Grapevine Trellises and Why You Need Them For Making Wine

Your final goal is making wine. But wine needs the product ingredients, and the most important of them is grapes. So you need to have grapes. The best way to have them is to grow them yourself. However, there is a problem, where do you start?

I'm sure you have already a place to grow your grapes, and you at some point you come across a problem: supporting your grapevines since the vines can't support themselves, due to the weight. You see, this is where trellis come into place and this is why they are in end effect, crucial to you having that wine to serve to your guests and boast about that 'it is home made.'

A trellis is basically a structure that supports the grapevines. You can see them in various sizes and shapes and while many people buy a decorative one, it is not so difficult to make your own. To start with you need 4 main components: line posts, end posts, support stakes and the wires.

Train Your Grapes to an Arbor

Most people choose to train their grapes to a trellis. The trellis is very good from growing fruit in rows like a traditional garden. Some people actually like to use grape vines for shade cover. This option actually means that you need to build an arbor and the process of training the vines to the arbor is a little different from a trellis. Depending on how large your arbor is this may take some time, but the time is well worth it to get the shade that you want.

Year one

First you have to let your grape vines grow pretty much unchecked. After summer, the largest shoots are what you will use as your vine trunk. You're going to cut the vine back to less than five shoots and remove everything else. You want the vine to show which shoot will be the most ideal.


Year two

Concord Grape Trellis and Training Systems

Grapevines can be grown to conform to numerous shapes. Arbors, fences, and decorative trellises are only a few of the possibilities. Since many home gardeners may opt for less traditional training systems, a few general principles should be kept in mind, when pruning and training your grapevines. As with any fruit crops, this primary pruning should be done in the dormant season.

1. The grapevines should be trained to reasonably fill the structure but not become overgrown. This is easier said than done, since initially the vine grows fairly slowly, but as it matures, it may become a monster of vegetation. One to two layers of leaves for any area on the canopy is best for flower bud and fruit development.