Texas Gardening: Anyone grow Grapes??, 1 by silverfluter

silverfluter wrote:
(the following messgae brought to you by silverfluter's DH)
This may not be much help, but here it is. A simple trellis for grapes... cedar posts sunk in the ground about 2 feet, spaced 8 feet apart, leaving about 5 feet of the post above ground. Three strands of galvanized wire nailed to the posts. I looked at some of the web sites and was as confused as ever. I figured since we are not commercial growers that simplicity wins out over scientifically correct!! The idea is to give them something to climb on with spacing to allow for greater exposure of the leaves to the sun. The concord we planted last year is going to bloom this year, not sure what production it will have but it sounds like progress. Haven't seen any blooms on the fredonia as of yet. The niagra is on its first year since it didn't take last year, at least the nursery warranted that one. I took this picture today to show you just what I was talking about.
Silverfluter wanted me to relate the story from Malcolm Beck about what the folks from A&M told him about the concord grape he planted 6 years ago. They told him it would be dead in two years. HMMMMMMM He says the chemical fertilizers and pesticides have burned out the soil allowing the pierce's disease to come in and take over, he hasn't had a problem with it in his organic garden.
Lastly, my grandfather grew concord grapes in this same yard back in the 60's. They seemed to do rather well back then. We shall see how well they do this time.

This message was edited Mar 29, 2005 4:35 PM

This message was edited Mar 29, 2005 4:38 PM