Planting a Vineyard

My Muscadine grapes are an overgrown mess.  I missed pruning a couple of years.  They grew too many canes.  Weeds and blackberry bushes took over the area and they had grown into a deer netting we had up.  I am not even going to show you a picture of this disaster.  Last week I attempted to cut some of these back.   I found several vines running along the ground that had taken root so I dug four of them out of the ground and put them in a bucket of water.  A day or two later I found out that they did not like sitting in water so I took them out of the water and wrapped them in damp paper towels until I could plant them.  Today was the day if I have not killed them.  My almanac also said it was a good planting day for above ground crops.  I am starting an entire new vineyard and maybe this time I can actually keep them under control and take care of them properly.

For each vine, I began by removing the grass from about a three foot area and loosened the soil about two feet deep.

I then worked in a five gallon bucket of goat poop compost for each hole.

I had help.

Lots and lots of help.

I placed a PVC pipe in the hole.You could use a stake or post.  I happen to have a ton of PVC from when we had the nursery.

I then set the little grape vine against the PVC and back filled it with soil.

The inspector making sure I did it right.

This bucket is empty...when are we getting more poop?

I bought these Thompson Seedless grape vines from Sam's Club the other day just to see if I could grow them.  I understand they won't be as large as the store bought ones as those are sprayed with some kind of acid to make them bigger.  All the more reason to grow my own.  Thompson seedless can be used for yummy fresh eating, wine making and also raisins

All four vines had a much larger root system than the Muscadine vines I dug up.  I hope mine make it!

All eight vines are in the ground and watered.  I was going to put down some paper and mulch them but I run out of ump!  This creeping crud of a cold or bronchitis has kicked my butt so I am proud of what I accomplished.

This spring when we see if they made it we will put in post and cables for the vines to grow on.

The temps were in the high 60's today but we are dropping back into a freeze for the next 2 days.  Say hello to Gore if you see him and tell him we are freezing here in NW Florida  and to please send us some global warming our way!

Excuse me... I've got a puppy to give a bath to if he plans on coming inside today.