You may think that having to grow your grapes along a grape trellis is hard, but you will find that the grape trellis makes it really easy to grow and also harvest grapes. The grape trellis makes spacing a non-issue in your vineyard. Possibly even in a small backyard, the grape trellis enables you to grow, prune, and choose good grapes.
Aside from providing you extra working space, the grape trellis is obviously important to support your grapevines when they are young and also when they have large grape clusters. There is no specific way that your trellis needs to appear. The vineyards you see typically have the purely functional grape trellis, but you can have a very attractive one in your yard. You can make it out of an assortment of materials, such as wood, iron, stainless steel, aluminum, and PVC pipe. You can buy a prefabricated grape trellis or create your own. One of the first things to remember is that you must provide an 8'X8' growing space for every single grapevine and build the trellis well before planting.
The grape trellis you select should match the local weather conditions. In a warmer climate, you'll want a larger one. But in cooler climates, a shorter one will handle the weather much better. It can be as short as 3', while the warmer climate grape trellis can be as tall as 8'.
Ensure that you carefully plan your vineyard location before digging your holes. Having a map of your site before digging is a good idea. Once you know where to dig, you have to go down about two feet. So if you're placing in 8' posts, they will rise about 6' above ground level. It isn't a terrible idea to use concrete to hold at least your end posts in position. After all, it will be a few years before your grapevines have grapes on them. You can add additional strength to the posts by making use of anchor wires from the ground or shorter posts. Make sure you keep 8' in between each of your posts. You will have to put galvanized steel wire in two rows, with one row being a few inches above the ground and one wire being at the top of the posts. If you want to be simple, you can just staple the wires to the posts with a staple gun.
Your objective will be to support the vines grow up along the trellis wires. You will need to do some pruning as well as stringing of your vines so they can get going in the right directions along the wires. Do not make use of anything that could damage your shoot, such as wires, to tie your shoot where you want it. Some cloth or thick plastic strips should be enough.
Even for a small crop of grapes, it is an excellent idea to purchase a trellis. There will be a bit of investment, but you will get much better success. Then again, be sure if you spend a lot of money to get one, that you don't mess up your grapes by failing to take the time to properly plan your grape trellis.