Help me choose a grape to grow here in Alabama

[olusteebus]

I have decided to plant one grape vine here in North Alabama. If I am going to call my winery Jade Lake Vineyards, I need to have at least one vine outside my cellar! I really don't expect to produce an amount to make wine.

I am guessing I would do better with a muscadine variety but I am not opposed to growing something else that will grow here.

I was thinking I would sink two fence posts about 6 feet from each other and have a wire between them for a vine. I don't have a lot of space. The more I think about it, I may build a small grape arbor, Say 4x6 or 4x8. As usual with me, I see "project creep" coming up!

The area I can use gets morning sun through afternoon sun until about 4 or 5 pm.

I would appreciate your suggestions.

 

[olusteebus]

Well I got a little anxious so I called a grower and bought 2 carlos and 2 noble muscadine vines. I think they are two year old vines.

I have ordered 2 vines of noble Muscadine and 2 vines of Carlos. I was thinking of having two trelllis', 12 to 20 feet each with a vine at each end. The trellis position will be like an inverted L shape. Here is a diagram. I do not have exact scale. The area gets morning sun through tall trees. It gets pretty much full sun from 10 until about 6 in the summer.

I plan on having the carlos vines running north south and the Noble running east west. I have to do that due to the fact I need access for my truck in the backyard sometimes. I could have both trellis run east west but I don't think I could have trellis' run north south.

The end of one trellis will be about 4 feet from the end of other trellis. Here is a rough diagram of the plan

I plan on sinking a 6 1/2 foot steel fence post on each end and run a wire between them. I will have a fence post in the middle for support. I am going to wine some wood landscape logs to the posts for appearance sake.

If I ran both of them in the same direction, how far apart should the trellis be?

Here is an early morning view of the area, it is to the left. As I said, I think that after 10 or so, it should get good sun until about 6 in the summer.

Is that gonna be enough sun?

Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[pg55]

If you get a good 6+ hours of full sunlight in the summer you should be good to go. The more sunlight the better. I have 3 muscadines planted on a double topwire trellis and get more than enough to make 5 gallons of wine. Just remember to trim your plants in the winter.
I really like your view of the lake. Too bad you can't grow something on the arbor you have by the lake.

 

[Rocky]

Some of the more experienced vintners should chime in here but I believe it is best to plant the row in the Norht-South direction, as you show for the "Carlos" variety. I believe this is for better exposure to sun.

 

[olusteebus]

If you get a good 6+ hours of full sunlight in the summer you should be good to go. The more sunlight the better. I have 3 muscadines planted on a double topwire trellis and get more than enough to make 5 gallons of wine. Just remember to trim your plants in the winter.
I really like your view of the lake. Too bad you can't grow something on the arbor you have by the lake.

I am going to use a double wire trellis. I understand that you need 20 feet per vine but, since I ordered 4 vines, I will only have 10 feet per vine. Thus, If I use a double trellis, I will split one vine on each end, one for the lower wire and one for the upper wire.

I really don't know if I will make enought grapes for wine but I am just doing it for the heck of it.

Using that arbor would be great but I think my wife wants a flowering vine.

Some of the more experienced vintners should chime in here but I believe it is best to plant the row in the Norht-South direction, as you show for the "Carlos" variety. I believe this is for better exposure to sun.

I would like to grow them both on a north-south direction but I can't. Unfortunately, the more I look at it, I think I will go with an east-west direction for both. I know that is not best for good sun.

thanks for your input.

 

[Arne]

Using that arbor would be great but I think my wife wants a flowering vine.


Isn't that what a grape vine is?? LOL, Arne.

 

[pg55]

Here is a pic I took today of one of my muscadine v
ines. They are planted 20' apart and as you can see
they just started to bud out.