OT - Anybody here grow grapes?

1939farmall · Jul 4, 2021

Happy 4th to everybody. So this is the first time we have ever tried to grow grapes, The local nursery lost the tags for theses so they were pretty much giving them away and we decided to try growing them. Any tips or advice on ending up with good fruit from them? I appreciate the help.

Rgr33 · Jul 4, 2021

I grow about 3200 wine grape plants on my place, so here is what I would do if I was in your situation.

Prune plant to one single stem, till it gets to about waist high, then tee it out with one single lateral in each direction, your plant forms a tee. Remove all suckers on the trunk.

Set one permanent trellis wire at top of tee, two more at 12 inches, then 2 more at chest high. These are your catch wires to keep vines from sprawling. Do not let new growth go crazy, prune to control sun and air flow.

Water new plants the first 2 summers, than no longer unless a drought occurs.

Spray a fungicide every 2 weeks to prevent mildew, or botrytis.

1939farmall · Jul 4, 2021

Sounds like a good game plan. Thank you.

DoubleO7 · Jul 4, 2021

We had a five acre vineyard in southwest Michigan.
Sold crop each year to Welch in Paw Paw, MI.

What Rg33 said is spot on.

But what the SWM growers did was a heavy telephone pole post at each end of row. Wit two 10ga steel wires stretched tight.
One waist high another neck high.

In winter trim to get a double tee going, two branches at waist wire two at neck wire. No other branches off trunk nor the four branches.

Keep suckers trimmed off at base and up trunk, let the four branches grow branches.

We used strips of old bed sheet to tie branches to wires.

caterpillar guy · Jul 4, 2021

In MI how do you keep those little blueish black bugs from eating the bud each spring. Dad had a vine or set of vines from over 60 years ago. Those bugs killed the vines eating the buds.

Rich'sToys · Jul 4, 2021

My brother has a 15 acre vineyard. He pretty much follows the procedure as Rgr33 has laid out, including the regular spraying of fungicide. He also regularly sprays a fertilizer that is absorbed through the leaves, in addition to a band of fertilizer in the ground. He also sprays herbicide to keep the grass out of the rows.
In late winter and early spring they prune off most of the new growth back down to those original lateral branches, and any loose ends resulting from that are tied back up onto the wires.
Properly maintaining a vineyard is very labor intensive!

Traditional Farmer · Jul 5, 2021

I only have a few grape vines several different varieties never spray them with anything, get a bunch of grapes every year unless we have a late freeze.Other than trimming back every Winter about as easy and trouble free as its gets.I did mulch them with rock dust to keep moisture in and weeds and grass down around them.

KenL · Jul 5, 2021

I have two vines. For the last 5 years they haven't produce even one grape. I think they are going to dissapear this fall.

jacksun65 · Jul 5, 2021

Japanese Beetles get traps for them you will be surprised how many they get. They like green beans also

farmallboy15 · Jul 5, 2021

I have a few vines as well. I agree with building a good trellis. Look up top wire cordon for a training system.

Japanese Beatles are my biggest issue. They just started coming out here in Ohio last week. If you dont keep them controlled, they will disimate everything in short order. Controlling the grass under the vines is also important. Especially young vines, the grass will out compete the vines. I spray roundup while being careful not to spray the vines (the blue tubes help). Also, if they try to grow grapes the next year or two pick them all off so that they focus on growing vines not fruit.

DoubleO7 · Jul 5, 2021

(quoted from post at 23:21:04 07/04/21) In MI how do you keep those little blueish black bugs from eating the bud each spring. Dad had a vine or set of vines from over 60 years ago. Those bugs killed the vines eating the buds.

Contact your local ag extension agent for pest control advise.

We were fortunate to have another ten acre vinyard next to ours owned by another farmer.
He had the big trailered orchard blast sprayer and when he sprayed his, he would run thru and sprayed ours.
For ten percent of the crop.

Rgr33 · Jul 5, 2021

(reply to post at 20:57:35 07/04/21)

Agree with your brothers method Riches Toys, with the exception of fertilizing of the grape plants. Fertilizing grape plant causes more vine growth, and more vine growth brings a plethora of late season secondary grape clusters that will not ripen in time for harvest.

All that new growth caused by fertilization has to be removed in order to get sun into the grapes to speed ripening. That is labor intensive, and not fun in the hot summer sun.

Also, the wineries I sell to, would not be happy to find insecticides in their wine, but I realize the OP is not going to sell commercially.

OT - Anybody here grow grapes?

1939farmall

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Rgr33

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1939farmall

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DoubleO7

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caterpillar guy

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Rich'sToys

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Traditional Farmer

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KenL

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DoubleO7

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Rgr33

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