10 replies to this topic

[ols]

Hello Fellow Grape Growers....
Just wanted to drop in and share a couple of pics of our new vineyard in the making. We planted roughly a 110 Concords. We are located on a plot of land that use to be a cattle farm from years ago. I couldn't believe how rich this soil is when we started planting. We are in the middle of putting in a drip system and we are spraying the rows as I speak for all the Orchard Grass that grows here. I will be posting more pics to show the Progress, as I go.
Also I'm fairly new to this forum, so to everyone,,,,,,,, HAPPY PLANTING!

Attached Files

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•  vineyard 2.png   28.19K   30 downloads

[Tomer1]

I couldn't believe how rich this soil is when we started planting

Did you compensate for that by using low vigor rootstock?

[Wade's Wines]

Ols,

Welcome to the Forum and a great obsession!

What part of the state is Vilonia in? I went to High School in Jacksonville.

What are your plans, growing for your own use, selling, or what? Looks like you're off to a great start!

[ols]

Ols,

Welcome to the Forum and a great obsession!

What part of the state is Vilonia in? I went to High School in Jacksonville.

What are your plans, growing for your own use, selling, or what? Looks like you're off to a great start!

Thanks Wade,
We are about 20 mins from Jacksonville. As for how we are gonna use the grapes. Eating, selling, making jellies. Oh! and Wine making.... Shew. Almost forgot the most important one. LOL.

[ols]

Did you compensate for that by using low vigor rootstock?

I sure didn't..... Is this gonna be a problem in the future?

[Wade's Wines]

Vigor can be a problem, but with proper management and spacing I don't think it is that much of one. I have high vigor vines and low vigor vines, and at Season 5 and 6, I prefer the high vigor to the low vigor. My approach is spacing them further apart and keeping a larger crop, one the vine can handle. There's a lot of discussion regarding the down side of high vigor. Perhaps someone who's grown both for several years will explain it in detail. It's a big problem if your vines are too close.
One thing you'll run into with this Southern humidity is disease pressure. Mildews etc. are a real pain and you have to fight them. Vines with high vigor may let less air through and therefore have more disease. My most vigorous vines though (Isabella and Catawba) seem to be the least prone to disease. So who knows.
I have a few Concord, but they're going into their 2nd season, too young for me to tell you much about growing them in the South. But I've seen no real problems yet with them. I have a neighbor with 500 Concord Seedless going into season 3, but I've heard Concord Seedless aren't actually related to Concord at all.

[ols]

Vigor can be a problem, but with proper management and spacing I don't think it is that much of one. I have high vigor vines and low vigor vines, and at Season 5 and 6, I prefer the high vigor to the low vigor. My approach is spacing them further apart and keeping a larger crop, one the vine can handle. There's a lot of discussion regarding the down side of high vigor. Perhaps someone who's grown both for several years will explain it in detail. It's a big problem if your vines are too close.
One thing you'll run into with this Southern humidity is disease pressure. Mildews etc. are a real pain and you have to fight them. Vines with high vigor may let less air through and therefore have more disease. My most vigorous vines though (Isabella and Catawba) seem to be the least prone to disease. So who knows.
I have a few Concord, but they're going into their 2nd season, too young for me to tell you much about growing them in the South. But I've seen no real problems yet with them. I have a neighbor with 500 Concord Seedless going into season 3, but I've heard Concord Seedless aren't actually related to Concord at all.

On the disease side of things, would CAPTAN work pretty good for Arkansas? We have a somewhat of a problem with Tomato Worms (Tobacco Horned Worm). Will grape vines attract these? we grew 2 varieties of Tobacco last year (40 plants) and we were fighting a loosing battle with these boogers. What have you found that worked pretty good for insects?

[Wade's Wines]

Captan works fine, but you need to switch fungicides a few times a season to avoid having your local fungi and mildews build up a tolerance.
I've never seen horned worms in my grapes. I think maybe the leaves are generally too tough for them. I have seen them on tomatoes. I really have very little problem with insects, just Japanese Beetles, and Sevin gets them. On the other hand, I battle with fungicide all season.

The good news is, with young vines like yours it doesn't require nearly as much spray. On my 400 vines in their 4th and 5th season last year I spent about $400 on chemicals. I think I got around 1700# of grapes all together, but Mother Nature allowing, it should be a good bit higher this year. Fingers crossed, we'll see!

[bret]

Nice vineyard, Ols! Welcome to the forum. -Bret

[ols]

Nice vineyard, Ols! Welcome to the forum. [img]http://www.winepress.us/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/[/img] -Bret

Thank you Bret.

[kendall]

OLS,
You are probablly in full blown growing at this time. any updates