Maine vineyard

[bilbo-in-maine]

I've been working like a dog clearing trees, grading by hand and preparing soil, planting posts and now rigging support wires - all in order to try to grow wine grapes in an environment where you'd think they have no business trying to grow! The weather has treated me very kindly and signs of spring have arrived earlier than usual. My wife actually put in some onions and early lettuce today, a gamble that this kind of weather dares one to try.

I should have taken several photos of the original site conditions, but there were a lot of trees. The beginning shot is 3/4's of the way along in terms of clearing. The site is adjacent to the old chicken shed.

BEFORE

PROGRESS

AFTER

I took additonal shots as I did a walk-around of the vineyard area today. There are 5 rows running east-west, all reducing in length by one bay going from south to north. Post spacing is 14'. The southernmost row is 5 bays, the northernmost is 1 bay. This arrangement fit the available area, worked pretty well to avoid remaining trees that could shade the site, and left some room at the west end near the house for a new vegetable garden (hooray says my wife!)

VIEW EAST

To the right of the brush pile the ground slopes steeply down to a small quarried area. Granite was removed for some of the local building projects over a century ago. The piece of rock left of the brush is about 11' long that my son and I hauled up the slope on Friday to cap a small retaining wall I need to finish. It is the largest, but typical, of much of what the quarry men left behind when they left this site.

VIEW SOUTHEAST

The drop into the quarry starts at the far edge of the cleared ground. The local road is to the left, our driveway is behind me.

VIEW SOUTHWEST

Each row lengthens by one bay toward the southwest as viewed from the northeast.

VIEW WEST

The 5 rows can be seen. The near ends are braced down to earth anchors with wires running to buried concrete blocks. The far ends are braced within the bay to allow easier walking around the ends of the rows.

VIEW WEST-SOUTHWEST

Some of the quarry area with house beyond.

VIEW NORTH-NORTHWEST

The embankment down to the quarry is in the foreground.

VIEW NORTH

The quarry area has several vernal pools which usually dry up at end of summer. This year things are REALLY dry and there is not much water for the dog to hunt frogs in.

HOUSE EAST END

What's this have to do with the vineyard? Nothing. It's just on the way as I circled it.

HOUSE & GARAGE

Climb out of the quarry area to the house and front lawn. Vineyard is around to the right.

EARLY GARDENING COULD BE RISKY

Walk up from the lawn and back to the vineyard.

Hopefully my 26 vines will be delivered in three weeks. The soil is prepared and I only need to finish rigging support wires, pounding in training stakes at each vine location and seeding the strips between rows and around the perimeter with red fescue as a groundcover. If the springlike weather holds, things will be good indeed. BUT, you never know when a spring snowstorm may strike. They happen all too often. More to come when the vines arrive.

Bill

 

[Dean]

Looking great! I'm quite jealous! Best of luck Bill! I'm holding out for no more snow for you! Being from the Prairies of Canada, we basically wait until the long weekend in May to plant because we are too scared of freak storms. Since I have moved to the west coast, that doesn't happen anymore. I sincerely hope your new vines and garden flourish!

 

[OilnH2O]

Looks great Bill!


Greenin' up here in Montana too

 

[Angell Wine]

Looking good there. I cut back my vines when i planted them. Took the cuttings and progated them.

 

[rshosted]

Man those rows look great! Awesome work, and from someone who put up two small rows, I understand the work you really put into that! I am really impressed by all the work you have done, they look very professional. Especially to remove trees of that diameter; wow!

I wonder why you ran your rows from east to west? Do you have breezes that go that way, or is it becuase of the terrain?

I decided to put mine in north to south to let them catch as much sun as possible, but I have a shorter growing season than warmer climates (here in Utah).

I am jelouse, I wish I had that much room. Again, good work I'm sure your hard work will pay off.

Also, you haven't named your vinyard yet? What about that!

-Ryan

 

[masta]

Excellent job Bill on setting up the vineyard...I can see lots of work went into getting those trees cleared and the posts setup.


I am way behind on getting mytwo rows setup and really need to get something done this week as I know the vines will be showing up soon.

 

[rgecaprock]

Wow!!!! What a beautiful place you have!!!!!!

 

[OldWino1]

Looks like a pro great job and I wish you a boutiful harvest of the fruits of your labor. Just think you will have bottles years old from your own vines. 2 kewl 2 kewl oh and the house looks very nice also. Edited by: OldWino

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Ryan - Summertime prevailing wind direction is southwest. I decided to
go east-west primarily due to the geometry of the available unshaded
space. I just couldn't get as many vines in running them north-south.
There are still tall trees that shade portions of the site, and they would
have an effect on one or two side rows planted north-south. I don't want
to cut the trees. Hopefully I can stay on top of cane placement and cluster
exposure to keep the sun on them - several years from now.

Mountfort Ridge is the name, chosen long ago. We live on Mountfort
Road, on a granite spine that descends from a higher area of open ledges
where quarrying was done in the 19th century.

Angell Wine - I want to propagate several new vines too. I put up extra
trellis space just for that reason. Do you have any tips? I will be refering
to the propagation guide posted by Northern Winos earlier this year.

Thanks to all for your comments!

 

[djcoop]

Beautiful property Bill. Great job!!

 

[jobe05]

Bill: Great looking vineyard and beautiful setting were you live. Because I live in the south, I'll would love a retirement place like you have in the north, it'll give me a place to go to cool off in the summer.


Are your vines in yet? Post more pics.....


Masta..... How about your Vinyard, update?


I planted a couple og muscadines yesturday and propagated some scuppernogcuttings, will post pics later.

 

[grapeman]

Hey Bill,


How is the vineyard and garden coming? Has all the rain the last month hindered you or is everything in and growing? I finally got hte rest of the garden planted today. I set out 200 tomatoes and about 100 peppers. We like to do a lot of canning for pasta sauce in the winter. My vines I have planted are doing pretty well. The ones I started in the greenhouse from 1 year rooted cuttings are doing especially well. The 3 weeks of extra heat really made a difference. When I planted them, there was a lot of new root growth. I planted them the same day as some bareroot rooted cuttings in good shape. The ones from the greenhouse have about 10 inches of vine growth. The plain bareroot plants have about 2 inches of growth. I think if space were no limit, that is the way to go(starting for a few weeks in pots).


Put some new pics up!

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Hey back at'cha Richard, and thanks for asking

My vines were started in pots, which Andy Farmer at Northeast Vine keeps in
his greenhouse until early June. I have arranged with him to pick them up
next weekend rather than have him ship them the following week. It will give
my wife and me a chance to get in a weekend camping trip to Vermont and
save on shipping charges. The vines come rooted in biodegradable pots and
are all leafed out. I just have to drop them in small holes and the roots don't
get disturbed at all (except for dusting them with Biovam (mycorrhizal
fungus.) I will definitely post some pictures after next weekend.
I put out our tomatoes and peppers last weekend, but we started only 24 of
each. In past years we've had trouble keeping up with 6 plants, but we didn't
can. This year the surplus will go to tomato wine and a little canning.

 

[grapeman]

Bill,


Did you take any pictures of the vines in the pots? How about any after they were set out in those beautifully constucted trellises? I'd be interested in seeing what the paper pots look like. When I decided to start some cuttings, I tried to figure out what to start them in. After seeing some of the type pots they use, I wish I could have found a source for a few to try. Oh well, there is always next year...

Richard

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Sorry, I got home from our trip to Vermont at 2:30 Sunday afternoon (it was drizzling) and headed straight to the vineyard to plant. I didn't even think about getting pictures of the vines in the paper pots. Each pot is 1 3/4" square by about 6" tall with holes punched in each side. They feel a bit like paper milk carton material but not waxy. Planting the vines was easy - just dig the trowel in about 8" and pull the soil away to create the hole, drop in a tablespoon of Biovam and drop in the pot, then push soil around it and cover over with mulch.

I DID manage to take some photos two days ago (another drizzly day!) and offer them below.

I used pieces of oak branches for climbing poles (cheap) and made wire fabric cages to protect from marauding critters. The first shot looking east shows the vineyard beyond with a new espalier garden on the left. My wife has begun pear and plum espalier on a two-wire system. A few of the trees have begun to branch out from buds where they were cut off. We will mulch her rows also, then they will look better.

I imagine it looks like any other vineyard others have planted this spring, except with wire cages rather than grow tubes. My groundcover came in spotty so I am overseeding in some areas.

Here's a shot from a bit down the hill in the quarry looking at the retaining wall at the edge of the vineyard. I still have a lot of rockwork to do.

A shot looking to the west.

If you've ever wondered what a Frontenac Gris vine looks like, this is it in miniature form. There will be more to see once it is out of the cage.

Hmm, I think this one is a Landal Noir. It is typical of the general size of the young vines I got.

I felt a shot of the garden would be in order after seeing Scott's beautiful garden areas. Just beyond the stone toadstool we have arugula, lettuce, onions, and then jalapeño and sweet peppers under hotcaps, and finally tomatoes at the far end, too small to see. Down the slope on the right are pumpkins and yellow squash.

If/when we get some heat and sun, and the vines do some growing, I'll post some progress photos. Might have some green tomatoes by then too!

 

[grapeman]

Things are looking good there in Maine.

It looks like the nursery did a good job getting the vines started and they had good weather for setting them out. Hopefully we can all shake these disturbing weather patterns and get down to a nice normal sunny warm summer. Your garden is doing good in spite of the weather.


Keep us posted on the little ones progress.

 

[MedPretzel]

Fantastic!





I am embarrassed to even take Vernon's (de Catawba) picture right now. He looks quite sickly.





M.

 

[grapeman]

Oh come on, go ahead and take his picture.

We all like to see each other's children don't we?

Nochild is perfect to everyone, only us, but we all like seeing each other's children(AKA grape vines/real children).

He may not be looking great, but it's not his fault and maybe we can offer some advice to help him out.

 

[grapeman]

How are the vines doing up there in Maine? Hope the weather has improved for you. We are finally getting a string of pretty decent days.

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Using "Reply" to Richard's query - looks like George doesn't have the forum code fixed yet.

Progress pictures of some things we are growing. My wife started an espallier project with plums and pears. These are the first two shots:

A plum tree

A pear tree

Now for the vineyard. The Frontenac and St. Croix are quite vigorous and are outstripping the St. Pepin and Landot Noir. The Foch are somewhere in between. If you notice little greenish-white things hanging above the vines, they are quarter pieces of bars of Irish Spring - an attempt to keep deer off. I haven't had any trouble with them yet, but the Japanese Beetles and leaf rollers are having a field day.

A Frontenac Gris nearing the top wire

A Frontenac midway between mid and upper wires.

The smallest, a Landot Noir that finally started moving this week - now all 25 vines are showing growth.

Shot looking west down several rows. The mid-wire is at 3', the top is at 6'.

I built this terrace on the embankment into the quarry. It has a fire pit at the near edge. The vines are just beyond.

A shot of the terrace 90 degrees around with the garden beyond.

The Brandywine tomatoes are up to my waist and producing a good crop.

The Romas, up just past my knees, are also doing well.

Watching all the various things grow makes summer time very enjoyable, and caring for them is challenging and rewarding. I keep thinking about two years from now when I should have the first crop of grapes, and traditional winemaking starts in earnest.