North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Scott Williamson" <swilliamson@acespower.com>]

Title: Re: [NAFEX] Grapes: Fall/Winter Prep 1st Year

OK, thanks.  I’ll keep that in mind.  I haven’t had any problems over wintering them myself since I just planted my first ones this spring.  I just want to avoid something simple I could do to keep them from dieing.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Lon J. Rombough [mailto:lonrom@hevanet.com]
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 1:14 PM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Grapes: Fall/Winter Prep 1st Year

 

If you are having that much trouble overwintering your grapes, you should consider getting hardier varieties.  Some of the varieties from Cornell are only hardy to -15 or so, at best.  Then there are Elmer Swenson's grapes that START at -20 and go to varieties hardy to more than -40.  One good test variety for you would be Edelweiss.  It's hardy to -30 and has very good disease resistance.  You should be able to just leave it in place, on the trellis, and have it overwinter just fine.  Reliance should do all right, though Marquis is questionable, probably not being hardy to much below -10.  Concord is usually hardy to about -20.  

   -Lon Rombough

Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com
Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003

w.hort.purdue.edu/ext/garden_pubs.html#FruitsandNuts

Since this is my first year growing grapes (and other fruits for that matter) and my dad seems to never had luck wintering over a grape vine I was wondering if I could get some tips on how to prepare and winter over my grapes during their first year (and subsequent years for that matter).



I am in Central Indiana Zone 5b, unpredictable precipitation levels during the last 10 winters or so and have several other issues to worry about on a rural property.



Those are:



Deer nothing out of the ordinary

Rabbits about a million and they really like little trees even more than garden vegetables

Mice/Voles

A fair lack of protection from the wind for the site I placed my grapes on

Probably plenty of things I haven t seen&



I only have three vines, concord, marquis, and reliance(?) all seedless which had varying grow rates this year, but all seemed to grow quite a lot.  All look to be in good health right now.



Thanks in advance for any tips and advice you can give.



Scott