Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

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grapeman

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Well I finally got my new vineyard started last weekend. I had worked the ground earlier and was eagerly awaiting the arrival of my new additions from Double A Vineyards. I had received 20 vines from Millers last month. I set them in some 2 gallon containers in the greenhouse. Will tell more about sources and varieties later. I rented a post hole digger with 16" auger because I had almost 200 holes to do-between posts and vines. Started at about 9:30 AM and finished in about 3 hours. What a time and labor saver!


Anyway here are some pictures of progress so far.
2006-05-12_044733_VineyardSunset.jpg



Just kidding about that one! Hope mine turns out like this someday.


2006-05-12_052805_vineyardholes1.jpg



The beginning.....





2006-05-12_053600_vineyardholes2.jpg



2006-05-12_053643_vineyardholes3.jpg















2006-05-12_053723_vineyardholes4.jpg



Now some vines... first a LaCross before trimming.


2006-05-12_053848_vine1.jpg



Trimmed...
2006-05-12_053926_vine2.jpg



Planted(same vine all pictures)





2006-05-12_054021_vine3.jpg



More assorted pictures..
2006-05-12_054118_vineyard1.jpg



2006-05-12_054156_vineyard2.jpg



A Frontenac started inmy greenhouse-from Millers.


2006-05-12_054313_biggervine1.jpg



Throw in a few apple blossoms- just starting in picture, but now almost full bloom.


2006-05-12_054420_apples1.jpg



I'll post more pictures later. Last night I set the end anchors and hope to run the wires this weekend if the weather breaks for a while(raining now).


I set 40 Frontenac, 20 St.Pepin, 25 LaCross from Double A and 20 assorted vines from Millers- some seedless- all pretty hardy.


RichardEdited by: appleman
 
Richard - amazing soil you have, not a rock to be seen. Very different from
what I dealt with this spring as I dug my vineyard in. I bought Frontenac and
St. pepin also, plus 4 other varieties, but from Northeastern Vine Supply in
Vermont. They will ship in early June in grow pots, already started. Perhaps
as the summer passes we and Masta can compare experiences. We have
some 3 year old table grapes that I'm enjoying watching as they begin
leafing out. Good luck with your vines!
Bill
 
Thanks Bill.


The one end of the field runs sandy and is a little too well drained. I have a hydrant at that end. The other end has some baseball sized stones but not a lot. It also has more clay in it. Grapes don't like an over fertile soil, but like it deep. This should be a good site.


The 20 vines from Millers I got in Mid-April so I stuck them in pots in the greenhouse- the roots really started and spread well. This seems to be a good way to give them a jump start.


I also am starting 100 Frontenac, 50 Chardonnel, 50 Leon Millot, 25 Alden, 20 Buffalo and my own 25 Niagara from cuttings. They are finally starting to root. The most developed vines have about 6 inches of root growth, but most are just beginning. They only cost 50 cents apiece from Double A so not a big investment. If they aren't ready for planting by early June, I may set them in a nursery row and irrigate for this year, setting next year.


Hope your vines arrive soon. Let me know how they look when they arrive. How is the shipping handled with the plants started in pots? I live just across the lake from them.


Richard
 
WOW!!!!
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I am very impressed with your operation and I am a bit ashamed about calling my 12 vines stuck in between the rocks a vineyard.
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As you said the soil looks perfect since vines don't really like fertile soil. We have more rocks than anything else at our house but I did live about 10 miles away where the soil was nothing but a top layer of loam and beach sand underneath but had a 2ft water table.


Please keep us posted!!!
 
Oh man! You got me with that first picture!
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It was the positioning of the scroll of the screen that did it!


It all looks great though! It looks almost like you're planting at the beach.
 
Actually you are right about the beach. This used to be the beachline of Lake Champlain about 10,000 years ago. We have some topsoil on top, but the subsoil is actually like beachsand and is about 4-12 feet deep. Under that is about a ten foot band of gray clay. This area was actually under the lake before the last glaciers receeeded. The clay band keeps the water up within reach of most plants. The other side of the farm(about a mile away) my brother grows vegetables on.


We've gtten about an inch of rain today so I couldn't run the trellis wire, but I could hear the little vinelings giggling with delight in the rain...... Oh, wait a minute, maybe I did a little too much sampling today while I was bottling that Zinfandel and Mexican Beer.
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Wow! I am impressed! I am a neighbor...Michigan. I
never thought of planting a serious vineyard. This is really
exciting and beautiful. :) Sally
 
Oh, I'm sure you did hear them giggling.
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You just need to know what to listen for to hear them. It's a good sign that they will be loved!
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Richard - Yes, Northeastern Vine is over on the west side of Vermont. I
believe shipping is by UPS, but I don't know how Andy Farmer packages his
vines.

You are an orchardist - do you know anything about espalier training for
fruit trees, or have done any yourself? My wife and I are new to it and trying
to get 6 plum and pear trees trained to horizontal wires.

Bill
 
I'm jealous. 270 vines, that would about 1000 - 750 liter bottles. You're going need a taster in about 5 years. Keep me in mind now.
 
Bill


I've never done any espalier training, but it shouldn't be that difficult for someone with your skills. Start with the young tree - they are more pliable obviously. I've seen some pretty imprssive trees done that way. I visited a commercial orchard in PeruNYsome years ago that had a whole block( a few thousand trees)trained to wire. High density planting allowed the small trees to really bear. I looked into it a few years ago. I remember I did a Google search and came up with a lot of info.


Go for it Bill.
 
Richard - I appreciate the encouragement. We're going for it, too late to
decide no. There are 4 plums and 4 pears in the ground as of this weekend,
all topped, with wires set at the height of the cuts. Hopefully in a few weeks
we'll see new budding at the cuts and be on our way.
 
Well after battling the rain for days, I have at least got a start running the trellis wires. I've gotten 2 rows done-three wires each. The first is at 20 inches, 2nd at 42 inches and the third at 66 inches. I ran the anchor brace wires and tensioned them. I found a product called the Gripple. You pass the wire in each way and it locks. Using their tool you tighten it up and it tensions the wire at the same time. They are available all over but I use www.orchardvalleysupply.com . I also set the 5 foot bamboo stakes at each vine and using the Max-Tapener tool, fastened them to the trellis wire and the vine to the pole.


I'll post some pictures when it stops raing in a month or so
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. I was hoping to get some pictures of the apple trees in full bloom, but the rain just won't stop. I hope the bees can work in between the rain showers.


More to follow..........


Richard
 
I'm so jealous of all of you.All y'allguys must not have the quantity of deer and rabbits that we do. If we tried that without 9 foot fence all the way around, it would be like Bambi's & Thumper's Buffet Restaurant!
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Do you have to do anything to keep your local wild life out?
 
PWP,


Actually I have some deer very close by. They love the apple treats next door (no I didn't mispell it - the apple trees and fruit are their favorite treat). So far they haven't gotten too thick - 20 years ago there was zero deer in the area. I figure I can live with the wildlife in harmony, although the mice are a little hard to take. 10 years ago I hand grafted 250 rootstock with 10 varieties of apples. We had the hunongous ice storm after that and the mice used it for a superhighway to have a buffet on my trees. Out of those trees I saved 9. I was noticing they hadn't budded out yet this year and checked- they also were girdled.


Back to the deer and grapes- Not wanting to offend anybody by this but........ I decided that if the deer were going to dine on me(figuratively), that I would dine on them(literally). The 190 pond 8 point buck was delicous- like a pig with an apple in it's mouth - Oh wait a minute it ate like a pig filling it's mouth with apples. I rarely get apples below 5 feet off the ground. I figured that if they eat some grapes, maybe they will develop some complex wine overtones too. Thinking ahead, I overplanted numbers to allow for some grazing. I know the deer have found them, because they investigated the trellis wires and a few crossed through them. Time will tell how bad they get.
 
Appleman, good for you!
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When The PWP asked how do you keep your local wildlife out, my first thought was "thirty-ought-six!"


My Junior Partner and key component of my winemaking operation got his second, barley-fed 4-point muley (western count!) last fall and it isdelicious -- and the venison thuringer and pepperoni go great with a little Dubliner cheese anda nice red before dinner!
 
OilnH2O said:
My Junior Partner and key component of my winemaking operation got his second, barley-fed 4-point muley (western count!) last fall and it isdelicious -- and the venison thuringer and pepperoni go great with a little Dubliner cheese anda nice red before dinner!


Mmmmmm.....
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We got our first full day of sunshine in about 3 weeks today. Sunny and about 70 degrees. The grape vines liked it. The ones I started in the greenhouse and set out looked great today. The ones I planted dormant are breaking really well now. Most have a little green growth, but a few of the Frontenac are still only showing a green bud or two. The cuttings I am rooting have set quite a few roots now on all varieties except the Fronten. They have some growth but where they are getting the mositure from, I don't know-they have absolutely no roots, not even callouses. I went through them with the disc harrows after spraying the apple trees-post bloom. Not sure how many set with no sun for the bees to work in.


Anybody have any experience with rooting Frontenac? Let me know what your experiences were. I know they have to root sooner or later or they wouldn't get propogated much.
 
I figured I would post a picture of a few of my vines I started from cuttings. There is 4 of them in that pot. They are Leon Millot grapes. I am going to try and set about 100 out this weekend that have rooted pretty well now. I don't want them to get too root bound with each other. I had to share pots to get them going from lack of room. Sorry the picture isn't the clearest-I'm no photographer.
2006-06-02_095714_Leon2.jpg
 

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