Wow, it's been a while since I last posted here. I've been pretty heavy into the malt side of the fermenting arts lately! However, I'm not giving up on my vines! All the vines survived winter, though one of them must have been hit pretty hard cause the only new growth I got was from the base of the vine.
Anyways, as I understand it, this second year is for developing the trunk of the vine. So I only allowed one shoot to grow up on each vine. Some of these suckers are really going and they're already to the tops of the stakes. I don't think the stakes are going to be able to hold the weight of the vines for too much longer. I think I'll have to build the trellis this year for sure. However, I'm not real sure how to do that for such a small vineyard. Specifically, I'm not sure how much money I should expect to spend. Most of the info I've found is for much larger vineyards than my puny three 30 ft row guy. What kind of endposts do I need to get? High-tensile wire doesn't seem to be a problem to find but do i really need the $90 gripple tool with the required accesories to tension the wire? Or is there a less expensive option that will work for my short rows?