Greg's North Dakota Vineyard

I am starting this thread to document the beginning of my vineyard and winery in North Dakota. I acquired a 12 acre farmstead this Spring and am trying to prepare the site for planting grapes next spring.

You may have seen my post about finding herbicide contamination in the soil. I will continue to update that as it develops. But I think I will be able to move forward with the vineyard sooner rather than later.

Here is an arial view of the site with areas marked out for future planting. The largest area to the East I call the eastern vineyard may have contamination (to be determined). And is about 3/4 of an acre. The area south of the house will be a smaller, more visible, southern vineyard. It is nicely situated along the driveway and road. It's about 1/4 of an acre. There is an old concrete silo base in that area that I plan to build a gazebo on for picnics in the vineyard.

And I have my soil analysis results back. Soil was sampled at 12" and not separated into 6" layers.

East Vineyard:

pH: 7.8 (high but should be ok if I choose the right grape varieties)
N: 112 lb/acre
P: 215 ppm
K: 2474 ppm
Organic matter: 8.6%
Ca: 3453 ppm
Mg: 4.2 ppm

Most trace elements very high, sodium is low.


South vineyard:

pH: 7.5
N: 10 lb/acre
P: 5 ppm
K: 374 ppm
Organic matter: 6.4%
Ca: 4006 ppm
Mg: 1195 ppm

Most trace elements medium to high, sodium is medium.

While N and P are a little low I will not add more at this time. I will wait to get the grapes established and then adjust based on tissue tests.

You are going to be challenged with vigor, so you might want grafted vines on a rootstock that helps control vigor.

Keep us up to date on your progress!

Greg thanks for sharing. What about elderberry bushes near the wet areas?

Grafted vines may be a possibility. Some of my grapes are coming from cuttings for free so I am not sure yet what I will be sourcing from the nurseries.

The east vineyard will be challenging for sure. I think a trellising system that will work with the vigor and a well planned cover crop will be on my list of things to read up on.

Elderberries are on my list. Can they fight with the grasses and weeds?

The previous owners were feeding hay comtaminated with Tordon at high enough levels to have left residue that is still killing broadleafs and the animals survived?

Tordon affects sensitive plants like tomatoes and beans at the part per billion level of concentration. It is a plant growth regulator. It is essentially non toxic to animals. It has an LD50 (lethal dose where 50% die) similar to table salt. That's the good news. I can still safely eat the corn that grows. It passes intact through the animals in the urine and is excreted quickly without causing adverse affects.

I have taken soil samples of the manure piles, around the garden area and in a grid pattern in the east and south pastures. I have potted them up and planted pea seeds. Once they sprout and grow I will be able to determine how widespread the picloram contamination is. On a positive note there are dandelions in the northeast corner of the east pasture and clover growing in the lawn around the house. That would mean no contamination there.

Where in ND? Also, check out the ND grape Growers Assoc website if you haven't already. There is a listserv. set up that you can get on. Lots of knowledgeable people who are willing to answer pretty much any question.

I live in Fargo but my site is located near Casselton.

The peas are sprouting and I expect to be able to see any contamination within a few weeks. Based on how my garden is showing spotty problems and some is recovering, I'm hopeful the amount of contamination is low.

Yesterday I sprayed both the east and the south vineyard areas with glyphosate to kill off the quack grass and other weeds. I plan to break up the ground and till it well in a few weeks. I will then see what weeds grow, spray and till one more time. I hope to get some ground cover grass seed planted in August so it can get a start before winter. Come next spring I should have the start of a nice grass covered vineyard to make my rows in.

Any suggestions on ground cover for the fertile east pasture and the less nutrient dense south pasture?

Well, it's been 12 days and the peas are starting to grow. Here are two pictures. The first one is a sample of manure from a pile near the vegetable garden mixed with some potting soil. The second sample is from one of the south pasture sites. Can you see a difference?





The encouraging news is that it appears most of the contamination is near and around the barn and the vegetable garden where there is lots of horse manure. So far the south pasture samples are all growing well and soil from the east pasture looks mostly good too. I have to let these go a couple more weeks and repeat a few that did not germinate.

Wow what a difference!

The east pasture two weeks after being sprayed. The quack grass and weeds are dying nicely. I need to break up the ground and do a more comprehensive bioassay on the site by planting a cover crop.

I have been thinking about what varieties and trellis systems to use for my two vineyards.

The east vineyard is about 3/4 of an acre. The rough dimensions are 140 ft x 225 feet. I think I can get 12 rows with about 10 feet in between. I may have to squeeze them a little bit tighter but I don't want to get them too close. I will likely have a road E to W down the middle so each row will actually be split into two 100 foot rows N to S.

For the grapes. I am thinking about 3 reds and 3 whites:

Marquette
Petite Pearl
Frontenac

Brianna
Frontenac Blanc
Frontenac Gris

These should be hardy enough for my climate. The soil is super fertile so I expect vigor to be a problem. So, I am considering trellis systems that would have 4 cordons per vine. I have been considering Rich's modified GDC or similar design. However, given our climate I wonder if a lower fruiting zone may be better. If cold die off occurs having the cordons lower may be safer. I thought a Scott Henry system might be a better choice. I think this would make netting the fruit easier too.

Questions: With my fertile soil, what would be the expected vigor for these six varieties? Am I on the right track to tame that with 4 cordons? What other things do I need to consider for this vineyard?

The smaller south vineyard (50 x 130) will be mostly for ambiance. I will put in 3 or 4 100 foot rows. Customers will be able to walk through it and I will have a gazebo nearby. I am looking for one red and one white variety that will be hardy and take as little care as possible. I think I can make a sweeter style wine from these grapes. I will probably do a standard VSP trellis. This soil is less fertile and I think a two cordon system will work.

Comments? Suggestions? Other varieties?

What is you normal low temperature for the winter? Those varieties will not have much dieback before about 30-35 below zero. With extreme vigor, the Scott-Henry will become a jungle. I have had to spend a TON of time on them this year as the Marquette is crawling everywhere with the Scott Henry. You need to hack it back a lot and the botton shoots are crawling all over the ground. I was working them last Thursday trimming and leaf pulling over the fruit when a yellow-jacket nailed my wrist. I was about to go for the epi-pen as my breathing was getting worse with wheezing and I was dizzy. I took benadryl and sat in the air-conditioned room and took it easy the rest of the day. Two days later I needed to take benadryl every few hours as the hives came back. (sORRY i GOT SIDETRACKED HERE). The point is, the Mod GDC has yet to need any canopy work while all the others have had major time spent on them.

I am right on the edge of zone 4a and 3b. -35 is possible. We usually get a week or so stretch where the high temps are -10 or lower. I have seen -20's but not -30's the last few years. Actually the growers around here had more winter kill this year with our mild winter and frequent thaws. One vineyard 10 miles west had his established Marquette die to the ground. It came back but he has to retrain them. I would love to grow la crescent but it is very spotty here. I have only seen vsp trellises around here. I really like your modified gdc. But do I risk more losses with the trunks so high given our climate? Would this ytem work well for all six of those varieties?

Thanks for your advice.

I don't know if it will die back more or not. It would take a bit longer to retrain in case of a loss, but not sure how much distance to ground affects freezing damages. I think you are truly on the edge of the growing area there if it gets that cold that often.

Yes, that is the challenge in North Dakota. NDSU now has a grape breeding program being aided by the folks down in the Twin Cities. They have several test plots around the state deep into zone 3 looking to find even hardier grapes. Tom Plocher (who developed petite pearl) is also working on our challenges here. We're hopeful in the future that we'll have grapes that will survive. Some of the riparia they are breeding with were vines found in some of our coldest regions of ND and Saskatchewan. The varieties I chose above are some of the best quality grapes that seem to be surviving here.

This past winter was unusually warm and we had very little snow cover. I think thats what caused trouble with my neighbor's marquette. On the other hand my other friend just 5 miles east of that vineyard had marquette come through just fine.

It looks like you are in a pocket of zone 4b nominally zone 5a. Wish I had that extra 10 degrees in the winter.

That is some beautiful land you have there!!! I can't believe the difference in those peas!! I can only imagine what those horses were eating.

Yeah, the map is off a bit. We are in the zone 5a and the area listed as that is 4b. Where I am is a solid 5-7 degrees higher. I think the error comes in where the temperature sensors are located and extrapolated.

You do indeed have the best varieties listed for hardiness. Contact U Minn and see if you can get some Mn1200 (sister to Marquette-Mn1211). It has better winter resistance than Marquette, but the grapes are smaller. It makes a complex wine- more so than any hybrid I have ever worked with. Talk with or e-mail Peter Hemstad. If he would allow it, I could get you cuttings this coming winter and you could root them. They are the easiest to root vines I have ever grown.

Also Petite Amie (white) developed in central Minnesota by David McGregor is extremely cold hardy with zero bud damage here even in the coldest winters.