Backyard Vineyard - Year two

[ChuckD]

In March I selected the best vine on each plant (most pencil sized or slightly smaller) and trimmed them to three to five buds. Some of them also had buds on the trunk, so now many of them have eight to ten buds. Is this too many? Should I be removing some of them?

This is a typical Marquette vine this morning… bud break! If you zoom in you can see five or six smaller buds low on the trunk.

The Petite Pearl are about a week behind.

 

[Vern]

I left the top 3 buds grow, then when shoots were a foot or so, I kept the strongest one and tied to stake. Not sure if this approach is the best method, but worked well for mine.

 

[ChuckD]

I left the top 3 buds grow, then when shoots were a foot or so, I kept the strongest one and tied to stake. Not sure if this approach is the best method, but worked well for mine.

So I remove those small buds from the trunk now? or let them duke it out for a while too? I don’t know if that’s too many to start… spreading the plans resources too thin?

 

[Snafflebit]

It’s more about trimming down to a pencil size cane to have a sturdy vine. You don’t want vigorous growth on a spindly cane. Your plant looks vigorous. Usually the top buds will dominate anyway so you could knock off the two lowest buds

 

[ChuckD]

@Snafflebit So if I want to double trunk, should I train up two right away or get one strong trunk established first then add a second one in a year or two?

 

[Snafflebit]

You could do either choice. I would try to start a second trunk from a bud right on the union.

 

[Snafflebit]

You can see that I am attempting double trunking also, due to cordon diseases I am finding in the vineyard. Frost damage is not an issue here. But, it is not as neat as a single trunk.

 

[ChuckD]

So last year I didn’t spray at all and didn’t have any notable issues with disease. We had JB’s (spit) but dealt with them by manually picking twice a day.

I don’t expect to be so lucky this year so I’m looking for advice from fellow grape growers. What chemicals should I have on hand for potential problems? I’ll have Marquette, Petite Pearl, Frontenac, Brianna, And Itasca.

Also, is there a preventative spray program that you practice? I don’t know if I want to go that route right away but your advice would be appreciated.

 

[wood1954]

Chuck , Wollersheim winery has some excellent videos of training new vines, take a look. I think you should spray this year , mancozeb and captan will protect from most everything and they are cheap and easy to use and easy to find online . I sprayed yesterday when most shoots were about 3” long.

 

[ChuckD]

Chuck , Wollersheim winery has some excellent videos of training new vines, take a look. I think you should spray this year , mancozeb and captan will protect from most everything and they are cheap and easy to use and easy to find online . I sprayed yesterday when most shoots were about 3” long.

Did you get any frost damage Sunday night? I had frost on the roof Monday morning but no discernible damage to the shoots… unless it shows up later.

 

[wood1954]

No frost, got down to 36, but everything is good, tonight is another 30s, keep your fingers crossed

 

[CTDrew]

Chuck , Wollersheim winery has some excellent videos of training new vines, take a look. I think you should spray this year , mancozeb and captan will protect from most everything and they are cheap and easy to use and easy to find online . I sprayed yesterday when most shoots were about 3” long.

Adding to @wood1954 's list, get some Howler fungicide and put a few sprays in your rotation. I have had positive results from adding it to my program and it is cheap enough and labeled for lots of other crops too.

 

[Cynewulf]

So last year I didn’t spray at all and didn’t have any notable issues with disease. We had JB’s (spit) but dealt with them by manually picking twice a day.

I don’t expect to be so lucky this year so I’m looking for advice from fellow grape growers. What chemicals should I have on hand for potential problems? I’ll have Marquette, Petite Pearl, Frontenac, Brianna, And Itasca.

Also, is there a preventative spray program that you practice? I don’t know if I want to go that route right away but your advice would be appreciated.

I have Marquette and Itasca and here is what I’ve posted in another thread on the topic:
Good Combo for Disease Management in eastern PA.

I have heavy disease pressure in Virginia so have to have an aggressive preventive spray protocol. Your local situation may be different so it’s best to find out what other vineyards in your area are doing if possible.

I also have a problem with caterpillars so spray with BT. I gave up on doing JBs by hand but don’t want to blanket spray with pesticide, so go through once a day when I have time and spot spray them with Sevin.

 

[ChuckD]

I got my last (maybe) vines in the ground today. Four more Marquette to replace two dead ones and fill out the row. 12 Itasca and 13 Frontenac.

I now have 84 vines in the ground with room for 52 more if I choose. I think I’ll stick with these for now.

I still need to get the trellises installed this summer before the vines get too big. My neighbor is going to drill the holes when he’s done planting his crops.

 

[wood1954]

The dumbest thing I did when making my trellis was to drill a hole thru the post and run my wire through the hole. Now when a post rots out I have to cut and split the post. Second thing was not setting the end posts properly, third thing was using young black locust posts. Good luck with your trellis, do it right so you don’t have to redo it like I did.

 

[ChuckD]

The dumbest thing I did when making my trellis was to drill a hole thru the post and run my wire through the hole. Now when a post rots out I have to cut and split the post. Second thing was not setting the end posts properly, third thing was using young black locust posts. Good luck with your trellis, do it right so you don’t have to redo it like I did.

I’m going to use 9’ x 6” treated posts with H braces on the ends of each trellis. Line posts will be 8’ metal T-posts. I was planning on High tensile wire with spring tensioners. I was considering those “vice anchors”… I think I’ll stick with the standard high tensile fence installation.

 

[Snafflebit]

I have seen enough wire vices fail. Won’t use them anymore. The spring tensioners are good but a little bulky but they stay put. I use Gripples and make a loop around the post and loosely staple the loop to the post.

 

[wood1954]

I’m going to use 9’ x 6” treated posts with H braces on the ends of each trellis. Line posts will be 8’ metal T-posts. I was planning on High tensile wire with spring tensioners. I was considering those “vice anchors”… I think I’ll stick with the standard high tensile fence installation.

Sounds like you should be in good shape. How are you for processing all the grapes. Last year I had 700 lbs of grapes from 65 vines, you could have 1000 lbs easily by year 4.

 

[ChuckD]

How are you for processing all the grapes.

I figured I’ll burn that bridge when I get there.

“you could have 1000 lbs easily by year 4” here’s hoping!

I will be looking for a crusher and a larger press and a few more carboys… perhaps upgrading to some larger PE barrels for primary and aging.

 

[ChuckD]

I’m amazed at how fast the second-year vines have taken off.

Three weeks and they already have more growth than all of last year. I haven’t sprayed them at all and no sign of disease or insect damage. Of course it’s been hot and abnormally dry so far. I’ve had to water the vines twice already. Today I pruned them again today down to two main vines.