The minimum number of wires is five (one main training wire with a wire strainer, and two pairs of moveable catch wires on chains). The double catch wires are moved up and down as the vine shoots grow. Chains are used to allow the wires to be slackened, then pulled tight again when the gathering work on the row is complete. The wires always need to be slackened at the end(s) before moving them, making it easy to pull out wide and then under and up to gather a lot of foliage. Start with having the wires at the highest two levels, then move the lower of the wires outwards and down, underneath the foliage and then clip into a lower slot. It's important not to do the moving too early. Wait for the growth to be well above the first double-wire level, but not so high that it is too far above. Don't worry if all the shoots are not gathered in between the wires, if all the shoots are gathered then the leaf-wall will be too congested, restricting air flow and
making spray penetration difficult, allowing more mildews to develop. Later when the growth is high above the top wire (ideally this is just before flowering starts) the growth should be 'topped'; cut so that it
is about 25 cm above the single top wire; like topping a hedge.
Winegrowers Supplies
- Vine training - trellis with moveable pairs of catch wires
It's difficult to work with only those if you arch the fruiting canes (Pendlebogen) as the growth is at different heights.
I used an extra single fixed top wire (with a wire strainer) about 5 cm down from the top of the posts. Later I clipped the
earliest strongest shoots to that (the quickest way is with a Max Tapener), giving good support to the growth and stopping it falling over sideways within the double wires.
The chains attached to the ends of the wires, should lift off the end-post fittings, so they can be moved up or down to the next level.
It's much easier to do this with two people, working with one at the post ahead of the other.
Then a few weeks later, according to the growth, move the higher wire down, gather under a lot of foliage and clip that into a middle slot.
Then for the third and final gathering move the lower wire up to the highest slot. It remains there until the start of the following year.
Also important is to use double-wire clips to hold the pairs of wires closely together, at each stage, two or three clips between each pair of posts.
If you don't use these clips, the leaf-wall will slide over sideways within the pairs of wires.