The other year when I lost my clothesline tree to a tornado, I bought some steel washline posts and this winter a friend helped me get them in the ground. They are not like the ones I remember growing up--the upright is in 3 pieces instead of one, and they are only 6 feet tall instead of 7 ft. It makes the clothes about drag the ground, which is not good. And it is impossible to get the lines taut no matter what. I was going to sell them, but it is not likely I would recover much of what I paid, SO, I thought I would move them to another location and put in some grapevines. I did that, and bought wire. It is the same problem with not being able to get the wires taut. I have been watching some videos on growing grapes, and got the idea to get some fencing for across the poles, but since they are bareroot vines, I can wait until payday for the fence wire. They are still dormant. Do I really need to wait 3 years until harvesting any grapes? I can improve the soil. Some videos mentioned that, others might not have thought of it (since they already have good soil.) I am going to top dress the soil later this week, or next week depending on the weather. We have a strong storm system moving through our area, so it will have to wait a few more days. They are in a sunny spot, I did soak the vines before planting and planted according to instructions. They have had a bit of Miracle Gro also. I have an old grapevine here that is not looking too good. If I wanted to remove it, I could move the jungle gym thing? Or transplant one of the vines? Are old vines difficult to dig out? (This old lady has been doing lots of digging lately!) There are lots of daylilies under that old grape vine. I can dig them up... Not sure about the cherry tree seedlings that have sprouted up there. One video thought I should dig a 30 inch deep hole for posts for an arbor/trellis thingy!!! That guy was a YOUNG MAN who could dig 30 inch holes without too much effort on his part. He probably did not have so many rocks in his area either. It was all I could do to get post holes to 23 inches for the chicken yard. I can pound in steel T posts (for fencing) with less effort than digging post holes. And that is not easy either. Do any of you grow grapes? I have one regular Concord grapevine that is not GMO, and two that are Thomcords. They were not advertized as Thomcords, but CONCORDS. They are seedless too. I am keeping them, but it was not what I wanted. I wanted seeded Concords. Around here, you cannot even find SEEDED grapes in the stores, much less Concord grapes. I seldom buy grapes in the stores. I seldom buy watermelon unless I can find an old fashioned big long one full of SEEDS.
My new grapevines have budded this week. Yay. I think I figured what to do with those washline posts. I have some old pipe laying around, and will have DS cut it into some 6 or 7 ft pieces. Two will be all I need. I can pound them down into the ground deeper than I can dig for the washline posts, and it will keep them sturdy and not let them lean over. I could use some steel fence posts, but those cost a lot nowadays, and I already have the pipes for free.
Good luck with your grapes. It's so annoying when things don't work as planned! I'm thinking about trying to grow one or two of the new, hardy grapes when I can get a cozy corner ready for them. I know people have planted a variety or two around here but haven't heard of anybody getting grapes yet. Time will show.
The videos I have seen all say to prune them heavily the first two years or so, and not expect grapes for three years!!!!! That is extremely disappointing. I hope you find some good grapes for where you are.
Me too, AA, thanks. A friend of mine has two, and I forgot about those yesterday. I'll have to visit and see how they're doing.
