Pergola Tendone (tent)

Tendone or Pergola Abruzzo

The wire scaffolding is from 6 to 7 feet high. From vertical trunks, 3 to 5 canes branch off horizontally and form a continuous cover over the ground.  The scaffolding rests on iron or concrete poles.  The canes are arranged radially for a length of about 6 feet.  Canes are productive for 2 or 3 years, then pruned away for younger canes.

 Here is how it might look.  This is from the Abruzzo region, immediately east of Rome.

This form of viticulture is famous for the quantity of grapes it produces:

Sicily's Giuseppe Guastella of Mazzarrone in Catania with his Victoria grapes. This production is obtained in polyethylene sheeted greenhouses without artificial heating.  The sheeting causes elevated temperatures inside the greenhouse allowing early budding, flowering and ripening.

Here is another tendone.  This one in the Basilicata region, just north of Sicily.  Note the shade.  For an organic Texas grower, all that shade is 












This is an ancient growing style, and has been criticized by some agricultural specialists who favor industrialized techniques developed in cooler climates such as France, California and Australia for Vertical Positioned Shoots (VSP) trellis variants.
  
Advertised advantages of VSP over tendone include:
1. More resistant to adverse conditions such as fog and high humidity during the harvest
2. Higher sugar content at maturity occurred due to a lower yield per plant
3. More uniform maturation
4. Ease in mechanizing vineyard operations

This is a matter of some controversy.  See my 'VSP or Pergola' post or Maurizo Gily's 'Demise of the Italian Pergola Trellis' (which is optimistic about the Italian pergola's future).