Grape Plant Crisis

[BobR]

I was at my local Lowe's today and they had grape plants marked down from $9.98 to $3, well needless to say, I couldn't walk past these plants. I picked up 3 Concord and 3 Niagara, along with a Chicago Hardy fig tree. Now, my crisis is what in the world can I do with these grape plants? Here in central Illinois, the over night temeratures have been in the low 30's. So, can I still put them in the ground, or should I leave them potted in the house or unheated garage? I had planned on starting a few more rows of grapes in the spring, but I have never messed with, or have ever heard of anyone messing with grapes this late in the year. They are in a nice sized plastic pots and the plants look good and healthy.

Bob

 

[grapeman]

Plant them as soon as you can and put a nice layer of some mulch around them. Keep them watered and they should develop enough roots to overwinter just fine. The preferred planting time is spring, but the potted vines will transplant alright. The worst that can happen is one might not make it and you are out about $3.

 

[BobR]

Thanks, appreciate your advice! How much mulch would you put around them? From the floor up, pot included, they are all over two feet tall and they are pretty darn bushy. I even went back to Lowe's tonight and even though everything was pretty much picked over, I found another four healthy looking plants.

 

[grapeman]

Put about 6 inches of a loose mulch around them over the hole, but try to keep it a couple inches away from the trunk to help keep rodents from chewing on the trunk.

 

[BobR]

Ended up buying 10 Concord, 3 Niagara, 1 Chicago Hardy fig and one blueberry bush. Got all the grapes in the ground last week, got them mulched and since then, they have had three rains on them. With this rain, the ground finally was soft enough to dig some post holes, so I have the posts in place too. I planted before the rains and the ground was like a brick. The only thing that I did not get planted was the fig tree. I put it in a bigger pot and will wait for spring to plant it. So far, the temperatures have not been too bad around here....could be better, but then again, could be a whole lot worse. The forecast for the next 10 days is highs in the upper 60's to low 70's and lows in the upper 40's to low 50's. Can't wait to see what comes out in the spring. I had a hillside full of 30 year old pine trees, but because of some needle disease, they have all died. So now, as I clear off the dead trees, I am making more room for more grape plants. I can only hope that we have another mild winter this year. When this rain ends, does anyone have any idea on how long I should water them. At this time, the leaves are still green and healthy looking.

 

[grapeman]

Just keep the soil around them moist until it freezes for the winter. Do not overwater so the ground gets soggy or muddy, just moist.

 

[BobR]

Not sure if the photos are attached. If they did, then the first is of the potted plants that I was concerned about. The next are of the plants mulched in and the last is of serveral rows of clippings that I have been messing with over the past couple of years. Weather has been great for the new plants, temps in high 60's to mid 70's. Since planting, we have had over 3 inches of rain, with another storm coming through today. Next week, temperatures are forecasted to drop with high only in the upper 50's to low 60's with lows in upper 30's to mid 40's. Just hope that they make it through the winter now. They have been in the ground for two weeks now.

 

[grapeman]

Looking nice there! Keep up the good work and good luck to you.

 

[BobR]

Hey, with all of your help, maybe some day I'll reach my goal of at least 100 plants. Over the past few years, I have had bad luck on trying to start grapes from cuttings. They leaf out, but the roots never get established. Maybe in March I'll tap into your growing knowledge again. I'd like to get some cuttings in the spring, but since I now have room where I recently planted these last 13 plants, I'd like to find a good nursery to buy some plants too.

 

[BobR]

The grapes have been in the ground now for 4 weeks and up until this week, the weather has not been all that bad. With the rain that we have been getting, it has made it easy to dig post holes. The rows have been mulched and the plants still look healthy, so I'm hoping that they will make it through the winter, that is depending on the type of winter that we have. Here before too long, I'd like place an order and buy another 30 plants from a nursery. I was wondering if these grow tubes really work and if so, is there a difference between the two? With them being 30 inches long, would they work on nursery stock?


Field studies of vine shelters have shown increased growth rates of 100-150% when using Blue-X grow tubes. This patented two-part Blue-X grow tube has an outer plastic sleeve which encircles a transparent blue-tinted polyester film. This film admits up to 50% more photo synthetically active radiation (PAR) which is the part of the light spectrum that is most used by plants.

The Snap -n- Grow tube comes in two halves which snap together the full length of the tube (3.5" in diameter and 30" long). Uniquely ventilated to moderate temperature and moisture, while still blocking out herbicides.

 

[grapeman]

The tubes help the vines grow long and slender for sure. They also help keep out the rabbits and the deer until they grow out the tops.

I and countless others have tried them and gave up on them after the first use. The shoots get all spindly inside the tube and are too thin to use the following year, so all that nice long growth gets pruned off the following year. I prefer to let the vine grow semi-bushy the first year. This helps grow the roots larger for the following year. When pruned the next spring, choose the largest straightest shoot as the future trunk and cut the others off. Trim that main shoot you left to a pencil diameter and remove anything beyond that. The vine puts all those stored energies into that remaining trunk and gives super growth the second year. If you leave 10 shoots growing, you get 10 short shoots that grow 6-12 inches each instead of one or two that grow 5-10 feet each.

 

[BobR]

Again, THANKS for the expert advice! I guess I'll save my money and buy another roll of wire mesh to make some more tubes out of to keep the rabbits and squirrels away. Two years ago, I'd put a plants in the ground and the next day, the squirrels would have them dug up. I talked to a viticulturist about my problem and it was suggested that I make some small tubes out of wire mesh. This year, I have not had one squirrel attack, but I never asked anyone about the grow tubes. I put a row of 10 clippings in the ground this spring and they didn't do anything all year, and three out of the ten died. Then again, we were in a drought with 104 degree temperatures too. They leafed out, but just did not grow. I only hope that they make it through the winter. After reading about the grow tubes, I thought that maybe something like that would jump start them next year.

 

[Winehaus]

I agree with the rest about grow tubes, huge pain this summer when I had to put them on at work around second year vines but actually saw less growth from them than the ones I planted for myself this spring that I didn't use tubes with.

As for the mulch, watch out putting it too close and thick around the vines and mesh tube. I had rabbits burrow around two of my vines and destroy them this spring. I fixed the problem with a dog so I'm not sure what others have done to prevent this.

 

[BobR]

Thanks Winehaus and welcome to the site! Yeah, I don't think I'll throw my money away on the grow tubes. As you hang out around here, you will find a few "guys" that really know their stuff and grapeman is one of them. With all of his knowledge, if he says they are not worth it, then you can take it as gospel.

 

[BobR]

Plant them as soon as you can and put a nice layer of some mulch around them. Keep them watered and they should develop enough roots to overwinter just fine. The preferred planting time is spring, but the potted vines will transplant alright.3.

Once the temperatures rise this spring, should I remove the mulch from the grapes, or will it hurt to leave it?

 

[grapeman]

Just leave the muldch there unless you have mice or other rodents make it their home.