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It might not be in your budget, but look into a used Landini if you can find one. A lot of old ones here in CT from shade tobacco farming have found new homes at commercial vineyards. Small and narrow with lots of horse power and you might be able to make other use of it around the farm.

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.

As others have said, your best bet may just be to try many different varieties and have the patience to wait them out and see how they perform. I think of my hobby vineyards as ever evolving so when a variety has performed poorly for me year in and year out, I remove it and try another and don't...

Rich, sending thoughts and prayers your way for you and your wife.

Another idea is a field trip to a commercial vineyard at pruning time if there is one nearby. I found watching to be really helpful in learning how to prune.

Not sure about West coast growing, but here in New England if fertilizer is needed I only apply in spring. The theory being that you don't want to stimulate any growth when the plant should be going dormant for winter.

I would not use roundup 365 in any crop area grapes included. It is labeled for and intended to be used on driveways and hardscapes and other non-crop land. Generally, long residual herbicide formulations are for such areas and not intended for crop use.

First off Dithane is a protectant meaning it is a preventative fungicide and will not help that much if you have a disease situation. Share your issue with us and the folks here can be if more help. I dont know of any issue with applying it to grapes following the label, but it might not help...

Welcome to the fun of growing grapes. Good luck with the vineyard!

Your vineyard is looking very nice! That is a really good idea on the mailbox. I think I may borrow that idea from you...

Grapeman is right on as always. You always are better off having sprayed ahead of heavy rain rather than waiting until after the storm, as the rain could be carrying the spores and then they attach to the vulnerable unsprayed leaf. If you have a fungicide rotation, I would spray again this week...

As @TonyR says you will be fine @jandrew156. Hopefully the Northeast cold spell breaks next week as predicted and we get back to "normal" temps!

We've had highs in the low 50s and lows in the 30s several nights here as well. My Marquette and Frontenac have had some damage as they are open. It seems that they break too early every year, maybe they don't fit my site so well. My Cayuga, Gruner Veltliner and Aromella haven't broke open yet...

I would let it all grow. As grapeman said, just tie it all to the training stake. You can sort it out when you prune next spring. You want to build good roots this year for a healthy vine in the coming years.

Looking nice Kraffty! Those of us in the Northeast are still looking and snow and slush, so those shots are making us long for spring!

Congrats Rich on making the goal!

I am a big fan of not using any grow tubes. My experience here in the northeast is that they don't do a whole lot to push a new vine along. As to rabbits, one year I had some rabbit issues on a few new vines so I made "tubes" out of chicken wire so they couldn't totally defoliate the vine. if...

Best of luck with the expansion, Rich!

Got a start on pruning some of mine today here in CT. We've been going back and forth between the warm days in the 60s and the colder days in the 30s and 40s, the latter of which is more normal. Hopefully it will even out soon.

I have Cayuga trained VSP on my sandy site and they do have a lot of vigor. They don't die back down here either, which may help that vigor along. I thought that the weaker soil might counteract that natural tendency to grow like crazy, but I hadn't thought about the vine putting all that...