After years of trying to grow grapes in my terrible sand I’ve gone to plan B. Wish me luck!
by Niko120
After years of trying to grow grapes in my terrible sand I’ve gone to plan B. Wish me luck!
by Niko120
22 Comments
Good luck and I hope you get an awesome harvest!
Wow that looks so gorgeous. Great job!
Grapes have a deep root system.
That looks great, I do container gardening because of various reasons and to me it looks like that will help your grapes grow and retain moisture and nutrients.
Just be sure that the containers will last under the sun, rain, wind, etc.
If u have bad soil just mix in a bunch of compost. And keep adding more each year
OP, how about do this BUT cut the bottoms off the pots, loosen and amend the soil then put the pot on top. The roots to be healthy long term will need more than that bucket.
This is not the way
I wonder if a hugelkultur bed would make a good plan c (hopefully not needed)
Why the plastic beneath the pots?
Cut the bottoms off, it won’t hurt and they’ll eventually root into the ground
Grapes will grow in the poorest soil on steep hillsides. That’s the whole point of making wine, using lands unsuitable for growing anything else to capture the sun’s energy.
I think you would have been better off placing grow bags or pots recessed down into the ground. Sun on black plastic pots makes the roots really hot and can kill the plant and the pots only last 5 to 10 years at the most. Since grapes take 3 to 5 years to really produce much, its a bummer to only get a few years from them before your pots break down.
With this set up, best case scenario is really thirsty grapes that need daily watering during heat waves to keep alive. If its not too late, dig holes and plant them into the pots in the ground.
I respect your determination! I wish you luck! It’s definitely possible to grow grapes in raised pots. Don’t doubt it, just roll with it.
It is extremely obvious why you would say your soil is terrible just looking at your yard for 5 seconds. Good luck tho
Maybe, just maybe, you’re not meant to grow grapes here? Right plant, right place. This is surely not the way.
Those pot will get hot and cook the roots
Good luck. I’d recommend preparing a second vineyard where you heavily plant with comfry and just chop and drop for a few years. While mine was not sand it was heavy dirt, rock, and caliche. Only random cactus grew; I’ve spent the last decade rebuilding the soil and it’s not this beautiful dark brown, actually holds a bit of water and I can plant trees finally.
First year vines need water weekly during the entire season, but they grow in any type of soil.
Sand would have been better, just add Calcium.
this will work fine as long as you can keep them fed and irrigated, be ready with a plan for squirrels
We have sandy, excessively draining, acidic soil at our place in northern Michigan and it’s very difficult to grow anything other than native plants. It’s called Kalkaska sand, and it’s like two inches of decomposed plant matter and then pure sand as far down as you can dig.
In order to grow anything, you have to prepare the planting site with lime first. Lime improves the soils ph level and helps the sand hold onto moisture. I sprinkle lime on an area I’m gonna plant, then water it in for a few months before planting. I also amend the soil with all the usuals, mulch, manure, topsoil, etc… for even better results.
I have extremely healthy 4 year old plants that have been in 5 gallon buckets since I bought them. Produced plenty of fruit for my house this year. 35gal is plenty. Keep em fed and watered regularly.