Planting a grape vine
You have prepared your site; you have decided what variety to grow; now it is time to plant your grape vine! Well, unfortunately, this is where many home grape growers terribly fail!
Planting a grape vine is not hard, if fact, it is one of the easiest fruits to get started, but there are a few key things to remember when planting your grape vine.
1. The planting hole
In the early days, before research proofed this method wrong, planting grape vines, by adding fertilizer and all kinds of stuff into the planting hole, was a well-known practice? Research showed, that a grape vine sprouts from energy within the vine itself, and do not actually use any fertilizer until the vine reach about 2 to 3 inch shoot length. By adding fertilizer directly into the planting hole, or directly on the roots of the vines could damage (scourge) the roots.
With knowledge/information you gained from soil samples, you should fertilize and correct all mineral shortages BEFORE you prepare your vineyard site and then plant your grape vine. This will mix all the fertilizer with the soil and will not damage the roots of your grape vine.
Make a large enough hole to accommodate all the roots from the cutting and do not cut or remove any roots – the more roots, the better the chance of successfully planting your grape vine.
2. Preparing the new vine before planting
Before planting your grape vine, you should plunge the complete vine into a bucket of water for at least six hours. Under no circumstances, let the roots of the vine dry out – this is very important! If you are planting a few hundred vines, cover the vines not planted yet with a damp gunny bag or something similar.
3. Watering the vine
Before you plant the grape vine, you should thoroughly water the planting hole and ensure that the water deeply penetrates the sidewall of the planting hole.
Constantly add water to the planting hole while filling the hole with soil, to ensure that no air pockets forms near the roots of the vines. Water your grape vine once a week for at least a month after planting the grape vine.
Following these simple rules when planting a grape vine, will guarantee a much higher success rate.
Filed under: grape vine • grapes • growing grapes • how to grow grapes • planting grapes
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hello.
how are you.
i am an Iranian and i want to make vineyard.
i need some information and some pictures for making and planting the grape trees.
if it is possible please give me some information.
also i need some information about stands.
thank you so much.
Hi Danie
thanks for the advice,10/20/08 it is the begining here, tempture at night 15 cc days about 20cc my grape vines are showing many clusters.I now want to start sizeing, thanks DANIE
Hi Danie
thanks for the advise 20 oct 2008 I am thrilled with the amount of bunches of grapes that are showing , on 4 vines.I water when the vines show drying on the surface the soil is sandy, use shicken manure and set the jbeds with amixture of potting mix and peet moss. thanks Danie
Hello Danie
Question 1:I have a vine that is fully leafed up and about 3 feet tall, do I still need to put that in water before placing it in the ground?
It is in a pot and the end of the leaves ae starting to become brown.
Question 2:when choosing a place to plant,Can it be somewhere that the ground keeps moist alot ?
Hi Vani,
Answer 1: No, just make sure the planting hole is well watered, and after planting the vine, ensure all the soil in the planting hole is well watered.
Answer 2: Grape vines don’t like wet feet, so avoid a planting a grape vine in those soils
Dear Danie
What is the best distance to plant between each grape vine I want to plant 3 varieties along a back fence of a small yard?
Rosalie,
You can join the Grape Coaching Program at http://www.grapecoachingprogram.com for free as a Silver Member. You question will be covered as part of the free 10 day trial.
Danie
Hello Danie -please help me. I need to know what distance I must measure between each plant-I have 3 different variety of grape vine I want to grow .
Hi how are you? hope everythings is fine inspite of bad weather in your area.
In my backyard it is enough only to plant one grape vine, i need a figure of measurement to make a hole for planting grape vine. thanks a lot. GOD BLESS YOU ALWAYS.
Mike,
Except if you live in an extremely hot climate, using ground covers will not harm your vines. Just keep them away from the stems of the vines.
In order to keep weeds down, is it recommended to use a ground cloth; it is black & I’m worried that it will create too much heat for the vines & leaves. My plants are only 1 year old.
Hello Danie,
I have your e-book on growing grapes, however now they are growing how do I keep the birds away? They are eating my first crop.
Hi,
Great! Seems like your vines are doing great.
There is a link on the right of the page where I have made a post on bird damage in vineyards.
Heck it seems I did all the right things but the watering if I only water 1 time a moun th my plants will die I have found I must water each day. Am I doing something wrong??.
Hi Smitty,
I didn’t say water once a month.
I said water the vine at least once a week for the first month. I think once a day is too much, off course it depends on how much water you give.
Remember Smitty, grape vines don’t like wet feet
How would I know if I am over watering the grape vine?
Hi Jakeou,
If you are not using probes or tensiometers or some instruments that check the soil moisture status, I normally tell people to dig a hole about a foot away from the vine and take some soil from the rooting zone and press it hard in your hand. If you open your hand and you can feel condensation taking place (becomes cool), and if the soil particles stick to each other, it means there are still enough water in the soil. Do this often and you will soon get some pattern of how often to water the vine.
These are really simple, great tips! Thank you
Hi Joe,
Thanks 🙂
Thanks Daine, for your Blog on “Planting a grape Vine”. I can see my mistakes I made in planting my grape vines. I will fence in my grape vines. The deers are enjoying my grape vines.
Thanks Again
Willie
Hi Willie,
Yes, deer just love the young leaves of grapes
You say “plunge the complete vine into water for at least six hours.”
Does that mean, there is an optimum number of hours? Eight, ten??
What if the new vines come with no leaves, as “rooted cuttings”, packed in wet material? Does the time in the wet material count as “in water”??
Hi Scott,
I would say the optimum is about 8 hours, but more important – not less than 6 hours.
When your cuttings have leaves, soak only the roots of the vines in the water.
From Planting a grape vine, 2008/08/13 at 3:49 PM