UK - starting a micro garden vineyard

[MrFrench]

gently separate them trying not to break too many hair roots. plant them or put them in separate pots

Thanks Hazelemere - so just go for it now and plant out in summer months?

 

[Hazelemere]

Thanks Hazelemere - so just go for it now and plant out in summer months?

yes

 

[Christopher Anderson]

yes

Planting them in the warm summer time will give them time to heal from any damage they receive from transporting them. Plus fertilize.

 

[MrFrench]

Firstly thanks for your support and advise to help a fellow vine parent through their anxious first year!

I finally found an hour; augered some holes, teased the vines apart and planted them out taped to some stakes. It was nerve wracking seeing the roots so entwined when washing off the potting soil, but heartening that they held up pretty good being teased out. Gently with a spray nozzle on the hose and steady pressure. Luckily I’m a fisherman - and not a good one - so have dealt with a few tangles in the past!

Some pics, and the strongest and weakest vine. Planted out with well rotted horse manure and multi purpose compost so let’s hope they get some colour back in them soon…

 

[Texas Winer]

Greetings everyone!

Hi I'm new here - living in Sussex in the UK where I plan to grow some grape vines in my garden.
I wanted to document the coming years in a thread for posterity, advice, gentle critique, lessons learned - etc. This thread will effectively become my journal and maybe some inspiration or caution for others wanting to do the same...

Sussex is increasingly becoming a wine-making region in the south east of England, with more and more acres under vine each year. I have read somewhere that there are more acres under vine in the UK not yet producing than there are already producing. If that is true then it is quire remarkable as it would imply that domestic wine production could approximately double within just a few years. Who knows what this will do to prices, but it tells me that others have done the hard work and determined that our climate and terroir is suitable, especially in Sussex.

So, with a short history of beer brewing and a long history of enjoying wine, I would love to try and grow some grapes for micro scale domestic non-commercial hobbyist wine production. Besides, vines are beautiful so regardless of the crop they will be enjoyed.

This part of the world will struggle to ripen reds; most of the local vineyards grow the classic champagne varieties and some others like bacchus, ortega and pinot planc. Some cursory research and discussions with nursaries lead me to Solaris and Seyval Blanc which are hardy hybrids and more robust than pure viniferas. So that is what I will be planting in November or December this year.

In total I will plant around 20 vines with equal # of Seyval Blanc and Solaris.
My soils are clayey / loamy and I think around 50 - 100cm deep over sandstone bedrock. Currently awaiting quotes on soil analysis. Either way I'll map out the soil depths by driving rebar with a hammer until refusal and finalise vine spacing based on the results. Are there any good rules of thumb to observe?

My rows will be East-West oriented as that is what works in my plot.
To the north side of the northernmost row is a Leylandii hedge which I hope will interrupt any strong southerly winds. The hedge is quite established and about 10ft tall. Will this cause an issue with vine competition? I plan to offset my nearest row about 1.5m from the hedge.
The block of vines will receive about 7-8 hours of direct sun per day between about 10am and 6pm, based on tree and house shade patterns.

At the moment, I plan to plant 2 or 3 rows spaced 1.5m apart with vines spaced 1.2m apart. Training / trellising will be VSP but wire heights to be determined.

The area is presently covered with meadow grasses. Between now and planting out the vines I will remove the turf from the area, till / cultivate, roll and sow a mixture of red clover and tall fescue.

So many variables and decisions to make! At the moment, before I invest any significant money in this I am trying to determine if vines will succeed or fail.

Do any of you knowledgeable lot have any concerns / comments or words of warning based on the above? Many thanks in advance for your consideation

MR. French,
Sounds exciting! Honestly, what I did was just dive right in and plant 8 different varieties - 5 white, 3 red. So far, so good, I'm in Northeast Texas, Red River County, so we have heat, some heat and some more heat, but with water and good weather (we're past August thank God), all the vines seem to like where they are. Good luck to you and hope you have as much fun as I have ordering and waiting, planting and praying and trellis building and drip system installing!
As we say here in Texas, it aint over til its over!