Staked Vines
Vines trained on stakes can be planted in any warm and sunny spot in your garden! With several staked vines in rows or groups you can even create your very own little vineyard, and this without the use of any Trellises.
Training
The grapevine is planted next to an approx. 1.5m - 2m tall stake and trained according to the instructions for the 1st Year. If you are planting several vines, make sure they are planted about 1m apart. In the 2nd year the vine's growth is assessed in order to select one of the two training methods described below.
"Circular Cane"
This technique is suitable for vigorous vines and vines with new shoots growing vigorously upright without becoming very bushy. The training technique is illustrated below.
"Vertico" (Vertical Cordon)
In this method, a main shoot is trained vertically along the stake or even coiled around it. This training technique is particularly well known in eastern Europe, in the Saxon Elb Valley and in the Moselle region. It is suitable for vines with a rather weak to moderate growth vigour, in other words, vines with very flexible shoots. The vine is trained as a Vertical Cordon ("Schnurbaum"), diagrams for this training technique are found under that heading.
- Staked vines, single or in groups
- Staked vines in a vineyard
- Grapevine with circular cane in winter after pruning, bending and tying
- Two "verticos" (vertical cordons) after pruning
- Staked vine with circular cane in summer
- Freestanding vine on stake
- Several "verticos" in a residential garden with a support wire at the top, after pruning
- Fungus-tolerant vines can be trained as "circular canes" close to the ground and tied horizontally, resulting in a lower canopy.
"Circular Cane" - Training
1st / 2nd Year
- Diagram 01: Growth and shoot thinning in the first year. The stake is not shown in this picture.
- Diagram 02: Winter pruning in 1st / 2nd year
- Diagram 03: Rubbing off of buds in spring of the 2nd year. Shoot growth of the 5 remaining buds. These shoots are tied to the stake and, in summer, shortened to approx. 1.0 -1.5 m.
3rd Year
- Diagram 04: Pre-Pruning. The 5 shoots were trimmed back in summer and tied to the stake. The 3 upper shoots are totally removed including part of the stem, and the lower 2 remain, even if they are a little less vigorous.
- Diagram 05: Pruning the fruiting canes. The cane further away from the trunk is cane pruned in order to be bent into a circle, depending on development to about 8 - 12 eyes. This cane should produce fruiting shoots this year.
The lower cane is used as "replacement spur" and pruned accordingly. It will produce two strong shoots for the following year, whereby one is again pruned as fruiting cane and the other one as new replacement spur.
- Diagram 06: Basically, the vine training is finished, ie a short trunk with one side shoot position at the top, which includes a fruiting cane and a replacement spur.
The fruiting cane is carefully bent, and if required, "massaged" and rolled bit by bit between the fingers, then tied to the stake as circle. More details about this and subsequent training for the following years can be found under Cane Pruning. In summer, the shoots are tied loosely to the stake and treated according to Summer Pruning.
Unfavourable Bud Distribution
- Diagram 07: Pre-Pruning as per Diagram 04.
However, the buds on the future replacement spur are not very well distributed: instead of the second bud, it is the third one that faces outward. For this type of training however, it is imperative that the future fruiting cane arises from an outward facing bud, otherwise the cane will not tolerate being bent into a circle and will break off.
Therefore, in this case you need to proceed as follows:
- Diagram 08: Pruning of fruit cane as per Diagram 05. However, the replacement spur is cut back to 3 eyes, so that there will be a bud on the outside at the end of the spur, ie facing away from the stake. The second eye is superfluous and is best rubbed off at the time of the winter prune, otherwise one may forget to do so.
- Diagram 09: After winter pruning and bud removal.
Following Years
- Diagram 10: Beginning of 3rd year, after pruning (again as per Diagram 06). The entire fruiting cane including all new side shoots will be cut off at the beginning of the 4th year, the replacement spur lignifies further (from ochre to darkbrown).
- Diagram 11: Beginning of 4th year, after pruning. The oblique replacement spur from the previous year is now darkbrown in the diagram, its uppermost shoot is the new fruiting cane, the lower one the new replacement spur.
- Diagram 12: Beginning of 5th year, after pruning. The ties are loosened and the trunk, gradually growing in girth, is shifted slightly to the right on the stake. A new fruiting cane has been formed from the upright replacement spur of the previous year (Diagram 11), and below it, a new replacement spur. This process is repeated from year to year and is explained in detail under Cane Pruning.