Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

[robie]

Really green and gorgeous.

I helped a friend plant a 1 acre vineyard of 5 types of grapes. He has a long way to go to get his looking as nice as yours. With hard work, a little luck, and a whole lot of determination, I am sure his will get there.

 

[grapeman]

Looking good and GREEN from all the rain!

What is the distance from the ground on your TWC vines?

Mike the top wire is set at 6 feet at the posts but now droops to about 5.5 in between. The wires are tensioned to the point of pulling the earth anchors out and still droop under a half ton of weight.

 

[grapeman]

Looks really great, Rich. Do you have any problems with "critters" in your area? I know that Andy (Casa Larga Vineyards in Fairport) always had problems with raccoons and deer. Also, do you do any selection of the grape bunches on the vine? Andy used to go through on his prime varieties and clip off bunches that did not look promising so that the energy from the plant went to the remainder.

Yes we have wildlife around here - they all want a few grapes, but the doberman marking his territory keeps them to a minimum. He can run about 40 mph so he can chase almost anything down.


These are hybrids so as large of a crop reduction serves no real good purpose. I do go through and do smome cluster thinning of bad clusters, but shoot thinning is easier and more productive. My training system and canopy management trials have shown no real advantage to thinning more than necessary. Just choosing the proper training system for the variety is more impoetant. That is what this training system trial I showed here is about. I have gained the attention of leading researchers across the US for this type of work - all done by a small vineard like mine in the middle of the boonies.

 

[grapeman]

Really green and gorgeous.

I helped a friend plant a 1 acre vineyard of 5 types of grapes. He has a long way to go to get his looking as nice as yours. With hard work, a little luck, and a whole lot of determination, I am sure his will get there.

As long as he puts in the sweat equity and keeps on top of things, thre is no reason his can't look even better!

 

[ibglowin]

My post are ~ 48" tall. I have one vine that has reached the top and growing an inch or two a day it seems. Its a Corot Noir IIRC. Should I run my top wire sooner rather than later and wait for others to catch up? Assuming my vines are less vigorous than yours due to poor soil would you recommend setting a top wire at 6 ft still or lower?

Any recommendations for wire (locally) Hardware stores? Which gauge?

 

[Runningwolf]

Looking really good Rich. Glad to see you finally got a break.

 

[grapeman]

Mike TWC should be between 5-6 feet high. Run the wire soon and then you can train to it as they grow. You can run twine from the shoot down a ways to the wire and let the vine grow up it to the wire. It makes it easier to get it straaighter.
12.5 guage coated hi tensile steel is the way to go. For your mini vineyard go the Orchard Valley Supply online and order a spool of 500 feet. Shipping cost a bit, but it saves you buying 4400 feet!

 

[Rocky]

Very impressive Rich. I like the "Doberman Security System." I would imagine that keeps out all kinds of interlopers! I hope I can see your vineyard someday.

 

[ibglowin]

Sounds like a plan,

Thanks Rich!

Mike TWC should be between 5-6 feet high. Run the wire soon and then you can train to it as they grow. You can run twine from the shoot down a ways to the wire and let the vine grow up it to the wire. It makes it easier to get it straaighter.
12.5 guage coated hi tensile steel is the way to go. For your mini vineyard go the Orchard Valley Supply online and order a spool of 500 feet. Shipping cost a bit, but it saves you buying 4400 feet!
 

 

[grapeman]

No fancy pictures this time (or even plain simple ones). BLOOM began in the vineyard here today. I noted Mn1200 and Marquette blooms this AM and by afternoon quite a few of the Frontenac are blooming! This is about normal for here and a week behind last year to the day.

 

[Wade E]

Thats funny cause werent you a week or 2 ahead of time in the beginning of this year when action started? Hope its a great year for all of you growers out there of anything! On a side note, Dragonmaster sent me a cutting of a Beauty Berrytree early this year and I planted on the side of my yard fairly close to my blackberry bushes and its springing to life pretty good know. Cant wait for a few years when I can start seeing how pretty this is, the pics he had were just unreal with the color of the berry.

 

[grapeman]

No Wade this year has been behind right from the beginning. We had a lot of snow and then a lot of wet cool weather with some warm days interspersed.


The Beauty Berry sounds great.

 

[Wade E]

Guess my mind is slipping also along with my eyesight!!!

 

[grapeman]

At the risk of boring everyone, here are more pics.

 

[Runningwolf]

Rich it is certainly one of the neatest vinetards I have seen. You never bore us with your pictures. I actually look forward to the pictures.

 

[Flem]

Ahhh! The joy of spring. No boredom here. Keep them coming.

 

[Rocky]

Rich, I know very little about growing grapes so this observation may seem inane but it appears that you are going to have a great yield from these vines. Is this normal or is this a particularly good year for the fruit? Also, what varieties are we looking at in the pictures? Thanks, great shots.

 

[ibglowin]

Perhaps a little cluster thinning is in order?

They look great!

 

[Rocky]

Perhaps a little cluster thinning is in order?

They look great!

This may be the key to my observation. Thinning out the clusters, I imagine, would result in fewer and larger bunches of grapes at harvest, right? If the clusters are not thinned, there would be many but smaller bunches. Implicit in all this is that fewer and larger is better, right?

 

[grapeman]

Rocky the first shots are of Marquette and Mn1200, both cold climate reds. The 4 Arm kniffen ones are Frontenac and Leon Millot- one from the University of Minnesota and the other an old French/American Hybrid.


I need to get through bloom before I worry about thinning. LOL. I will do some thinning, but I believe in letting those extra clusters help keep the vigor in check until mid to late July, then thin them out. Rocky thinning can lead to larger clusters which is not necessarily the desired effect. With wine grapes you desire small grapes, that increases the skin and seed to juice ratio. That leads to more and better tannins an phenolics. Juice is basically just sugar water. You need some goodies from the skins and seeds to give it the tannin and structure.


I do track all this so I have a handle on production #clusters and cluster weight. Here is a small segment of one years data./images/uploads/20110614_102053_HarvestClusters.pdf