Vineyard From the Beginning- Grapeman

[AmityFlatts]

Thanks for the thread, I found it useful as I begin my journey to a vineyard.

 

[BobR]

Rich,
Before callusing, does it do any good to stand the cuttings in water for 24 hours, or is that a toss up like using a rooting hormone? When I go out to get my cuttings, is there anything that would stand out on the vine that would make it an excellent cutting? Also, what about perlite mixed in the potting soil, does that do any good?

 

[grapeman]

Rich,
Before callusing, does it do any good to stand the cuttings in water for 24 hours, or is that a toss up like using a rooting hormone? When I go out to get my cuttings, is there anything that would stand out on the vine that would make it an excellent cutting? Also, what about perlite mixed in the potting soil, does that do any good?

It doesn't hurt to put in water and a bit of chlorox helps kill any living nasties. Just be sure to keep it out of the wineamking area.

For cuttings look for shoots or canes this time of year that are bronze in color and are about pencil thickness. Look for spacing 3-4 inches apart of the buds so the cuttings are a reasonable length. Perlite mixed in provides a bit better drainage and air in the soil.

 

[BobR]

Thanks Rich!

 

[BobR]

Next I take the plug trays and fill them with the same potting mix. I then shove the calloused cuttings in them to fill. I am using a standard flat size that holds 38 cuttings. These are a bit over 2 inches deep and form a root plug.
First an empty tray and then a row of filled trays without any buds pushing yet.

Rich,
Do you check, or does it hurt to check the cutting to see if the callusing process has begun, or do you just wait a week or two and assume that if it's going to callus, it should be done by then?
Also, once callused and put into the plug tray, is that tray placed on a heat mat?

Thanks!

 

[grapeman]

The heat mat is what begins the callousing. Don't pull them every day to check. Put the cuttings in the container on the heat mat, trying to keep it at about 80 degrees. You won't generally see them for about 10 days to 2 weeks, but the whole process takes up to 3 weeks to get them ready. Once you begin to see the rootlets coming out of the callouses, it is time to transfer them to the pots or whatever. Leave the ones not yet calloused in there to see if they will callous or root, some are slower than others to get going. Sorry for any typos, I had chemo yesterday and today.

 

[BobR]

Sorry for any typos, I had chemo yesterday and today.

Rich,
My gosh, no apology needed on your end, if anything, I should apologize for bothering you at time when you weren't feel well. It was not urgent, so I could have waited until you were feeling better.

Thanks again for your advice and once again, I am sorry that I caught you at a bad time.

 

[grapeman]

Not a bad time, my fingers are just a bit clumsy right now. I thought it prudent to respond in a timely manner as the callousing on the heat mat or other heat source is cucial to sucess.

 

[BobR]

I went out today for a few cuttings and then the weather turned bad, so I had to cut things short. I have maybe 20 cuttings standing in water with a few drops of clorox mixed in. I was going to plant them in peat pots, but after looking at all of your work, I think I'll try and put them in the plastic plant trays. The only thing that worries me is that these plant trays are not as deep as the lugs that you use, so I don't know if they will stay without falling over. With all of your advice, I can only hope that my success rate will be better than in years past. Oh well, at least it's fun to mess with these things. Sort of makes ya feel like Elmer Swenson.....ha, yeah right!

 

[grapeman]

Bob I used those little plug trays in anticipation of using a waterwheel transplanter to keep the rootball small. That is the reason there why I used two bud cuttings. Three or more cuttings above ground get tippy in those little holes. It makes a smaller plant to begin with, but they seem to grow just as well in the first year- and you can skip planting in a nursery so you have the potential to gain a year. Another bonus is you can get more starts out of the same amount of mother vines.

Remember this is just one way of doing it and this particular thread is to document one new way of establishing a vineyard quickly. It will not be appropriate for everybody and every situation.

 

[BobR]

Hi Rich,

So with that being said, could I plant my cuttings in small peat pots, place them on the heat mat and just skip the transplanting phase after callusing? Will they callus, root and leaf out in the same pot without any problems? If so, when would you suggest removing them from the heat mat, or would you remove them?

 

[grapeman]

That depends on how many cuttings you are beginning and how large the heat mat is. Remember not all of them will callous and root. When doing at a higher desnity, when you find that sufficient numbers have calloused, you can then transfer to pots and move those to the heating mats that you uncover. That way you will only be growing the growing ones and not a bunch of barren sticks. I can't answer too many more questions probably for a few days now as I am coming down off of the steroids after chemo the last two days.

 

[grapeman]

It has been a long time since I updated this thread. Life has been busy and so have we. Next up on the agtenda in the new vineyard is to install the trellis so we can begin training seriously. The vines have been growing on their bamboo stakes and have gotten so large that they are tipping out of the ground. It has rained about 10 inches in the last month delaying the trellis installation. We had about a week of drier weather so last week we tried using the little Bobcat auger system on tracks. After just a few hours it broke a main hydraulic line and by the time they repaired it, we had Farmer's Markets to do. I had them bring it back today and after 5 holes it blew another hose. Four hours later we were back in business. We have about half of the almost 600 holes drilled in. I am not sure if we can do all of it or if it will be too wet at the lower end. We shall see.

I don't have pictures yet but will try to take a few as we install the trellis if time allows. More later.

Here is a picture of the machine we used- not from now but when I planted the original vineyard in 2006

 

[vinividivici]

I wish I had used that track model when I bored the holes for my vines and apple trees. The rental center only had a wheeled Bobcat and it was a challenge on the slope and the soft ground. It was hard keeping the rows straight and not rolling it over.

Hope you are doing well with your medical challenge!

Cheers,
Bob

 

[grapeman]

It has been a long time since I updated this thread. After doing all those holes, we had incessant rains for months and the holes filled back in. The ground finally got a bit drier in the late autumn and we were able to dig the upper section of the vineyard. We got a lot of the wires run there, but did not get the vines trained onto the wires. That was good and bad. The winter was very cold, so the vines on the ground had the buds protected. The bad part of it was that the mice and rabbits had a field day with the vines and chewed a lot of them. Below are some pictures taken of the upper section with the vines finally tied to the bambo, string and wires. The next pictures are from where we were putting in as many posts as we could today where the wet ground allowed it. I would like to wait a couple weeks for the soil moisture to lower making the process easier, but we need to get the rest of the trellis in and the vines tied up, because budbreak is here and we don't want to ruin too many buds.

 

[seth8530]

Great thread, defiantly a thing of love.. I am not sure if I would be able to go through with it myself or not.

 

[grapeman]

The posts are still crooked because we just put them in the holes today and will straighten and backfill the first chance we get. That way if it rains, at least the posts are in the holes. We are down to only about 75 posts to go. A couple more that wouldn't fit in the last upload.

 

[ibglowin]

I know your doing the best you can Rich. Hope you are feeling OK these days. Little by little you will "get-r-done"

 

[grapeman]

It isn't the prettiest Mike at the present, but it will be quite the sight in another year. We believe in using all the renewable resources we can when possible and they aren't as shiny and sparkly as many vineyards, but it will be quite functional.

 

[TicinoVintner]

It isn't the prettiest Mike at the present, but it will be quite the sight in another year. We believe in using all the renewable resources we can when possible and they aren't as shiny and sparkly as many vineyards, but it will be quite functional.

Looks great to me. I wish my vineyard was flat. It would make things so much easier to get machinery in there. Plus I would never have to worry about losing my footing and taking out a few rows, which comes really close to happening every time I put on my backpack sprayer.



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