I’ve moved to a new property and I’m adding grapevines and kiwis at my new place. At my former garden I had grapes growing on wooden split rail fence and did okay, and kiwi grew on a T structure with wires. It worked well for a few years, but the weight of the kiwis bowed the lumber i used.
I’m wondering if someone actually grows kiwis and grapes on same structure. Trying to plan ahead to build one this spring. Orchard valley has many useful items. I don’t want anything more than 30’ long.
Any suggestions?
Kiwi in NZ are grown overhead as a flat canopy more like an arbor than trellis. I’ve got mine on the same 3 wire trellis as my grapes. The canopy is overhead but doesn’t extend in both directions.
When I put my kiwis in 10 years ago I first built a basic arbor, honestly just a couple of 4x4 by 10’ sunk 2+feet and set in concrete. I lined the top, back and sides with vinyl lattice and let the vines take it over. At this point the 6-7 kiwis I planted have taken it over and the top is covered with about 1+ foot of vines. Production isn’t nearly what it could be (I got maybe 2lbs of fruit last year) and pruning is quite difficult.
I have added another female (jumbo) about 20 feet away 3 years ago which I am experimenting with regarding pruning. (It was a gift as I didn’t need another female as I already have 4-5).
When I first built it I used 5 inchlag bolts to put it together, and capped each side with copper/solar lights. The vines made short work of the caps and have also choked out a sweet autumn clematis near-by and have tried to strangle other nearby trees.
The structure hasn’t been the problem, though I wish I had made it more than 2 feet deep. Years ago I planned to add horizontal boards out to make the arbor wider (deeper). I have pictures somewhere, if anyone is interested in seeing, though we have both aged a bit since those early days.