How many people on here own vineyards?

[Robert_in_NY]

I am curious how many other TBN members own vineyards? I have 10 acres currently, 2.5 acres of Niagara and 7.5 acres of Concords. I am expanding and am looking at buying another established 50 acre vineyard here in WNY.

It would be nice to see how many others have vineyards though and compare farming practices as they can vary drastically region to region.

 

[schmism]

ive considered putting one in. Central IL is one of the best place in the midwest for grapes.

My neighbor down the road has about 15 acers or grapes. Chardonnel and one other i cant remember right now. He helps run the Piasa winnery in the area. I helped him pick this past fall.

 

[czechsonofagun]

I would love to refer to my vineyard in acres

I have 50 vines planted for a year or so, learning the trade.

 

[Egon]

Will my two backyard vines count?

In the local area there are two or three vineyards that produce wine. I'm ignorant as to their size or types of grapes grown.

 

[allenr]

Barrossa Valley, South Australia here.

I have about 80 acres comprising, in decreasing area, Shiraz, Merlot, Chadonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Semillon, Traminer, Grenache, Pinot Noir and planted last year, Albarino.

Newer plantings are 10' rows and 8' spacings, older plantings are 12' x 8'.

Most are permanent cordon on a single wire and the foliage allowed to sprawl ie no foliage wires.

Nearly all are on rootstock for resistance to nematodes (mainly rootknot) and phylloxera, should it arrive here in SA (it is currently expanding slowly in Victoria).

Older plantings were on Ramsey, then Ruggeri 140 (both claimed by wineries to be too vigorous), later plantings include 101-14, Paulsen, Richter 99 & 110.

All watered in summer with drippers, old plantings 4 litre/hr (1 gallon/hr) Key Clips @ 8', newer plantings 2.3 litre/hr @ 4' inline drippers and newest 1.4 litre/hr @ 2' 8".

No longer use underground water as it is about 1700 ppm salt and without the wet winters of years ago it builds up in the soil.
Now use Murray River water which costs about 60c per 1000 litres (about 250 US gallons) from a private (Barossa Valley) irrigation scheme.
However due to drought we are limited to 18% of normal allocation in SA so have to purchase additional water, currently 20c KL but has been as high as $1.00 Kl.

I still rotary hoe the cover crop at the end of winter then disc after frost danger is passed and blade plough after rain in summer (usually only once or twice).

 

[allenr]

Dunno what happened, I wasn't finished.

I spray under the rows near the end of winter with a knockdown, usually glyphosate or sometimes Illico (glyphosate & amitrole) and follow that with a residual herbicide, simazine or Stomp. Simazine on loam & clay, Stomp on sand but Stomp prevents germination of a wider range of weeds.

Many neighbours only mulch their cover crops then follow with a knockdown or two over summer but that has resulted in my vineyard being flanked on two sides with vineyards full of burrs - Caltrop, Innocent Weed and Three Corner Jack and numerous other hard to control weeds.

Have harvested Semillon and Traminer in the last couple weeks, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir will be dropped on the ground soon (still no buyer at any price) and then I'll move onto the red, most sold but Merlot will be pooled and only paid for when the wine is sold in 12 - 18 months.

Prices from my wineries range from AU$300 for Semillon to $1000 and $1300 for Shiraz. Top quality Shiraz can pay up tp $8000 per tonne but mine is always classed as standard ie. bottom end price.

My grapes are sold to BVE (Barossa Valley Estates), PLW (Peter Lehmann Wines) and R Wines (Dan Phillips USA).

 

[JDGREEN4ME]

Don't own a vineyard but own 5 acres in the middle of a "bunch" of them on Seneca Lake in NY...

 

[Chuck52]

Dunno what happened, I wasn't finished.

I spray under the rows near the end of winter with a knockdown, usually glyphosate or sometimes Illico (glyphosate & amitrole) and follow that with a residual herbicide, simazine or Stomp. Simazine on loam & clay, Stomp on sand but Stomp prevents germination of a wider range of weeds.

Many neighbours only mulch their cover crops then follow with a knockdown or two over summer but that has resulted in my vineyard being flanked on two sides with vineyards full of burrs - Caltrop, Innocent Weed and Three Corner Jack and numerous other hard to control weeds.

Have harvested Semillon and Traminer in the last couple weeks, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir will be dropped on the ground soon (still no buyer at any price) and then I'll move onto the red, most sold but Merlot will be pooled and only paid for when the wine is sold in 12 - 18 months.

Prices from my wineries range from AU$300 for Semillon to $1000 and $1300 for Shiraz. Top quality Shiraz can pay up tp $8000 per tonne but mine is always classed as standard ie. bottom end price.

My grapes are sold to BVE (Barossa Valley Estates), PLW (Peter Lehmann Wines) and R Wines (Dan Phillips USA).

I was under the impression that my wife, daughter and daughter-in-law were supporting the Australian Chardonnay production rather well! They mainly drink Black Opal. Why the poor market for that variety?

Chuck

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Will my two backyard vines count?

Well, why not. I originally thought this thread might be useful for people on here to be able to ask questions and even learn about growing grapes from around the country and world. I know I am interested in learning different farming practices from other areas as I am always looking for ways to improve my own farm.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Dunno what happened, I wasn't finished.

I spray under the rows near the end of winter with a knockdown, usually glyphosate or sometimes Illico (glyphosate & amitrole) and follow that with a residual herbicide, simazine or Stomp. Simazine on loam & clay, Stomp on sand but Stomp prevents germination of a wider range of weeds.

Many neighbours only mulch their cover crops then follow with a knockdown or two over summer but that has resulted in my vineyard being flanked on two sides with vineyards full of burrs - Caltrop, Innocent Weed and Three Corner Jack and numerous other hard to control weeds.

Have harvested Semillon and Traminer in the last couple weeks, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir will be dropped on the ground soon (still no buyer at any price) and then I'll move onto the red, most sold but Merlot will be pooled and only paid for when the wine is sold in 12 - 18 months.

Prices from my wineries range from AU$300 for Semillon to $1000 and $1300 for Shiraz. Top quality Shiraz can pay up tp $8000 per tonne but mine is always classed as standard ie. bottom end price.

My grapes are sold to BVE (Barossa Valley Estates), PLW (Peter Lehmann Wines) and R Wines (Dan Phillips USA).

I have looked into planting wine grapes but the more I learn the more I realize I am too busy to dedicate the time required to grow high quality wine grapes. Plus in this area it is a huge gamble. By the time you get a variety established that all the wineries want they change their mind and you have a crop you have to give away. It is a real fickle market here and the prices are no where near what you guys get or even the Niagara on the Lake regions.

Our bread and butter is Concord. It is very tolerante to the conditions here and is rather easy to take care of. The most work after establishing the vineyard is trimming each year. We are a no tie system so once their trimmed I don't have to touch the vines except to repair posts or wires and to scout for problems. Everything else is done with machines right through havest.

I looked at your profile and if possible could you post some pictures of your equipment you use on your farm? I enjoy seeing vineyard equipment from different areas as I never know what is available in different markets. Most of our equipment comes from Europe but slowly. They lead the industry and it seems most of the equipment is built in Italy and tested there.

Right now the main tractors used in this area are the Case-IH and New Holland vineyard tractors and John Deeres 5000N series. Massey doesn't have much market at all which is discouraging. There are a few SAME and Landini tractors also and Kubotas. I would love to see Claas and Fendt bring their vineyard tractors to this area but I doubt that is going to happen anytime soon.

The main sprayer used locally is TurboMist. The JD dealer brought on Jatco which looks like a nice cheaper sprayer. Almost all the sprayers here are trailed sprayers in the 400 gallon size. The large farms have gone to multirow sprayers. And there are some Gregorie mounted sprayers also.

The top harvesters used are Korvan and Gregorie. Korvan is a bit cheaper then Gregorie and is built in the US so it is easier to get and the guys like the fact it is a US built machine. It is a nice machine but I prefer the Gregorie unit as it seems to do a little bit better job. If I harvested 300+ acres then I would go with Gregorie, less then the Korvan is easily good enough. Both make the Chysholm Ryder look like a dinosaur in terms of speed of harvest, harvest quality and ease of use.