Sorry if this has been covered already. I’ve got eight first year table grape vines in two rows of four. Many have reached the top of the t-posts and are trailing back to near the ground. Do I need to have my trellises up right now? Or is it ok to wait until winter? Should I just head pune them to post top for now to encourage trunk growth?
I’ll be putting up 6x6 posts at each end of each row and use wire through those. I can’t remember the name of the metal wire capture things, but wondering if there’s a tool to pull the wire tight?
Edit: Growing two shoots up from the main plant near the ground.
Thanks for your help, friends.
1 Like
Which varieties do you have and which training system are you planning on doing? How far apart are your vines?
1 Like
I have a mixture of concord, flame, and white grapes. All seedless. 10’x10’ spacing. Two cordons from each root stock.
1 Like
Plan to run those two cordons in opposite directions along the wire, grow 4-6 buds along the wire on each.
1 Like
Bilateral guyot system? Single curtain?
1 Like
Where are you located? Flame and other vinifera varieties may not succeed in the long term for you if you get summer rainfall. Winter hardiness may be an issue too.
At 10 feet spacing, your canes will need to be 5 feet long in each direction if you do a cane-pruned system like Guyot. That is likely too long to work. Single curtain with permanent cordons works well for American hybrids like Concord.
To answer your original question, no, you don’t need to install your trellis right now. I would just leave them to grow and prune them in the spring. You can trim them if they’re getting in the way. Next spring before budbreak, cut the canes down to about 4-6 inches below your cordon wire if they’re at least as thick as your pinky. Pick the strongest two shoots to train as your cordons. Any thinner and I would cut them to 2-4 buds above the ground and train up the strongest shoot.
1 Like
I’m in the Arkansas Ozarks 7b. I can always cut back the cordons. I don’t have to run the whole distance, I guess. 
Thank you for very helpful advice. So would six feet or eight feet been better?
2 Likes
Our summers have been very dry in my area.
1 Like
Personally, I like the Geneva Double Curtain. Agree that Flame is risky.
Is that Concord seedless or the regular Concord? Don’t know about white grapes.
2 Likes
That’s great! I have the metal wire vise you feed the wire through, but had no idea how to get tension. Thanks!
While you are probably too far north for Pierce’s Disease, you could check your local cooperative extension office to be sure. A simple phone call would suffice although visiting and picking up any pamphlets on grapes might be helpful.
1 Like
They’re all seedless varieties picked up at Walmart for $3 each.
You’re welcome! For a cane-pruned system, 6 feet is about the max I can do in my climate. Any longer and you end up with too many buds for good vigor. 8 feet is doable for cordons. Roughly speaking, you’ll know if you left too many buds (provided your vines have adequate water and nutrients) if you don’t get about 3-4 feet of growth from each new shoot each summer from an established vine.
A mistake a lot of people make is trying to extend cordons too far in a single growing season. Always let the vigor of the plant determine how long to extend them. At 6 foot spacings on a site with good vigor, I expect it to take 2 full growing seasons to cover the full distance between vines.
It’s been rough. I’ve gone through 14 vines to get the eight I have because I’m so new to this. So they’re various sizes now. I’ve got two that are 14’ from the ground to the end of the vine. Then some just making the top of my tposts, and one just 6" tall.
At first I underestimated how much water they need in my dirt. My soil drains quickly. Starting to get the hang of it now.
When I planted Mediterranean (dry climate) type grapes 14 or so years ago what invariably happened was, they lived for a couple of years and may even had produced a small crop the second year and then died the next winter. It may be different in a different soil and climate. Clay type soil and wet here.
Silty loam on a slope here. Well, if they die I’ve since learned not to just grab what a box store is serving. I’ll go with an online specialist. Ilson’s?
I’ve never ordered from Ison’s, but I know others have and have been satisfied.
P.D. finally caused me to get out of table grapes but I probably should have gotten out of them earlier because of the birds. Specifically, the robins. They loved the table grapes. Now I just have one seeded concord vine and various muscadines vines which the birds don’t bother. Principally, I’m in it for the jelly.
The only real solution for the robin problem would have been some type of enclosure.
Yes, some bird or insect netting. They make huge rolls of it.