![Avatar](https://forums.homeorchardsociety.org/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-avatars/defaults/userdefault.png)
Hello,
If you can answer any of these questions, Please.
How deep do Concord Grapes roots grow?
How wide (diameter) do Concord Grapes roots grow?
What is the best soil composition for Concord Grapes?
What is the best soil mineral content for Concord Grapes?
What is the best soil PH for Concord Grapes?
What fertilizer is best for Concord Grapes?
What type of manure (worm castings, cow, sheep, chicken, bat) is best for Concord Grapes?
Should you use perlite in the soil for Concord Grapes?
Which vitamins and minerals are needed in the soil for Concord Grapes?
How often should you water Concord Grapes?
Do Concord Grapes grow from the bottom up or from the top?
Do you have to water/fertilize the leaves of Concord Grapes?
Can you grow Concord Grapes with hydroponics?
What is the best ambient temperature for Concord Grapes?
What is the best humidity level for Concord Grapes?
Is there a preferred light color spectrum for Concord Grapes?
Thank You
You might find this book helpful.
The Grape Grower. by Lon Rombaigh.
I found it very helpful, years ago, The last few times I planted grapes, however, I didn't worry about if and just planted them.
One thing, it depends on your area. I read Concords don't do well in our maritime Pacific NW cooler climate. Buffalo Grape is similar but does better, so that's the Concord type that I grew. Price Grape is excellent and that's my favorite.
Here is an HOS article about growing grapes here, but doesn't address a lot of your questions.
Sorry I don't have responses to your specific questions, Mostly I have just p,anted them without worrying about all of that. One thing I recall, is not to fertilize them with lawn fertilizers, or they go to all leaf and vine, and no grapes. So I don't fertilize mine.
![Avatar](https://forums.homeorchardsociety.org/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-avatars/defaults/userdefault.png)
DanielW said
You might find this book helpful.The Grape Grower. by Lon Rombaigh.
I found it very helpful, years ago, The last few times I planted grapes, however, I didn't worry about if and just planted them.
One thing, it depends on your area. I read Concords don't do well in our maritime Pacific NW cooler climate. Buffalo Grape is similar but does better, so that's the Concord type that I grew. Price Grape is excellent and that's my favorite.
Here is an HOS article about growing grapes here, but doesn't address a lot of your questions.
Sorry I don't have responses to your specific questions, Mostly I have just p,anted them without worrying about all of that. One thing I recall, is not to fertilize them with lawn fertilizers, or they go to all leaf and vine, and no grapes. So I don't fertilize mine.
LOL!
I live in Vancouver, WA, and I have a Concord stuck into rocky clay soil and it took off! I built a wood arbor and it is amazing. No diseases, and have not done anything except annual pruning. If I were an expert I bet it would have even more harvest, but I had 4 huge baskets full out of one vine so...
![Avatar](https://forums.homeorchardsociety.org/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-avatars/defaults/userdefault.png)
bteddy1 said
If you can answer any of these questions, Please.
How deep do Concord Grapes roots grow?
How wide (diameter) do Concord Grapes roots grow?
What is the best soil composition for Concord Grapes?
What is the best soil mineral content for Concord Grapes?
What is the best soil PH for Concord Grapes?
What fertilizer is best for Concord Grapes?
What type of manure (worm castings, cow, sheep, chicken, bat) is best for Concord Grapes?
Should you use perlite in the soil for Concord Grapes?
Which vitamins and minerals are needed in the soil for Concord Grapes?
How often should you water Concord Grapes?
Do Concord Grapes grow from the bottom up or from the top?
Do you have to water/fertilize the leaves of Concord Grapes?
Can you grow Concord Grapes with hydroponics?
What is the best ambient temperature for Concord Grapes?
What is the best humidity level for Concord Grapes?
Is there a preferred light color spectrum for Concord Grapes?
Where are you located? Rainfall at all?
What is your intention with the Concord grapes?
Why Concords? There’s so many good eating…
Grapes in general don’t seem to be that fussy about soil. Native soil seems usually just fine. Maybe top dress with cardboard and wood chips, a little homebuilt compost for weed and grass suppression. Especially during establishment, but right, you don’t want/need to fertilize. However as a generality, I’ve always wanted to experiment with liquid seaweed as a folar feeding of apples etc. Lazy so far, but if I ever mixed some up I’m sure I’d get some to the grape leaves as well.
Vineyards grow on.. what 8’ centers and rows?
Hydroponics seem entirely impractical for grapes.
Once established grapes hardly ever get irrigated around the NW, hopes are for a long dry summers to keep the sugars undiluted. Same with figs.
What kind of structure are you planing to grow grapes on? overhead arbor, or wall style as you might see in vineyards or at the HOS arboretum. Plan that… as when annual pruning you will be removing 90% or more of previous seasons growth if you allowed them to run their natural course. And DON’T plant directly on a fence…. you’ll be sorry when it comes to pruning and your secateurs will never forgive you. Same goes for decorative iron sculpture arches designed to look like grape vines.
What volume of plantings? commercial, farmstead, home?
There a lot of different training systems, vineyards use some modification of kniffen(sp?) systems with the head of the trunk about 30”, 2 or 4 lateral canes or cordons stretched l and r trained to a wire. Buds shoot up from there to another wire maybe another 30” above that and secured there. Highly managed- generally, that's all that's needed for the fruiting zone, so everything beyond gets clipped off. Canes are removed/replaced every year or three. At my home I’m spur pruning (Interlaken) from that initial cane/cordon, and only replace it every ten years or so; although M. Rombough spoke that Lon’s book “The Grape Grower” may indicate certain varieties doing better with either cane renewal, or spur pruning techniques. Public Library access…
Again, if you run the primary canes along the high wire allowing the growth to hang down you have , I believe, what’s called a “Geneva Curtain”. My friend Maryann has me prune her 2nd story deck arbor sort of like that along the outside edge, to shade and provide privacy when she uses her deck.
I prefer pruning grapes not from a ladder or over head.
At the HOS Arboretum there are some spur pruned and some cane renewal examples as well as some franken-forms with both things going on that are in transitional states while we see if they take particularly well to one or another.
My neighbor planted a number of different grapes along a chainlink fence. Sorry about that. Also, some varieties she knew were more susceptible to mildew and botrytis fungus and would have planted those in the more sunny areas had she given it the prior thought.
Other friends (2 examples) are of the school of “‘just cut what gets in the way, we get enough fruit anyway’. One’s an overhead arbor with multiple stems and overflowing/intruding on their vegetable garden in my opinion… and I’m not known for being a tidy person.
The other is a single stem, maybe self supporting at this point 6” or better caliper, maybe headed at around 6’ with a medusa like (hundreds of stems originating from there in all directions) form approximating a mushroom shape they like to sit underneath. Canopy extends out 6-8' supported by growth that came before, it’s been there for a long time, before their 7-8years. Suspect its not pretty 10 or 12 or 20 layers in.
Prune, prune, prune for fruit, light and air circulation with an eye to your renewal vegetation needs.
Grapes fruit on canes emerging from buds on last years growth. The primary fruit most often sets at nodes 4&5. Less frequently other varieties on leaf nodes 2&3, and very infrequently I've seen anywhere else. That is your fruiting zone. Within 2' of last years growth. If you don’t prune... the zone gets further and further away from the cordon… up in the wisteria and mountain ash…. beautiful and intoxicating when coming ripe….but…
Vineyards won’t use secondary fruit set as they likely won’t sweeten up enough for the wine making. Pretty much EVERY leaf node off this years new growth is capable of and may/will produce another shoot/cane or three during the active growing season. So…. if you really want to control aspects of your grapes growth- that’s surely the best place to start, in my opinion. If you’ve one plant… every time you’re passing and conscious of it, you can be pinching out or clipping off excess vegetation to allow light , air circulation and carbohydrates to to the fruit. if an arbor- good luck, you’ll find out what works. If a bunch of stems and commercial endeavors, you’re probably hiring a crew, but you should still learn this stuff.
![Avatar](https://forums.homeorchardsociety.org/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-avatars/defaults/userdefault.png)
Nowadays people think that ALL knowledge is available at their fingertips on demand. I think that I've now seen EVERYTHING!
Pardon me for seeming unsympathetic, but biological organisms are NOT "plug and play".
bteddy1: I'm guessing that you are youngish and naive. The world is full of things that we do not yet know or comprehend. ALL knowledge is NOT available on line. For starters, you should have googled each of your 16 questions before seeking God's own knowledge on this website. Those of us who cultivate plants know that they are not "plug and play" and that they require a focal knowledge of the needs of individual types of plants within one's local environment. You have given us absolutely no information about where you live, your local environment, your local weather, the type of soil that you have, anything about the nutrients available in your soil or its pH, and so forth. Give us some relevant information or we can be of no real help. Hydroponically cultivating 'Concord' grapes? I'd say a definite NO.
'Concord' grapes are wonderful -- I love 'em, but they can't be grown everywhere. They'll do fine in Michigan, but if you live in western Oregon or Washington, the developing grapes may not get enough "heat units" to mature. With our fewer local heat units, you'd probably want to go with a cultivar like 'Buffalo", which can ripen a couple of weeks earlier here than traditional 'Concord."
I'm curious: If you can't grow 'Concord' grapes, will you try another variety of grapes, or will you just explode?
![Avatar](https://forums.homeorchardsociety.org/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-avatars/defaults/userdefault.png)
Not a comment on growing Concord grape …
Could it be because some varieties are simply more “famous”?
Recently a neighbor asked me why his well established and healthy “Pink Lady” apple never produced any fruits even though it bloomed profusely, and I asked him why he chose a Pink Lady to start with. The answer was: “ I liked Pink Lady apples from the supermarket and so I bought a tree.”
Since the chance of his lone tree producing any good apples is slim (no pollen donors, our weather patterns …) I grafted some other varieties onto his tree. When I explained to him the varieties with excellent eating qualities I chose for his tree, he told me that he simply never heard of any them … well, now he does.
![Avatar](https://forums.homeorchardsociety.org/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-avatars/1427243365Even-smaller-portrait-photo.jpg)
I agree with all the responses above. About 20-25 years ago, when I started really trying to grow an orchard and not just a plant, the advice was to not grow Concord, because in many years, it would not ripen the grapes. I was advised to grow Campbell's Early, Van BUren, Buffalo and other similar grapes that were like COncord but ripened earlier. It was great advice. However, now we get way more heat units. My figs are producing two crops, not one. My grapes are now ripening in August and september, not November. Now I want to grow Concord again, so when my grapes are done Oct. 1, I'll get more grapes in October in November.
JohN S
PDX OR
Idyllwild
simplepress
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
John S
1 Guest(s)