# First time planting grapes



## elewis (Nov 7, 2012)

I am new to this forum and am needing help with starting my back yard vineyard. I live in Illinois Zone 5 and have just bought two golden muscat grape plants. I am not sure how to start planting. I was thinking about a 6FT trellis for one vine and planting the vine in the middle at 3FT. Then for my second plant making a second 6FT trellis behind it about 4FT away with the second plant again located in the middle of the trellis at 3 FT. HOw does this sound, is it to small for one vine? Should I make it an 8FT trellis with the vine planted at 4 FT or have a 16 FT trellis system that can have both vines on it? ANy other question just asked.


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## BobR (Nov 8, 2012)

Hi elewis,

Nice to see someone else on here that is from Illinois! First of all, you are not thinking about putting those plants in the ground right now are you? I had a similar question a month ago listed under "Grape Plant Crisis". You can see the response from grapeman, so I was thinking that a month ago was on the cut off line, but now with the cold setting in I'd wait. Second, I have found on this forum that grapeman equals grape growing expert, so you can be sure that if he responds to a question, his answer will be close to, if not right on. The guy knows about growing grapes! I only wish I had half that knowledge. I mainly mess with Concord grapes, so I don't know about Muscat, but usually you would be safe in planting them 6 to 8 feet apart. A local enologist and viticulturist told me to use two wires on my Concord trellis; one wire at 3 feet and one at 6 feet, but here again, your variety might be different. For two plants, your row should be around 18 to 20 feet long. You would put in and end post, then 6-8 feet from that post, you would put a plant. From that plant, you would go another 6-8 feet for your second plant. Then you would go another 6-8 feet and put in another end post. Check this grape growing forum and you will find an excellent posting from the grapeman, where he walks you through planting a vienyard...photos included. I'm in the Springfield area of the state, where are you located?


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## BobR (Nov 8, 2012)

elewis,

Search for "Vineyard From The Begining" by the Grapeman and it will bring you to thread that I was telling you about. Excellent page!


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## grapeman (Nov 8, 2012)

elewis it sounds to me like you might be wanting to plant the vines on an arbor for decorative as well as getting a few nice grapes. If not, you can plant one very short row like BobR says with the 2 vines in it. If you want an arbor or even 2 single vine rows, put them more than 4 feet apart- that will create shade and prevent good ripening. 

In your case I would put in 4 posts about 8 feet apart both ways. You can then create aa nice framework that will be both functional and decorative to train the vines over. Fill us in a bit more what you want to do and we can guide you better.

Also it has gotten quite late to plant the vines almost anywhere in the US at this time. Wait until spring.


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## BobR (Nov 26, 2012)

elewis,

Have any luck on your plants and trellis system?


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