Like most everyone here I want to plant as many different fruits and vegetables as can possibly be planted even if it means just a little bit of crowding.
For me it’s not how much I can get out of an individual variety it is how many varieties am I able to sample which brings me to my question.
I have three grape vines growing about 7 feet apart but like everyone else, I want more. Why can’t I plant two more vines in between the three and prune accordingly? All the info I have found is about overall production of individual vines. Has anyone else planted grapes close together and just pruned to maybe 2 spurs per cordon arm.
Yes you can put grapes really close but once they fill in the yield will be the same overall. I planted grapes 2’ apart before and it works fine. What I did was to thin out the ones I didn’t like, it let me try many varieties at once and pick the winners.
Yes, but grapes are hard to field graft. They are easy to bench graft but they like warms temps to callous and its hard to get those temps in springtime outside.
My biggest concern was the roots being to close but it sounds like a plan and I will put more in. I will also try some grafting to the slipskins I want to get rid of.
Does anyone know of a resource that tells whether a specific grape is slipskin or non slip skin? You do not see this on many websites and you would think that that would be a concern to many potential customers.
I’m glad you asked that question, and appreciate @scottfsmith reply! Old posts keep giving. I’d planted some grape seed in my nursery row last fall, just because, and some grew well and I’ve been wondering what I was going to do with them, not wanting to make another grape area for vines I may not want to keep. Don’t know why I didn’t think of just planting them between what I already have until they set fruit. But that’s what I’ll do when they get a little bigger.
So did you plant more vines between your established vines? If so, how did they do?
One thing I noticed when I moved from 10 ft spacing to 6 ft spacing is that I have to do a lot more summer pruning now, especially with the vigorous vines, to keep things under control. Sue
I did not plant between existing vines but did add another row with three varieties. I did try to graft to existing vines but had no success . My remedy for the slipskins that noone will eat was to buy a steamer juicer. The opossums enjoyed most of them before ripening enough to juice though.