Last summer I started 18 new vines in Colorado (9000 elev) - Frontenac and La Crescent - they thrived in last summer's environment and eased into dormancy quite naturally and seemingly healthily. This spring only three (all Frontenac) came back. We had a very mild winter in central CO, and temps did not fall below - 15 degrees and it that - only briefly. I did not irrigate at all over the winter. Any suggestions on why ?
What went wrong?
- Thread starter panidaduo
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What is the source of the vines? Frontenac is supposed to be hardy to -35F. Did you have much snowfall? Did they have any moisture at all over the Winter? What about the Spring?
Hi Mike - thanks for the response! The vines came from the Double A Vineyard in the Finger Lakes region of NY as 2 yr old cuttings with a healthy root system. Actually we had an above average winter snowfall-wise. My best guess is that we received a good 60" or better of snow - the Spring typically produces our heaviest snows - Mar, April and thru the middle of May. I started to look for budbreak in mid-May and finally gave up last week when I slowly trimmed away the longest shoot little by little looking for green wood - I found none. The snow fall was the only moisture the vines received. We are however in a dry climate. I replanted this spring with Marquette - I believe La Crescent and Marquette as well as Frontenac are good to -35 degrees. We have a soil mostly composed of decomposed granite - which i ammended with good organic soil and material, compost and manure mixed in. Any suggestions?
I would contact Double A. They come with a one year warranty I believe. That is where I got some of mine as well. They are the best supplier IMHO hands down. I can't come up with with a reason they didn't make it other than lack of moisture and it sounds like that was not a problem. Only other thing would be incorrect planting depth perhaps. I am not sure if you know but I am down the road aways from you growing cold hardy grapes in my back yard "wine garden" . I am at ~6500ft elev. I have ~30 vines of Marquette, Noiret, and Corot Noir. All doing very well. This is their first year to produce a crop. The Marquette are looking fantastic. The others are doing pretty good just not as well as the Marquette. I have a thread with pics located here. The last few pages have the most recent pics. The first Winter they were planted we got down to -22 for about 3 days. Avery single one of them came back. I have crap soil like you, only mine is basalt rock. This wouldn't be fun if it were easy right!
