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Finally, getting grape vines planted, 4-Cayua, 2-Edelwies, 3-Neptune and 2- Concorde I grew from cuttings last year.

Started a grape vine nursery and when I prune them next years will set the pruning's in pots to raise more vines.

Going to take wild grape vine cuttings later this year too, although the grapes are pea sized, due to the fact they are out of control, I've read they make good wine, in fact there's a winery farther north of me that just grows cultivars of the native wild grapes, and have won a few prizes in wine fests.

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Everyone needs a hobby of some sort, very satisfying to start something off and see it through to fruition (no pun intended) whether it be knitting,gardening, cooking or some sort of engineering project,anything that gets you away from the normal daily routines,keeps the mind active as well as the body

 

Rog

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You mean like my strawberry wine and my Mulberry wine.... The Mulberry wine needs racking off now it's just about finished, tastes like a port wine.

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The grape harvest is getting underway here in South Australia. Much of the harvesting is done at night and it is quite disconcerting when travelling along lonely country roads when you meet one or more of these moving between vineyards. It feel like you are going to be abducted by aliens.

(Photo from our ABC)

 

Image result for grape harvesting machines at night

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5 minutes ago, LizzieM said:

Look forward to drink some of that next year then Oz!  

Yes Lizzie, but what really pi$$es me of is that sometimes you can buy it in the UK cheaper than we can here.

By the way that photo is from the Clare Valley here in South Australia.

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8 hours ago, Oztalgian said:

The grape harvest is getting underway here in South Australia. Much of the harvesting is done at night and it is quite disconcerting when travelling along lonely country roads when you meet one or more of these moving between vineyards. It feel like you are going to be abducted by aliens.

(Photo from our ABC)

 

Image result for grape harvesting machines at night

 

We are surrounded by grape vines and all our vendemmia is done by hand, Can't understand why they don't have machinery like that here. The farmers usually do their ploughing ,cutting and baling at night. We have vineyards to the sides and in front of us so would imagine that it could be a bit weird seeing the lights at night. The fields are further down the road so they don't bother us

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Referring to Nonna's Italian farmers who work at night. A farmer friend of mine was combining in the early hours of a summer's morning (you've got to work during harvest when the climatic conditions are perfect) on the hills above Thurgarton. He got a complaint from a couple living further down the hill that his combine's headlamps were shining through their bedroom window and disturbing their sleep! 

People come to live in the country thinking it's a rural idyll for them to enjoy the tranquility. In fact it's a serious working environment - an outdoor factory.

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All the vintage on medium to high quality wines are hand gathered to prevent bruising Nonna, not sure if thats a good reason or not.

In California were the vintage is marketed for the cask and jug wines are harvested by machines that thrash the grape vine to pieces, which could be the real reason, cheap wines from damaged vines??

 

In Australia I helped my cousin prune vines for several hours on a hot spring day, not much fun after several hours!! Wasn't his vineyard, but a friend of his, he had his share of grapes at vintage time to make his own wines.

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Over this side of the pond in the corn fields, some at a few hundred acres, the will work until all corn cobs are harvested, might take many dark hours as well as light hours, with wheat, you don't want it wet when you fetch it in, so if rains in the forecast and the heads of wheat are ripe, it's all hands on deck and stay with it until it's all in.

I live in a very rural area, but little to no arable farming around here, cattle sheep and goats seem to be the top animals. Since world prices for beef have gone through the roof, pasture is getting used up, I've had farmers ask me if I want to lease my 80 acres.

There used to be a farm to the west, about 20 miles, who raised Buffalo for beef, not seen any for ages on his land. Very expensive meat and very low fat.

As for Vineyards, Missouri has many, some producing fruit wines, most grape vines and wines, there's even one that raises the native grape vines and produces award winning wines from the those vines.

On my land in the wooded areas are native grape vines, at ground level I've seen vines as thick as a mans leg, because they are growing wild they only produce pea sized grapes, I'll be out today looking for vines that are just started within the last couple of years and take cuttings. I'd like to see how they fare under controlled cultivation.

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The main thing here is to harvest the corn crops at their driest. They do have gas heaters by the silos to use if they really have to but this is adds to the cost. With our varied climate they have to be able to cater for all weather conditions.

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Exactly, drying adds up cost and lost profit, so once a harvest is started it continues until the crop is in. Like hay making, the grass is cut, then "tedded" (mechanically raked into rows) left to dry for a day or two to stop mildew, then rolled into large bales. Very few around me use square balers anymore.

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It’s all large round bales here now. They’re not so easy to manage unless you’ve got a tractor with a bale spike. The horsey people like the smaller  bales because they are easy to pick up by hand but it’s becoming difficult to find anyone with the kit to make small bales. I don’t know what we’re going to do with our hay crop this year as it’s difficult to get a big round baler onto the field. We may have to put it down to grazing. There’s no shortage of takers for that!

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You have a couple of tractors why not hire/buy a small  baler you can tow. Plenty of used ones for sale that look to be in good condition

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We get about 150 bales of hay for which my sister in law, who has two horses, pays for the cutting and baling. It’s not worth my while spending any money to get a cutter, a swath turner, a woofler and a baler just to do her a favour! It’s up to her to get it cut if she wants free hay! Plus the bales have got to be stacked into sevens and loaded on a trailer to take to her paddock. No way! Too old for all that nonsense.

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Going back to Grape Vines

Living in St Ann's we did not have a garden (or bath room) and dad been dad loved his allotment. Any thing you can think of dad grew it, now at the end of our allotment was a summer house with a lean to conservatory and guess what, in the conservatory was a grape vine also a peach tree, now each summer from knee high I looked after the grape vine and peach tree, it took 10 years for me to get 1 peach and the grape vine WELL!!! never did give me any grapes. So the moral of this story is  leave it to the experts or failing that buy them at Morrisons.

 

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Dad had a grapevine in a greenhouse at Clifton. I think the damn thing was on steroids. It was totally neglected  and produced more grapes than you can shake a stick at.

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They have to be pruned each spring, or they will get out of control in no time. Native wild ones around here, many are really thick at the base and climb trees 50 feet high in just a few years.

For the best fruit, they need to be trained and heavily pruned each year, leaving just a few buds on last years growth.

You should see my Kiwi vines!!! They recommend twice a year pruning of those.

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Mary, you was probably pruning them wrong, this year growth is next years fruiting canes.

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Hl  Ayupmeducks

At the time i was only about 7 or 8 or 9 years of age did not know anything about pruning but just to tell your mates that you had a lean-to with a grape vine in well you felt a million dollars. Of cause this was in the fifties when the only  time you saw a bunch of grapes  was at Christmas.

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We picked up a couple of 275 gallon crated "totes" yesterday, they look new, no stains or any residue in them, but to be on the safe side I'll pressure wash the insides and give them a good rinse out. One will be for drip feed irrigation for the row of grape vines, and the other for drip feed irrigating the veggie garden.

Experimenting with native grape vines, cutting them off to around four feet and tying them to the closest trees. I'll train them, keep minimum growth each spring, like cultivated ones, and see how much each yields each year.

There's one native vine near the chicken house that's over 5" in diam, must be years old. The native stock is what Concord vines were raised from. These are philoxera resistant and mould resistant, two killers of grape vines.

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Its preparation time at the moment for the Wine Festival. This year its for 5 days instead of 3. Expecting as always people from everywhere. Many have adopted rows of vines to receive the wine from the year befores vendemmia .Have previously seen people from Nottingham.

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