A plan for next year - Grapes

Grapes....I've been thinking about growing grapes for years and years, never wanting to actually do it, because they are an investment in time.

I think I'm ready.

Growing Grapes in Zone 4b/5a

Considerations:

• Site
• Cultivars
• Trellising
• Irrigation

Site

Since grapes will be a long-lived plant, I needed to consider the site similar to my fruit tree plantings.  I want to keep the grapes close to the garden.  This will provide easy access for irrigation, pest control, early-season access for pruning and maintenance, and access for mechanical assistance (garden tractor & cart for hauling away prunings, fruit, etc.  Lots of sites suggest southern slopes (but I only have northern slopes), or other south exposures (but my south exposure is in a low spot & tends to freeze early).   I've chosen, instead, an area parallel to one edge of my garden, in a slightly elevated bed that I have used and not used for years.  It is currently getting reclaimed from the latest weeds & I think grapes would be a good plant to establish in part of this bed.   New topsoil will need to be brought in this fall, or at least a large quantity of compost (which I have cooking nearby).

Cultivars

Ask any two people what grapes are best to grow & you'll get 7 different opinions.

Resources to help choose grape cultivars:
Home Fruit Cultivars for Northern Wisconsin (use the View PDF button to view online)
Home Fruit Cultivars for Southern Wisconsin (use the View PDF button to view online)
Growing Grapes for Home Use - Minnesota (has a really nice comparison chart)

Of course, check with your local nursery...if you can't seem to find a grape you were searching for, perhaps it doesn't grow well in your area!

The "Short List" of cultivars I'm planning:

Cultivar          Use       Ripen      Color  Hardiness(5a)
Edelweiss         T,W,(J)   early-mid  White  Moderate
Himrod Seedless   T*        early      White  Moderate
Marquette         W                    Red    Hardy
Reliance Seedless T*,J,(W)  mid-late   Red    Hardy
Swensen Red       T         mid        Red    Moderate
Valiant           T,J       early      Blue   Hardy

There has been some confusion on the hardiness of specific cultivars.  For example, Himrod was listed as "Tender" by U-MN, but "Very Hardy" by a U-WI test planting.  In other words, I'm guessing.

Trellising

Grapes need trellises.   That much everyone agrees upon.   Having spent the better part of a week investigating the options, I'm no better off than simply picking one that sounds good.

Since my initial planting will have limited space (maybe 30' of row total, 6' horizontal spacing), I've chosen to make my trellises out of 8ft. T-posts & 9-ish gauge wire.  I don't really need to worry about fancy anchoring of the rows, but the wire does need to have a tensioner (I will use a turnbuckle) to accommodate varying loads on the wire.  I'm planning on using 3 posts, since the recommended spacing is no more than ~28 feet, and I like to over-design things anyhow.

The training system I'm planning to use is the Umbrella Kniffen, which seems to be a good system for the novice home grower still learning to prune.  The vine grows vertically & shoots are looped over a wire ~6ft above ground level, then brought back down and tied to a wire ~3.5ft above ground level. Several publications explore this in detail, one is:

Growing Grapes in Wisconsin (use View PDF button to view online)

Irrigation

I'm lazy.  I run my garden on two sprinklers with automatic timers.   The grapes will be no different, though I'm considering a dedicated drip irrigation line for the vines, integrated in the trellis.  An extra wire 1.25ft above ground level will provide an anchor point for a drip irrigation line.  Two 1GPH drip emitters per vine will be placed 10-12 inches to either side of the main trunk.  This irrigation line will run separate from the garden system, providing deep watering for the grapes.

Schedule:

2013 - Fall        Site preparation, add compost, install trellis posts and wires
2014 - Spring    Purchase and plant vines, install stakes for main trunk, begin training
2015 - Spring    Continue training
2016 - Spring    Continue training
2016 - Fall          light harvest (maybe, depends on age of vines purchased)
2017 - Spring    Continue training
2017 - Fall        Harvest  

Priorities

An essential addition to the summer landscape.

Transit of Venus

The resolution is lousy, but a makeshift telescope from binoculars and a copy paper box works well enough to see the transit.

Nearly finished front garden

A few plants are still in pots, and the mulch is not even on site, but you can see the new landscaping.  The photo of the pathway shows how I added two drainage pathways, one on either side of the path. Lined with traffic bond and landscape cloth, and finished with small river stones.  The hope is that any water draining from the driveway will take this path and not washout the garden beds.

Garden in progress.

A view of the partially planted garden bed.  The pile of wood chips is what remains of the oak tree that fell.

The giant has been brought down.

This tree was at least 150 years old.  The ground has drained enough from recent rains to finally take it down safely.  It will be a while before it dries up enough to drag out the logs.

Such a shame to lose a grand old oak.

Wind storm damage

Arborist will be evaluating this today.

A spring pie

I found some apple pie filling in the freezer.

I may be crazy...

Some last minute contract work had me digging up the rock wall before heavy equipment comes through.  Poor planning had me doing this after 5pm.  Yeah, not fun to finish in the dark.  The daffodils, creeping phlox, Irish moss, herbs, strawberries, and elfin thyme have all been temporarily potted and relocated.  I found seven hostas. Not sure how many there were, and please don't tell me, unless it was seven.

Photos of the madness ....

An early spring?

Everything is budding out because of this terribly warm weather.  I fear we are in for a rude April and May.

Aaaaaaack - Now is NOT the time to panic

Looks horrible, doesn't it?  Just doing some treadmill maintenance.

Timmmm-berrrrr!

The rain has turned to snow....the tree fell almost in slow-motion, kind of freaky, actually.

It's a jungle in here!

Some shameless bragging here... The tomato plants have gotten off to an excellent start, as clear from the photo. Not all varieties have sprouted, though - I think some of the 5- and 6-year old seeds have failed finally & I'll toss the rest if there are any left in those packets.

This year's new seeds from Seed Savers Exchange have had a 100% germination rate, resulting in lots of extra tomato plants. I may end up gifting plants away, not to mention the tomatoes I anticipate later this summer.

In the forefground are two pea plants, the dwarf variety that can be put into containers. I hope to pot those & harden them off this week - next year I need to start them earlier and the plan is to make spring gifts of the potted plants as a pretty centerpiece.

"Topsy-turvy" flower planter

An impulse buy late last year, this 'Topsy-Turvy' planter came home for $2 or $3 from an end of season clearance. This one allegedly attracts hummingbirds, but is pretty much the same as any other upside-down planter. About 3 or 4 gallon capacity, which I have filled with a blend of compost, peat moss, and polyacrylamide granules (SoilMoist) for water retention. Then, I planted four Wave Petunias (three in the top, one in the bottom) and we shall see how well they grow. My biggest concern for now is the weight of this - at least 25 lbs, probably closer to 30.

The overall construction of the planter is pretty nice, with reinforcing straps inside the bag, and metal weight bearing structure.

I found (since we had a short-notice frost warning), that placing this over a bucket will support the weight while not crushing the flower growing from the bottom. Is it worth the retail price? I'm not sold on it yet, but for $3 at the local discount store, it was worth an experiment.

Tree Progress

"What am I supposed to do with these sticks?" That is what I said 8 years ago as I surveyed the "DNR trees" we got. I regretted the cost, even though it was about $1 per tree. They looked hopeless - bare-root, about 12" tall, and caliper (trunk diameter) thinner than a pencil. Pitiful start for the grand forest I had envisioned on the back of the property.

Following the directions provided with the trees, we used a tree spud (a.k.a. planting bar) (rented for $5) to put them in fast. Then we put a slow-release fertilizer tablet about a foot from the roots, and about a foot deep (punched the hole with a crowbar). After a month or two of careful watering during droughts, they were left on their own, and they have grown well.

This photo was taken this week, with my extremely cooperative dog posing for a size comparison. The cedar in the photo is 7-8 feet tall, and is about average for the first planting of those little sticks 8 years ago. I wholeheartedly recommend the DNR programs if you have the patience to wait for the trees to grow in, or need to re-forest a large section of land.

A friend in the garden

Just hanging out in the lawn clippings that I use as mulch.

Things I should have learned by now....

It's been years and years since I started this gardening thing.....you would think some basic lessons would have sunk in...

• If there isn't enough space to walk between planting beds while planting, it won't get any better for weeding. (The onion bed is 15-foot square this year...Gak!)


• Don't let radishes go to seed.


• Don't let volunteer radishes go to seed, again.


• If you cut off a taproot weed at the soil surface, it's going to grow back.


• Check the forecast for late spring frosts prior to spending hours planting annual flowers.


• There will be critters in the compost pile, expect it. ( a little vole was in there today)

Genesis 7:11

...on that day the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.

We had a pretty bad rain storm last night...winds in the 15 mph range, with gusts about 25mph. This was fine for the seed potatoes, the onion sets, and the other seeds in the garden. No so much for the pop-up netting.



Here's a photo of the garden from the weekend, the netting is staked down with 9 tent-like stakes that were included. This morning, I saw the netting had disappeared, so I ran out between raindrops and located it. A quick inspection shows it is still mostly intact (a more thorough review will happen in a day or two). Some of the stakes are missing, perhaps buried in the mud, or thrown off.

Thus far, I am not impressed with the stakes, but the netting seems to be OK. Had this been protecting tender transplants, I'd be awfully annoyed. Reviews on the Gardeners Supply Company website mention tears when the product gets wet - I'll withhold judgement for now, though.

Other comments on the early garden:
The boards you see in the photo are my feeble attempt at keeping the mud in the garden and off of our shoes this year. They are scraps of plywood that have been sitting out by the tree nursery beds for a few years now. I don't recall the original intention.

In the upper left, you will see my open-bottomed potato box. This year, that houses the blue fingerling potatoes, while the late crop hugs the fence, and the early crop is on the near side of that pathway.

The next bed coming towards us is the pea bed - a good crop of shell peas is already planted, with some sugar snap peas mixed in. The shell peas do not require stakes, and I am experimenting with allowing the climbing snap peas to use their cousins as support.

In front of that is the brassicas, with the previously mentioned pop up net, and lettuce & spinach sutside the net. I will plant more lettuce & spinach in another 2 weeks or so, to give a longer salad harvest. (Compost has been used to top dress the bed, you can see where the planting ended.)

An empty bed is next - this will be carrots and root crops, when get another nice day.

Teh foreground is the (very large) onion bed, with >300 sets, and about 30 cloves of garlic. No, I have no idea what will be done with all of them yet. Garlic braids would be nice in my pantry, though.

The peppers and tomatoes are a few inches high, still under lamps in my basement (I don't trust the weather here). The other half of the garden will be a large crop of corn and sunflowers, with beans and squash mixed in, if I can manage to get the "three sisters" growing nicely. Tomatoes will be a combination of upside-down plantings (another experiment), about 1/3 of the other part of the garden, and anywhere my compost pile sprouts up.

--Mickey

In the dirt

An early spring warm-up two weeks ago (on a weekend) was the perfect opportunity to get the garden tilled - perhaps the earliest ever that this has occurred.

Shortly thereafter, 300 onion sets were planted (mostly because I had helpers, who really enjoyed planting). I may have to look into some older 'homesteading' books for long-term storage ideas for onions....braid & hang, I suppose.

Now, we also have approximately 12 pounds of seed potatoes in the ground - some blue fingerlings and general purpose potatoes (early and late).

Today, I put in a few rows of shelling peas, some sugar snap peas, three rows of lettuce, and moved the brassicas out under a net.

Hopefully this nifty pop-up net from Gardener's Supply Company will keep the cabbage moths out of my plants - I had given up on broccoli altogether because those green caterpillars are just a bit nauseating to find in your salad. I bought the short 3' by 3', for a trial. Let's hope it works and I can spend some more on the bigger options.

Initial impressions are decent workmanship - I expect it to last several seasons if I don't abuse it too much. I might need to do some sewing repairs, if the spring steel wears through the binding, though. My biggest complaint at first was the lack of directions to re-fold it - I spent nearly an hour looking like a fool trying to wrestle it back into the pouch. The mfr. does include 9 heavy-gauge wire stakes to hold it down. The mesh is thin and sparse enough to not shade the plants too drastically. I doubt it could be used to warm the plants during a frost, but you could get the row-cover material instead if that were the goal.

Installation was simple - pop open, stake down. The larger models seem to have a zippered entry door, which might make a better plan, but if I were so inclined, it should be straight foreward to stitch a zipper into the top.

The net is home to broccoli, cauliflower, napa cabbage, and brussles sprouts for now. I'll keep you posted on the performance of the net as the season continues.

Sprouting seeds

I start the bulk of my indoor seeds around now. Usually, because we've had one or two nice days and it's getting my fingers itchy to start digging. What is the plan for this year, you might ask?



Tomatoes

• Black Krim



• Choerokee Purple



• Roma



• Early Girl



• Oxheart



• Mexico Midget



• Jelly Bean



• Early Girl (one lonely seed that was hanging around from last year)

Peppers

• Wisconsin Lakes


• California Wonder


• Misc. Hot Peppers
  

Lettuces

• Black Seeded Simpson



• Tennis Ball



• Buttercrunch