supplies question for trellising

[BenK]

I bought a bunch of 8' 4" and 5" cedar posts from a local store. I am going to buy everything else from orchard valley supply unless someone has a better supplier up their sleeve. This is my list:

3' GDC crossarms
12.5 gauge wire 500'
fencing staples
wire strainers
light duty spinning jenny
gripple wire joiners for fastening wire in a loop around endposts and anchors

I have a few questions:
Should I just buy the heavy duty spinning jenny? Its 3x the price but I realize its a one time investment.

Has anyone used the monofilament on the website instead of metal wire? If it makes a difference the varieties are marquette and concord. It seems like it could be a lot easier to work with.

Gdc crossarms are usually 4' to my understanding but only 3' is available in small quantities. Will that be workable or should I just stick to TWC instead?

 

[Bobp]

I suggest that you check farm suppliers for the high tensile wire... #12 is more common but #9 is sold.. and they're margins are normally held lower because stick farmers will shop around..Look for posts too?

 

[dbeck]

Bob is right. You can buy a lot of what you need at Fleet Farm.

Do not ever buy treated posts from any of the box stores though. The chemical they use to treat the wood is not the same as what the places that sell directly to farmers use. By law the stores that sell to the general public can't sell wood treated with CCA.

 

[wfournier]

Where are you located? I second looking for another source of wire but it may be hard to get a smaller quantity. Tractor supply (if they are in your area) sells 4000' rolls for $110 and put them on sale from time to time. Tractor Supply also has a spinning Jenny for $40 that I borrowed from someone (the best price) for running our wires and it was fine. I would guess the inexpensive option from Orchard Valley would be as well unless you are putting in miles of wire.

You mention gripples but not the gripple tool, I suspect you may want that.

 

[dbeck]

You don't necessarily need a spinning jenny. I use 14 gauge wire for the catch wires that are used on VSP. The wire comes on spools. I put about about a 3/4 inch pipe through the center of the spool and run 3 spools on the pipe at a time. That pipe gets mounted horizontal on the back of a trailer I have and is held in place by clamps. So I can run 3 wires down a row at one time.

You could do the same thing by running the pipe through the lower arms on a 3-point on a tractor if you have one. If you use 12 gauge for your grow wire, then that's when a spinning jenny is handy. 12 gauge usually isn't on a spool. I use 9 gauge for brace wires on the "H" posts at the end of the row. All of those gauges are available at fleet farm or tractor supply.

Depending on if this is a 1-time deal for you, you can also make a spinning jenny out of plywood and other parts you may be able to scrounge. If you have a lot of wire to run, then of course buying the tools makes sense.

 

[mfzona]

I used mono for catch wires on my Marquette and it was a disaster. This fall, I'll be replacing with high tensile. My vines were insanely vigorous and the mono stretched under the load. It was great to work with and might be ok if you have close vine to vine spacing to keep the vigor down, but I won't use it again.

 

[BigH]

3' GDC crossarms
12.5 gauge wire 500'
fencing staples
wire strainers
light duty spinning jenny
gripple wire joiners for fastening wire in a loop around endposts and anchors

How are you designing your end posts? Do you have the necessary hardware for that? Note that the holding force of the end post goes up exponentially with its diameter, so consider getting a slightly wider post for the ends.

I bought most of my trellis supplies at Tractor Supply. A spinning jenny is great, but I think the expensive one is probably overkill

I think I used 3 ft cross arms for my GDC. I built my own from treated 2x4s, and tried out two designs. The design in the foreground row is simply a 3 ft treated 2x4 with a diagonal arm for rotational support (T design). The design in the middle row is constructed with 2 2x4's that are bolted to the post on one end, and supported with high tensile wire on the other. Notice how they point up like a V. I like the result of this design better, but it was a pain to get the V design to be symmetric. If I had to build a big vineyard, I would just go with the single 2x4 T design.

I beefed up the cross arm on the first line post by using a 2x6. That is because of the downforce from the wires going down to the end post of my H brace. I also put two cross braces on those.

H

 

[BenK]

wow guys. Absolutely incredible advice. I am buying the wire, tool, and fripples off amazon and will debate the crossarms with myself tonight. If I use gripples do I need strainers/tensioners?

 

[BenK]

I was going to use a t post driven 3" into the ground or a 5' cedar post dug to about the same depth. the row is only 24' long and will have 2 end posts and 2 line posts

 

[Stressbaby]

I bought Gripples and ended up not using them when I saw that the inside parts are plastic.

 

[shrewsbury]

I use earth anchors and no strainer, but all posts are 4x4x8
gripples work great
light duty spinning jenny makes it easier, my rows are 250 feet, so it is nice to have the jenny
I use orchard valley as well

 

[Bobp]

The pressure wheel in a gripples is ceramic. Very strong, yet not damaging to the wire.

 

[saddlebronze]

I used Kencove for my 12.5 wire and what they call "Kwik ends" for the terminations. Very slick. You just drill a hole in the post, pop one in, push the wire through and bam you are done. Good company.

 

[saddlebronze]

Also, I made my spinning jenny from some old angle iron, a piece of rebar and some threaded rod. just stuck the threaded rod in the ground, put the reel of wire on and off we go.

 

[VillaVino]

Tractor Supply gets most of my money for trellis work. Posts, 4000’ 12.5 wire, post staples, earth anchors and the $40 spinning Jenny. Midwest Vineyard Supply has always been good to me. I get the wire vices, gripples, tapener tape, clippers from them.