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JohnnyPanic

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My name is Greg. I recently left academia and more recently left behind an industry job during the pandemic. I guess the mountains were calling and I had to go. I've been lurking for about a year and digging through all of the first hand experience y'all have on offer in these forums. It's great! Thanks in retro. I think this is the one forum left on the internet without Trolls! It's quite refreshing.

Regardless, After some time brewing, making weird fruit/tea wines and becoming obsessed with wild ferments, I decided to throw in some vines on unused family property. I put in 1 acre of vines on some old strip mine/fill land. I would like to start something regenerative rather than extractive in the area.

Below I've attached a pic of my spot from April of this year before I turned under green manure I threw in last fall.. It's in KY on the VA border (that range in the background is the border) at 1850' elevation. The view is to the southwest with prevailing winds going NE. I offset the vines from S to SSW so that the wind blows striaght up the rows. There is a plenty of sunshine and a constant light breeze. I was worried about what I have come to call my 'calico soil' but the new vines seem to love it, even if my cover crop of clover is strugglin'. Within the acre the soil ranges from dark/rich to orangey clay to sandy loam, with rock throughout. That's even deep ripping to remove boulders, some stone crushing, and subsoiling, mixing, and ammending per extension office guildlines.

I also attached a pic of Me after a hard day's crushin'.

Anyways, Wish me luck I guess? I look forward to learning and leaning on y'all for vine growing know how.

Best,
Greg
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Welcome. There are quite a few grape growers that hang around here and know lots about them. I am not one of them. What grape varietals do you have planted?
Thanks! I have Petite Pearl and Verona in the ground. They are both so hardy and loving it so far! Let's see what the grapes are like ...
 
Welcome from Northern Virginia! I’m in my fifth year of growing and it’s been an adventure with plenty of lows and the highs are starting to pick up. I share your interest in wild/ambient ferments and look forward to tracking your progress on your beautiful property.
 
Welcome! Our two acre vineyard is not far from you on the VA side. Washington County, VA to be preside. We are at 2100 feet; I envy the flat acreage - strip mine took the top off your hills? Anyway our first vines are in the fourth year with the biggest number in the third year. We are adding about 1/3 acre each year.

It is a lot of work but enormously satisfying.
 

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Welcome from Northern Virginia! I’m in my fifth year of growing and it’s been an adventure with plenty of lows and the highs are starting to pick up. I share your interest in wild/ambient ferments and look forward to tracking your progress on your beautiful property.
Thanks a bunch! One of your posts about wild ferments was one of my first reads on here!
 
We have yellow clay and red clay plus plenty of rock. I’ve heard rocky soil is good for grapes. I hope so!94729F9F-4DEA-4CA4-96AE-500829B7F8D3.jpeg4F2DAF7A-93AB-4E7E-9A66-B734E3B79EE3.jpeg50EF5752-CBC8-4A87-AB97-2D2CFD053A97.jpeg
 
My name is Greg. I recently left academia and more recently left behind an industry job during the pandemic. I guess the mountains were calling and I had to go. I've been lurking for about a year and digging through all of the first hand experience y'all have on offer in these forums. It's great! Thanks in retro. I think this is the one forum left on the internet without Trolls! It's quite refreshing.
Hi Greg, any updates on your vines?
 

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