Midwest Micro Vineyard

Earlier this spring I built this trellis and planted eight Petite Pearl plants. So far seven of them seem to be doing good. I have decided that next year I will plant nine more. So I want to start sort of a blog of what I am working on. So far some of you have been very helpful with information, and would appreciate any more suggestions that anyone would have.

I am planning on preparing three beds, twelve feet long that will be ready to plant next spring. At the moment I am thinking of nine more Petite Pearl plants that will be spaced four feet apart and installing a Geneva Divided Curtain Trellis. The rows will be seven feet apart. The soil is a wind blown deposited Loess about 60 feet deep. There aren't any stones and I am on a bluff overlooking the mighty Mississippi River. The zone is 5B. I am double digging the beds and trench composting using leaves and wood chips for amendments.

I am using a round point tiling spade, the square point shovel, and the mattock. The mattock breaks up the lowest level that remains in the trench.

After I dig the trench and break up the sub soil I am filling in the trench with leaves. Then you cover the leaves with the dirt removed and then advance another twelve inches.

This is the first of three of the beds completed. After my first pass through the beds the depth of worked up ground is about three feet in depth. The whole bed is sitting on top of 12 inches of leaves. Underneath the leaves are six inches of fluffed up sub soil.In about six weeks I will redig the beds repeating the process and filling the trenches with wood chips. Then the plan will be to redig twice more before winter distributing the leaves and wood chips uniformly throughout the three foot wide twelve foot long beds. Hopefully I can set the posts before winter as well. I am planning on using green treated posts set in concrete. The beds are running North-South.

Here is how one of my vines looked today. They were planted April 25th.

Another "What is this" question?

I assume this is a mildew problem. I have been applying Mancozeb and wettable sulfur but the plant doesn't seem to be coming out of this disease. I also sprayed it once with Immonox. It looks like the plant wants to grow. Does any one have a suggestion?

The picture is too blurry to tell. Are you sure there is no herbicide damage there?

Greg I don't really think it's herbicide damage. The only way is that I did put weed and feed on the yard parallel, but I was real careful not to get any on the plant bed. I'll try to take a better picture with a better camera later in the day.

Weed and Feed contains 2,4-D. Grapes are super sensitive to 2,4-D. IT can be volatile and drift through the air. Also, the weed and feed can be tracked on garden tools and shoes. I would keep all 2,4-D at least 100 yards away from your grapes. A mile buffer would be better.

Here's a picture of 2,4-D damage to grapes in a larger mature vine.

What Greg says is all true. However I have to tend towards a mildew issue. Those sprays are a preventative treatment so will not make an infected vine better. Hopefully if you keep it at bay on the vine it will send out some new uninfected shoots. As a last drastic step, you could prune off most or all of the vine above ground and hope it will send up new growth from underground.

Here is two more. Better pictures.

I hope these are better pictures. I might be imagening it, but I thought I saw some healthy growth appearing this pm.

I started digging my second bed today. It was a good chance to do a little cleanup. A lot of people like oak with their grapes.

I finished the second bed I'm preparing for next year. It was a tough go, with lots of concrete to dig out. Also a sledge hammer came into play. I'm using wood chips to prepare a high organic matter, well aerated low nitrogen planting site with good micro nutrient balance. Hopefully.

Man you like hard work!

That looks like a piece of old leftover concrete. When I dug my 30 vines by hand 6 years ago this Spring I ran into basalt rock that ranged from softball sized to.......

The good part of the hard digging work is that it is almost over. Im sure to the farmers on here it looks crazy, but its the best way to get the maximum production from a small area. I figured out about five minutes ago what is the problem with the diseased grapes. Nearby, in the same soil that I backfilled with I planted some tomatoes. I check them everyday, but about five minutes ago I spotted Aminopyralid symptoms in one of them. I know it well because a few years ago I picked up some cow manure for my garden and it wreaked havoc with my tomatoes. It is nasty stuff.

I just had the thought that the carrier could be the straw mulch. Kind of sad that you can't even use agricultural products in your garden. I should have known better but I thought just hay was unsafe. I'll remove the mulch tomorrow and hope for the best, but it might take several years depending on the degree of contamination. Does anyone know anything about parts per billion sensitivity for Aminopyralids and grapes?

These are my Petite Pearl. A year ago they were six inches tall. I planted five Verona this spring and they are just starting to take off. It has been cool and growth seems a little sluggish.