Latest southern WI vineyard

[WI_Wino]

I took the plunge as many others have and started a small vineyard this spring. 75 vines total, 25 each of Marquette, Petite Pearl, and LaCrescent. My neighbor put in 50 Petite Pearl vines as well. We planted in the steady rain we had two weekends ago as that is when the vines came and I had time off of work. At least they are all in the ground and stating to leaf out. Trellis system will have to be installed later this summer. Not ideal but I didn't want to wait another year.

Vines came from Northeastern Vine Supply. So far I highly recommend them. Andy spent more time on the phone than I probably would have for a small order discussing planting times, varietal selection, spacing, etc. Shipping was prompt and the vines look great. Some root systems were > 3' long. We had to trim a lot of the roots to fit them into the holes we dug (lots of limestone about 12" down).

Vine spacing is 8', row spacing 10'.

 

[grapeman]

Welcome to a new obsession. There will be a ton of work involved but also a great deal of satisfaction along the way.

 

[CTDrew]

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

 

[richmke]

I'm in the Milwaukee area when you need help with the harvest/crush, and bottling (150-200 bottles?). I have a Swiss corker (Rapid 12?), which is smoother than the Italian corker.

 

[WI_Wino]

I'm in the Milwaukee area when you need help with the harvest/crush, and bottling (150-200 bottles?). I have a Swiss corker (Rapid 12?), which is smoother than the Italian corker.

Thanks! But we are probably three falls out before a first harvest.

 

[richmke]

Thanks! But we are probably three falls out before a first harvest.

I'll probably still be here.

 

[WI_Wino]

All vines minus 1 are leafed out.

Should I be concerned this one has some below ground growth popping out?

 

[havlikn]

No. It will keep happening

 

[WI_Wino]

Walked the vines this morning, pinched off the beginnings of grape clusters on 15 or so. All look great minus these two:


Insect damage:

Rabbit or deer damage:

 

[UBB]

Walked the vines this morning, pinched off the beginnings of grape clusters on 15 or so. All look great minus these two:


Insect damage:

Rabbit or deer damage:

Yup, looks like deer to me. I've been dealing with a ton of damage on my newest vines. Out of 126 vines, the deer and rabbits got 123 of them. A new fence will be going up this summer

 

[WI_Wino]

Sprayed last night with Bonide multipurpose fruit tree spray. Forecast is calling for rain over the next couple of days so I wanted to get some sort of a fungicide on the vines prior.

Found some interesting DIY recipes for mammal deterrents. I might have found a use for the super cayennes my wife won't let me cook with!

 

[WI_Wino]

Had a nice hard rain last night so I got the bamboo stakes in. Also taped up some of the vines. The tape gun is worth every penny.

 

[WI_Wino]

Vineyard continues to do well. We had a lot of rain throughout last week. Vineyard is at the top of a hill though so I have really good drainage.

Some of the petite pearl are 4 plus feet tall. I'm pretty stoked since I have heard mixed reviews on how fast they grow.

Pruning question, I've been letting everything go. No pruning thus far. Several vines have multiple shoots from the base with no real leader to speak of. Do I let it go until next spring? Or do I prune some of the growth back to encourage one or two of the shoots to take over?

 

[Masbustelo]

I only have one more year of experience than you, so maybe the experts will see it differently. I think most would say let them grow however they want the first year. The multiple shoots are helping with root growth and development. Next spring prune off everything that isn't the size of a pencil. Most will say prune back to three buds and start over, but next year they will grow like crazy because they have been established with good root development this year. This year you are growing roots. Next year the roots will grow the vines.

 

[Masbustelo]

I ran across this today. http://mnhardy.umn.edu/sites/mnhardy.umn.edu/files/pruning_training_and_grape_canapy_management.pdf

 

[BigH]

WI_WINO,

I am a couple hundred miles SE of you in zone 5A. Sandy loam soil with about 3.5% organic matter. My backyard vineyard has 10 different varieties. Petite pearl is probably by best behaved vine that I have. It lacks the vigor of St Croix, Frontenac and Marquette, but that can be a good thing. It has been more vigorous than Foch. Breaks bud quite a bit later than the Marquette does. It has stayed a lush green this season, whereas some of the other varieties have been more pale looking. Doesn't go crazy growing laterals. Two big things I am noticing:

1: The shoots on each petite pearl vine tend to grow more uniformly than the others. I have it on a TWC. Lots of nice shoots growing down to the ground without needing a lot of training. The other varieties tend to be grow highly vigorous shoots at the head and very tips of the cordon with some runts in the middle. Granted, that could be my fault for how I manage them, but either way , the PP has been easier to manage.

2: I have had herbicide drift problems the past 2 seasons (24-D I think). My petite pearl acts like it is almost immune to it, whereas the edelweiss and marquette on either side of it, and the foch in the same row, all exhibit sickly looking withered up leaves.

My PP did not produce much of a crop in year 3. Just enough to experiment with. This year will almost be a full crop.

H

 

[WI_Wino]

I ran across this today. http://mnhardy.umn.edu/sites/mnhardy.umn.edu/files/pruning_training_and_grape_canapy_management.pdf

Thanks for the link. The difference in root systems is impressive. I'm going to continue with my plan of no pruning first year and anything that trains up is a bonus.

 

[WI_Wino]

WI_WINO,

I am a couple hundred miles SE of you in zone 5A. Sandy loam soil with about 3.5% organic matter. My backyard vineyard has 10 different varieties. Petite pearl is probably by best behaved vine that I have. It lacks the vigor of St Croix, Frontenac and Marquette, but that can be a good thing. It has been more vigorous than Foch. Breaks bud quite a bit later than the Marquette does. It has stayed a lush green this season, whereas some of the other varieties have been more pale looking. Doesn't go crazy growing laterals. Two big things I am noticing:

1: The shoots on each petite pearl vine tend to grow more uniformly than the others. I have it on a TWC. Lots of nice shoots growing down to the ground without needing a lot of training. The other varieties tend to be grow highly vigorous shoots at the head and very tips of the cordon with some runts in the middle. Granted, that could be my fault for how I manage them, but either way , the PP has been easier to manage.

2: I have had herbicide drift problems the past 2 seasons (24-D I think). My petite pearl acts like it is almost immune to it, whereas the edelweiss and marquette on either side of it, and the foch in the same row, all exhibit sickly looking withered up leaves.

My PP did not produce much of a crop in year 3. Just enough to experiment with. This year will almost be a full crop.

H

Your 2,4-D experience is exciting to hear. There is a cornfield fairly close to my vineyard and they spray something but not sure exactly. Probably round up but with the new seeds coming out could be 2,4-D. My neighbor also has 50 petite pearl vines and his are much closer to the corn field than mine. Will be interesting to see if he gets any drift.

 

[WI_Wino]

We spent the last several days putting posts in for the trellis. We landed on 8'-10' black locust posts. We were a little ambitious as most places we hit limestone at 6" with the auger. But we still got every hole to a depth of 24" minimum. Lots of hand work with the chisel to bust through the stone.

 

[WI_Wino]

Posts in place before backfilling and tamping. I'm so tired of tamping dirt, clay, and stone.