How is a vineyard planted
Starting a Backyard Vineyard
[Music]
hey guys I wanted to share the backyard
vineyard project that I've been working
on it's a five row vineyard by about
sixty five foot rows I've got some Cab
Franc planted Merlot planted LEM burger
which is also known as blaufränkisch
Riesling and tram and net and then just
a couple test vines of like hybrids and
I'll have a couple cab soft tests I'm in
the south southwest Pennsylvania
so the climates a little bit unknown for
what's gonna happen I'm basically
halfway between the Finger Lakes and
Virginia so a lot of these are kind of
tests and we'll kind of just figure out
how things go I've got a data logger
here this is from onset and what this
will do is measure temperature and
humidity it pings once every 10 minutes
and it'll track it throughout the year
so I'll get basically a graph and kind
of get a better fuel on my microclimate
I've also got a another data logger that
measures light intensity so the light
intensity one's the MX 2202 and the temp
and humidities MX 2302
and those I can just bluetooth to my
phone so they're really pretty simple to
use and like I said it's got a better
handle on the microclimate the trellis
type that I chose to do is called smart
Dyson so it's a split canopy style kind
of allows you to spread out the vigor of
the vines I've basically got a cord own
wire here to catch wires to catch wires
and to catch wires so it'll allow me to
run the trunk up split and then run
canes upwards as well as running canes
downwards which is generally a good
technique in areas that you have
relatively fertile soil as far as soil
goes though probably the most important
factor would be drainage so in
Pennsylvania we have a lot of clay
this is like about 12 inches of topsoil
followed by like a sandy or clay and
then kind of a shale type soil so it's
nice here because on this part of the
lawn it's just not flat it kind of is
like a concave surface so the water just
flows off but it never really gets muddy
here it drains really pretty good so
it's not the worst soil it's a decent
soil for the vineyard I think I like I
said I think the biggest issue I'll have
is just excessive vigor in the vine so
that's why I've got the split canopy
style for posts I used four end posts I
used these I think these are five to six
inch treated posts I got these up in
Erie PA at Northeast fruit growers I've
got the upright posts which are three to
four inch treated and normally people
would run an anchor wire here but to
conserve space and make sure I can get
the mower around I chose to do this
angle brace and this is another one of
those three to four inch posts it's
pinned and then it's additionally pinned
into a post that's driven in here around
the end posts and also the uprights I
put a lot of crushed like heavy block
and stone and just tamped it really
really good just to solidify these posts
so they're really rock-solid because
there's a lot of wires on this and the
tensions not very high but when you have
seven wires that's just it you just have
to have a really sturdy post the wires
that I'm using this is pretty standard
I'm using 12 and a half gauge or 12 and
a half gauge high-tensile so this would
be like what you'd use on an electric
fence but it's also what you use in a
vineyard
I've got wire strainers on every single
wire so you can buy these by like the 25
pack and there are a few bucks apiece so
then it just kind of allows you to you
know set the tension and if you need to
tighten it it's really easy there's just
a tool you put on and it clicks
so really pretty simple the row
orientation is north and south which is
really good it kind of optimizes the
sunlight that these grapes will get and
it's in a pretty full Sun area so again
I really want to maximize the sunlit
light because I am growing some grapes
that will be a little bit challenging to
ripen in this climate let's see oh the
the spacing between rows that's kind of
important to think about so I've got
about six-foot row to row spacing and my
posts are at at the middle or about five
and a half feet tall so you almost want
like a one to one ratio because you want
to kind of if you went really tall on
your post but had not a lot of space in
between you just wouldn't really
maximize the sunlight that's gonna come
down on the vines so that's something to
keep in mind roughly a 1/2 1/4 vine
spacing I've got five feet on the
vinifera which would be like your cab
Franck your Merlot your Riesling and I'm
also doing I think that'll be fine for
those vines I've got a couple test vines
that are hybrids in the back I'm doing
8-foot spacing and the tram Annette here
I'm on a 5 foot spacing which is I'm a
little nervous that that's a little bit
aggressive especially seeing how well
the tram nets are growing so I think for
the hybrids something like I don't know
7 or 8 foot spacing with a split canopy
because vsp vertical chute positioning
on those is just they're just gonna be
way too aggressive of growers to do
something like that unless you're really
sprawling them out over you know 10 or
12 feet so that's pretty basic I used
these grow tubes to get the season
started because in my area I was a
little bit nervous about deer chomping
the young vines off which will basically
you know end them and it all
creates kind of a humid environment to
get them to grow pretty nicely I've got
as far as like pests that I've had to
deal with
of course deer are one Japanese beetles
have been a little bit of an issue but
only for about one week of the year and
then downy mildew so like in California
they'll get a lot of powdery mildew in
this climate especially in September we
get a lot of nights where the humidity
spikes to about a hundred degree or a
hundred percent which I see on the data
logger and what that ends up doing is
creating a lot of downy mildew and you
can tell when you have downy mildew you
get little spots on the tops of the
leaves and if you flip the leaf upside
down you'll see like a white powder and
you really kind of have to spray
something you can spray copper and like
what they'll do in Bordeaux is we'll do
a copper lime blend which is pretty
eco-friendly compared to some other
options but you really want to spray
before the mold really gets out of hand
because there before the mildew gets out
of hand because it's just it's a lot
easier to control if you catch it early
I would say that's probably the those
are pretty much the key things you're
gonna want to think about when you're
starting a backyard vineyard I'll put
some follow up articles on my website
smart winemaking comm so make sure you
go check that out
and also post a link to the data loggers
that I'm using in my description so if
you're thinking about doing a backyard
vineyard just keep checking in or post
any questions you have down in the
comments and I can share some of the
things I've learned along the way thanks
for watching
