Grow tubes for vines are a very interesting proposition…..
– Do you need them or not? grow tubes help prevent frost damage, help the plants grow due to their color and protect from rabbits and deer…..but they are a pain when you need to prune/tie.
– What are you going to do for weed control? If you are going to spray with Round-Up you need grow tubes the first few years so you don’t kill the vines. Also, they protect the plants from weed whacking.
– New or used? New grow tubes cost anywhere between $0.75 and $1.25 depending on the type and volume. Used grow tubes $0.20 to $0.25 but they won’t last as long. As you can see from the picture below I probably lost around 10% this year due to degradation…..the sun is bad for them and they probably can be used 5-10x before they crumble and break. In my case, I had a very nice vineyard manager loan me 1200 tubes which I’m returning on Tuesday….thanks Klopp Vineyards !!! The rest of mine I will try and sell to someone else this year.

Oh, one funny thing…..I have a new vineyard manger this year who showed up and said it was time for me to put the grow tubes back on…….NOT going to happen…..don’t have rabbits or deer, no round-up and I’m now good at weed whacking and will be easier to tie up the vines without them. As for the frost…..will see in March and April if this was a good decision.

These I’m trying to sell and the ones in the field will go to the dump.