Anyone Growing Marquette Grapes?

[Teamsterjohn]

LOL, noway, small woods to the left, and another house before the park.

 

[gird123]

that is a great idea. We have too many parks and not enough vineyards.

 

[vinividivici]

John,

That's a neat, compact setup. Pics look good!

Cheers!
Bob

 

[vinividivici]

The Hilltop Winery

My "budding" vineyard! Four rows of eight vines each. Posts will be put in sometime in the next month or two, along with the trellis system.

The lot next door is 5.5 acres. If I knew I've live long enough to see the fruit, I'd plant a bunch of different varieties there.

 

[Teamsterjohn]

If I only had that much land!!!

 

[vinividivici]

If I only had that much land!!!

We bought the house in 2009. The house is on ten acres, with historic stone walls surrounding the property. It was once farmland and the walls were put up by the farmers around 1850. We are on a hilltop that is 730 ft above sea level.

Three garages, full basement, and 2,100 sq ft of living space. This will really kill you: we paid $210,000 for it.

The cost of living here is very low, crime rate is almost nonexistent and the area is now attracting retirees from the NYC area, as well as NJ and PA. You just have to put up with the lake effect snow each winter, averaging about 10-12 ft per season, with some years over 20 ft.

 

[vinividivici]

Single or Double Curtain?

Trying to decide on single or double curtain. Does a single curtain in year one allow the growth to be concentrated not only in the roots but also the trunk?

Does a double at this point help if one of the canes dies or is broken and you still have one on the plant?

Advantages / disadvantages?

Cheers!
Bob

 

[grapeman]

I think you are referring to a single or a double trunk. That is when you train up two trunks the second year after pruning back to two or three buds. Generally you can get the best root growth by just letting it grow sort of like a bush. It does no good to grow a nice long skinny trunk, because it gets cut off the second spring. What you are really trying to grow is a strong root system to give great growth of a nice thick trunk in year two and possibly some good cordon canidates or strong canes for the top wire or midwire depending on how you want to train the vine. Just let it grow this year with several tops. That way you can prune the vine back next year to the thickest best positioned cane to a few buds and let it grow.

 

[Randoneur]

That looks like a really nice spot for your vines. Good luck with them.

 

[vinividivici]

I think you are referring to a single or a double trunk. That is when you train up two trunks the second year after pruning back to two or three buds. Generally you can get the best root growth by just letting it grow sort of like a bush. It does no good to grow a nice long skinny trunk, because it gets cut off the second spring. What you are really trying to grow is a strong root system to give great growth of a nice thick trunk in year two and possibly some good cordon canidates or strong canes for the top wire or midwire depending on how you want to train the vine. Just let it grow this year with several tops. That way you can prune the vine back next year to the thickest best positioned cane to a few buds and let it grow.

Still learning the proper terminology, Rich. LOL
I was looking at a presentation given in Iowa for training systems and confused the curtain term (cordon) with the trunk.

I took another look at your web site again, spending more time in your research section, particularly the phase 2 vine training and canopy management. Very interesting and very useful for a neophyte like me. New growers should be looking at that if not already.

So, in essence, I should just leave the new vines alone this year and concentrate on getting the posts and trellis system in place for next year.

Thanks for the assistance again.

Bob

 

[grapeman]

Just keep the vines healthy and growing. The big thing is to keep the weeds down around them. That way they pump a lot of food into the root systems and build a good healthy root system. That makes them blast off in year two. Marquette has a fairly slim trunk anyway so if you try to develop a potential trunk this year to use next, it will likely be too thin.

 

[gird123]

https://www.nevinesupply.com

So I ordered 3 vines from https://www.nevinesupply.com

Thank you,

Nate

 

[vinividivici]

No doubt that they are very busy, as their web site mentions, but they seem to be lacking in customer service relations. A lot of other vine suppliers have already completed their shipping for this year. Good luck with it!

Cheers!
Bob

 

[vinividivici]

As I've mentioned in my earlier posts, I'm using Blue Growth Tubes for my vines. Looking into them, they are coming along nicely with good growth.

But, I also noticed what looks like tiny clusters on them. If these are actual grape clusters growing, I should be pinching them off, right?

If so, I now have a problem whereby I can't reach down into the tube to do that. As they are growing fairly fast, should I just wait until the vine gets closer to the top to clip them off?

I don't want to remove the tubes as that would be a major PIA and hard to put them back on without damaging the vines.

Bob

 

[ibglowin]

Not the greatest customer support for sure. Hope they come through for you (and still have some to sell!)

 

[ibglowin]

Just in case they don't come through for you try Double A Vineyards next time. I ordered through them last year and even though it was just a small order of 6 vines IIRC. They shipped out fast, and arrived in great shape. High quality, super customer service to boot. Would definitely do business with them again.

 

[grapeman]

Both Double A Vineyards and Northeast VIne Supply are family run businesses. The difference is in size. Double A has at least two generations involved now with quite a few employees. NE Vine Supply has Andy and his wife India involved. His vines are top notch quality and he will get them to you. If you don't hear from him in a week, call back and leave a message if necessary. Sometimes we need to cut small businesses some slack in their customer service to allow the company to grow to support that extra customer service. There are many large businesses that when you call customer service, you get some outsourced service in Pakistan or wherever, you can hardly understand them and they read from a script. When you call either Double A or NE Vine Supply, you get a US citizen who knows their product. Double A even hired a former Cornell grape person to work in customer service to assist small growers.

 

[AlFulchino]

additionally Andy and India are expecting...and i think it sometime in June....not saying this is why you did not hear back..but it could be...good people they are

 

[vinividivici]

As I've mentioned in my earlier posts, I'm using Blue Growth Tubes for my vines. Looking into them, they are coming along nicely with good growth.

But, I also noticed what looks like tiny clusters on them. If these are actual grape clusters growing, I should be pinching them off, right?

If so, I now have a problem whereby I can't reach down into the tube to do that. As they are growing fairly fast, should I just wait until the vine gets closer to the top to clip them off?

I don't want to remove the tubes as that would be a major PIA and hard to put them back on without damaging the vines.

Bob

 

[grapeman]

Those are flower clusters. You can leave them there for the time being and see what happens to them. A lot of times they don't pollinate enough to cause problems with the vine. Later when you remove the tubes, remove the few clusters that form now.