If in an urban lot your planting site is predetermined. If you have acreage and a slope, which is the best site?

Any small trees or shrubs in that area? Will they shade your grape area in the future? If so cut them down while they are small.

If you have no hedging or fencing on the windward side consider planting cedar or other dense hedge. Until your hedge is grown , snow fencing- even if in poor shape is valuable.

If you or neighbours are growing veggies & fruits your soil is likely between PH 6.5 and 7.5-- fine for grapes.

If in a subdivision with 3 to 4" topsoil on clay- add sand to help break up the clay.

Consider the three magic ingredients in starting new grapes- water, water, water. Will you just need a pail- or will they be within reach of a hose? If not prepare to haul a lot of water.

You must water new plants the first year and if the second year is exceptionally dry- water as needed.

There are grapes for wine, fresh juice, jams & eating. Some varieties are multi purpose.

Why are you planting grapes? --eating, wine or for sale? How many are you going to start with?-- Your possible ultimate number?

If you're going into pick-your-own identify your potential market-- plant a variety of red, white, wine, eating and so on. The public are fickle & if you've only red for wine and white becomes "flavour of the month" - you'll miss some sales opportunities.

Most of you want wine grapes- you know the "big reds", the "flinty whites". If you're in zone 3, 4 or 5a you should consider widening your taste buds or buy some land in P.E.C or Niagara.

In 4b we have started Morio Muscat, Riesling 21b, & others- all winter killed within 2 years. Be an optomist & plant a few marginal hardy varieties for your area . Also be a pessimist & plant some hardier- than you feel you need. When we have a very tough winter- which we have not had for some years- you'll still have a small crop.

There are many excellent female grapes, sometime called pistillate. Plant these varieties within 8-10' of a non-female grape. They need pollination to fruit.

Many fine very hardy grapes are available- Beta, Chontay, Valiant, Minn 78, Frontenac and so on. Some make unsatisfactory wine, while others make decent wine. Elmer Swenson of Wisconsin must be mentioned in a hardy grape discussion. Elmer has hybridized 1,000's of grapes including St. Croix, Kay Gray, Prairie Star for the Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota growers. Happily many of his varieties are available in Canada. At about 85 years of age he still is breeding grapes for the north.

With hardiness as one of the principal objectives- Elmer, University of Minnesota, David MacGregor and others are breeding many, many new hybrids for better wines, better eating,& of course greater hardiness There is much exciting news to come in the next few years out of Minnesota and other northern states.

There are hardy breeding programmes in Belarus, Russia and the Baltic States. I know of only one person in Canada- in Brandon, Manitoba- who is working on hardy grape breeding. I have his Valiant/Severnji hybrid, he calls GB1.

Unhappily new American and any other Non-Canadian grape hybrids take many years of quarantine in B.C. before being released to you & I in Canada.

Lastly on varieties,if you have children or grandchildren plant a few seedless or good eating grapes for them.

Have your plants in grass. We simply mowed our fields and planted in this mixture of meadow grass & weeds. A lot of e-mails have recommended certain cover crops- each saying how/why their cover crop was best. Our grass and weeds work for us with less work and cost. Our rows are mowed from spring to around Sept 1st We want our grass and weeds to grow to trap snow. The snow reduces temperature fluctuations in soil below the grass.

Bare soil picks up heat even in the winter. Freezing- thawing is very hard on root structure. Bernie Nokolai of Edmonton e-mailed that soil under 4-6" of snow rarely goes below -10'C.

Plant deeper than soil level- say 5" or more. In fall add soil to the hole as the height of your new plant will allow. This places your primary root mass well below soil level.

A grower out west with several acres plants his new vines in virgin fields- never plowed. Holes are dug 12-15" deep- cuttings are placed in bottom & filled in 6". As the cutting grows the holes are slowly filled in. With a -50'F cold snap, the grapes came thro winter fine. I assume they had lots of snow.

Some growers add 6-12" hill of soil around each trunk for winter. Easy for 1 person if you have 10 vines- hard to do if you have 400.

Some growers remove vines from trellis & bury. When you uncover in spring, get them on trellis immediately as tender buds may be killed in a cold snap.Temp at ground level is often much colder than 3-4 feet up on trellis. A lot of hard labour in this method!!

Between hilling up and burying is fan trellising. Here you could bury the small trunk instead of laying down the entire plant.

I recommend no fertilizer the first year. In subsequent years suggest no fertilizer after August. The plants need to slowly start shutting down for winter- translocating carbohydrates to roots for next spring's growth.

In late summer except for minor leaf pulling around clusters to colour them up, do very little pruning. Pruning may cause a growth spurt- this soft new wood is more likely to winter-kill.

Consider a 2 trunk vine (I use a modified Kniffen system) If one trunk is winter killed or rodent or machine damaged you still have 1 trunk in production until a new sucker matures to replace the dead one.

You may consider having post holes dug for you. After we rented a two man post hole digger, and were thrown to the ground several times we decided to hire a chap with a tractor with a PTO & auger. He did over 60 holes in a morning. Well worth the cost.

Cedar poles come pressure treated, creasote dipped or plain.High tensile wire, tightners & grips, along with the special tools needed will increase your cost.

If you're planting acreage you may need a tractor to mow the rows. As one gets older more mechanical equipment becomes a necessity.

Winegrowing COVA Homepage www.littlefatwino.com