want to plant about a 1/2 acre. a few questions

[TimTheWiner]

So I am trying to do as much research as possible on what's involved in starting a vineyard start to finish including soil info/additives, actual planting, training, pruning, etc. I know these forums are a GREAT resource, but I am curious if there is any kind of book (or textbook), DVD, or and other resource that has a detailed start-finish breakdown of creating a vineyard. I don't want to miss any steps or important information. I know this undertaking will require hundreds of hours of research.

 

[Brew and Wine Supply]

"From vines to wine" Not sure of the author, will check when I get to the store.

 

[grapeman]

"From vines to wine" Not sure of the author, will check when I get to the store.

Jeff Cox

In my humble opinion, much of what he preaches is not necessary for vineyard preparation. Example in point is where he recommends digging a trench and filling it with remixed soil. That may be practical for a small plot, but not your intended vineyard size.

 

[TimTheWiner]

May look into it at least. I can always take what I find useful and disregard what doesn't seem necessary or apply to my situation. I am thinking it may be a good idea to start a "Vineyard startup" thread as many have with pics and entries along the way. I think I will be doing soil tests this week.

 

[TimTheWiner]

So I will be going to the local Ext office today to pic up my soil kit for this weekend. I came across this page (an EXCELLENT source of info) and noticed that they recommend plowing/tilling NOW and adding soil additives (for ph, pot, mag, etc) this fall (prior to planting in the spring). No problem. One thing I am curious about is they mention a winter ground cover crop. Does this sound like a good idea from anyone with experience, or should I just cover the field with some organic compost to kill of the existing grass and then just till all together in the spring? I like the idea of a compost layer but afraid I won't be able to add anything to the soil until spring then.

 

[Brew and Wine Supply]

Had my soil tested, really needed nothing. They said one pound of 6-6-12 per 1000 sq ft. Which comes out to be about a tablespoon per plant. I let it go.
As for vineyard prep, all we did was run a sub soiler down the rows just before planting. With exception of the drought here everything turned out pretty good.

 

[TimTheWiner]

So I feel dumb, but what exactly is a sub soiler? I picked up my test kit today. Should I be mixing together the soil from the top 0"-8" depth along with the 8"-16" depth? I am curious if this area will be ok with a "hand"/one person tiller or if I need to find a tractor or plow? How deep should I be breaking up the ground?

 

[Brew and Wine Supply]

a sub soiler is a large hook that goes on the back of a tractor. Insted of plowing a wide swatch, it just cuts a line in the soil where you want to plant. We went down 2'. Most of the county is limestone rock sticking out of the ground, how I got lucky to put this down 2' with out any rocks is beyond me.

 

[TimTheWiner]

Looks good! I really want to test soil tomorrow, but with a yard full of grass should I be turning up all the grass/sail FIRST b4 I test or should it not matter much. I want to be sure I'm doing things the right way every step.

And somewhat off-topic, any idea what the water requirements are like per vine? If I had two 4x8 pieces of plywood collecting rainwater, I would collect roughly 150 gallons per month. I don't know if this is sufficient for 150 vines, or if I would need a large surface area for collection.

 

[grapeman]

Do not mix the two tests.
The samples are best taken with a core tool for soil samples. See if you can borrow one from where you get the soil test kit. Follow the directions for collection for an accurate sample.

A properly prepared soil is of great benefit. The subsoiler is good at breaking up hardpan if the field you plant in has been farmed extensively in the past.

That amount of water is totally inadequate for a vin3e, but may not even be necessary in Connecticut as you likely get 40 inches of rain per year. I only get 30 inches per year and that is enough for the vines on most soils. The vine will consume close to a gallon per DAY not month.

 

[TimTheWiner]

Yes, CT averages over 40" per year but I was not counting winter months since the vines will be dormant. I am counting April through Oct which I consider to be the growing season and rain averages around 3.75-4.25" during those months. I was going to install a 350 gallon rain barrel gravity fed to drip lines, but maybe not necessary? I am assuming I would be watering weekly if rain is not present??

 

[grapeman]

It won't hurt to water when you don't get rain, but usually with 4 inches a month, that is an average of an inch per week which is just about ideal. We have gotten only 1.5 inches of rain a month in June and July this year and while it is a bit dry, even the new vineyard is doing great with no watering. That is one good thing about being a bit wetter in the east than the west.

 

[TimTheWiner]

So maybe I can wait on an irrigation system? I would still feel much better if I had something in place, but I would assume I could do it while, or shortly after planting next year.

 

[tfries]

My wife and I (mostly my wife) hand watered our 1/2 acre for the first two years. Lots of long hoses and a couple of hours of time every couple of days. Now that the vines are established we dry farm. We get 45-50 inches of rain a year.

 

[TimTheWiner]

Cool, the biggest issue is that I don't want to be using my grandmother's water at all since she has a well so I would want to be completely self-sufficient. I hope someone else can chime in about soil sampling before I get out there Saturday afternoon to test. Everything I have been looking at has been saying to take separate samples from a 0"-8" depth and a separate sample from the same area at a 8"-24" depth. Is this completely necessary and should I be keeping the top soil and sub soil samples apart from each other and then doing two separate tests or should I be combining everything together? The instructions from Uconn say to sample at a 0"-8" depth, but I imagine the roots go quite deep which is why the grape specific sites recommend separate samples at 8"-24". What do I do!!?? If I till the field, I can't imagine that I would be tilling soil this deep or be able to add nutrients or change pH etc at that depth anyway (say over 16").

 

[Brew and Wine Supply]

I think you have answered some of your own question, getting nutrients below 6 to 8" requries some major tilling. The roots will spread in all directions. the deep ones for water the shallow for nutrients. So if you add nutrients to the top of the soil the shallow roots will take them to the plant.
As for watering, if you have enough rain there will be little needed watering. We are in a major drought ( thunderstorms right now! yea) and I have had to water my young plants all summer with 6 gallon water jugs and have lost about half of 100 plants put in this spring ( hoping the roots are still alive and will come back next year). The first year of planting, I did not water at all and only lost 2 or 3 out of 150 plants.

 

[TimTheWiner]

Ok, well that makes me feel a bit better. I know I an probably OVER-researching this project, but I want to be well educated so I don't make too many stupid mistakes along the way. I guess I will just do soil samples at about the 8" level and call it a day. Sometimes I think I am over estimating my potential yield as well, thinking that with 150ish vines, I will have 100% yield and thus 450+ bottles of wine per year. I'm sure I do need to take disease and other natural factors into account.

 

[Brew and Wine Supply]

Depending on varital, rain, plant vigor etc... a good guesstomate..about a gallon per plant of juice after the third to fourth year. Strip the grapes the first two years and longer for smaller plants. You want all the energy to go to the roots and stem not fruit.
Birds are my bigest loss of grapes, Don't have a deer or turkey problem but they can wipe the grapes out pretty quick too.

 

[TimTheWiner]

Yes, I am afraid I will be battling all of the above and scared to think what bird netting and/or deer fencing would add to the budget. I can already see approaching the $1509-$2000 range and I really don't want to consider spending over $2k on this project especially since its more of an educational project and may not yield much long-term unfortunately (due to possible long-term land use restrictions). My dad has been using containers filled with coyote urine to ward off the deer in his small flower/vegetarian garden but I can't say that it would necessarily keep them from so many delicious grapes.

 

[grapeman]

I just purchased 5000 feet of 17 foot over the top netting for $900 delivered so a quarter acre would be under $250, a half acre for under $500. We are building a netting applicator platform which will run a few hundred dollars that will allow us to install or remove about an acre an hour.

If you use a coring tool, that collects the representative sample from the full 8 inches. You take a minimum dozen plugs, dumping them in a plastic pail and mix them to give a representative sample of the whole area sampled. The deeper sample is for a subsoil sample and will show what is available to deeper roots.

Like I said, follow their collection guide. I am kind of a stickler when it comes to soil samples as my degree is in Agronomy - Plant Science and I took many courses in Soil Science.