I grow Somerset, Himrod and Jupiter. I don’t get full sun on any of them, but most sun.
Somerset is about 7 years old and very productive. Great taste and ripens early starting late August. They can hold on the vine for quite a while.
Himrod is also productive and great honey-like flavor. Ripens about 2 weeks behind Somerset, the first or second week of September.
Jupiter is only 3 years and is very vigorous and productive. Concord-like flavor. Ripens with Himrod.
Grapes and cold:
Somerset is the most winter hardy, but buds out the earliest so is most susceptible to bud damage in the spring.
Himrod and Jupiter are both less hardy and both bud out later
With several varieties growing, I don;t worry as much about winter-kill as much. My understanding is that the vine can die to the goround, but the root system will regernerate quickly so probably only lose 1-1.5 crops.
I have heard very good things about St. Theresa.
Folks are welcome to come by and test mine, although I am out of town 9/1-9/8.
I remembered seeing them when I was out, and enjoyed seeing what you had growing. Too bad I couldn’t stay longer. This is some really useful information. It sounds like you have a good mix for hardiness and late season blooms. Any idea many hours of sun do you think they get at harvest in mid-sept? I think we can cheat a little in CO.
Yeah, I’d love to come out and try some when you get into harvest. Looks like the grafting went well and you’re on your way to a multi-fruiting tree!
My Somerset trelllis is almost halfway under one of the Bradford pears. The Jupiter has trees around it plus the house may shade then, but not sure.
My new Himrod gets the most sun on the side of the house.- I’m guessing 80% sun for it.
BTW, I don’t know the ins and outs of rooting grape vines, but I will be thinning out new growth shoots the first week of June if someone wants to try. EDIT - looks like cuttings should be from canes, so the green shoots won’t work.
I cinch the bunches in organza bags before the berries turn color. Pests don’t care about them until then. Keeps wasps out also. I use slightly larger bags for Himrod as the bunches are larger. I’m still at risk of a raccoon attack, but lucky so far.
To avoid tempting raccoons and other 4-legged critters, I make sure all fruit is at least 3 ft off the ground. Yes, they can climb, but no use having them run into by accident.
Wow, your grapes are way, way ahead of mine. Looking great.
Not speaking of grapes but of all fruit in general it’s looking like a really nice year - we ended up with no late freezes and all my trees are loaded. Now, about that four letter word you mentioned…
I’m going to be trying some organza bags on some grafts on my multi-graft apple tree… some Arkansas Black, Liberty, and [no longer labeled] are fruiting for the first time. The squirrels always devour the horrible apples on that tree, and will be interesting to see if they keep them off the fruit. BTW [no longer labeled] is because I used the same style label you have, and I learned the hard way that they blow off! Probably half of them… so you may want to find a way to fasten for the first couple years… I dunno… maybe a rubber band over the metal loop, or put the metal loop on an adjacent branch where it can’t slide off the end? I even had some blow off the graft after it was a few feet long and pointing upward!
I was told by a wildlife rehabber this week that the motion activated sprinklers, such as the scarecrow or hav-a-hart are very effective with raccoons.
I did have a few blow off, so I tied the wire to the branch with the plastic stretchy garden tape. I should be able to remove that once the scion grows out.
Also, I had the same thought about using the organza bags for apples specfically. May be a way to control coddling moths without spraying. I am only hoping to get 5-10 apples per graft, so it woud not be overwhelming to do like a tree would.
The racoons are the bane of my existence. They will work their way through netting. Last year rats were the problem…I was able to “take care” of those pests. A motion activated sprinkler has worked in the past for the racoons. I’m thinking of picking up a second one this year.
Nice! Looks like that works real well. Which one did you get, and any shortcomings? I think some have more adjustments than others. Do you move it around (i.e. to trees that will be ready for harvest soon)?
Anyone get hit by the hail storm over the weekend?
We lucked out… passed right over us with quite a light show, but didn’t let loose until it was further west. Sounds like the areas that got hit saw a lot of large hail. I have heard that after a hail storm, applying an antibiotic to fireblight prone trees may be effective, but probably has to be soon-after. Anyone done this before?
Avoided the hail. That said, you’re advice about fireblight proved prophetic, though I think it occurred earlier in the week after a rain. It’s manifesting a bit different than it usually does - for example, I’ve never had fire blight that’s left some fruit in tacked while killing off most other blossoms. It’s also not nearly a “burnt” looking as I’ve had in the past.
I’ve had a good number of years since my last bad fireblight incident, so I didn’t think to spray Streptomycin which I’ve applied in the past. No matter what it is, it only impacted the last of my blooms which is a good thing - should still have a number of different apples fruit that bloomed prior.
@danCO I’m feeling you with the raccoons! I’m in the process of trying to trap this little SOB
Last night was my first attempt - needed a much bigger trap that I usually use for squirrels. Might be hard to gauge the size from this still shot but I saw this one run through the streets at dusk a few nights ago and he’s a biiiig boy.
I used to grow grapes. I wanted to make my own wine, so I had quite a few varieties I was trialing. I never got to the wine making, just the grape growing. I ordered a bunch of different cuttings from UC Davis and stated it was for cold hardiness wine grape trialing.
I rooted the cuttings back when I knew absolutely nothing about rooting cuttings. I used water bottles with tops cut off and used perlite/vermiculite/peat for a medium. I put a heat mat at the bottom of a tub, placed the bottles with cuttings in them on top, then used grocery bags and packing tape to cover the tops of the bottles with the cutting tops sticking out. I then put it in my garage fridge. I had read that the hard part with grapes was getting the bottom to root without the tops growing. I probably didn’t need all that, but like I mentioned I didn’t know anything back then. But it did work like a charm, nearly all of them rooted and none started growing.
If memory serves me right it was Landot Noir, Marchelle Foch, and Leon Millot that did the best. They were all tasty little grapes to eat out of hand but they had seeds and birds loved them too.
As far as table grapes, I tried to get Vanessa to grow but it was just not hardy enough. I love a crisp grape, so I really wanted that one. I never grew Mars because it is supposedly similar to Concord and that was growing at my wifes house (my wife before she was my wife ) I had the grape operation going at my old house (bachelor pad).
Ultimately I gave up on grapes because the Japanese beetles moved to town and they absolutely decimate the leaves. I am now lucky to just get a few grape leaves for making pickles.
I have the Orbit Yard Enforcer. It has a lot of adjustments and has worked pretty well. The one issue I have is if something is blowing in the wind it may trigger it.
I do move it around throughout the year. The video I linked is our peach tree. I was finding peach pits around the tree so I knew racoons were responsible. On hot days the kids will play with it… they call it the ninja sprinkler.
Has anyone seen this before? Happened last night. I stuck a wire down the hole and it’s about 4” deep. Carpenter bee? Seems like too small a hole. Any ideas on what it is and how to prevent “it” from further damaging my peach seedling would be appreciated!
That’s weird. I don’t know if there is some sort of borer that would do that… maybe someone in the insect identification thread would know. Is it a big enough hole you could inject some wood glue down it (maybe with a syringe)? I also have some gashell grafting wax is formable by hand… may be good over the top, or just some grafting compound. Have both if you don’t and are anywhere near… just PM me.
) I had the grape operation going at my old house (bachelor pad).