end post instalation

[ThePlantGuy978]

I need a few words of advice.
I have installed many an end post for grape vines and muscadine in my day, but I am sure that there is some one out there with better methods of installation than I have in mind.
At present I have (7) short rows, only 25’ long of newly planted Muscadine vines with only 2 vines per row. I know that the vines are planted closer together than suggested, but the space that I have limits me to this spacing. Due to the limited spacing I plane to have double fruiting canes per vine.
I plan to install wood end posts with heavy duty metal T posts close to the vines themselves for extra support.
Any suggestions out there?
You might have some ideas that I have not thought of.

Thanks,

Hans

 

[GreginND]

What advice are you looking for? The title suggest you are asking how to install end posts. But you say you've installed many in your day.

Are you planning to do angled end posts with an earth anchor or H-posts? What kind of trellis system are you going to use? You indicated you want "double fruiting canes". Does that mean you will use a 2-cordon system or a 4-cordon system? I presume the latter. There are several ways to do that - 4 arm kniffen, Scott Henry, GDC.

Your rows are awful short - basically all you really need is two good strong end posts. But the added T-posts are a good idea.

I don't know much about muscadine - do they usually require so much space? If you are going with 4 cordons, I would think you could get by just fine with less space.

 

[garymc]

I have muscadines on a Geneva double curtain trellis system twenty feet apart. Each vine has 40 feet of wire for it's cordons. This is their second year in the ground. Several of them have met on the wires already. Yes, Greg, muscadines need that much space. I have some on an arbor also. In July I've had to prune off new shoots 8 or 10 feet long when they got unruly.
I don't know exactly what you mean by "double fruiting canes" per vine. I would advise against one wire above the other. I also would suggest that your wires be 5'6" or so off the ground or you'll be crawling on your hands and knees under them, turning to reach and look up to pick (been there, done that.)
I've read that end braces have to be sturdier for short rows. I hope your metal T posts are very, very long. I'm assuming you mean a normal metal fence post and not a T like a clothes line post with a crossbar on the top. Mine are like a clothes line post, pic attached. I also found a pic of my H end post braces.

 

[ThePlantGuy978]

Thanks for the input. Sorry that my question was not clear. I was referring to the use of concrete, gravel or packed down dirt to secure the end posts. Or are there better methods of securing the end posts that I have not mentioned?

Thanks,

Hans

 

[garymc]

Like Greg said, an end post leaning away from the vines with an earth anchor might work or the concrete you're talking about. Also, a mobile home anchor might do. Picture of an earth anchor is attached.