The Grape Experiment

We are taking cuttings from our resident grape vines and are going to try 3 different methods and document the success of each. Partly out of curiosity, and partly because we are practical and want to guarantee success. We are renting our current home so we want to take some of this vine with us. We currently have 2 other cultivars of table grape (as opposed to the tart wine grapes) and will possibly have fruit off our 3 year old specimen this year. I'll pinch out any flowers that develop on my younger vines so the vine will put it's energy into developing it's root system which is in my opinion better for the vine. Our cuttings right now are in a glass jar of water, and in between the tomato plants in the planters on my deck. I cut green cuttings and left one leaf on each. I cut the leaf in half if it was large to reduce the amount of water lost while the cutting develops roots to support itself. I keep them moist, and we'll see what happens. They don't appear to be wilting but I will leave them until after I dig out the tomatoes unless there is obvious growth and then I may carefully prick them out and pot them individually. Our lease is up in March so we may have to move in the winter and it's easy to move pots with dormant vines in them. I may take some stem cuttings this winter too and heel them into moist sand. The next cuttings I am going to try are green cuttings with rooting hormone. I'll let you know how they turn out. If they all work, I could end up having several hundred vines so guess what you're getting for Christmas!

Today another batch of beans is going in the garden. Royal Burgundy and also yellow wax. I was thinking of another row or 2 of peas but the weather may be too warm. The corn is growing but not amazingly well. I think it's not getting enough heat and water maybe as it is a little sheltered by the kiwi vine. Same for some of the squash. I watered them separately to make sure the soil moisture in the garden is constant and we'll see if it makes a difference. It should be obvious in a week. I'm going to put down another drip hose and see if that helps. Drip hoses placed along the rows of plants are good because they waste less water than an overhead sprinkler that loses so much due to evaporation. They also put the water where you want it, at the roots, and so the leaves stay dry thereby having less fungus problems, and the weeds don't get watered. When we had our big prairie garden in Alberta, we spaced the rows further apart and ran drip hoses on our low pressure well. Very few weeds grew between rows which saved on a lot of raking and hoeing. In fact we just drove the rototiller up and down a couple of times and that was it. It soon got too hot and dry for the weeds to germinate. We still had to weed between the individual plants but it was minimal due to the shading of the veggies not allowing weeds to get started much. Another method is intensive planting (like the french intensive method) which uses soil preparation and shading to control weed growth and allows more harvest per area than traditional methods. As for watering your row garden, you can leave drip hoses on a maturing garden over night and give the roots the benefit of a good deep soaking. I used to water only once a week, but for 12-24 hours. When germinating seed I found it best to plant during expected wet weather or to overhead sprinkle to keep moisture around the level of the seeds to aid germination and make sure they don't dry out.

I am going to turn the chicken compost today and should be able to use it in the garden in another week or two. It's earmarked for the potatoes. I started brussels sprout seed yesterday as well as watermelons and beans. They're on the deck. I need to finish planting tomatoes out today and then think about what I'm going to put in my winter garden. I figure the watermelons will mature on the deck (hot and south facing) even in September and I planted an early maturing variety. That's a good tip for end of season planting, plant varieties that mature quickly, the ones you'd normally plant early in the spring before your main season crops. They have a better chance of maturing in the shorter growing period in the fall. Peas, spinach and lettuce all do better in cooler weather so I plant them in spring and fall. And if the peas get nipped too badly by the frost before I get all the peas picked, I just dig them under as green manure. Anyways, I'm off outside in my straw hat and sunscreen while it's cool and the house is calm.

Happy Gardening!