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Homestead Vineyard
Grape Log
Every
time I traveled to California and saw all the huge vineyards I daydreamed about
having my own small time operation. Grapes have always been fascinating to me,
besides the fact they are good to eat and good for you. The following is an
experiment to see if I can make it profitable. September
10, 2003 I visited with a distant cousin in Holdenville and saw his young
vineyard and so I made up my mind to give it a try. I
selected a part of my hay meadow and started disking everything under.
I picked up a home built ripper and cross-ripped with 4 rippers to about
12 inches deep. I then deep tilled with an offset disc 4 or 5 times, in
different directions and finished with a 15 foot tandem disc and railroad rail
to get rid of the high spots. It
took me almost a month of tractor work to get the field looking decent and to
bare ground. I probably should have
strip sprayed the row area with some roundup to kill the Bermuda but I think I
can do that in the spring as it starts poking out and it won’t take as much
chemical. October7,
2003 Attended Lincoln County Grape Growers Association meeting in Chandler and joined the membership. Met some interesting people and am looking forward to the next monthly meeting and ordering the grapes. October
12,2003 Started
laying out rows and auguring holes for the end posts for the 11 rows needed for
650 Cabernet Sauvignon grapes that will be planted in April of 2004. Row spacing
is on 11 foot centers and grape spacing is on 7 foot intervals.
Sowed some wheat for ground cover between grape rows. October
13, 2003 Finished
holes and setting post on north end of vineyard October
14,2003 Sent
in water sample for irrigation test and also asked for further micro nutrient
testing on the soil sample previously sent in. October
16, 2003 Applied
lime and fertilizer per soil test results. Grandson, Cameron was a big help
distributing fertilizer to each plant location as it was all done by hand. Next
thing on agenda is rip individual rows again and deeper but this time only pull
2 rippers. Day is done and I’m dragging. October17,
2003 Set
up ripper to rip 12 inches on either side of grape vines and ripped 18-20 inches
deep. Roto tilled rows to mix lime and fertilizer and also to close top of
ripped trenches for erosion purposes. Actual
ground preparations are pretty much complete except all the end posts being set.
until I think of something else I want to do. Sometime before grapes arrive
I’ll lightly disc again with tandem disc and loosen soil in each row just
prior to planting. Hopefully the weather will be favorable and make the planting
easier October23,
2003 Laid
out end posts for South end. and set the two outside row ends. Started
drilling postholes for the rest of the rows in between. October24,
2003 Finished
digging post holes and laid out each post for individual holes. Managed to set
three posts. Beginning to look like a vineyard now. October26,
2003 Finished
up setting end posts today. Taking rest of the day off. October
28,2003 Cut
some Tee posts into 3 foot lengths for angular brace to tie to end posts. Drove
braces into ground on a 45’ angle at each end post. Nov.3,
2003 Attended
LCGG meeting in Chandler. There was lots of good input on educational
presentations at future meetings. Nov.7,
2003 Purchased
PVC for feeder line set up at each row for the drip irrigation I plan to
install. Made lots of calls to places I found on the Internet, that carried
grapes and irrigation supplies. Nov.8,
2003 Assembled
feeder line and risers for each row. Will install a valve at each row to permit
watering individual rows if necessary. Plan to order the drip line tubing in a
week or so. Got some rain last night and the ground is too wet to burry the
feeder set up.
Called Cal-Western Nurseries and confirmed shipping date for grape root stock. Grapes arrived 3-26-04 via UPS and the planting crew consisting of myself-, 2 sons, 3 grandsons, my neighbors’ son, and a daughter-in-law. (Jim, Richard, Chris, Cameron, Zack, Taylor Spears, and Sheilia) Planting started at 8 o’clock Saturday morning (3-27-04). Ground was tilled 4 times in front of planting, to make things easier in backfilling the holes. This process wasn’t photographed, as the cameraman was busy. The holes were augured with posthole digger and then cleaned out with a small gas powered auger. Had lots of difficulty keeping the grapes in line and close to the wire line and even had to replant at least 25 or more. The kids were getting in too big of a hurry. Overall, they did a good job, but I couldn’t watch every planting, so I’m not sure if the roots were set right and filled in and packed like they should have been. It took 2 days of hard work to get the 650 plants in the ground and we were plagued by sporadic rain. We gathered up and started to the house a half dozen times and each time the rain stopped. Luckily, no down pours and we were able to get done. After planting, Cameron and Taylor watered all the grapes to help settle the fill in the holes. Hopefully they all got a good drink and there aren’t any air pockets in any of the holes. 3-29-04 Monday morning, we started pushing in tee post and tying up the wire to receive the grow tubes. The tubes were completed on 3-30-04 complete with dirt mounded around the base of the tubes. Rain is in the forecast and hopefully we will get a half-inch by Saturday 4-3-04. If not, then I plan to hand water again. What an experience! Everybody was ready to mutiny before we finished, but the beer held out just long enough to finish everything. (Disclaimer: -No beer was furnished to the minors involved in this venture)
April 24, 2004 So far I’ve had to water by hand twice, but emitters have been installed and only the pump and filter system is left to finish. Hopefully this will be complete by the time I need to water again, but rainfall is taking care of the situation right now. (More to come later) April 25, 2004 Had to redo some of the grow tubes and noticed some critters (cutworms-stink bugs-couple of grasshoppers already, and a couple more varieties I couldn’t recognize. Bought a bag of 10% sevin dust and sprinkled a small amount onto each plant from the top opening of the tubes, to take care of the bug problems. Got a good rain and caught a couple thousand gallons of water in my irrigation reservoir I had dug. Will be getting the submersible pump and connections pretty soon now. I have set up a 2 inch line to keep the reservoir full from my other ponds just incase we don’t get enough rainfall to fill the reservoir. I also intend to plumb a line from the water well so I can use that if needed. Water tests showed some salts but not a critical amount to have an adverse affect on the grapes. May 5. 2004 May 6, 2004 Ran cordon wire to all 11 rows. Youngest son Richard helped with the tee post and cordon wires. I will stretch and tie cordon wire myself. Starting tomorrow. May 13, 2004 May 28,2004 All the grow tubes have been removed and vines have been pruned and tied up for training to the cordon wire. Really had to hurry to get the tubes off as the temp is getting up over 90 degrees and the vines were beginning to show signs of extreme temp and humidity steaming. Once all the tubes were removed everything looked normal except for a small amount of mildew on a couple of plants. Gave them a light spray with wettable sulphur and now they look great and growing faster than the Grandkids. Some look to be growing 2 inches a day and a couple even more. I had a little trouble with the proper mixture of the sulphur, but I manage to get ahold of the distributor's rep for this area and he was able to give me the correct mixture for the amount of mix I wanted to spray. He even contacted some people in California and also got their recommendations. Must have been right as I haven't seen any damage due to chemical burn. Found a few cut worms on a couple of the plants so I'm going to have to monitor that situation pretty close and treat accordingly, but after the sulphur spray it appears the worms were taken care of . Got some much needed rain last night while I was at a dinner for my brothers 60th birthday so I'll probably have to spray the sulphur again, but I was happy to see the rain. Get to rest up for a couple of days days now and catch up on some cleaning up around the shop. July 21.2004 Been staying pretty busy keeping the vines pruned and tying to the cordon wire. Some are really growing and have started the second arm on the cordon wire. Had a bunch of rain in June and the first part of July so I had to spray sulphur several times to combat the mildew and such. Haven't been bothered with bugs and worms much but did spray some sevin once for the small grasshoppers. Fighting the bermuda grass with glyphosate. I wish I had killed it out before planting the grapes. All the heavy rains and humidity really has played havoc with the bermuda grass. I managed to slip off one day on the 13th of July and went fishing with a son and grandson. Had a good time and some much needed time together. Caught a few fish and of course the grandson caught the most, and that made the trip. Had to listen to a bunch of sarcasm on the drive home though, but it was fun.
September 4, 2004 Well it’s about time I updated this, so here I am. I’ve been pretty busy after the fishing trip, cutting hay and keeping the suckers removed from the grape vines. Just about every other day, I have been tying the ever-growing vines to the cordon wire. Many of them have reached the 3’-6” length, but some are still working at it.
Bugs haven’t been a real problem, but aphids have
given me some trouble on a few of the vines. I’ve been using liquid Sevin and
spot treating the ones that have the aphids. I’ve noticed gobs of spiders on
the vines, and I think this has helped with many of the pests, along with
praying mantis hanging out in the vineyard. Hopefully, I have the Bermuda grass killed out now, but time will tell for sure. Out of the total 650 plants only one hasn’t ever shown any growth at all. I still plan to leave it in the ground and see what happens next March. Here’s a few pictures .
October 26,2004 Well, here it is almost the end of October and still no frost. Usually, by now we would have had at least one. Strange, but there's even some signs of new growth on the vines, but I'm sure the frost will get that. A rep from CalWestern nursiries was in the area a couple of weeks ago and he stopped by for a visit and some PR work. He commented several times that he just couldn't believe I had planted my rootstock when I did as the vines have done exceptionally well. I must admit, we had a very good year for rain this past summer, and the little beggars just grew and grew. (Anthony) made some pruning recommendations and told me I need to be a little more aggressive with my spray program as I had some signs of mildew. After he left I promptly sprayed with Nova to check the mildew. I actually kept thinking it would frost and the problem would be solved for me, but still no frost. I have added enough posts on the north end of my vineyard to have a total of 20 rows. That will give me a total of 1298 vines or a round 2 1/2 acres. I set all the posts on the north end so I can complete the drip feeder line next time I rent the trencher. The trencher rents for about $125 a day and I don't need to keep going back every time I want to plant a couple of rows. I'm really not a tightwad,it just makes more sense . The only reason I didn't install the feeder line totally, was I wasn't sure if I would be planting any more than the initial planting. I'll try to get a few more pictures and get them posted as soon as possible. Gathered soil for testing , so I can add the appropriate amounts of lime and such that are needed 11-06-04
11-07-04 Well, I went down to the vineyard this morning and took about a dozen pictures and lo and behold, this computer ate them somehow and they no longer exist. I don't imagine any of you folks ever have any computer glitches. So, I guess I'll have to try again later. I have added some angle braces to the end posts to help with the wire tension after I get my catch wires up. I used landscaping timbers for the brace and 4 inch channel iron driven into the ground 2 1/2 feet for the bottom end dead man to hold the braces. These braces , along with the wire on the opposite side should be plenty to hold the weight on all the vines with a full crop. I'm sure to find out in a couple more years when my vines start producing. I have sewn crimson clover, Korean lespedeza, and perennial rye in the middles to replace the bermuda grass. 11-08-04 Tried the picture deal again this morning and here are the results.
11-16-04 Still getting lots of rain and believe it or not I am seeing some new growth on some of the vines. Still haven't had a killing frost and there's lots of greenery still present on the vines. I hope most have matured enough to not all be frozen off this winter. This isn't typical Oklahoma weather as we should have had a good frost in October , at least by Halloween. Got my soil test results and it looks like I need to add about 3 oz. of 10-20-10 at bud break and again in late May. Ph is at 6.6 and is almost perfect. I plan to do a petiole test in July to see just how the vines are utilizing all the nutrients. 11-29-04 Finally got a good frost to burn all the green growth last week and leaves are beginning to fall pretty fast now. Lots of rain in this area in the last 3 weeks and all my ponds are full again for the first time in about 5 years. Glad to get all the water , but it sure makes it sloppy out on the farm trying to do anything. 12-07-04 Well, here it is Pearl Harbor Day and the ground is so mushy, I can't do any work in the vineyard. Rain, rain, rain. Sure is a good thing we aren't having constant freezing weather as every tree limb and power line in the county would be broken by now. Typically, everybody will be whinning for rain before too long. There's one thing for sure about Oklahoma weather, if you don't like it today , stick around cause tomorrow , it will change. Bought me a 4-wheeler a couple of weeks ago and hopefully it will save me many steps in the vineyard. Yea, I'm getting lazy in my older years just like everybody else. I've been riding the thing a little every day practicing and luckily, I haven't turned it over on my fat butt yet. I can see how those things can be addictive and lots of people get hurt playing around with them. Probably a good thing I never had one when I was in my 20's. (LOL) I'm not near as gutsy now as I was then and I don't heal nearly as fast as I used to. 4-13-05 2005 grape log starts with new page (Second Leaf). I started a new page so the pictures will load faster than having to upload all the photos on a single page. Just follow the links and if you have any trouble please let me know so I can fix any problems. Thanks
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