Proper Row Positioning

There are several factors that affect the proper direction and placement of rows:

1. Amount of light available and the direction of the light
2. Slope (steepness) of the vineyard
3. Consistent wind speeds in the area

Usually, rows that run from the north to south are able to get more sunlight than rows that run from east to the west.

If you think the natural shade of nearby trees could be a problem, you should design your rows to run from the north to the south and the rows should be spaced closely together

In this type of situation, the wider the separation of the rows, the less sunlight the rows receive.


If the area is generally windy, the direction of the killed rows should be parallel to the direction of the strong winds and not perpendicular or against the wind (doing so will damage your vines and reduce production).

If you plan on establishing a raisin vineyard, then the rows should run from east to west (as opposed to north to south). The rows in between the grape vines will receive extra light, which is important when drying grapes.

Should the spacing between the rows be based entirely on the size of the farming equipment you have? No. In fact, newly established vineyards should have ideal row spacing to encourage maximum growth of the grape vines.

The equipment used on the vineyard should conform to the existing ideal spacing and not the other way around. A well-spaced vineyard will outlast farm equipment by years because the land will continually give life to hard-wearing and very productive grape vines.