The vine rows have all been fertilised with the neighbour's manure which has then been dug in via a rotary hoe:
Scale is the key factor here. We have 8 rows that require 16 trellis ends, or "end assemblies" as they are known around here. This is too much for us to do by ourselves with a pick and shovel, so we have to pay a fencing contractor for this job. However, the scale is not so big that we need them to do the wiring. Instead, we can complete that ourselves.
As you can see, the trellis ends are using a pole as a diagonal brace. This gives a less bulky structure that a traditional box shape and is more elegant to look at.
The final height of the end posts is 1800 mm above the ground (2400 mm total length) and the short posts are 200 mm. They are spaces 2800 mm.
Next, we add the steel posts between the trellis ends. Steel is better than the CCA treated posts as it is recyclable. CCA pine cannot be burned and therefore must be put in landfill if it is removed from the ground. We want to minimise the environmental impact of our farm, so steel is the best option.
The posts below are Waratah Gripfast 2400 mm vine trellis posts.
Now we add wire. We are reusing 2.85 mm high-tension fencing wire that we salvaged from a fence that we removed. This is the standard diameter for the fruiting (cordon) wire, and should be adequate for the irrigation wire. It might be a bit large for the fruiting wires but we'll see how we go.
Again, because this is small scale, we can use ratchet tensioners for each wire. This would be cost-prohibitive in a large winery, but we only need 32.
We've also dug a trench to get our irrigation system installed.
The irrigation tubing is 13 mm for each vine row with 19 mm across each end. This will be fed from a 32 mm pipe from the water tank.
The drip tube is tied to the drip wire with cable ties.
Ok. So now we have our vineyard trellised and plumbed and ready for the next step... Planting !
