Our focus now is about the trellising for our vineyard. We knew early on that we wanted to use cane pruned, vertical shoot positioning (VSP) for our vineyard. This is the easy part. The difficult part is to figure out exactly how many line posts, catch wires, endposts, and other assorted parts are needed for our trellising choice.
I found some very good references on the Internet to fill in the large gaps in our preparation. (They can't put anything on the Internet that isn't true.)
Nick Dookozlian, in Wine Grape Varieties in California, wrote about Trellis Selection and Canopy Management. This article is 6 pages long and is a good introduction to the various trellising options. Although it is specific for California regions, it is a good reference for the various types of trellises that can be constructed and what they are used for. Trellis systems such as VSP, Smart-Dyson, Smart-Henry, and Scott-Henry are all nicely illustrated. Below is an example of VSP:1
Another excellent reference from Prof. Paul Domoto, Iowa State University, Department of Horticulture is entitled Constructing a Vineyard Trellis. This is a 67 page slide deck with copious photos and succinct text that will walk you through trellis construction with all the materials you will need. For example, there is a slide on trellising hardware such as crimping sleeves, tension indicator spring, steel brace pins, wire vise, high tension wire, wire strainer and strainer handle. We want to use movable catch wires, so I emailed Prof. Domoto about the specifics and he kindly sent me the photo shown on the right.2
Lastly, another good reference is a 13-page article written by Prof. Thomas Zabadal of Michigan State University on Engineering a Modern Vineyard Trellis.3
References:
1. Nick Dookozlian, Wine Grape Varieties in California, "Trellis Selection and Canopy Management",
http://ucanr.org/sites/intvit/files/24348.pdf
A good reference for the various types of trellises that can be constructed and what they are used for.
2. Paul Domoto, "Constructing a Vineyard Trellis", Department of Horticulture, Iowa State University. Presented at the Iowa Grape Growers Conference, January 26, 2002.
http://viticulture.hort.iastate.edu/info/pdf/domototrellis.pdf
Very good presentation with pictures.
3. Thomas Zabadal, "Engineering a Modern Vineyard Trellis", Department of Horticulture, Michigan State University.
http://www.grapes.msu.edu/pdf/cultural/engineerTrellis.pdf
A good reference for the specific materials needed to construct a trellis including the cost of the materials.
I was very happy to find this helpful page! Note that the slide deck by Paul Domoto is no longer available at the link used in this blog post, but I was able to find it at: https://www.prairiefirewinery.com/Cellar/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Vineyard-Trellis-Construction.pdf
ReplyDeleteHi! Thank you for your comment. I have updated the link to Paul Domoto's slide deck.
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