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Conventional wisdom says to get them off fairly early in the growing season. TBH, I don't bother when I use grow tubes on season 1 or season 2 vines. It is too much of a hassle to move the grow tubes out of the way, and I don't want to risk snapping off shoots. My site has rich soil, so I...

Behind normal by about 90 in central Iowa. Behind last year by 190. We normally accumulate around 3400 GDD between March 1 and Oct 1, so I have always felt like I had heat energy to spare. This year might test it a bit. PS I use the same GDD as corn, which has a base of 50 degrees. H

Your last pic looks like downy mildew to me. The second pic in your original post looks like the onset of black rot. Disclaimer, I have no particular skill when it comes to disease identification. If I am right, then your grapes will likely turn to fuzzy black mummies on vines that exhibited...

It is important to follow a spray regiment from the start of the season rather than waiting to react after you see signs of infection. The midwest fruit pest management guide is a great resource for figuring out when and what to spray. I am curious why you feel that larger berries are...

I have heard stories about mean people combating raccoons with a combination of these tools. Not sure how they all work together.

Ct, what is your game plan for the end posts? Are those complete, or do you have more anchoring to add? H

For people that find this thread years later: It is important to avoid J-rooting the vines. There is a lot of debate about the pros and cons of trimming roots during planting. If you decide that you don't want to trim roots, then you have to commit to digging a hole large enough to avoid J...

I agree with Greg. Upward cupping of young leaves is a sign of dicamba damage. H

That looks like Phomopsis cane spot or anthracnose to me. I would remove during shoot thinning if other good shoots are available in the area. Otherwise, I just stick with the spray program. A dormant liquid lime sulfur application is effective against cane spot. Mancozeb and manzate are good...

The wrinkled leaves look like they could be leafroll virus. The upward cupping in the second to last pic looks similar to dicamba damage. Those are my votes anyway. H

For only 5 vines and with 6" round end posts, my opinion is that you could skip them, but it depends a lot on your soil. You can certainly get by without for 2 seasons since you won't have any crop load on the wire. You can always add them later if needed. It would be wise to leave room for them...

Are those 4x4s? Hard to tell for sure from the pic H

What kind of trellis are you growing these on? I think they will be more than adequate for 2 or 3 wires with no additional anchoring needed. Be sure to lean them outward. H

Shoot thinning is going to invigorate the vine. It should be done with the goal of obtaining a uniformly ripened crop without causing too much excess vigor. I keep 4-6 shoots per foot (all cold hardy hybrids). Keep shoots that have nice clusters forming, plus shoots from base buds that might...

My advice is to shoot thin at this stage. Cluster thinning should come later. The decision whether to keep a cluster on a shoot is dictated largely by the health of that shoot, and that health is impacted by shoot thinning earlier in the season. H

It is heavily variety dependent for me. I harvest Edelweiss and Brianna almost exclusively by brix, with a spot check on pH hoping it is within ear shot of 3.0. I harvest St Croix mostly by pH and the state of the skins, with a check on sugar between 18 and 20 brix. Marquette and Frontenac are...

It's not that I don't like the GDC. I use it for 6 out of 10 varieties in my vineyard. I have La Crescent on a TWC and Marquette on GDC. Looking back, I would switch the two because La Crescent has been quite a bit more vigorous. My Frontenac, St Croix, Brianna, and Edelweiss have all been...

30-36". I like the brown Plantra grow tubes. It depends on your year 2 strategy. You can wait until the summer of year 2 to install the trellis if you prune back to a 2 buds in year two (the Grapeman strategy). You might even be able to get away with the spring of year 3, but that would be...

I built H-braces for all my end posts using 6" wood posts from Tractor Supply. Six years in and I am quite happy with them. I have 150' rows. H braces may have been overkill, but they were easy to build. H

It would be wise to flag where your line posts and end posts are going to be. 24' between posts works well for vines spaced 8' apart. 27' for 9' spacing. Once I flagged where the posts were going to be, I marked where the vines should go. This PDF comes in handy...