Muscadine Trellising

[Bobp]

If you have Muscadines in any large quantities, how are you trellising them? How are you training them to make it to the trellising? String? river cane/bamboo?

Have any of you tried GDC on Muscadines?

Most publications recommend a single high wire. I'm thinking that the GDC offers more efficient use of the land. Rather than run at 20' spacing between vines, plant at 10' in row spacing and use the 'Z' method of trellising them thus still getting the 20' or so necessary...??? I'll run the wire at 6' putting the fruiting zone down 4-5'..

I'm running a block test and will try a couple of Trellising ideas.

 

[garymc]

The wire(s) at 6' in height? Can you also clarify "putting the fruiting zone down 4-5'?"

 

[Bobp]

We ended up making the wire height 51/2'.
Im using demo'd 31/2" , 21/2" and 2". rigid galvanized conduit cut 8' long and 6' T posts.
I also took the 2' cut offs and layed them in a angle iron jig and welded them together making more 8' posts.

Im doing a 2 wire GDC.

The bigger pipe on the ends, and at 100, intervals, smaller pipe at 50, intervals, and one at 10, from the end and T posts every 20'.

On the steel pipe line posts im using repourposed grape adjustable trellis V style arms, i got from a fallow vinyard. I attatch them with 3/8" bolts bolted through tye pipes.
And homemade T bars- rebar welded to 3/8" square U bolts on the T posts.
Having trouble loading pics

 

[CK55]

We ended up making the wire height 51/2'.
Im using demo'd 31/2" , 21/2" and 2". rigid galvanized conduit cut 8' long and 6' T posts.
I also took the 2' cut offs and layed them in a angle iron jig and welded them together making more 8' posts.

Im doing a 2 wire GDC.

The bigger pipe on the ends, and at 100, intervals, smaller pipe at 50, intervals, and one at 10, from the end and T posts every 20'.

On the steel pipe line posts im using repourposed grape adjustable trellis V style arms, i got from a fallow vinyard. I attatch them with 3/8" bolts bolted through tye pipes.
And homemade T bars- rebar welded to 3/8" square U bolts on the T posts.
Having trouble loading pics

Good Choice thats the correct trellis for those grapes, whereas Vinifera tends to be best on VSP Trellis systems

 

[Bobp]

Good Choice thats the correct trellis for those grapes

Thats interesting....most things i read and have been told is a single top wire.... but for my application, the gdc works best for allowing the maximum amount of vine footage per row.

 

[CK55]

Thats interesting....most things i read and have been told is a single top wire.... but for my application, the gdc works best for allowing the maximum amount of vine footage per row.

Yeah, that's what I did with VSP. I wanted simple but efficient. I've got a lot of vines. And European grapes almost always grow upright. Some American grapes don't.

 

[garymc]

Here are some pics of my line posts. They are 2 inch galvanized pipe uprights with 1 inch cross bars welded on and holes drilled in the cross bars near the ends. The wires are 5 and a half feet high, so I'm constantly getting my hat knocked off. The cross bars are 4 feet long, putting the wires 4 feet apart. I spaced the posts 20 feet in one row, 18 feet in another and 17 feet in another to see what difference it makes. Each vine is planted at one of the posts and goes out to both wires and up and down the wires 10 feet (in the case of the 20 foot spaced posts.) So a vine has 40 feet of arms, or 36, or 34, depending on which row.

 

[CK55]

Here are some pics of my line posts. They are 2 inch galvanized pipe uprights with 1 inch cross bars welded on and holes drilled in the cross bars near the ends. The wires are 5 and a half feet high, so I'm constantly getting my hat knocked off. The cross bars are 4 feet long, putting the wires 4 feet apart. I spaced the posts 20 feet in one row, 18 feet in another and 17 feet in another to see what difference it makes. Each vine is planted at one of the posts and goes out to both wires and up and down the wires 10 feet (in the case of the 20 foot spaced posts.) So a vine has 40 feet of arms, or 36, or 34, depending on which row.

Interesting trellis, I like it. I have a VSP trellis and planted my vines similar to how it's done in France. Same row and vine spacing.

 

[Maynard123]

I like it you should get good production from it, my vines have been growing a lot this year. I have mine on a single wire 15' apart and 5' high. I have 6 plants and I'm finding that if I kneel down under the grapes are easier to see and pick, I wish I had put them at 6'. So far we have gotten 135 lbs from them I think we'll probably get another 100 lbs after the rest get ripe. This is our third year since I planted them. One plant didn't do very will last year and it didn't make all the way down the wire on one side until this year so there aren't many grapes on that side of it.

 

[CK55]

I like it you should get good production from it, my vines have been growing a lot this year. I have mine on a single wire 15' apart and 5' high. I have 6 plants and I'm finding that if I kneel down under the grapes are easier to see and pick, I wish I had put them at 6'. So far we have gotten 135 lbs from them I think we'll probably get another 100 lbs after the rest get ripe. This is our third year since I planted them. One plant didn't do very will last year and it didn't make all the way down the wire on one side until this year so there aren't many grapes on that side of it.

thats a nice bit of grapes.

 

[Bobp]

We have 250 (minus a few lost ones) muscadines we are trellising with this midified GDC.

About half have hit the height to tip at the string... im hoping we get a few feet down the wire