To weave or not to weave (Vines)

10 years ago

The first vine to grow in my yard, from a volunteer no less, was a Morning Glory. Shortly after it started, I acquired a small lattice-work trellis wall and I moved both the wall and the Morning Glory near my shed. I would spend my mornings going out to weave the new growth through the trellis.

Then I acquire some Passionvine seeds and started growing those. I quickly came to learn that small trellis wall was not enough for Passionvines. So last winter I built a new, bigger trellis on the other side of the shed. I went with the same lattice-work panels because I liked the look. When I transplanted the Passionvine, I noted how thick it had gotten near the roots. I told myself at the time that each winter I would cut back the Passionvines to prevent them from getting this thick throughout the trellis and tearing it apart.

At the same time that I transplanted the Passionvines, I put in a grape vine as well and, since I was already in the habit, I weaved it through the trellis as it grew. Then on a recent visit to the Discovery Gardens in Tavares, I took a moment to go look at their muscadine vines and could not help but notice two things. First, they weren't using lattice work but wire tied to posts, which made sense as it would be much cheaper this way. It also made sense because of the second thing I noticed. The main support stem of their vines, the part that I am growing now on mine, was about as thick as my wrist. Looking at my grape vine and picturing it as the same thickness, I realized that this coming winter, when I cut back my Passionvines, I will also have to cut up my trellis and free the grape vines.

So long story short... make sure you do your homework when planting vines to figure out the best trellis system for your vines.

Comments (3)

jane__ny
10 years ago
I'm glad to read this. Live and learn! I was thinking of doing the same thing you did.

Jane
L_in_FL
10 years ago
Grapes and passionvines have tendrils they use to grab support structures. If you have one side that you want to be the "display" side, put the trellis behind them and there is no need to weave - they will climb up the display side of the trellis just fine on their own. If you want to guide their growth, you can tie them temporarily where you want them and then remove the ties when the tendrils take hold. (If you use velcro ties, you can reuse them over and over.) If they are growing only on one side of the trellis, you need not worry about the stems getting too thick.

However, the problem with a wooden lattice is *weight*. Mature vines get really heavy, especially grape vines laden with fruit. I imagine in time they would destroy a wooden lattice. So something stronger is required.

For grape production, wires attached to posts are used for a lot of reasons. Low cost, strength, ease of use (the wires are strung at the right height to tend the vines easily), and very importantly - to spread the vines out for good air circulation to avoid fruit diseases. I have mine on an overhead arbor which is strong enough, but they grow too densely on it. By the time the fruit is mature, the clusters are hanging in the shade and stay wet a long time after rains. This causes me to lose a lot of grapes some years. Spraying helps, but now I wish I'd planted flowers on that arbor and put the grapes on posts and wires. (Having to climb a stool and/or reach up to prune the vines and harvest the grapes is a pain in the neck, too.)

Morning glories and some other vines like mandevillas don't have tendrils - the stems wrap themselves around the structure as they grow. This means the openings in the trellis need to be big enough not to choke the stems out later. I don't know how big those vines get farther south, but I don't think either would get too big for a wood lattice here. Where I live, mandevillas usually die back to the ground each winter (and sometimes die altogether in colder years). Morning glories are annuals.
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Michael AKA Leekle2ManE
Original Author
10 years ago
Right now my trellis is made from that latticed pvc. I knew when I put it up that I would likely have to replace it in 2 or 3 years due sun degradation. Now that I know what I do, I can better devise the replacement trellis. The next one will be of treated lumber with some chicken wire/hardware cloth in places to give the tendrils places to grab. It will also stand apart from the shed a bit instead of attached to the shed, partly due to the weight issue and also because I've noticed slightly lower afternoon temps in the shed with much of it covered in vines. I think if I add some space between the vines and the shed, I can create a natural air current that will lower temps even more.