[rhoffart]

I just picked up two wine barrels that I want to put on our deck as planters. I am going to use the full barrels and was thinking about ordering 2 or 4 grape vines to plant in these barrels. These would be decorations mainly but it would be cool if I got a few grapes as well. I thinking about ordering 4) 3 year old vines from Willis Orchard. My questions are;

Do you need multiple vines to produce grapes?

Do you think two vines will survive in one full size barrels?

What variety would you recommend?

Should I worry about pierce disease in planters?

Thanks

[TxBrew]

It appears that pierce disease can effect even the smallest quantity of plants but the more the better chance. Boerne is not in the super high risk AVA though, here in San Marcos we are right on the edge of being in the red zone.

[ibglowin]

You may not need to worry about Pierce's disease for much longer.....

[TxBrew]

I read that several days ago.

How do you suppose they inserted the hybrid gene into grapevines ?

More so I wonder what the actual process would look like for vineyard owners to implement this into their vineyards.

[ibglowin]

More than likely it like a test tube baby. They use an electron microscope and a tiny needle to take the cloned gene (which is grown in a test tube) and they then insert it into the dividing cells of the grapevine.

The downside is that if you need resistance to Pierce's disease the only way to get it is to plant or replant your vineyard with the "new and improved" disease resistant vines.

[TxBrew]

I am very new to growing in general but when you graft a variety onto an existing variety does only the graft retain it's variety? It just uses the original variety to grow and get nutrients but shares nothing of itself with the original?