I got this idea after looking at how I grow my trumpet vine looking like a tree. I bet some one did this before but here goes my idea. I am thinking of growing "grape trees" for landscaping purposes. I plan on taking a 20' length of 1/2 rebar, cut it in half, bend a 90 on each piece with about 3.5 to 4 foot section for the top giving a 5 to 6 foot length bottom. Then I would tack weld the 2 pieces together forming a T. I would bury a 3 to 4 inch plastic pipe about 2.5 feet down and place the rebar into the plastic pipe about a foot in with ready mix. Do a good paint job on rebar to what ever color you like. The T tree should be about 4.5 feet tall. Plant a grape vine to grow up the tree. I can bend the rebar with some tubing benders made for 1/2" stainless steel tubing and if that don't work I know my 1/2 conduit benders will do the trick but will give me a longer radius. I may use the budwizer blue beer bottles for the ends so people won't poke their eyes out. What do you think?
rebar bent for grapevines
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Just make sure to post pictures. It never happened if there were no pix!!! 
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I also made trees out of Trumpet vines. I put a 1 1/2"pole in the ground that stuck out about eight feet. I wrapped it with a piece of chain link fence so it had something to climb on. Last fall I trimmed them way back becuse the dang thing drops seeds like crazy and I have garden fulls of orphans coming up. They are spectacular in the summer. I even added a Wisteria to one of the trees.
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I think the 4.5 ft is too short. What about making various heights if your making several. If I were to make one I would want it at least 6' tall so I could get under it either with a chair or to pick the grapes.
Trumpet vine tree
Just got to bend the 1/2 rebar. Might get time to weld it up this weekend. Then i got to decide if I want to paint it a neutral color like a brown or go to contrast color like a blue or red.
Running wolf: good idea about making diffrent heights. This one will end up being about 7.5 feet across and about 5.5 feet high.
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You're a lot further ahead then we are in the season but here are some pictures I just took of the two I have. Thanks for sharing those and I think the grapevines would be fun.
This first one has Trumpet vine and Wisteria growing on it.
This first one has Trumpet vine and Wisteria growing on it.
Deezil
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What if you were to straighten the bends out to say...135 degrees, still angled up, instead of 90 degrees and pointing straight at your face?... Might save the eyes you were worrying about. And would make it easier to sit under, but wouldnt offer as much shade..
But it would look like a wine glass, if you used 4 in N E S W configuration!
But it would look like a wine glass, if you used 4 in N E S W configuration!
1/2rebar I paid $7.50 give or take 40cents. This is from a lumber yard not a Homedepot. Homedepot wanted about $7 for 10 feet.
Winehaus
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This looks awesome! I will be borrowing(stealing) this idea soon. What cultivar do you think you will go with? Something that droops or something that wants to grow up? I'm thinking chardonel for myself cuz it seems to be in the middle
What ever grows the easiest bunch grape in south La. I plan on maybe trying these three. Champanel grape, black spanish and blanc du bois.
Now I did make a second one but made it a little diffrent. I found the first one I made which is 6' tall and the arms are almost straight out to be a little more flexible than what I like. May not be a problem. The second one I made is 5'6'' tall with the arms at a more up angle.Still a little more flexable than what I like. I have them 9' apart but I wished i would have spaced it around the corner from the first one. You can see that they are made diffrent from each other.
The third one I will use 3/4" ridgid conduit for the trunk and weld the 4 arms to the conduit. If this works out good it may be my stander tree. I may even attach a single light fixture to the center.
I will post pics after I finish a little dirt work and brick bolder around the 2 trees.
Then I will make the 3rd one and post pics when finished.
I only get to work on this on weekends only 2 to 3 hrs at a time.
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One more thing is my wife said I will polk my eye out with that thing. I went to homedepot and got these orange end caps made for rebar. can't miss it once installed. Cost was a 25ct bag for $6 and change. If the grapes vines cover up the end of the arms I want to remove the orange end caps.
Here it is got 2 cemented into ground painted a gloss brown. i figure the brown color will better hide any rust.
Got one coat end rust, then a grey primer and top with a gloss brown.
You can see the end caps to keep from poking my eyes out. My plans are to border the bricks with french marigolds
and mulch the whole area with shredded pine needles. I will post pics when the grapes and marigolds are planted.
I need to make one more tree using conduit and rebar.
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Very nice job. That will look really cool when the vines grow onto them.
I have muscadines planted on a 2 top wire system spaced 20' apart which gives 10' each way total 20' and my vines do grow the full lenght.
The tree set up gives a good 3.5' per branch with a total of a good 7' end to end which I feel would be a little short. I guess you can keep it trim to fit but it seems you would be losing a lot of production then. I would try just one to see what happens before investing in too many. I did limit myself to 3, the cost of haking then is not that much, and if it does not work out I will convert over to a traditional wire system. I hope I have enough room for bunch grapes.
