Travisty's "Vineyard"

[JWMINNESOTA]

Some good growth going on there for you Travisty. Wont be long and your neighbors will be the biggest pest/threat to your grapes!

 

[Travisty]

What a difference a month makes!

 

[grapeman]

They have started to grow better now Travis. Good going! Is that the original little one in the corner or did you replace it?

 

[AlFulchino]

climb climb climb! looking good.....now get your heart around the idea that you have to trim 80-90% of that away next late winter/early spring

 

[Travisty]

They have started to grow better now Travis. Good going! Is that the original little one in the corner or did you replace it?

I replaced it. The original just wasn't bouncing back and kept getting chewed up for some reason.


Al, I've been steeling myself to cut away most of the growth in the spring. By then I'll be a hard hearted SOB to those vines!

 

[grapeman]

I thought I recognized him! It's hard to imagine that little vine was a three inch long twig this spring! Good job raising the foster children! I miss them but I know thy all have a good home!

 

[Travisty]

It's hard to imagine that little vine was a three inch long twig this spring!

You're not wrong!

 

[Travisty]

Ruh roh

 

[AlFulchino]

oh my...whats the prognosis?

 

[grapeman]

Hasn't this been a memorable year?

 

[AlFulchino]

i tell ya what...i some times have trouble finding the right words for situations and this is one of them...the best i can say is that its a travesty....i wish i could do better ...sorry

 

[Waldo]

I feel your pain travesty..Just not in a frozen form here on Thursday though

 

[farmer]

We had an inch of snow Friday night and the forecast is snow tonight and into Monday 2 to 3 inches more, overnight lows 25 degrees.
This is more like November weather

 

[Dean]

looks like a good year for icewine! I always look for the positive!

 

[Travisty]

It's that dang global warming I tell you!

 

[Travisty]

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted here. I've been pretty heavy into the malt side of the fermenting arts lately! However, I'm not giving up on my vines! All the vines survived winter, though one of them must have been hit pretty hard cause the only new growth I got was from the base of the vine.






Anyways, as I understand it, this second year is for developing the trunk of the vine. So I only allowed one shoot to grow up on each vine. Some of these suckers are really going and they're already to the tops of the stakes. I don't think the stakes are going to be able to hold the weight of the vines for too much longer. I think I'll have to build the trellis this year for sure. However, I'm not real sure how to do that for such a small vineyard. Specifically, I'm not sure how much money I should expect to spend. Most of the info I've found is for much larger vineyards than my puny three 30 ft row guy. What kind of endposts do I need to get? High-tensile wire doesn't seem to be a problem to find but do i really need the $90 gripple tool with the required accesories to tension the wire? Or is there a less expensive option that will work for my short rows?

 

[grapeman]

For that short of rows Travis, I would just put in 3 round posts about 4-6 inches on the small end. Get 8 footers and put 2 feet or so in the ground. You don't need to worry about anchors with the short runs. If you use gripples, you can tighten some without a tool- just use a hammer claw or pliers to pull the wire tight. The wire only goes one way. Fence staples work well to attach the wires to the posts.


Good luck and good to see you again.

 

[Travisty]

Thanks Appleman, that's good to know about the gripples. I suppose I could pull them tight enough by hand for my short rows huh? Thanks for the advice on the posts too. I was hoping that I wouldn't need the anchors and all that for these guys!


I shot a quick picture of the vineyard today. The two vines with cages around them kept getting trimmed back by rabbits or some other critter so I decided to protect them.

 

[Travisty]

Ok so I now have most of my posts set up. I would have them all set up but digging two ft deep holes in this soil and heat is really hard!

Anyhoo, with all the rain we've had this year so far (~23 in. vs an average of ~17in.) the vines are growing way too big for the stakes so I've ordered supplies to finish the trellising. I've been doing some reading on trellis systems and it appears that traditional thinking says I should use VSP? According to double A vineyards (http://www.rakgrape.com/pdf_files/2009-2010-VineVariety.pdf) Carot Noir has a semi-upright growth habit and vingoles has an upright growth habit which indicates a VSP style trellis need right?


If that's correct then I'm curious about the catch wires. It looks like the catch wires need to be moveable. I'm not clear on why that is. Why can't I keep the catch wires in a permanent position and just train the shoots up to them? Assuming that I'm missing something here, how doI setup the wires so that they are easily moveable?

 

[grapeman]

For your small vineyard, VSP will work fine with permenat catch wires. With moveable ones, you can sweep the canes up and into it all at once making it quicker, but it is a lot more work setting it up that way. Just use your sets of catch wires to train the shoots up through as they grow.


Glad they are growing well.