The vines have arrived!

The vines arrived this morning – three Phoenix and three Solaris.  It’s actually bad timing as I’m going on holiday for a week tomorrow so I don’t have time to plant them out.  I have soaked the roots in water for a couple of hours and put them in a pot filled with compost.  They should be alright until I get back…I hope!

The vines have been planted

Well, that’s it, the vines are in the ground.  All I need to do now is wait for the warmer weather to arrive and watch them grow.  The first year is all about getting them established, and developing a good root system.  I will let one shoot on each vine grow up, removing any side growth, and if they reach 6ft and have good thick stems (at least as thick as a pencil) then I can start to train them.  If not then they will get cut back to two or three buds to try again in the second year.

I wasn’t ready for the frost

There was quite a hard frost last night which took me by surprise.  The buds have burst already on the vines due to the last few weeks of really warm weather, and this is the most critical time for them.  The young growth is very sensitive to frost damage, so I should be keeping an eye on the weather.

Large vineyards set fires between rows during cold nights after the buds have burst, but this isn’t very practical for me.  I have also read that spraying the vines with water during the evening when frost is forecast can help.  Another way is to cover them in fleece material to protect them.

I have decided to try putting some old sports socks into use.  They fit perfectly!

 

 

Protection from frost, and clumsy gardeners

I am a bit worried about two out of six of the vines at the moment as the buds have turned black and stopped growing ever since the frost at the beginning of April.  I’m still using my sock method but it is a bit tricky to put them on and off the vines without damaging the young shoots.

I am also very annoyed with myself as last week I managed to snap the main shoot off one of the vines while cutting the grass. So I am currently down to three healthy vines.

I have done a little research and discovered shrub shelters.  These are the things you see in their thousands along roadside verges to protect young trees from rabbits.  They also act as mini greenhouses so I’m hoping that putting these over each of the vines will protect them from frost, stop me from doing any more damage, and provide them with a little extra warmth to give them a bit of a boost.

Bending under the strain

Over a period of about six months, the posts have slowly been bending towards each other due to the tension in the wires.  As the vines grow and get trained on to the lower wire adding a reasonable amount of weight, this is only going to get worse.  I don’t have any space to put in tensioned wires that I can anchor to the ground, so I have put in some bracing posts on the inside.

Room for another row?

After the disappointment of finding out that there would be no Orion vines available this year I have decided to squeeze in another row and get some more vines on order.  This extra row is a little too close to a magnolia tree that is growing in the garden, but it should still get enough sun.

I have looked everywhere I can think of and cannot find anywhere that will sell me just three grafted Orion vines. Maybe I will take back what I said before about English red wine and get some Regent or Rondo vines. I’ll think about it.

In the meantime I have dug over a fresh strip of ground for the third row and put in the posts and trellising.The vines are growing well, although it looks like they won’t have grown enough that I can train them onto the main wire after this season.  I will most probably have to prune them right back this winter to two or three buds and give them another year to grow a really sturdy main stem.

Regent it is then…or maybe Orion

Having decided on giving a red grape variety a try and doing various searches on the internet I thought Regent would be a good one to go for.

Today I got an email from Jack at Vines for Wines saying that although there are no grafted Orion vines available he does have a few 2/3 year old own root Orions in stock. If I were growing hundreds of vines I might not want to risk using own root vines for fear of phylloxera, but as I only want three I will take this risk.

I almost feel disappointed now that I won’t be growing a red grape, but having wanted to grow Orion from the start I’m going to order three of these.

They should be delivered mid November.

Time to relax

September/October is normally the busiest time of year for a vineyard in the UK.  This is the time when the grapes that have been lovingly nurtured all year are harvested, crushed, pressed and made into wine.

I am at least 2 years away from all this excitement so for now I can just sit back and relax, and maybe take the odd photo of a vine soaking up the autumn sun.