[suziequeue]

We have at last got our vine trellis built and ready to plant vines next March.

I am keen to grow them spiralling up the trellis posts until they can spread out onto the canopy support at the top as per the picture.

Is it realistic to train a vine to do that?

I appreciate that the picture is not of a vine but  - you get the gist……

We are going for seedless dessert or dual varieties. OH not keen on wine making (thank god) - we've got our hands full with the cider as it is…….

[clydesdaleclopper]

You'll probably just have to tie it in well as it spirals around the post.

[suziequeue]

I'm hoping it will be like training the tomatoes as they grow up their string

[pgkevet]

It's no problem to train the vine up a post and across a pergola..looks good too and a common sight abroad.

It reminded me of this true short story I wrote about a holiday in Cyprus - an extract below....

We found the small town. I think it was closed. There was no sign of life. Perhaps everyone had fallen off the hillside and just left the houses? So much for tea.
 
 Any married man knows that this is the time their wife starts complaining. Yes ,they want a drink and, yes, they want a pee. And yes, it's all my fault. I drove on in silence. I say silence; I was silent but V was just getting warmed up.
 
 Around a gentle bend in a grove of trees I spotted a turning with a colourful Cyrillic sign pointing down a track. It looked promising so I pulled in. Down in a picturesque dell with a bubbling spring the  trackway opened to a wide driveway with a broad, laden fig tree, a huge  vine covered pergola over a large patio area with a couple of tables in  front of a whitewashed single storey adobe house. If I was ever going to  build a small restaurant in the country then I'd want it to look just  like this.
 
 We seated ourselves at the table but after waiting a short time we wandered in to find some service. I'd opened a couple of doors and found V the loo and then met an old lady.
 
 I reckoned she could have been Aphrodite herself. She certainly looked about three thousand years old and with a nice smile and was pretty spritely for a someone that age. But then goddesses are immortal even if they don't age too well.
 
 She spoke in the ancient language of the Gods - or it might have just been modern Greek. But either way we had a problem. Lots of sign language later and she went off to fetch some tea and munchies while wifey finished her comfort break and I grazed on figs and grapes.
 
 We sat and drank our tea and I tried to engage Aphrodite in conversation. It didn't go so well with the language barrier and was mostly lots of gesticulation and smiling and nodding.
 
 We finished our tea and I tried to pay. This was also a problem with lots more head shaking and gesticulation. In the end I shoved some money under my saucer, smiled, said 'thank you' politely and we left.
 
 As we drove away V looked at me and said. "I don't think that was a  restaurant."

[Lesley Silvester]

 

[HesterF]

  Love the story!

As for the grapevine training, I've yet to work out how to train larger vines to grow up pergolas. I know with vineyards you grow well for a year, cut back to two or three buds, repeat and then a bit more etc. until you have a nice thick 'trunk' and fresh shoots to produce the grapes each year. In that case you could be working your way up and down the spiral for a few years but I guess if you're not so fussed about grapes and just want to train it over the pergola, you can let it go sooner. I'm trying to grow some up the side of our chicken run and I did cut them back to a couple of buds last year and they're up to five or six foot now so it might be worth pruning hard for a year or two to establish vigour.

H