When growing grapes for eating or also known as table grapes, the bunch sizes and weight is far more larger than those of wine grapes and will increase or get heavier as the season progress and the grapes ripen. If a bunch of grapevine loosely hangs from an unattached shoot, it will pull the shoot down, into the row and in the end will hang beneath the canopy (fruiting zone). Those grapes that hang loose from the canopy easily get damaged especially if you cultivate your vineyards with a tractor or spray pump.

How to secure the shoot? Up until a few years ago, we grape growers now learned to twined the shoots around the trellis wires. With a normal gable trellis, there are only five trellis wires and allot of shoots, so many of the shoots had to be bundled together before it is twined on the trellis wires – which off course made these shoots look like a “sausage” of shoots on the wire.

I found that these “sausages” were the starting point of many diseases and problems, as there is almost zero sunlight penetration or airflow inside the bundles. I started looking for an alternative, when I discovered that when I simply take the shoot, bend it down and just tie it to the trellis wires with a plastic string, I get a well spaced canopy with grapes still hanging loose as well.

You could go without securing shoots on your grape vine, but although a bit more labor intensive, the securing of shoots will result in you growing far better quality grapes, with much less diseases. If you apply all of these, how do grapes grow in th trellis is just a walk in the park.