Providing a shelter around young grapevines has many advantages. A shelter protects vines against small mammals, herbicide drift, desiccating winds and weather damage. It can also reduce evapotranspiration, increase growth rate and reduce labor for vine training. These factors often make grow tubes a good choice for new vineyards and especially for replacement vines in established vineyards. With proper grow tube use, a vineyard can be in full production a year earlier than normal.
Some tubes are preassembled and others require assembly.
Cross-sectional area inside the tube is also important to plant growth and round tubes have a greater area than triangular tubes for the same diameter tube. This factor seems to be most important in hotter climates. Some tubes are solid and others are split down one side. Split tubes are more versatile than solid tubes, since they allow plant maintenance during the growing season and can be removed without taking the vine off the cordon wire. This means that the grow tube can be left on the grapevine until late in the season to obtain the maximum benefits.