COLD HARDY GRAPES

[NorthernWinos]

There seems to a lot of folks in the Northeastern US, Montana and Minnesota that are on this Forum and interested in growing grapes in the cold climates we have to deal with.
I had mentioned this book on another Post and feel it deserves to be mentioned again....

http://www.northernwinework.com/buy.html

This book is full of very useful information about growing grapes in the harsh climates of -30*F to -40*F and lower, it has a section of the book devoted to wine making with your own grapes.
It can be purchased at this site and at Amazon.com and eBay as well. I felt the book was well worth the price.

They mention many new varieties for the North....Prairie Star and Louise Swenson are newer white grape varieties that are becoming more readily available, as well as Baltic Amber and others. It mentions each variety and gives you the temperature and ripening characteristics of each.
In the red grapes the newer Frontenac, St. Croix and Sabrevois are hardy to about -30*F...King of the North is hardier and produces about 5 times the vines as other extremely hardy grapes I have tried.
There is so much knowledge in this book, I strongly recommend it to folks who want to try growing grapes in the far north...
Hope you find this helpful

 

[NorthernWinos]

This is what happened to our 5 year old vines last winter...only the oldest Valiant vines [which is suppose to be the hardiest grape, they say hardy to -50*F.

According to the author of Northern Winework it happens when the temperatures widely fluctuate and the vine became deacclimated, the sap rose and froze splitting the trunk vine...[this will happen to young fruit trees in our area in early spring.]

The author suggests to always have a young vine growing from the base, this can become a replacement 'back-up' vine if you should loose your main large single trunk vine....

Makes sense, these vines are regrowing from the base this summer....but due to the disease problem with Valiant I am going to replace some of the vines with a more disease resistant vine that has the same juice qualities.

Young pliable vines of this and other varieties were not affected...just the oldest and largest vines split.Tender vines I lay down and cover with straw, they have done well for 3 winters, some are producing this summer...just trial and error...just for the fun of growing somthing new....


So a lesson learned...in severe climates, don't count on a single vine from each plant. Waiting for regrowth and replacements to grow is years lost....so it goes!!Edited by: Northern Winos