# Well, no turning back now.



## MeadowStationVines (May 9, 2017)

Three years ago when we moved out here a family vineyard was not on my list of To-Do’s.
Some prodding from the wife and finding this forum made me think “ I can do this…”
Not sure how well I can do this but I’m hoping with some luck and help from this forum this will be more than my winter exercise.
I have to say my back is really happy to finally be at this point.

Sent soil samples off last year: Sandy Clay Loam, pH6.8, Organic Material 2.2%, Nitrate 20ppm, E.C. 0.4
We added compost and Nitrate and rented an excavator and dug 2’ wide x 3’ deep trenches to break up the claypan we have hoping that will help with drainage.

We planted 80 vines, 20 of each: Arandell, Marquette, Noiret and 10 of each: Brianna, Louise Swenson.

The plan is to let them grow kind of however this year, I have pencil stakes and some fence wire holding up the irrigation since we will cut them back to little sticks next spring, or that is how I think I’m supposed to do it?

Not really sure where this will lead but one way or another we will enjoy the journey.


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## bkisel (May 9, 2017)

Good luck!

Do you currently do any wine making?


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## MeadowStationVines (May 9, 2017)

I've been making kit wine for about 5 years. The last 2 years or so I started to learn more of the science behind the wine and making modifications to the kits (not always improvements mind you but modifications). I figure I have about 3-4 years to figure out how to make wine from grapes. Plan to order some this season and give it a go.


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## Johny99 (May 9, 2017)

Great project, and good luck with the vagaries of Colorado winters!


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## mgmarty (May 12, 2017)

Looks really good. It's a very time consuming hobby. Good luck!!


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## ColemanM (May 16, 2017)

That looks awesome. Can't wait to see it in three years full of grapes!!!


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## MeadowStationVines (May 18, 2017)

Well yesterday morning we were enjoying seeing all the little buds bursting. 






And then we woke to this......





We are supposed to get 4-8 inches of snow today/tonight.
Went out and covered them all with gallon freezer bags hoping that will help. Weather station says the overnight low was 32 so not too cold but not exactly what I was hoping to see mid May.


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## GreginND (May 18, 2017)

Oh dear. That is always worrisome. It looks like you have some buds still dormant down lower on those vines. So, if you lose the ones that have already grown I'm sure you'll get more coming out in short order.


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## ibglowin (May 18, 2017)

Looking good except for the whole snow thing this AM! LOL I will be sweating bullets tomorrow morning hoping it doesn't drop to freezing tonight. Marquette is forming clusters left and right at my place.......


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## MeadowStationVines (May 18, 2017)

Yea and I was thinking to myself last weekend "Well this way better than 2016 when we got snow on Mothers Day" boy was I wrong.
Tomorrow morning will be a little scary for sure, weather folks said we were going to hit 40 today but we haven't even made it to 35 at my house so I suppose we hit the mid 20's just before dawn. I guess the good thing is, it's my first year and there are no grapes to be lost and I'm hoping their little carton zip-lock tents will protect them from any major damage.


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## Johny99 (May 18, 2017)

Hope so. I talked with a colleague in Denver today who said it was snowing to beat the band. Of course snow keeps it from getting really cold. Hope you don't have damage.


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## cgallamo (May 19, 2017)

You'll have a number of kin on this forum. I have 100 vines in GA. It is a labor of love, but when you get a good harvest there is nothing like it...


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## MeadowStationVines (May 19, 2017)

Thanks guys. Overnight low only hit 30 so not as bad as I was expecting but considering it mid May.... Guess we will see the damage tomorrow when the sun comes out and we take the bags off.


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## Johny99 (May 19, 2017)

MeadowStationVines said:


> Thanks guys. Overnight low only hit 30 so not as bad as I was expecting but considering it mid May.... Guess we will see the damage tomorrow when the sun comes out and we take the bags off.



Hope they all survived just fine.


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## mgmarty (May 20, 2017)

I put the sprinkler on and only lost a handful of leaves. I did pretty good, hope you did the same.


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## MeadowStationVines (May 23, 2017)

mgmarty said:


> I put the sprinkler on and only lost a handful of leaves. I did pretty good, hope you did the same.



I don’t have a frost sprinkler setup as this is the first year and well, I wasn’t expecting to get any more frost but I am curious about using a sprinkler. From what I read you should start the sprinkler before it gets below 32 and keep it running until after the temp is back above 32? We got down to 27 on Saturday morning so if I had to run them the entire time seems like I would have had an ice pond out there. Also what kind of sprinkler do you use? My vineyard is 30’x130’ and I could cover it with 3 impact sprinklers or do they need more of a continual spray?


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## mgmarty (May 24, 2017)

So I have something similar to this


I wait till it hits 34 degrees, than turn it on. I run it till the sun comes up, and it's above 34 degrees again. I have had really good luck.


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## mgmarty (May 24, 2017)

Yes, there's a lot of ice and ice sickles.


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## MeadowStationVines (May 25, 2017)

mgmarty said:


> Yes, there's a lot of ice and ice sickles.



So do you just have one that you set in the middle and let it go around, or do you have multiple to cover the vines from different sides?
I will definitely have to look into something like that for next spring we got down to 31 yesterday morning again.


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## mgmarty (May 31, 2017)

Last year i had a sprinkler on each corner. I bought this new sprinkler for my pasture, and tried it this spring. I saw no difference. Yes there is always a spot that won't get hit, but it worked great. I lost maybe ten shoots on 72 vines.


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## MeadowStationVines (Aug 28, 2017)

Well thought I should post an update now that summer is just about over. Had couple of surgeries I wasn’t planning on slow me down a bit but the wife seems to have done a nice job keeping up with things.
Other than a few visits from a deer friend of mine who did some early pruning they seem to be doing OK. Plan is to put the deer fence up this fall so we shouldn’t have that problem next year.
The Brianna’s (first 10 plants in left row bottom picture) seem to be a bit slow going compared to the others but since it is my first year not really sure what to expect.


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## ibglowin (Aug 28, 2017)

Looking great for the first year. I wish I had soil like that!


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## MeadowStationVines (Oct 20, 2017)

So I have been searching the forum looking for fall/winter watering advice, most of what I saw was “stop watering about a month before first frost”. Ummm well it’s a little late for that seeing how we got 3” of snow and hit 22 degrees last week. I did have enough warning to get the irrigation system drained but I stopped watering like a day before first frost not a month and now of course it being Colorado it is back in the 80’s.
Am I done watering for the season or should I turn on the irrigation and do a few more deep waterings? Again these vines were just planted this spring so I will be cutting them all the way back in the spring to start trunk training. 
As always thanks for the advice.


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## ibglowin (Oct 20, 2017)

I would give them one more shot if you haven't had any real precip in the last month. We got almost 6" in late September beginning of October so mine are done and starting to harden off.


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## shrewsbury (Oct 20, 2017)

looks great!
do you plan on seeding in some grass between the rows or leaving them as is?
I love the views you get from your vineyard, nice scenery!


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## MeadowStationVines (Oct 23, 2017)

Thanks!
We will plant something in the alleys just not sure what yet. I would like to plant a cover crop that adds nutrients back into soil but have not really spent much time researching yet as I read somewhere that it is best to wait until year 3 so there is no competition with the vines. So for now we will keep tilling the dirt.


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## CTDrew (Oct 23, 2017)

Looking really nice, before you know it you will be harvesting! I like fescues and clovers here in the east as they are easy to keep mowed. I don't know what would be best for you but something that takes mowing makes easy upkeep and looks nice too.


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## VillaVino (Nov 7, 2017)

Be careful. Your 80 will turn into 800. I have Marquettes, Briana and Louise Swensons too. The marq will want to bud first. Brianas bud early too. The LS will wait until later. Where are you located?


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## MeadowStationVines (Jun 12, 2018)

Well I have finally found time to get back to the forum. Spring is a crazy busy time at our property and adding a vineyard didn’t help with that much.

Winter was pretty rough on our vines. It wasn’t a particularly cold winter but we had that snow in Oct that ended the growing season last year and then we didn’t get much moisture until January. We pruned in mid-April as our average last frost is early May which seemed like it worked well as we didn’t have any bud burst until mid-May….. But then we just didn’t have much bud burst. As of this past weekend we have 36 vines that show no real signs of life. Thought the wood looked good when we pruned but maybe not. The Arandells are the worst, 18 of the 20 vines appear to have no growth. The wife dug around them a bit and thinks they are still alive so I’m not going to rip them out, don’t have any replacements this year anyways. We will see.

So this is year two for my vines so it is trunk training year. I have decided to double trunk my vines and I have 2 Marquettes that only have 2 canes growing (probably some poor pruning on my part) and they both appear to be bull canes. Longer internode sections and somewhat oval rather than round and one of them is 6’ already. Looking for suggestions on how to handle, it seems I don’t want to use these for my trunks but at this point I don’t really have other canes to choose from. Should I let them grown and hope another cane appears that I can use for a trunk and prune the bull next spring?

As always thank you for your advice.


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