Post by shibumi on Mar 9, 2009 15:04:17 GMT -6
I don't know if any of you have ever made wine, whether from home grown fruit, store bought, or from a kit, but I am getting into it.
I currently have two kit batches ready to bottle - one red blend (Chateauneuf du pape), and one white (gerwurstraminer). One more started, an orange chocolate port, and one to make - a cab-sav. (PS - that's 90 - 750ml bottles plus 30 375ml bottles for the port!).
I have 3 grape vines in the back yard - one a Norton/Cynthiana - a red grape grown at Pontchartrain Vineyards, and two table grapes (Canadice). They grow well with no care at all....although the birds get all the grapes!
This got me thinking so I had the trees removed from my backyard this winter....I have a typical subdivision lot in Mandeville (quarter acre - 150' x 75').
I built 4 - 50 foot long rows, approximately 2.5 feet wide...tilled through the sod and added 6 yards of quality topsoil...then amended with lime to adjust the pH. The rows run at about a 20 degree angle off of north from the SW to NE - this is to try to get the same sun/temperature exposure on the grapes. The plants are spaced about 7 feet apart as are the rows. I will be using a single cordon system with vertical training. I am also using grow tubes to give them a jump start!
yesterday I planted 10 vines each of Champanel, Blanc du Bois, and Black Spanish (Lenoir), red, white, and red respectively. These are all varieties that show good resistance to Pierce's Disease - which would kill most other vines, perhaps in the first few years....
Now for the trellis construction, drip irrigation, and training!
PATIENCE!!!
I currently have two kit batches ready to bottle - one red blend (Chateauneuf du pape), and one white (gerwurstraminer). One more started, an orange chocolate port, and one to make - a cab-sav. (PS - that's 90 - 750ml bottles plus 30 375ml bottles for the port!).
I have 3 grape vines in the back yard - one a Norton/Cynthiana - a red grape grown at Pontchartrain Vineyards, and two table grapes (Canadice). They grow well with no care at all....although the birds get all the grapes!
This got me thinking so I had the trees removed from my backyard this winter....I have a typical subdivision lot in Mandeville (quarter acre - 150' x 75').
I built 4 - 50 foot long rows, approximately 2.5 feet wide...tilled through the sod and added 6 yards of quality topsoil...then amended with lime to adjust the pH. The rows run at about a 20 degree angle off of north from the SW to NE - this is to try to get the same sun/temperature exposure on the grapes. The plants are spaced about 7 feet apart as are the rows. I will be using a single cordon system with vertical training. I am also using grow tubes to give them a jump start!
yesterday I planted 10 vines each of Champanel, Blanc du Bois, and Black Spanish (Lenoir), red, white, and red respectively. These are all varieties that show good resistance to Pierce's Disease - which would kill most other vines, perhaps in the first few years....
Now for the trellis construction, drip irrigation, and training!
PATIENCE!!!
LOL! ;D 
Seriously, it sounds like you are going to have a lot of fun shimbumi. ;D
