Grapes- Wild and Otherwise

Iona's Orchard

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MontyJ said:
Iona's Orchard said:
Thank you for all your replies and help! To answer some questions and give more info, our soil is a rocky clay that plants grow surprisingly well in. For a support (terrace?), I was planning on the traditional four corners with beams running in between. I don't remember the grape type, I'll check, but is there a grape that would thrive in our soil type? How about pruning? And my biggest concern with digging up the invasive thorns and grapes was damaging the intended grape's roots. Problem? And some general grape care info would be appreciated!
If you go with the typical four post and beam approach, you will quickly discover how much of a nightmare pruning can be. Grapes are often grown in that fashion, for shade. For production you need to support them as I described earlier, or in a similar way. I'll see if I can find some pics of my grapes to give you an idea of what I am describing.
A picture would be great! Are they grown on the four post terrace to shade the grapes? If so, do you have find some other way of shading them if you do the "I" design?
 

MontyJ

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Here is a double T kniffen:

goodvine1_zpse590b4d0.jpg


The highlighted posts support the vines with stainless steel cable. If you look closely you can see the cables. If I get home in time tomorrow I will take a better pic since the vines are pruned and bare. Also notice that this pic was taken in May at the beginning of the season. By August they are everywhere! It will make more sense tomorrow.
 

vfem

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MontyJ said:
Here is a double T kniffen:

http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/dd456/Montyjw/goodvine1_zpse590b4d0.jpg

The highlighted posts support the vines with stainless steel cable. If you look closely you can see the cables. If I get home in time tomorrow I will take a better pic since the vines are pruned and bare. Also notice that this pic was taken in May at the beginning of the season. By August they are everywhere! It will make more sense tomorrow.
That is my set up for my grapes, my zin grapes at least. I am starting another set up on a fence for some scuppernog grapes. I love me some wild muscadine. :)
 

Chickie'sMomaInNH

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i think it was Monty that mentioned the arbor for shade method. i can say you will probably still get lots of grapes this way, but yes, it will be difficult to harvest come that time. i have 1 Canadice seedless (actually gets seeds because we're just a little too cold for it) and it took over the arbor nicely for shade years ago but i have to use a ladder and climb over the arbor to get all the grapes collected. the other issue is the air circulation can cause disease and fungus problems to attack it quicker than the more open methods you see in vineyards.

this might be a useful link for finding different registered grape varieties. i just found this yesterday when i was researching some types i hadn't heard of before. http://ngr.ucdavis.edu/
there should be links to some growers and nurseries that carry stock for growing. i personally like Double A Vineyards for their information that they post for each grape they offer for sale. they tell you if there is any susceptibility to certain diseases or mildew, and the most common use of the grape.

had i researched the Canadice grape before i bought it 17 years ago i might not have chosen it. i never realized how susceptible it was to black rot of the berries. i now realize this has been affecting my plant the past 5 years. i just thought they were over exposed to sunlight on that side and started turning to raisins! :/
 

Durgan

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For a few vines in the home garden don't get too complicated.

http://durgan.org/URL/?RSBOT 7 June 2006 Grape Vine Supports

I have four vines and started in 2006. It is a simple method of support and easy to maintain. If starting over again I would make the arms on both sides of the main stem 6 feet long instead of 4 feet. The supports are eight foot steel fence posts with two feet in the ground. Support wire is clothesline material. All available in Home Depot. Relatively cheap and easy to work with. It took three years to get a good harvest. The end posts should be slanted to take weight strain.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?AZQUW 16 September 2011 Concord Grapes
Thirty pounds of pristine Concord grapes were picked from my one vine,and made into juice. Twelve liters of juice was made from 30 pounds of grapes. Between two and three pounds of grapes for each liter. There were only about five earwigs found in the clusters.
Method: Cut grapes off the vines and each cluster inspected for damage to the fruit and damaged fruit removed. Washed,Weighed, then the grapes were removed from the cluster support by swiping with minor hand pressure across a one inch mesh plastic screen. This only took about five minutes per ten pounds.
The first batch of ten pounds were simply juiced without adding any water. (The result was considered too thick so a liter of water was added to each ten pound batch to thin somewhat. The grapes were mashed with a potato masher with a liter of water added, then brought to a boil, and made into a mash with the portable hand blender. The mixture was then put through a screen to remove the fiber from the juice. The screen was small enough to prevent any seeds from passing through. Juice was placed in liter jars and pressure canned at 12 PSI for 15 minutes.
This is a superb grape for the table. One of my favorites.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?DKBJT 14 September 2011 Boca Noir Grapes
Boca noir grapes nine pounds were picked today, and made into juice. This grapes makes a very fine juice. The clusters do not ripen evenly, and if left too long on the vine the ripe ones fall off, and bugs infest the clusters, and sometimes mold. The grapes on the cluster are close knit. It takes about two pounds of grapes to make a liter of juice.
Method was to remove the grapes from the clusters by swiping across a one inch screen, weighed, washed, water added to just cover the grapes and boiled lightly. The grapes were then made into a mash and strained, Pressure canned at 12 PSI for 15 minutes for long term storage at room temperature.


http://www.durgan.org/URL/?SASIO 31 August 2011 Niagara Grapes
About forty five pounds of Niagara Grapes were picked from one plant and made into juice. It takes about three pound of these grapes to make a liter of pure juice, with no water added.
Juice was made by washing, plucking the grapes from the support structure, boiling slightly, making a mash using the portable hand blender, separating the juice from the fiber by screening, placing in liter jars, and pressure canning at 12 PSI for 15 minutes for long term storage at room temperature.
These grapes are slightly tart, but make a refreshing drink, and is a good substitute for wine without the alcohol.
 

MontyJ

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I'll just say this then move on: Do not use clothline to support your grapevines! Grapevines can live for over 20 years or more. What will you do when the clothsline finally rots away or breaks? Even the vinyl covered steel line will fail after several years of exposure to the elements. Do yourself a favor and use something that will last as long as the vines will. That's why I use 3/16 stainless steel cable.

Chickie's---I also have a Canadice red vine. It does get black rot, but not nearly as bad as one of my concords. Here is how fast it wipes out a plant:


It goes from this:
leaf1_zpsd5752645.jpg


To this:
leaf2_zpse8f778bc.jpg


To this:
plant_zpsb7670216.jpg


In less than 2 weeks.

I also have a pic of the vines, sans leaves, that I took this afternoon, but the camera died so the battery is charging. I'll post it as soon as the camera is charged.
 

MontyJ

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Here is the double T:

DSC00167_zpsc88961dc.jpg


The front vine is a Concord, the one in the back is a Canadice Red.
 

Chickie'sMomaInNH

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thanks for that pic MontyJ. that tends to happen in the spring each year. the leaves eventually come back but it always made me worry that it won't. when it produces the berries they looks fine when they are in their green stage but when they start coloring in and are almost ripe i start to see the black spots and then a few days later the berries start shriveling a few here and there.

i mostly use mine for jelly but i do eat a few just to make sure they are ripe! i still get a decent harvest year after year. i've had about 10-15lbs each year from 1 vine, which seems more than enough to handle for me to get them all cleaned, de-stemmed and processed within a few days.
 
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