Hey thanks Big H for taking the time to reply. My site sounds pretty similar to yours. How did your vines do in first year?
I will be planting in a few weeks . 10 rows, 5 72' and 5 120 ft. 18 Traminette,9 Brianna, 9 Steuben and 9 Concord. 45 Marquette,15 Noiret(harsh winter so Double A was only able to get 15 . and 15 Corot Noir.
Well, my frontenac and frontenac blanc grew like crazy. Essentially up to the 6' wire and back to the ground. Most of the other varieties grew well two. My edelweiss and petite pearl were the laggards of the bunch.
I planted some marquette and brianna. Brianna was really vigorous too. It wanted to reach for the sky. Marquette was mid range for me. Grew well, but not as vigorous as brianna and frontenac. I wanted to plant corot noir, but decided against it on the advice of Iowa State's viticulture department. It hasn't proven to be cold hardy enough in their trials for my region. I am not familiar with the others.
I planted 86 vines in 5 rows total. 3 rows are GDC, 1 is VSP or MWC, and one is TWC. 2 GDC rows and the TWC row were planted at 8 ft vince spacing. The remaining two were at 9 feet.
1)Did you let your vines Bush out to aid in establishing strong root system in first year? I guess I'll be doing that and also tying strongest to bamboo stake to see if it will make it to top wire?
I did not let them bush out. I put them in grow tubes. But that decision was dictated by protection and not growth. First, I purchased 1x vines from double A vineyards that came with really nice roots. Second, and most important, I was about 6 months late getting my vineyard floor prepped. I planted on old pasture ground. I should have done a burndown roundup application the prior summer and tilled the prior fall. I did none of that. Instead, I plowed and disc'ed the same spring that I planted. That meant I had some serious weeds to battle.
Grow tubes really ought to be called protection tubes. They are more about protecting from deer and roundup than they are about growing the vine. I tubed for protection. Bushing out is better for root development, but it makes weed and critter control a bigger challenge. Iowa State has put out some literature that claims weed control is the primary cause of early vineyard failure. Since I was behind the game a bit, I made choices to mitigate that cause of failure.
2)One trunk or two ? Not sure on this one? Planned on one trunk for my top wire cordon, but not sure from pics if Grapeman and GregND have two on pics I've seen of their sites...their advice is pretty much my bible my short time on this site!
Their advice is pretty much gospel for me as well. With respect to trunks, I have decide to just go with what each vine gives me. If it wants to give me 2 nice trunks now, I take them. If it gives me one, or one plus a runt, then I just keep one and will try to renew a second one sometime down the road.
Everything I planted is cold hardy, so I'm not sure if the second trunk will ever serve its intended emergency purpose.
Good luck. Greg is spot on, these things are weeds and they will grow like a weed (as long as other weeds don't take over). You will have a lot of fun watching them mature through the summer.
H^2