Starting a Backyard Vineyard 

Thank you! I am glad to see more people get serious about Winemaking and growing and that I can help.

Didnt you comment the same thing on a different video

Lovely video content! Apologies for butting in, I would love your initial thoughts. Have you researched - Lammywalness Green Grapes Guide (should be on google have a look)? It is an awesome one of a kind product for learning how to become a successful grape grower without the headache. Ive heard some unbelievable things about it and my GF after many years got excellent results with it.

You could always plant a single row to make about one carboy and scale up from there! That way you don't really have much to lose but it is a fun experiment to see how things grow on your site and learn about the process better.

I have been very impressed with the Saperavi from the finger lakes. In my experience it has been the best red wine I have tasted from the region. I was unable to find any Saperavi vines for sale but I might make some more room if I can find them!

Awesome, thank you! Congrats on the vineyard. I have been posting more vineyard stuff on my Patreon page since it is a little more niche and some people can get a little sensitive when taking about vineyard sprays.

Cant wait for my first big harvest, should yield a lot of wine about 1200 bottles.

Why would I?@Ascending Tract

@Ascending Tract I also added to it Lemberger. And Graciano.

Cabernet franc is higher. Actually. True fact. But yeah it is. Tannat just does not make good wine without a lot of careful work and control over oxygen.@Ascending Tract

Where are you located?

That is lucky! I hope the deer focus more on the neighborhood apple trees than my grapes but we'll see. They chomped a few young vines last year right out of the tubes. Once they get more established I will be less concerned about a few nibbles.

​@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel -- The only time I worry about deer is in the spring when young shoots are aplenty -- and that is mostly with trees and bushes. The deer will bite off every young bud/shoot after a bad winter. I spray deer repellent very early in the spring on my newer trees. They tend to leave them alone after a couple of years as well. Love the channel and will be watching a lot of it before starting my first batch of wine in the fall.

Bobbex Deer Repellent has saved my vines this year's...all first year vines. That is, after I learned the hard way...

It's going great! I've now got all the vines shaped and tied to the cordon wire and the buds are just starting to open up. Got a few grapes last year but did not let the vines keep enough to do anything with besides taste. This year I should get a small harvest and next year will be near full capacity. I will post an update once the vines leaf out and fill in a little better

I have not looked into Frontenac but I have one Marquette vine just to see what happens. I also have a Noiret (Cornell) but I am really just hoping for the best with the winters here. I am in climate zone 6B so hopefully I won't see winter damage very often. I plan on at least hilling up the vinifera above the graft unions each year. I may end up burying the Merlot and cab Franc this year just to be safe.

No need, cabernet franc is the most cold tolerant vinifera grape in the world, it doesn't care if it gets snowed on.

Like a reputable place or website you would Just to a family member to if they were to start a backyard vineyard. Thank you.

My vinifera vines are 5 feet apart. The hybrids are a little more vigorous, so I have them about 7 feet apart. If you have the room, you can always space then more but you just might not be as optimized for the acreage. If you go too close, you will need to prune a little more and spread the growth as best as possible. With the Smart Dyson (like mine) or any other split canopies, you can go a little closer. My posts are 5.5 feet high and rows are 6 feet apart. You want about 1:1 row height to width to get enough sun to the rows while efficiently using space. Again, you can go wider if you have the land. If you have a tractor, you would want to make sure you are wide enough for all possible attachments.

Thank you! T posts (the metal posts with sheet metal plate on the side) are pretty common for center posts. I had a short row with T posts when I bought my house and it worked well but didn't look as good. For a large vineyard it would be a more economical choice. For a more aesthetic vineyard the treated lumber posts are very nice.

Thank you! Most rows have 13 vines at 5 foot spacing. They traminette is on 7 foot spacing so I have about 10 in that row.

Should get about 30 gallons (150 bottles). This year I am hoping to get a small harvest of maybe about 10 or 12 gallons, then next year should be full production if the weather cooperates.

@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel Is that around 200mt2 (10x20 mt.. metric) plot?

As far as I know European varieties can thrive in few places in North America. California and a few other countries. Most of their wines are made of hybrid varieties. I guess there's no better place for Limberger (Frankovka) than central Europe.

Just one end of each wire. On the double catch wires I have one on each of the two wires (which is technically one continuous wire). I wrap them on the end post so they do not slide freely which requires two strainers then. If you used a plastic tube where it wrapped the post you could maybe get away with one but without wrapping a full loop around the end post it will likely try to slide down on you.

Many thanks!

Grapes will. Begin to show up around a month after you start to see leaves on the vine. They will not be ripe until the very end of the growing season which is around September to October in most northern hemisphere locations. The first year you won't see any grapes. Second year you might get a small harvest. And third year you will likely get a good bit of grapes. It is important to prune back the grapes pretty aggressively before the leaves start coming. If you dont, you don't get grapes or won't get many. With a Concord, you will usually run a high wire about 6 feet off the ground and leave two large cordons (branches) to run both directions on the wire. Then off of that you will leave a cane every six or eight inches off the cordon and prune it back to about five or six buds. You will see this style of pruning a lot of you drive along the shores of the great lakes in Welches country. If you want more vines, you will want to propagate from a cutting. So prune a cane off and stick it in the ground. Most grapes need to be grafted onto different roots but Concord can do well on its own roots.

@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel thank you so much

@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel wait can you propagate on the first year?

All over the place. Small posts are from Lowes. Big posts from northeast fruit growers in Erie. Wire from Tractor Supply. Vines mostly from Double A vineyards. Some hardware from Amazon. Some more hard to get hardware from Orchard Valley Supply and Sanver supply.

Marquette, Frontenac, Frontenac Gris, Itasca

Should be about 90-100lbs per row so about one carboy of wine each.

Seriously..! You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention. Going to have to give this a try. Replacing my lawn with dutch clover this spring. Might as well add some grapes.

@@wes9451, good for you. Grass is a total waste of space and effort IMHO

Those are Blue-x grow tubes.

No, I am on the East Coast near Pittsburgh

@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel Thank you. Brother. May be i 'll move. California. . i will call you. If. I am. In USA .. Thank you for reply. Bye.

I have a single electric wire on a 1 Joule fencer about 20 inches off the ground. I put it on a timer to come on about a half hour before sunset and just after sunrise. Have not had any problems with deer since. You want to out it up before the deer learn that it is worth the jolt. They could easily jump it but they can't see it and I think it catches them off guard so they have altered their route.

What type of info do you need? I have a couple other vineyard videos and a couple articles on my website and patreon page. I will make many many more as time goes on. I could probably make an entire channel dedicated to the vineyard but I find that my subscriber base leans more towards Winemaking with a general interest in the vineyard.