PLANTING

I was pretty excited when my Valiant plants arrived this past spring. I ordered the plants during winter so they'd be sure to arrive at the right time for planting in our area. Just before my purchased plants arrived, a friend came by with some vine cuttings she had in her basement in a bucket of sand and dirt. They'd been given to her by someone several months previous and she wanted me to try growing them.
The problem was, the cuttings were from grapevines grown in Zone 7 or 8 and I'm in Zone 3. Added to that she had no idea of the varieties. They were a mix of several. Terrific. I managed to salvage about half of them. Two survived in the greenouse and four made it outside so I started the outside survivors in a second row.

I decided on a 5 foot spacing between the vines with 7 foot aisles between the rows. (I know, I'm from Canada, I should be using metric. But I have a lot of friends in the US and metric conversion is just a pain) The rows are oriented east to west. This allows the sun to shine along the length of the row at rise and set and reach every row full on in mid day when the sun is at its highest. At least that's the theory.

I dug 2 foot holes for each plant then added some well-rotted manure to the very bottom of the holes. I put a base of soil on top of the manure so the roots wouldn't come in contact with the manure then I held the plants in place and filled in the rest of the holes around them. I topped the soil with a thin layer of manure and packed everything down level with the ground.

I wasn't sure what to do about weed control. We have enormous thick, long-rooted thistles up here. I opted for black landscape cloth and intended to add a couple of inches of rock but didn't get that part done. Each plant received a huge bucket of water once a week for the first two months. After that I watered every couple of weeks unless it rained and then I'd wait a week more or longer before watering again.

I realize fertilizer, organic or not, isn't usually recommended at planting time but I wanted to encourage a good root system and leaf growth the first year or so. My thinking was that the top layer of manure would leach through nutrients as I watered, benefiting the roots near the surface and as the roots reached downward they'd be fed from the manure at the bottom of the planting hole. I plan to nip off all but one cluster on each vine next season anyway so root and leaf feeding will continue.

The vines flourished beautifully this summer. Right now it's snowing like crazy and the plants will soon be well insulated from the cold.

Next week - TRELLISING.