift fence between our corner lot yard and the sidewalk.
It’s best to let the roots establish for the first year before training, so the height of the plant right now is irrelevant unless you have a particularly nice, straight shoot to use as the trunk already. If it hasn’t leafed out too much, I would trim most of the roots by a few inches when you plant so you don’t have girdling issues later on and cut back the top to the two or three lowest buds.
For labrusca varieties like Mars that tend to droop, the usual recommendation I’ve seen is to have one or a few high wires from which the fruit producing shoots hang downwards. No reason why you can’t have the wires lower to the ground, except the ends of the shoots will trail all over the soil and wildlife will be able to reach the fruit much more easily. Grapes also don’t make much of a visual fence in the winter since you prune out 90% of what grew the previous year.
The Geneva Double Curtain configuration worked in my experience. In my situation of having just a few vines in keeping them off of the ground and in being able to mow underneath. Perhaps not intended for large numbers of vines or mechanical harvesting.
@GrapeNut The first problem is I don’t have one main shoot; it’s divided itself very low into two, and I haven’t picked a main shoot from that yet.
Trim the roots? Did I misunderstand something here?
Yeah, I have to walk the line with this because I’m hoping my kids could pick grapes themselves someday, but I also don’t want to sacrifice the grapes to raccoons…
Thankfully I’m not worried about winter, just summer times when the kids are more likely to be running around near the street!
@tennessean I’ll look that configuration up, I’ll take anything at this point!
Nope, for commercial vineyards we typically shorten the roots by 80% or more when we plant bareroot grapes. Usually means the vines need the first year to reestablish root systems, but the lower risk of girdling from J-roots (roots that are too long for the planting hole and end up bent upwards after planting) is worth it. J-rooted vines usually remain stunted and often die after 5-10 years.
If your vine is already leafed out and growing, assuming you haven’t planted it already, I would just trim whatever roots are circling the pot and not worry about the rest.
Find a basic trellis design that you like and then use your imagination. You don’t necessarily have to use any trellis design as someone else may use it. Just determine what is important to you. Having the vines at the right height for pruning and the picking of the grapes helps. No crawling on the ground picking grapes hopefully. I tend to dislike any design that makes it difficult to control the weeds. No wires close to the ground.
Basically the Geneva Double Curtain system involves 3 wires being parallel and on the same general level. Allows some of the shoots to lay across the wires. Helps in reducing thickness and keeping at least some of the end of shoots off of the ground. The middle wire is the “catch” wire. Look at plenty of examples and you will get some ideas. Of course this system uses more wire then the basic Kniffin system but that should be less of a concern if you have a small number of vines. Can be two cordons as is on the Kniffin but sometimes I have more on the muscadines. I use spur pruning.