It would be a gardener’s delight to have grapevines growing in their garden. Not only they are beautiful plants but their fruit are delicious and can be consumed in various ways.
Grapes can be eaten as fresh fruit or preserved as jams or better still fermented to make wine.
Grapevines thrive best on vine trellises and rarely alone, so plan to grow grape vines as a collective. Also they need the right amount of sunlight and the right type of soil to grow well.
Once you are sure you have the prerequisites you can start off with the vine trellis to give the growing vines support.
You will need 4’ posts if you experience severe winters and 8’ posts if not. Depending on the number of vines and the space you have you can decide on the size of the trellis. Generally you need two to three posts, more if you are growing a large number of vines.
The posts need to go 2’ deep into the ground, so either you can hammer them into the ground or dig holes and then fix them. Make sure you place the posts 20’ apart.
Next you need to start with the anchor posts. These should be dug in 6†away from the main post and angled away from it. Use a heavy wire between the anchor and main post and secure tightly. If your trellis has 2-3 posts, securing at both ends will satisfy. With a larger trellis you may need more anchor posts.
Stretch whole heavy wire about three inches from the ground and run it along the entire span of the trellis. Another wire needs to be run about a foot from the top of the posts. The wires need to be as taut as possible.
Now use the catch wire (lighter) and pull it in taut sections between the two support wires. These will help shape the vines and also train them, making pruning simpler.
Now transplant the grapevines at the base of the support beams and run the main vines along the main wires. The tendrils can run on the catch wires.
