Its been four weeks since the first vines were planted, and things are pretty much opposite what I expected. I had 100 percent live growth from the plants, some well ahead of others, but all growing.
We've had very little rainfall, and and I have been reduced to watering once a week to keep the growth up. It takes me about 45 minutes drag the host around to get all 107 vines watered. It's not bad, and it gives me a chance to look at every vine. All the normal Charlotte rainfall has been dumped in Texas and Oklahoma leading to flooding there and drought here.
The Arandell and Zinfandel are by far the most vigorous, with several individual vines popping out the top of the Blue-X grow tubes.
The vinifera are across the board about halfway up the grow tubes, with the Cab, Zin and Viognier the most vigorous. Even the Merlot, which was planted three weeks after the others, has mostly caught up.
The hybrids are slightly ahead of the vinifera, all uniformly vigorous and approaching the top of the grow tubes.
The Norton vines are a disappointment, and most are doing poorly despite a quick start. I'm not sure what is going on here; the growth just shut down. At first I thought it might be the lack of rainfall. Then I thought it might be over-watering. There is certainly something that isn't right. I've run across an article that says Norton doesn't like grow tubes. I plan to take a sample vine or two and remove the grow tube to see if that makes a difference.
We've had very little rainfall, and and I have been reduced to watering once a week to keep the growth up. It takes me about 45 minutes drag the host around to get all 107 vines watered. It's not bad, and it gives me a chance to look at every vine. All the normal Charlotte rainfall has been dumped in Texas and Oklahoma leading to flooding there and drought here.
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| The vineyard as planted. I will seed the spaces between the rows with Fescue this fall. The T-posts are just for alignment and will be removed when I build the trellis system this summer. My shop building is in the background. |
The vinifera are across the board about halfway up the grow tubes, with the Cab, Zin and Viognier the most vigorous. Even the Merlot, which was planted three weeks after the others, has mostly caught up.
The hybrids are slightly ahead of the vinifera, all uniformly vigorous and approaching the top of the grow tubes.
The Norton vines are a disappointment, and most are doing poorly despite a quick start. I'm not sure what is going on here; the growth just shut down. At first I thought it might be the lack of rainfall. Then I thought it might be over-watering. There is certainly something that isn't right. I've run across an article that says Norton doesn't like grow tubes. I plan to take a sample vine or two and remove the grow tube to see if that makes a difference.
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