OK so its not really a vineyard, more like a "Wine Garden"
I have a thread going over at FWV forum and thought I would cross post over here the success to date with growing cold hardy hybrid grapes at altitude here in the desert Southwest.
This project began like all others of this nature as a labor of love. I am at ~6400 ft elevation. We average over 300 days a year of sunshine. Warm Summers, cold (but sunny) Winters. Most of the precip comes in the July-August monsoon season or through snowfall in the Winter. We average about 40" here at the house in White Rock and about 65" up in Los Alamos which is higher and closer to the mountains at ~7300 ft in elevation.
Soils are thin with very little organic and volcanic in nature (the entire area is an ancient lava flow bed) with tons of basalt rock just under the soil line. Getting an 18" hole dug with a manual post hole digger was difficult to say the least with more than a few abandoned due to rocks that were just too darn big to try and dig out (some are medium sized boulders). As a result, my rows are not very straight but most will be connected one way or another by some type of trellis system. All vines are on a drip system with a (1) GPH drip head. Watering is daily for 45 mins during the hot months of May and June and until the monsoons kick in and then shut off and on as needed.
As some of you may recall, we suffered through the worst fire in the history of New Mexico in June with the townsite being evacuated for an entire week but luckily no structures lost in Los Alamos (this time around).
The monsoons were pretty much a no show the whole month of July but they did finally arrive towards the end of the month and are here big time the whole month of August (so far). I feel like I am living back in Houston for goodness sakes its so humid outside but the grass and wine garden are loving it as you can see.
The vines were planted last Spring/Summer and have come back pretty solid after the coldest winter on record (-21 degree lows for 2 days back in February) as well as a killing late freeze on April 21. I guess these guys are going to make it if they can make it through that heck of a first year!
I have just over 30 vines total of Marquette, Corot Noir and Noiret. The Corot Noir and Noiret and doing the best with the Marquette some are doing well and others not so vigorous at the moment (which could be a good thing).
A few low hanging clusters escaped my eyesight somehow and managed to bloom and set without me seeing them so I let them go just to see how they would ripen as well as the timeframe for ripening. Looks like they are only a 2-3 weeks out from fully ripening. I also am interested to see what pest I encounter (rabbits, birds, etc) now rather than later.
Cant wait for next year to see their continued growth and development.
Thanks for looking!
I have a thread going over at FWV forum and thought I would cross post over here the success to date with growing cold hardy hybrid grapes at altitude here in the desert Southwest.
This project began like all others of this nature as a labor of love. I am at ~6400 ft elevation. We average over 300 days a year of sunshine. Warm Summers, cold (but sunny) Winters. Most of the precip comes in the July-August monsoon season or through snowfall in the Winter. We average about 40" here at the house in White Rock and about 65" up in Los Alamos which is higher and closer to the mountains at ~7300 ft in elevation.
Soils are thin with very little organic and volcanic in nature (the entire area is an ancient lava flow bed) with tons of basalt rock just under the soil line. Getting an 18" hole dug with a manual post hole digger was difficult to say the least with more than a few abandoned due to rocks that were just too darn big to try and dig out (some are medium sized boulders). As a result, my rows are not very straight but most will be connected one way or another by some type of trellis system. All vines are on a drip system with a (1) GPH drip head. Watering is daily for 45 mins during the hot months of May and June and until the monsoons kick in and then shut off and on as needed.
As some of you may recall, we suffered through the worst fire in the history of New Mexico in June with the townsite being evacuated for an entire week but luckily no structures lost in Los Alamos (this time around).
The monsoons were pretty much a no show the whole month of July but they did finally arrive towards the end of the month and are here big time the whole month of August (so far). I feel like I am living back in Houston for goodness sakes its so humid outside but the grass and wine garden are loving it as you can see.
The vines were planted last Spring/Summer and have come back pretty solid after the coldest winter on record (-21 degree lows for 2 days back in February) as well as a killing late freeze on April 21. I guess these guys are going to make it if they can make it through that heck of a first year!
I have just over 30 vines total of Marquette, Corot Noir and Noiret. The Corot Noir and Noiret and doing the best with the Marquette some are doing well and others not so vigorous at the moment (which could be a good thing).
A few low hanging clusters escaped my eyesight somehow and managed to bloom and set without me seeing them so I let them go just to see how they would ripen as well as the timeframe for ripening. Looks like they are only a 2-3 weeks out from fully ripening. I also am interested to see what pest I encounter (rabbits, birds, etc) now rather than later.
Cant wait for next year to see their continued growth and development.
Thanks for looking!
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