Soil Preparation

Grapevines can live 25 to 50 years, so it\'s important to select the right grape and prepare the land well before planting. You might not get another chance for 30 years. Working clay soil is extremely important to loosen the \"hard pan\" so that nutrients, moisture and roots can move easily through the soil. A \"deep rip\" cultivation of the soil is necessary to 18 or 24 inches.

That kind of work requires serious horsepower. I am working with Gary McCullough, one of the biggest farm operators in the area. Gary has been farming the property I purchased for many years, growing corn and soybeans, and his 27 ton Caterpillar makes light work of the deep rip process.

Deep ripping is done in both directions to avoid deep furrows that cause problems for automated grapevine planting equipment. I am told it\'s hard to get straight rows if deep furrow channels are created by deep ripping in one direction. Top cultivation follows to chop up big soil chunks and smooth out the land for planting.

Tile drainage is really important when preparing the soil. Grapevines don\'t like having \"wet feet,\" so too much water in the soil is a bad thing. Clay soil holds moisture, so some assistance is necessary to drain it. The natural slope at 33 Vines is good for drainage and sun exposure but there are still some low spots, and tile drainage will be installed to flow south and north. A local contractor, Conley Excavating, will install drain pipe through the entire vineyard, with tiles installed every other row at 18 foot centres. Because we have some slope, installing every row (9 foot centres) is not necessary.

For mature vines too much water is more of a problem than too little, which is good news since drought conditions are not uncommon in July and August. Mature grapevines will work their roots to down 40 to 60 feet to find water. So it is young vines that need attention during drought in the early years.

The plan right now is to capture rain water from the great big barn roof. The eavestrough downspout will pour into a water holding tank by the barn. A second water tank will be located at the high point of the vineyard along the eastern fence line, and an underground water-line will connect the two tanks. The water will be dispersed from the two locations from an irrigation spray gun. It\'s a Minaker engineered design and completely untested but it sounds great. We have to wait and see if this is enough, but it\'s certainly a good start. Consulting with other growers and professionals is on my list of things to do.

Growers disagree about many things, but they all agree that a Honda gas pump is the best for moving the water. So a Honda pump is on my shopping list.

At this point I should point out my conclusions are based on observations and reports from grape-growers who have tried various methods. I am very aware my conclusions may be faulty or even downright wrong, but you\'ve got to make decisions with the information you have and just go forward, making changes and modifications as you learn. In other words I expect to make mistakes, but I hope to minimize my problems by listening to opinions, accepting advice and learning from others.