the contender that i planted 2 years ago didnt make it through the winter surprisingly. reliance did but it was a unusually warm winter. like z6. put in a redhaven this spring and have 5 Siberian peaches that are a ft. tall i planted from seed last fall. going to dig them next spring and put out in the orchard.
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Ah that could be, we’ve had some dramatic weather this spring. Some leaves on the other trees have curled, black perimeter edges, so I was starting to worry about fireblight, but maybe it’s alright
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Would anyone be willing to pm with with Dax’s email address? I live ~1.5 hours from him here in IL and corresponded with him infrequently in the past, but only via this website (and I realized he left the forum a few months ago). I was hoping to reach out to him to collaborate on a few things and just check in. Thanks, Neal
The last time someone tried to contact Dax privately, he was very upset. I don’t know his state of mind right now. I’ll be very careful not to upset him.
Thanks Mamuang, I don’t want to bother him if he doesn’t want people contacting him. It was helpful to have someone in the exact same zone who could tell me exactly how things have done at his place. Glad there are so many other great people on this site too who are willing to share their knowledge.
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Does this look like sun damage, or something else? First two are longan trees, last one is ice cream bean.
My wild guess would be too much water/wet feet?
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my grapes
himrod, about 6 years old now. this entire huge plant has exactly one bunch of grapes on it. I did prune according to a thread here, in fall, and it seemed to make no difference except there’s less branches/canes this year. it has whiteflies right now in the leaves.
how do I get this thing to actually make more than one bunch of grapes?!?
full sun, watered 2x a week deeply, more if it’s over 90F. until they begin to ripen then I back off a little. it’s had fish fert, and then 2-15-15 after that. not sure what what will help it.
and yes that’s mint intruding on the area, it does tend to keep the spot from drying out and I cut and pull it all once a month for mulch
What training system does your grape have? I have grapes but have never needed water as often as you did. Maybe your climate is different that need water often. Grapes are eady to grow. once the training system is established, the activities I do most for grapes is spray fungicide. I got a lot of grape berries.
Mine mainly are on cordon system. I have to thin many grapes so it won’t over load itself.
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I’ve got that fence covered in wire square; I usually try to train it up along one side then along to the left. we are high desert, almost everything needs water at some point here. my lot rarely gets fungus, things dry out so much.
I’ve watched so many videos on training grapes and just can’t wrap my mind around it (I’m hard of hearing and can’t learn very well from video, it is likely I’m missing something really obvious). I’ve tried several ways of training/pruning, the past two years it’s gotten huge and made one bunch of grapes only.
I do use the leaves for dolmas, but it’s too much space taken up for me to use a handful of leaves!
Understood the your climate now. when I grew my first grape vine and was struggled on what and how I was supposed to do the training system. I got the idea on paper but didn’t get in practice. I finally decided just try one and see what happens. I tried the easiest, the cordon system that I just tied two arm on the top of my 3’ fence. Now the cordon is the size of my forearm. The most difficult part for me was afraid of failure. Second difficult part was to prune off the rest if the branches. I wasn’t sure only left two arms to grow, what if something happened to them then what… Once i overcame my mental blocks, the rest was easy
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I just saw this- has your question been answered about potting it up? I’m no expert but I’ve seen figs loving sandy soil because of great drainage. Photos? Age? Variety? Full sun? How often do you water?
Why do you prune in fall?Just asking. In my region pruning and training is always done in late winter/ early spring when the temperature is above freezing. No exceptions, really. I’m not sure it is just to make sure you have enough undamaged spurs.
You may want to wean it of the fert, too. Grapes seem to do best in very poor conditions. Too much nitrogen will actually hinder flower formation.
I’ll wean it! that may be part of the issue
last fall I pruned it out of frustration. the year before I pruned along with all the other winter stuff, in I think January.
I don’t know how to pick what to cut and what to keep. I am not sure if all green new growth should go, leaving only the lignified areas- two of them, from what it sounds like
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I thought that might be it too. It wasn’t soaking wet, but I repotted them anyways and put them somewhere they would dry out faster if they get overwatered again.
The folk wisdom in these parts says that when pruning grapes, if it doesn’t look like you’ve killed it, you haven’t pruned it well enough. 
The most common method here is to cut everything except 2 last year’s vines, shorten those to two propper buds and one insurance bud (that one can be on old wood). That’s it. Whack the rest off.
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I’m so mad at the thing that I’m ready for that haha. in late winter, yeah?
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The jist of most grape pruning systems is you’re removing everything back to a new bud off the permanent structure that grew the previous year.
Using my fine MSPaint skills (use your imagination to draw the fence in) is about how I think you want to be pruning it based on how you said you’re training it. The left would be the current year, the right how you would prune it in the Winter. You’re leaving one or two buds that grew the previous year to grow side branches with flowers/fruit in the Spring.
edit: If you’re pruning in the Fall before dormancy it’s possible you’re causing the buds to break early and they’ll just continue to grow vegetatively the following year? (I’m not 100% sure about this part.)
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Maybe try some research as to trellis height in your region. Lower should be better in hot&dry conditions - shading the ground and less moisture loss due to circulating dry hot air. While in my region we go for higher airier training to keep fungi in check as much as possible. (Sisyphus had no idea about useless endeavour…) Also, leaving only one bud instead of two might be better, not for flower set but overall water management. Less vegetative growth from the get-go = lower perspiration and shock. In any case, don’t be afraid to experiment. Grapes can take nearly anything. Being foolproof (in long term) is why they’re humanity’s favourite source of booze…
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I’m gonna go low for water needs and that ms paint image makes perfect sense somehow!? I’ll try to train it back this winter