Thank you for visiting our channel. After years of working in the coffee industry (hence the few videos on coffee techniques), we have moved away from Southampton and started a new life in the countryside in Herefordshire.
Join us now with the trials and tribulations of maintaining a smallholding and giving you our story of how we do what we do.
I started watching your videos on growing grapes.i had gotten some vines that I started in 5 gallon buckets will it hurt the vine if I prune off the runners i don't want or should I wait till they go dormant
Hi there. For heavy pruning, leave it until it goes dormant. If you are doing pruning to give it shape (ie leaving some growing canes on it) then you can do so throughout the summer months. Come winter, leave a couple of canes and some buds and it will flourish the following year.
We use 'Superstock Thrift' It is a Cobalt, Selenium and Vitamin B12 Drench. The Cobalt concentration on the bottle says 5300mg/litre. I'm sure there are other higher concentrations, but this one has worked well for us.
I think you might've done 15 ewes during the 2nd attempt! And you said Clik is like Liquid Gold - does that mean you can snort it for a quick head rush?
Do they have another source of food nearby? Or has there been a sudden jump in population? That's a lot of eating a food that isn't usually the main part of their diet.
That's a good question. This coppice is right next to a broadleaf wood in which they're are mainly oak and ash trees. It's too early for acorns but this is the first year we've had any sort of problem with squirrels. Not sure what's so different from other years.
Check out ebay, local farm auctions Facebook marketplace. We got ours from eBay. It is a little bit of luck but if it's working before you buy then you know that most things are going to be ok. Good luck.
Hi there. We use a variety of weedkillers. Grazon 90 made by Corteva (this one kills nettles, thistles, brambles but it doesn't kill grass and is safer for animals (hence the name) it is very fast acting - if you spray it in the morning, you see these weeds falling over in the afternoon. Pasteur is another one we use and is made by the same company and is very similar. Remember it doesn't kill grasses. I would avoid getting these on the vine leaves though, so spray on still days For a broad action weedkiller but use it wisely, glyphosate will kill everything. If you use anything, make sure you use it on a still day. Glyphosate has a bad reputation with some people. Some people suggest mulches or even wool as a weed suppressant but in my experience I haven't found an alternative to using weedkillers occasionally to get rid of weeds. If anyone says that weeds don't matter and just leave them to grow, then this is just not true. Weeds will choke young vines and take valuable nutrients away from the vines. Anyway, good luck and if you come across any solutions too, let me know.
Good morning friend and Cheers 🥂🥂... I've watch this video several times, all of them actually...lol... I was looking forward to learning how to manage the crops and what people use... Living with farmland behind our home, we see the farmer every year spraying something that just smells horrible... Like a bad fart...lol...sorry... So when you said Potash, I had to look it up... It sounds amazing... The farmer stopped doing the fields behind us a few years ago and won't be coming back, unknown tonus as to why... Our neighbor who owns part of the field is not a good person so that may be a reason..lol... I already maintain a good part of another field behind us that a nice neighbor owns.... Trying to convince her to sell tonus since the farmer is done with the fields... Your videos are very inspirational and will definitely use your teachings if/when we own the field... Thanks for the videos and Cheers friend.. 🥂🥂🥂
Hi there. Thank you so much for your kind comments. There are certainly some rather smelly things that farmers put on their fields. We have the same problem for some days of the year as our neighbour spreads muck on the fields, but fortunately the pong doesn't last long. I know that farmers need to put poo on the fields so I don't really mind. Good luck with everything you do and thank you for supporting the channel. Kindest regards
Thanks again for your video. Always enjoyable and informative. I've got a small (120 vine) vineyard in North Carolina, USA. Canopy management and leaf plucking are a very important and very time consuming process. My vines rows run north to south putting the wall of grapes facing east and west. When I started in 2017 the common advice I received was, after flowering and cluster set, to pluck all leaves on the east side to expose the clusters entirely and then on the west facing side to pull only enough to leave 'dappled' sunlight. The last year or two many vineyards in my area (there's 75-100 commercial vineyards within an hour or so of me) have been changing their process to now doing complete leaf removal on BOTH sides. Definitely more work but I can see the benefits and now do that on my vines. I've not experienced any black rot or mold issues on an clusters in the last 2 seasons. Probably more dumb luck than anything.
Hi there. That's really interesting - thank you. I think I'm going to try both sides this year as I am thinking that if the grapes can get as much sunshine and air around them then hopefully this should help with any mold issues - but it is a battle here in our relatively damp climate. I think I will do another video after flowering which should be in the next few weeks or so. But thanks once again for sharing your advice. Cheers Anthony
@@mycountrylife810 I don't know if it was advice as much as just sharing differences. If it works out great then it was advice 😁 I think the original thinking for 'dappled sun' was to prevent sunburning the grapes since it gets pretty hot and sunny here, but I don't think that ever proved to be a real issue.
I can't thankyou enough for doing these videos, my grape vines in my small garden are well over grown, years old and never get great grapes, so your teaching is so helpful now I'm wondering do I cut everything bk and start again as my three grape vines have taken over my small garden with no grape for years xx
Hi there. Thank you for your comments. I think if it were me, I would wait until the end of the season now and let the vine go into dormancy over winter. It would be at this time, to heavily prune the vine and leave a few healthy looking shoots. Let these new shoots develop in the new year. I think if you were to do something drastic now, as the vine is in full swing, you may shock it somewhat. That said, I would throw this open to anyone else on youtube here to give their advice too. Vines can take are hard pruning at the end of the year and they seem to come back stronger the following year. Good luck though and thanks for following me on our vineyard quest too.
Absolutely love your vineyard videos, watching episode 16 right now, but wanted to pause and make a suggestion... Maybe wear one of those little microphones on you collar so that your voice can be heard loud and clear throughout the videos... A lot of times your voice gets muffled... Cheers friend!.. 🥂🥂
Hi Steve You must have read my mind as I totally agree with you. So much so the last 2 uploads have indeed been recorded with a wireless microphone. This has not only made the audio much better but it is so much easier to edit the videos as I am not now constantly altering audio levels. You have confirmed to me that I have made the right decision to invest in some proper microphones - thank you. You may have to watch a few more vineyard videos until you get to the ones that use the new audio recorded ones.
@@mycountrylife810 Friend, I love the videos... Sometimes watch them more than once.... Your videos are very informative and easy to understand... Very inspirational indeed... Cheers friend 🥂🥂
That will run a gen set . it quit clean at that but it not as much as is possible ironically drying out your wood chips as evaporated the full potential in it wood fibbers , the water with in. but never the les it will run a combustion engine. but if you pull it in to a charcoal colom now you would increase it within the colom & if you dript, Water in the entrance so it can flash to steam & be sucked in it would burn of it oxygen & enrich it even more. Test out my suggestion & get that eureka moment . for your self.
blue is monoxide after damp gas as past up a charcoal colom it is now able to achieve it's , Magenta or yellow is best gas . test out my stament By sending your blue gas up a charcoal colom & drip water in ti the ends so it can flash to steam & be sucked into the gas stream . you will be surprised at the change you achieve in your gas & the power in you gen set. Les England do not tack my word on this test it out in experiment Then the penny will drop.
Would you take off any new shoots which doesn’t have grapes on , I have been through and taken off some leaves to expose the grapes to the sunshine but noticed there was new growth with no grapes on , your vides have been so useful to me. Thank you. Nick
Hi Nick. It's absolutely fine to leave shoots to develop from the main fruiting line so long as these are held upwards in the catch wires. These will then form your leaf wall. These may not have grapes on them but they are creating energy that goes into the grapes. Get rid of any shoots that shield the grapes below the fruiting line and any shoots that get too tall or overflow outside the leaf wall. If it looks like it's getting out of control then you won't hurt the vine by thinning it, they are very hardy plants.
Доброго дня! У цьому відео ви на нових насаженнях молоді пагони винограду ложити і прикріплюєте до дроту. Я дивлюсь ваші відео і знаю, що на плодоношення ви лишаєте минулорічні гілки, а ті що були рукавами обрізаєте. В мене невеликий виноградник трошки більше 30 молодих кущів. З яких лише 2 вже плодоносят. І я виховую свої молоді кущі так щоб нові гілки росли вверх. А ви їх положоли горизонтально. Хоч вони вже мали грона. такий прийом в мене призводить до сильного розвитку пасинків. Поясніть мені будьласка може я щось роблю не правильно. Дуже дякую!
Seems to me that with all that tedding, you are knocking off all the nutritious leaves?? Plus the stems got beat up so much the baler teeth had nothing to latch onto. Good Luck.
Hi Steve. It does look like quite a violent process but we have finally learnt that the real secret to good baling in the height of the windrows. This particular baler needs to grab lots of hay in order to work properly and hopefully in a video coming shortly this will demonstrate this. Oddly enough most of the nutrition is in the stems rather than the leaves. More sophisticated balers actually crimp these stems on purpose to help dry the stems out faster but that is way above our budget. The sheep don’t seem to be too fussy when winter comes around, although they go mad for nuts…
Why not just dig in a strainer, add a stay at start and end of run, where is bottom wire, where is top wire, correct way is strainer and stay at start and end of run bottom wire next between strainers to get straight line for posts, posts 3 meters apart max, fencing right round strainer and tied off so strainer doesn't twist
I’m eventually trying to boarder our field with cannon hall grapevines. Sadly a slow approach we bought two and took cuttings once they were big enough we now have 12 slowly gaining strength spreading out on the hillside and more to take cuttings from each year 👍🇬🇬
This has been the most useful guide on RU-vid for starting a vineyard. My wife and I will be putting in 200 vines this coming spring, so thank you for staying consistent with your uploads! You're an invaluable resource, my friend. Cheers!
Watched all of the videos, really great job with everything! If you had to give some recommendations, what would be a few good resources people who are beginners can start with? Thanks!
Hi there. Thank you for your kind comments. For resources to start with, try the website wingrowers.info. it is a mine of useful information. Also on Amazon there are some good books of you search for 'how to start a vineyard. One of them may be the one I wrote but there are a couple of other ones too. Try them to start with and see how you get on.
I would like to start by saying I have learned so much from your Chanel I'm in my first year and have followed your first year guide and my three vines are doing just fine. Could I ask please. I had four but one got damaged during delivery as in the shoots were broken. It didn't recover no fresh growth on the grape graft part but today I noticed growth coming out of the rootstock. Vigorous too. So any suggestions. Thank you.
Hi Colin. So pleased you like the videos. We too have some that don’t survive above the grafting point. The root stock itself will grow into a vine but from experience they are quick growing and quite weedy in comparison to the ‘proper’ vine. Absolutely no harm in trying and see what you get. My knowledge of what types of vine are used for the root stocks is somewhat lacking but I suspect they are selected primarily for their resistance to root bugs rather than their fruiting ability. See how you get on and I’ll do the same.
Thank you for your reply, I'm thinking I will cut back the graft by 2-3 inches and remove any growth from the root stock as it appears, forcing maybe the graft to wake up. Your pruning at the wire I followed exactly see shot. That was about five days ago and I have seen the two shoots already that will go along the wire. I really like the fact you show up close where these cuts happen it's really well done. Thank you
Oh gosh Sciatica is the worst pain when you’ve got jobs to do (aside from frozen shoulder or back spasms perhaps). It all seems unnecessarily painful . You have my sympathies.
Hi Anthony - your videos are super helpful. I wondered if you had an email address so I can contact you about a few things. I've started my own vines and had a few questions. J x
Fascinating - you make it look so easy! Excellent work-around on the panel alignment! I've had flat sheets from Thomas Panels in Leominster before - did you get yours from there? I didn't know they did curved panels I think of the roofing screws as Tektites but that's just a brand name I suppose.
Hi John. Yes spot on. Thomas panels, give them the spec and they curve them for you. I didn’t know the name of the screws, but thank you for the brand. Certainly helps when there’s more hands to help ;)
@mycountrylife810 lol. It did sound harsh 😂 and I didn't mean disregard to the "cause"! But I mean why should I? I'm not selling. I'm eating and drinking it. I just enjoy it all.
@@mycountrylife810 best option "(infinito or previcur) + topas + microelements = kills the powdery mildew = kills the downy mildew = kills the chlorosis" before flowering and after(when berries the size of a pea). Some times need after extreme rain when conditions are favorable and diseases occur.
Thank you for sharing this. Ive seen all your videos. I have just planted a micro vineyard in my South facing sloped garden on the South Coast, chalk ground. I have some Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc. I have two spaces left because I want to plant a native breed. Do you know of a native English white drinking grape and could you help point me in the right direction of where to get it? Many thanks.
Hi there. That’s fantastic!! Ive always found Derek at winegrowers.info. very helpful and knowledgeable on vine sourcing. He’s helped us. Not sure on a particular native uk vine but he will probably point you in the right direction on that score. Good luck in your vineyard
My experience from the 10 acre vineyard I manage is that good canopy management is more important than fungicides. Good airflow throughout the vines, sunlight reaching the canes and no overcrowding. That with regular sprays every 2 weeks over the growing season and you should be fine. Looks like you're doing a great job so far though
156 vines, in New Zealand. I control my grass with a little quad bike and a tow behind mower. It’s even faster than a small tractor, uses less fuel and I can man handle the quad onto a trailer etc if I need to take it somewhere. Mildew hasn’t been a problem for us yet, but we’re a few years behind you. My vines struggled in the first year from too much rain on clay soils, but they’re much happier this year.
How about using clover instead of grass? I'm not one that would recommend a clover lawn, but in the vineyard it might make sense to capture some extra nitrogen.
250 vines in southern Belgium, same issues. Clay soil. Definitly close to the maximum I would recommend, alone with a full time job asside... I have made the 1st row perpendicular to the vineyard to cut the wildlife access from the woods. Lateral access bordering meadows are protected with electric fence, thanks to neighbour farmers. No major problem for those last 2 years. Vine loss was ok last year, but I had a lot of problems with late frost this year. +-15% are still dormant 1,5 month after, those are not often the weakest from last year. To me, the issue lies with the choice of vine type. Some varieties are making bether than others with this strange climate those months. Greatly suprised by Johanniter and Fleurtai. On the other hand, I had a bad surprise with Pinot Iskra planted this year, which are supposed to be quite resistant to mildew but was heavily attacked. Souvigniers gris suffered a lot from this late frost (+-50% not awake yet...) I used metal post from the start (Reisacher). They are competitive compared to quality wooden posts, whose price greatly increased here. I also like the grass for same reasons. But this year, with all the rain, it is tough to keep up. I cut every 3 weeks atm. Looking for the right equipment since my brushcutter is heavily time consuming. As I went with mostly resistant vines, I haven't needed to spray last year... Only a preventive one with copper, and it worked. 2 years ago was tougher, and maybe this year. Experimenting baking soda, let see how it goes (preventive only) I used metal post from the start (Reisacher). They are competitive compared to quality wood posts, whose price greatly increased. I also like the grass look. But this year, with all the rain, it is tough to keep up. I cut every 3 weeks atm. As I went with mostly resistant vines, I didn't need to spray last year... Only a preventive one with copper, and it worked. 2 years ago was tougher, and maybe this year. Experimenting baking soda, let see how it goes (preventive only). 3rd year, first real quality grapes expected this year. Good luck with your project and keep it up!
Hi there. Thank you so much for letting me know how you are doing your vineyard. Hoping that my other two varieties will need less soraying as they are meant to be more resistant Like your suggestion about having the end row at 90 degrees to prevent wildlife. We use potassium bicarbonate rather than sodium bicarbonate as I read it was meant to be slightly better but would love to know how you get on. I may have experiment with that too. No late frosts here as yet but I'm sure our British weather will oblige at some stage in the future. All the best of luck with your vineyard.
I enjoy your channel. I have a small vineyard (120 vines) in North Carolina, US and have the same worries as you. I'm surrounded by woods too and deer are/were a problem. Solved that one with a double layer electric fence. Reasonable for my size but probably a lot more expensive for your size. I've struggled with vine loss over the years as well. Nearly half my Cab Sav and Sangiovese just decided they didn't like it here so they offed themselves 😄 I love the grass between my rows if for no other reason than it makes everything look nice! My spray program is decent I think. Found a small vineyard spray guide online from the University of Kentucky years ago which helped a lot with what I could do without breaking the bank. Some of the commercial products are so expensive and in such large quantities, they just don't work for me. Just finished a spray this morning! Knock on wood, I've been fortunate in the 7 years of doing this that I've not had any of the usual vine issues (other than dead ones). Anyway, thanks again for an enjoyable video and continued good luck with your season and harvest.
