In anticipation of a Concord and Brianna delivery, I made a grape arbor over the weekend, (see photo below). I’d like to encourage vigorous growth so that the vines reach the top of the 8 foot arbor this season. I just learned about grow tubes, but their size range is btwn 12-48".
What size grow tube should I purchase?
Would compost or composted manure help stimulate growth?
The next thing I need to do with the arbor is install wire going the 4’ width. My grape book recommends 9 gauge, high tensile galvanized wire.
I’ve never worked with trellis wire before; can anyone recommend the best product and tool to pull the wire taught enough?
I’m also planning my first espalier (elsewhere) so I’m hoping I can use the same stuff to install the wire between the two posts. Thanks!
i used stainless wire. i don’t remember the gauge. and several stainless turnbuckles to tighten the wires. or you could lay a cattle panel on top and paint with Rust oleum paint.
“First Year: At planting time, prune the vines to a single stem with two buds. Shoots should grow from each bud. If the trellis is not yet constructed, tie the most vigorous shoots (3 to 4) to a stake four to five feet tall. At the end of the first summer, the shoots should be three to four or more feet high, and may be long enough to reach the top wire of the trellis. Select 2 of the most vigorous canes to reach the trellis”
It’s unlikely to reach 8 feet in the first year. Having more fertilizer may increase vigor, but it also may have bad consequences since the vine is so young. Someone with experience can provide better advice, but is temper expectations to about 5 feet of growth
Fashioned a grow tube out of a sheet of clear plastic that I had laying around. Guessing that it helped but I personally would not spend the money on a commercial one. Probably not necessary.
Thanks for all your input. I ended up using stainless steel turnbuckles. Maybe I should have included it in this thread, but I just made another post about pruning. I’m trying to assess my options in terms of establishing a good pruning system.
I just built a grape trellis with 9 gauge and turnbuckles. Not too difficult. I’ll post a picture when I have time maybe in a new thread as we tried something different for bracing in our small space where we couldn’t have an H or any bracing structure beyond the posts.
Below is a picture of the buds a year after planting. The vines are about 5 feet tall. I plan on splitting the vine into two once they grow another foot or so. Since I’m only interested in the buds to grow at the top, should I nick off all the lower buds that are closer to the ground and below the arbor?
So you’re saying you would essentially restart at ground level and spend this season regrowing from the bottom? Can you say more about why? Why does the thinness matter, do they look abnormally thin for 1 growing season? Wouldn’t they become girthier over time?
I’m coming from my experience as a commercial grape grower, so keep that in mind, but there’s a few reasons:
Shoot vigor depends on cane thickness. Shoots arising from skinny canes tend to be weak. It’s a bit of a self-perpetuating cycle. If you remove all the other shoots but one, it may eventually get more vigorous, but it could take most of the summer. On the other hand, shoots coming from older, thicker parts of the plant will be much more vigorous. A foot a week or more of shoot elongation isn’t uncommon.
Weak shoots have shorter internodes. Shorter internodes = more growth points = more work. Since you are still forming your trunk and cordons, the nodes you leave now will become part of the permanent structure of your vines. Those nodes will leave latent buds that sprout every spring, and the resulting shoots need to be thinned to reduce disease pressure and allow enough light penetration to promote the formation of next-year’s flower buds and ripen your fruit. Using more vigorous growth for your cordons gives you fewer nodes per linear foot.
It’s easy to leave too many shoots on young vines and have a bunch of weak, short shoots that don’t amount to anything. They are also likely to flower, set fruit, and further devigorate your vine.
I’m not saying that you cannot train your grapevine from its current height. But you may not get the results you want.
Am I understanding your recommendation to be cutting the main cane down to only have a few buds and form a new central cane? Not just pinch off the buds but cut the cane? I also have several 1 year old canes, one has only 1 surviving bud, but another is over 6 feet tall but quite skinny at the top
Yes. In my experience, when you’re still developing the trunk, it’s almost always better to start with fresh vigorous shoots from near the base than trying to work with skinny weak canes. I like canes to be at least pencil-thick if I am keeping them for permanent structures. If you’re not sure how many buds will break at the base, you can wait until they start growing before pruning. Depending on the thickness of your 6 foot cane and how tall you want the trunk, it may be fine to use. If you’re worried about something eating the shoots when restarting at ground level and don’t mind a kink in the trunk, you can cut it back to a foot or two and train up shoots from there.
Sorry to ask again, but I want to be totally sure!
Literally chop off everything above two or three buds and regrow the “trunk”? Then pick just one of the buds (or two if I want a back up) to be the trunk after they start growing
Chopping off everything else will focus the plant’s energy and I’ll get a thicker “trunk” faster- and then next year I can grow the horizontals, and then the year after that I’ll actually get grapes?
