[grapeman]

Originally Posted by echoloc8

Hey all, new forum member with only a few kit wines under my belt, but sharp curiosity about vineyard planting. My father-in-law has 15 acres or so that's currently growing Christmas trees, but someday I expect my wife to inherit, and he's already said I can plant a few vines as an experiment this year.

I'm loving this thread, and it's building my enthusiasm! Thanks, Rich, for the effort!

-Rich

Welcome Rich! The way I am showing here is not your normal way of planting a vineyard. I am experimenting with a streamlined cheaper way of doing it and am documenting it along the way. That is half the fun of doing it.

[grapeman]

I have the new vineyard field all set to beginplanting when I feel the vines are ready- which will be very soon. To recap what has been done so far to prep the vineyard, first it was sprayed to kill the grass, then plowed and disc harrowed 5 times. Sunday I laid the plastic mulch. There were small gaps with no soilthrown on the edge. This AM the wind blew pretty good and began lifting theplastic. There were some places up to 50 feet where it came out of the soil. Ihad a helper help me to hold those spots down and throw some soil on them. Ithen adjusted the disc harrow to throw soil outward and recover the edges allthe way. 4 acres under plastic mulch in rows 10 feet apart - 21 rows 750 feetl long which will each be split in two for a total of 42 rows. It really does look pretty good.

I will get some pictures to put up soon of it with the plastic down. I have a market to do tomorrow

[ibglowin]

Cant wait for some pics!

[grapeman]

Hopefully the vineyard planting hasn't suffered too bad of a setback. We had a pretty decent day today, and then the thunderstorms came. At least we were on the edge of the worst cell so the hail was only pea sized instead of quarter to half dollar size, but it ain't over yet. When it stops I will go out and check the vines. It is too dark to really see right now, even though it is only a bit after 6:30. I have my fingers, toes, arms and even eyes crossed hoping the little vines I set out to harden off aren't shredded too badly.

[Deezil]

Dang!

We had some hard rain here yesterday that sounded like hail, but it was rain - i went out to check on the plants & seen the rainstorm had caught a few bees off guard, had some casualties on the leaves.. Wasnt hard enough to tear the leaves though, but i bet it was close..

Hope your little guys pull through the

[grapeman]

So far they look alright. It looks like they stood the leaves straight up to miss the heavy rain and hail. Time will tell if we are out of the woods yet, so to speak.

[grapeman]

The vines came through the hail storms alright. It has warmed to the 80's again. The main vineyard is in full bloom on a lot of varieties and all seems to be doing well. I had to snuff out some rose chafers with the last spray on Tuesday.

I decided today was nice and I had no markets so we would begin to plant the Marquettes and Leon Millot for that matter. We planted around 1250-1300 in about 4 hours. We took the next step with my new planting system. We got out the Water Wheel Transplanter, filled it up with about 100 gallons of water at a time and began planting through the plastic mulch we laid last weekend. Here are mixed pictures of the process. The smaller guy is my son Rick and the other one is Keith. So without boring you all any more here are some pictures.....

[tatud4life]

That tractor is pretty cool!!! Comfort, low to the ground, and still get your vine in the ground. Nice work!!!

[M1wino]

That's awesome! Love that you have your kids involved I hope mine are interested and willing when we get to that point. Good work!

[tatud4life]

I wish all of mine were that willing to help. I would have a huge workforce. Lol. Only one wants to help and it has to fit her busy schedule of sitting I her room all day.