Trellis question

grapeman said:

When I first began I drilled through the posts like you mention. That is fine until the post rots off and there is no way to get the wire back out of the post without great difficulty. I have had to put in a new post near the original and just leave the rotted off post. I use large fence staples now instead. Yes those can pull out occasionally but you just put a new one in a bit from the original.

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Yes, that is the trade-off. Post replacement is a challenge when you drill through. I have had better luck using the long staples with barbs along the length. Those seem to stay put better. I've also seen some vineyards where a groove was cut on the top of the post to seat the wire and the staple simply kept it from popping out.

On the other hand, I have not had to replace any of the 900 posts in the 5 years they've been in the ground in the original vineyard. Whereas, I have spent countless hours driving around with a hammer and more staples to repair wire that pulled off. This was why I drilled through on the new vineyard addition. Guess I'll see which one causes more work in the long run.

grapeman said:

When I first began I drilled through the posts like you mention. That is fine until the post rots off and there is no way to get the wire back out of the post without great difficulty. I have had to put in a new post near the original and just leave the rotted off post. I use large fence staples now instead. Yes those can pull out occasionally but you just put a new one in a bit from the original.

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This is what I am dealing with now. Contemplating doing the same thing you mention

Excellent, thanks again for the information.

jgmillr1 said:

I have not had to replace any of the 900 posts in the 5 years they've been in the ground in the original vineyard.

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And you probably do not need to worry about replacement for some time. For what it is worth, here is a nice long term study result on life expectancy of posts for different woods and treatments:

http://juniper.orst.edu/post-farm.htm

I use locally grown untreated black locust myself (~20 years life expectancy, but I have quite a few posts in the ground older than that).

jgmillr1 said:

Whereas, I have spent countless hours driving around with a hammer and more staples to repair wire that pulled off.

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Very uncommon for staples to be easily pulled out of my black locust posts, and only then for posts nearing the end of their useful life span. Maybe more an issue with treated soft wood?

Side note for the OP: if you use U staples, hammer them in non-linear so each staple spike does not go into the same grain. If both tines of the staple are in the same grain, they can create a single split along both tines, which creates a weaker hold and more likely for the staple to get pulled out.

@balatonwine, thanks for posting that link. Osage orange, holy cow!

Balatonwine has a good point with staple placement especially in a softer post wood. I agree about the black locust. We had some posts on the farm that had been in for close to 50 years and still holding up well.