Reccomended trellis training for Traminette/Brianna

[rpdranc]

New to site and viticulture. Rows are tilled. soil conditioned, and posts driven. I have 120 vines ordered for 10 rows, 5 72 ft and 5 120ft. Traminette, Brianna, Marquette ,Noiret, Steuben and Concord. I would like to train Traminette and Brianna mid wire VSP, just looks so much better and seems to be ok for growth habits of Traminette?? I was strongly advised to use top wire cordon for all others? Anyone from Northern Indiana growing any of these grapes? What do you recommend?

I am new to all of this and want to make sure I start right with proper trellising!
Please forward any recommended reading. links and ideas. I would like to read as much as possible this winter prior to spring planting. Thanks in advance for your help/ advice. Posted a few pics of my site as well.

Kind regards,

Robb

 

[rpdranc]

Here is my site

 

[GreginND]

Wow. Beautiful site. Thanks for sharing. I'm growing Brianna on TWC. They will be in their third leaf in 2015. I can give you specifics yet as they are young yet. But from what I can tell so far, they should do well this way.

 

[rpdranc]

Thank you, I'd be interested to see what your vines look like at this stage? I had a beer distributor in Fargo, had a nice time visiting! A gentleman I briefly met there actually gave me a Wine Cork Trivet he made...Jim Brenan a veteran and a hell of a guy!

 

[GreginND]

I don't have a good picture. I have fertile soil and most of them grew from the ground up to my high wire at 6 feet and beyond this past year. Some have cordons already established 4+ feet in both directions.

 

[grapeman]

I find TWC works best for Brianna and Traminette is so vigorous I would never grow it on Mid Wire Cordon.. Here is a few pictures of early growth Brianna trained to TWC. The first row if Brianna as a pollinator for St. Pepin.

 

[rpdranc]

I find TWC works best for Brianna and Traminette is so vigorous I would never grow it on Mid Wire Cordon.. Here is a few pictures of early growth Brianna trained to TWC. The first row if Brianna as a pollinator for St. Pepin.

Thank you very much!! As I said I welcome ANY advice, photos, books links. Thanks looks great!!

 

[GreginND]

Here is a picture of one of my two year old Brianna vines I took last week.

 

[rpdranc]

Fantastic, they look great! Can't wait to get mine in this spring. Was stringing the wire difficult? Not quite sure how to go about installing it? How high were your vines by end of year 1?

 

[GreginND]

My wires are 6 feet high. I didn't put in my trellis until this year, so I don't know how tall they were last year without the trellis. I pruned them all down to the ground last march, so this is all growth in 2014.

I would be happy to give you details about how I built my trellis. It was a lot more work than I anticipated to get the poles in the ground and build my H-braces on the ends. But once that was done, the wire stringing was the easiest part.

One word - GRIPPLES! They are awesome. I didn't bother with the old fashioned wire tensioners. Those are a pain. With the gripples for joining the wires and the gripple tool to tension it, stringing went quickly. I bought them from Orchard Supply in Oregon.

 

[rpdranc]

That looks awesome!! I can't thank you enough for replying. My rows aren't as long as yours. (72' and 120')My poles are all driven 3 feet, end posts 4 for same 6 ft height.

Didn't plan on driving braces until after I plant vines, can I still string the wire initially without braces?

Probably just screwing in earth anchors or driving 6 ft posts 4 ft into ends ? Man your H braces are really nice, I think I am ok with short runs though with not as strong a brace!

Thx for info on tensioners, that's really where I was stuck too, I'm gonna use what you reccomended, can you loosen wire though if needed to reduce tension in winter with those?
So what hardware would I need to do my first 72' row for top wire cordon?
3 wires? Posts are also at 6'. Did you run yours right 'over' top of posts, think drilling and running through posts is a bad idea, maybe insert something thru hole to prevent wire cutting into posts?
I just want to get this trellis part right as it was biggest investment thus far.

Thx again!!

 

[GreginND]

Ok, here are some more pictures of my trellis.

No, you can't loosen the gripples once they are on (one way only). But I've been told by knowledgable folks (Grapeman) that there really is no need to loosen them in the winter. So far I see no problems. All you need to tighten them is a gripple tool that is easy to use to pull the wires through.

Aside from my H-Braces, I only have two wires - a guide wire at about 3 feet and a top wire at 6 feet. I did not put them on the top but simply ran them through a U-nail near the top (see picture below). On each end I wrapped the wire around the post through a U-nail in the back (with one added between the wire and the post to prevent it digging in too much) and attached it to itself using a gripple. Couldn't be easier.

I did buy a spinning jenny to put the wire roll on. That helps stringing the wires immensely.

I would get your braces or earth anchors in sooner rather than later. Once you string the wire and start tensioning it it will start pulling your end posts together.

 

[grapeman]

One comment on the H bracing like Greg shows- if you tension it too heavily you can actually pull the end post upward. It works well for short runs on saving space. I used it in a mini-vineyard block out by our entrance. When I tightened the wires after a heavy yield the following spring, the end posts kept wanting to rise.

I use Orchard Valley Supply for the gripples, but you can buy a number of places now. Sometimes you can buy gripples and the needed too to save a bit.

 

[rpdranc]

Thank you very much, just saw this reply now after posting recent questions!! Really appreciate it, have a great weekend!

 

[rpdranc]

Hey got my Fenox Anchors in today, seems like they are gonna work great! Posted a video today of the wife I found amusing, come on it was funny ! Trying to get her involved so let her know you found it amusing as we are new to site and viticulture!

 

[sour_grapes]

Hey got my Fenox Anchors in today, seems like they are gonna work great! Posted a video today of the wife I found amusing, come on it was funny stuff...she's smarter than everyone combined on this site, trying to get get her involved so let her know you found it amusing as we are new to site and viticulture!

Perhaps you could get your intelligent wife to help you figure out how to post the link to the video?