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I live in Seattle, and growing grapes has been a challenge in my neighborhood. I don't know much about soil science, but I was suspecting part of my problem growing grapes had something to do with the soil. I don't know where the idea came from, but a few years ago I bought a bag of playbox sand, and dumped it on the surface around a few grape vines. That year, the grapes really took off. The next year I had enough grapes to snack on and make 2 bottles of wine. Last year I rooted a bunch of cuttings and planted them out without the sand. They barely grew. This year I tried the sand treatment, and again the grapes took off. Some of this growing effect has to do with the sand breaking up the soil, but some of the effect I think is also due to the hotter microclimate the sand creates. Yesterday the air temperature was around 80F, the untreated soil was 94F, and the soil with the sand was 104F.

A question for anyone that knows about growing grapes in cool regions like Seattle... Is adding sand to the soil a standard way of improving grape production, of have I found something new?

-Mark Lee, Seattle, heatwave in the low 80's, picking juneberries, raspberries and the last of the sour chrries