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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Concord Grapes

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  • From: "William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Concord Grapes
  • Date: Sat, 18 Apr 2009 07:58:30 -0500


Sounds like the vines are in a pocket of high soil fertility. Not harmful if they aren't getting excess nitrogen.


Er, well, they happen to be planted near my 73-year-old sewer pipe, so I suppose it's quite possible that the soil has been accumulating nutrients over the years, through cracks in that. I certainly don't add fertilizer of any kind. (I do put root-killer - specifically designed for sewer pipes - through the drain annually, to try to keep it clear. That hasn't seemed to harm the vines.)

On the other hand, I planted four more gravevines last year - of various varieties, far from my sewer line - and they all grew quite amazingly well. On each, they quickly reached the top wire on my fence (6 ft. from the ground) and then, when I clipped the end, produced multiple canes that extended 5-10 ft. on each side. I really wasn't expecting that kind of growth from bare-root plants the first year. (A couple of them kept trying to produce grapes, too.)


Proper pruning will keep the vines from overcropping. Sounds like you know what signs to watch for - late ripening, lower quality - if the vine is over cropped. As vigorous as the vine seems to be and still ripening it's crop well, you probably aren't overloading it.


OK, that's kind of what I thought. Another thing I forgot to mention is that both vines are constantly producing late grapes, bunches they set on in new growth that doesn't get a chance to ripen by winter. (I remove them when I see them, but they're hard to spot when the foliage gets so thick.) So it really seems as though the vines could deal with more production.

Well, I WILL be overloading them this year, I imagine. I really left a lot of canes this time. I might change my mind and thin the bunches when the grapes set on, but I'm kind of wondering what this will do.

I've also got a Caco grape (or so the tag said), planted in the same general area. I bought it a few years ago at a clearance sale at a nursery which has since gone out of business (before I'd ever heard of NAFEX or knew even the first thing about grapes - just a spur-of-the-moment purchase). It is also extremely vigorous, with some canes growing 20 ft. last summer. But the grapes have been really lousy, small and rather sour. I left them on the vine last year until they split, and they were still sour.

I definitely haven't been overcropping it, but it does get some shade, so I'm wondering if that's the problem. Well, I'm going to give it another year - letting it crop HEAVILY this summer - and then remove it (somehow) if the grapes are still lousy. But is it likely that the shade is the problem? If so, perhaps another variety would do equally poorly there?

Thanks for the reply, Lon!

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

--
So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. - President Franklin D. Roosevelt




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