Vineyard Layout

We live on five gently rolling acres, a third of which is heavily wooded. The property is a long, narrow rectangle with the long axis running east-west. There is a small, spring-fed creek that runs north-south about 200 feet from the road, and our house and shop sit just behind the creek. The timbered area is along the south boundary from the creek to the back of the property.

The soil is a combination of pale red sandy clay that nearby supports corn, soybeans and wheat crops. It is far different from the blackland clay gumbo where we lived in Texas, or the red clay common north of the Red River in Oklahoma.

I had three potential sites for the vineyard: the front of the property along the road, an open area north of the house along the north property line, and a third area near the back of the property. Each had its strengths and its weaknesses.

Option 1

The area in front of the creek is terraced and mostly level, with a few regrowth trees scattered about. This site would allow longer north-south orientation of the rows, which is probably optimal for the location, but would require me to make some arrangement for water to irrigate newly planted grapevines.

Option 2

The site north of the house was a low, rolling hill that would require east-west rows limited in length by the shop on the east and the creek on the west. I planted a dozen fruit trees along the property line and had some experience with the soil. Although the orientation of the rows was not optimal, it had the benefit of close proximity to a hose bib. The downside here was the construction dumpster sitting right in the middle of the site. Furthermore, the topsoil had been removed from part of the location to level the site for the shop building.

Option 3

The third site was near the back of the property. It was gently sloping, required east-west orientation like option 2, but was a long way from water, like option 1. It was by far the most picturesque, and I could envision sitting on my back porch admiring my little vineyard. The number of trees that would need to be removed, however made this my third choice.

I watched the three sites over the fall and winter to see how much sunlight fell on each location. The tall trees along the creek kept Option 1 in the shade early in the morning. The trees in the wooded area kept Option 3 in the shade until even later in the morning. Option 2 got the most sun early and the most sun late. It was close to water, and required no tree removal.The only problem was the dumpster and the topsoil removal. Nothing much I could do about the topsoil removal, but the dumpster would be gone before I needed to plant.

I went with Option 2, mostly because it required less prep work. I began my vineyard layout by developing an Excel speadsheet with post and vine spacing options to address the spacing requirements for the different grape varieties. In its initial form, it was based on five 96-ft rows. The spreadsheet became my planning tool, planting guide and ultimately my as-built (As-planted?) map. When the dumpster was finally removed and I could survey, measure and stake the rows, I found I could fit six 120-ft. rows instead of the five 96-ft rows originally on the plan. This also meant I had room for a few more vines than I ordered. All I had to do was start digging.