Grape Growing for Growing Your own grapes
Gardeners • Fresh Eating
• Juice
• Wine
• Challenging
• Rewarding
• Exciting
Steve Sagaser • Fun
NDSU Extension Service
Grand Forks County
Frontenac Grapes
Grapes in North America
• Grapes have been grown in our area since late
Glen Ullin, ND
1800’s.
• Vitis riparia – Riverbank grapes are native.
• Vitis vinifera – grown in California – not hardy for
this area
• New hybrid cold hardy grapes - developed in
recent years
• French / American Hybrids
– Elmer Swenson varieties
– U of M varieties
1990 Plant Hardiness Map
2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Map
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2012 North Central Hardiness Map Site Selection
• Full sunlight – as much as possible
– Shade = Trees shrubs, buildings,
fences
• Good Drainage - important
• Slope
– South, Southeastern, Southwestern,
facing slopes are best
– Avoid North facing slopes if possible
• Avoid bottoms of valleys if possible
• Hillsides and tops of bluffs are best
– Cold air flows down = less freezing in
spring and fall
Site Selection Site Selection
• Your Site - topography, or location of buildings
are predetermined. • Slope:
1.5 to 3 percent helps cold air to flow out of vineyard
• If you have acreage and a slope, which is the
best site? Frost possibly 3 weeks earlier in valleys compared to
hillsides
• Trees or shrubs - will they shade your grapes?
Benefits of south slopes are legendary in viticulture
– If so cut them down while they are small.
Wind:
• Hedges or Fences on windward side are Calm conditions can offer 18oF higher on leaves and
beneficial fruit compared to windy sites
• Availability of water is important for first year -Shelterbelts, South side of buildings, fence (home)
or two
South Facing Slope Northeast Facing Slope
Falconer’s Vineyard and Nursery, Red Wing,
MN
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SITES TO AVOID
• Wet sites: slow to IDEAL SITE
dry out
• Poor sun: northern Full sun
slopes
Southern hillside
• Dense Clay:
hardpan
Sandy loam
• Chemical drift Near large body of
• Frost pockets/poor
water
air circulation
Planting and
Soil Test Establishment
• Check for
Year 1: Root growth
– Nitrogen
– Phosphorous Year 2: Vine architecture, pruning techniques
– Potassium
– pH Year 3: Vine health, pest presence, first fruit
– Dissolved salts
– Organic matter
• Condition the soil if needed
• Add sand and organic matter if needed
Planting and Spacing Planting
• Row spacing in backyards – 6 feet or more • Bare root planting is
• Plant spacing in rows should be 6 – 8 feet best
• Prepare large holes
• Plant rows North to South - ideal • Don’t stuff!!!
• Grow tubes • Keep roots out of direct
– Use after planting for first year establishment sunlight
• Compact earth gently
– Remove in early August to promote hardening off. around roots
• Grow Tubes???
• Water when dry - do not
over water!
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First Year Training the Trunk Training the Trunk
• Don’t cut • Grow tube
off the • Use for 1st
side season
shoots
• Tie main
• Tie the shoot to a
main wire
shoot to
• Remove
a wire
grow tube
in August
Training the Trunk – Mini-J Pruning
• Prune late winter or early Dormant bud
• Use for spring On 1-year old
cane
Tender • Vines produce fruit from
only one year old wood
varieties
• Dormant buds on 1-yr-old
• Easier to lay canes (last year’s canes)
trunk down give rise to new (current
for winter season) canes on which the
grape clusters are Emerging
covering produced. current
season cane
Second Year Dormant Pruning
Pruning
• Pruning mature Spring
Grape clusters on
grapevines current season canes
requires
replacing all
fruiting wood
each year.
• 80% or more of
the 2-yr-old
canes is
removed and
replaced with
1- year-old
canes.
Before Pruning One Stem Pruning Two Stem Pruning
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Third Year Dormant Pruning
Second Growing Season Training
Spring
• Train canes
into cordons
Before Pruning After Pruning
Pruning Third Season
• Partial crop can
be allowed
• Cluster thinning
may be
Before Pruning After Pruning necessary for
good quality
clusters and fruit
Pruning Mature Vines Pruning
Before Spring Pruning After Spring Pruning
Before pruning After pruning
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Courtesy of John Marshall, Great River Vineyard
Pruning & Training
• Beginning the first year Remember:
– Remove any flower clusters on the shoots
(for at least 2 years).
– Develop straight trunks to the desired
wire.
– Next, develop the cordons.
– Allow cordons to fill in trellis length
– Fruit can be allowed the third year
Four Arm Kniffen - 4AK
Trellis Building
Why Trellis?
Materials:
• Grapes are true vines
• 8’, 5” diameter
• Vines grow into a bush round endposts
• 8’ steel line posts
• Diseases, weeds - no control • 12 gauge, hi-
tensile wire
• No fruit!!! • 40”, 4” helix earth
anchors
• Wire strainers
(turnbuckles)
Four Arm Kniffen
Trellising
Trellising
• It’s all about • Inexpensive to
sunlight build/maintain
• Disease control • Limits crop
quantity
• Spraying for
– Insects • Variable Ripening
– Diseases
• Construct trellis
first season.
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Umbrella Kniffin
Four Arm Kniffen Trellis
Trellising
• Distributes
growth more
evenly than
standard Kniffin
• Use for cultivars
with long canes
Fan System
Umbrella Kniffen Trellis
Trellising
• Good air
circulation
• Good sun
exposure
Fan System Trellising VSP Trellising
• Vertical Shoot
Positioning
• Upright growing
varieties
• Good canopy
support
• Excellent sun
exposure
• High quality fruit
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Vertical Shoot Positioning Trellis Munson System Trellising
• Both upright and drooping varieties
• Accommodates very vigorous
varieties
• Creates large canopy/crop
Courtesy of John Marshall, Great River Vineyard
Hi Bilateral Cordon
Munson Trellis Trellising
• Varieties with
downward
growth habits
• Simple &
inexpensive
Geneva Double Curtain
Geneva Double Curtain Trellis
Trellising
• Twice the
space as Hi-
Bilateral
cordon
system
• Trailing
habit
varieties
• Good light
• Good yield
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Courtesy of John Marshall, Great River Vineyard
HIGH WIRE RENEWAL
• Variable ripening
• Inexpensive to
build/maintain
• Single wire
• Good for vigorous
vines
• Allows for easy
harvest
• Less crowding than
4AK
• Low cultural
needs/costs
Courtesy of John Marshall, Great River Vineyard
Arbors
• Fruit production
Arbors
• Shade and ornamental
effects • Use durable
• Many kinds of designs materials
• Plant on both sides of an
arch-like structure
• Low maintenane
• Grow to about mid-point of materials
top
• Good Foliage cover = larger
and taller plant than for
ordinary trellis
Arbors Arbors
• Less quality fruit than • Train plants to a single trunk
• Develop a portion of the trunk each
traditional year
• Usually too little pruning • Tie uppermost vigorous cane in a
vertical position
• Often a mass of • Leave short horizontal fruiting canes
• Select fruiting canes at intervals of 2
–Multiple trunks to 3 feet.
–Numerous canes • Limit fruiting canes to five or six
buds - favors development of the
–Weak growth upper trunk and canes
• Select and use renewal spurs for
• Usually poor fruit source of fruiting wood close to
trunk
production
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Varieties
Upwards glance at arbor
(Concord vines in Fargo)
Varieties Bird Netting Birds
• Juice & jelley –
Valiant, Bluebell
• Raisins – Somerset
Seedless
• Table Grapes –
Swenson Red, King
of the North
• Wine – Many
choices available
Animals
Insects
Grow
tubes for
mouse,
rabbit &
deer Grow Tubes
control in
PlantingAug Wasp
winter
NovMar (after snow) -traps MALB
Multi-colored Asian Lady Beetle
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Insects Diseases:
Phylloxera
(Aphid)
(Foliar
damage)
In Europe – Downy Mildew
damages
roots of Vitis
vinifera
Diseases:
Diseases
Anthracnose
Powdery Mildew
Herbicide Injury: Herbicide Injury:
Glyphosate
2,4-D
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Nutrient Deficiency: Veraison – Beginning of Ripening
Color Change
Iron Chlorosis
Harvesting Your Grapes Harvesting Your Grapes
• Harvest in mid
to late
September –
Early October
• Sugar content
• Cut
will be at its clusters
highest • Don’t
• Acid content pull
will be lower
NDSU: Future Research
• Establishment of young
vines: pruning, grow tubes
• Cultivar Trials at REC’s
– Absaraka, Carrington,
Williston, Langdon
• Cultural practices to hasten
maturity
• Trellis system testing to
determine most efficient
• Breeding program for new
ND varieties
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