Tennessee

[seeds of hope]

I just wanted to say hello. I am new to the forum and look forward to learning and sharing. I have begun a small home vineyard (now in its 2nd year). As of now I am learning and expermenting with Fredonia grapes. Currently I have around 20 vines and intend to plant 50 more in the coming season.
I feel theFredonia and Concord will present a decent country wine for our area and offer me some enjoyment in cultivating them.I have nograndiose ideas of making a world class wine

. I am in it primarily for thewonderful satisfaction of doing something mankind has done since Adam. Considering our soil and climate, what other varieties would you suggest? I am not in a mountainous area and our soil is fairly thin.

 

[Waldo]

Welcome to the forum. Glad to have you onboard

 

[Wade E]

Welcome to our forum and bear with us as we just switched forum pages and are having a few issues but will get them fixed soon.

 

[Runningwolf]

Welcome aboard. Feel free to ask questions anytime.

 

[RickC]

Welcome seeds of hope, we are thrilled to have you. Great bunch of people here with a world of experience.

 

[Randoneur]

Hi, I'm in middle Tennessee, south of Nashville.When I started my vineyard I planted hybrids and a few viniferas to compare and find out what worked. The Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon worked well enough that I have replaced a lot of thehybrids with more of them. Generally I look to what is going on in Virginia, if it a varietydoes wellthere, it will grow wellin Tennesse.

 

[seeds of hope]

Thank you. Generally I have been readingmaterial fromUT. Your info is quite interesting. I was under the impression most of the hybrids did not work well here. It sounds if you and I are in the same neighborhood. I have found a source for Cynthiana cuttings. Do you have experience with them?

 

[Robert123Carr]

Welcome seeds of hope. There is always someone here willing to help!

 

[Scott B]

Welcome to the party!

 

[Wade E]

Welcome to our site Seeds! We have a few people here that are or have started their own wineries that can most likely help yo along this adventure so speak freely and ask questions.

 

[Randoneur]

Thank you. Generally I have been readingmaterial fromUT. Your info is quite interesting. I was under the impression most of the hybrids did not work well here. It sounds if you and I are in the same neighborhood. I have found a source for Cynthiana cuttings. Do you have experience with them?

Yes I do have Cynthiana in my vineyard. They do very well here and make very good wine. I'm not sure you will have much luck with the cuttings though. Cynthiana is not a grape that starts easily from cuttings. I'm not sure, but I think success is only around 10% under best conditions.

 

[robie]

Thank you. Generally I have been readingmaterial fromUT. Your info is quite interesting. I was under the impression most of the hybrids did not work well here. It sounds if you and I are in the same neighborhood. I have found a source for Cynthiana cuttings. Do you have experience with them?

Yes I do have Cynthiana in my vineyard. They do very well here and make very good wine. I'm not sure you will have much luck with the cuttings though. Cynthiana is not a grape that starts easily from cuttings. I'm not sure, but I think success is only around 10% under best conditions.

There is a vineyard in Virginia, having the largest plantings of Norton (Cynthiana) in the world. It is called Chrysalis Vineyards.
They have worked for years trying to come up with a better way to propagate from cuttings and have achieved a much higher percentage of success. I don't know if they might give away their hard-earned secrets or not.

 

[Randoneur]

They may be using in vitro multiplication. That gives a 90% return with Cynthiana. Research paper on this method can be found on the web.

 

[seeds of hope]

I happen to have quite a bit of experience with plant propagation i.e. grafting etc... However, my grape propagation has been very limited to cuttings. I know many cultivars are grafted. Do you know if Norton (Cynthiana) is successful with bench grafting?

 

[Randoneur]

No, I don't know about the bench grafting.
Any advice onfield grafting would be helpful. I'm trying to learn how to do this by converting over some grapes to Chardonnay.

 

[seeds of hope]

My experience has been in cultivation of fruit trees with field grafting/budding. We have also done many ornamentals. Is there a specific reason why you would want to field graft instead of bench graft?

 

[Randoneur]

I have some vines that are several years old. If I field graft them over to a new variety I would get the trellis filled back and producing grapes quickly.

 

[seeds of hope]

I am curious if you have had success with this in the past? It is difficult to graft on to old rootstocks. I would suspect you are top grafting? Then you have difficulties with suckering and/or reverting to the original rootstock. What rootstock are you grafting onto?

 

[Randoneur]

I don't have experience with this, but it is fairly common to do this in California, just check You Tube.


I have vines that came in on3309 root stock that never developed, so I just have the root stock vines. I'm changing them over to Chardonnay, I believe this is as you said - top grafting. You cut off the trunk and split it and insert two scions. Then tape and wax them in. I'm not sure if I did it last year too early, or too late. They all initially pushed leaves and then some of them died out a few weeks later. I'm only doing 9 vines, so not at big deal.


When I do the pruning this winter I can take some root stock cuttings and some Chard cuttings and do some bench grafts. I think I might try that also. Seems like you would have more cambrium contact that way. I have a good area to nurse the cuttings through the first year.

 

[seeds of hope]

I have found what is common in California is very very difficult here in plant propagation and the plants that can be grown here. Our moisture, climate and overall atmosphere restricts us, not to mention the number of diseases affecting our plants. My understanding is the necessity to get the rootstock a bit ahead of the scion wood is a "have to" in grapes. This can be done by the use of a greenhouse or even your garage or home where the plant can begin to "flush" prior to grafting. If you have a way to store scion wood until June that might be a good option for you.

You are right about the cambium layer. Match both sides and seal. A product available that has been a great asset is called "buddy tape". I would prefer it over wax.
Let me know how it turns out. Do you have a good source for rootstock? What do you know about using Concord for rootstock.