Rob Sigg wrote:Do they function like tree limbs in the sense that the bear fruit when weighted down(festooned)?
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Rob Sigg wrote:Just to clarify, I am not interested in growing them in trees. Just an alternate method to trellis and/or arbor.
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Agriculture collects solar energy two-dimensionally; but silviculture collects it three dimensionally.
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Agriculture collects solar energy two-dimensionally; but silviculture collects it three dimensionally.
Cj Verde wrote:Do those plum trees produce even though they are cover in grape vines?
leila hamaya wrote:...got more than i could eat and make jam with, and that was just the leftovers after the neighbor had already harvested them.
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leila hamaya wrote:
i have a bunch of muscadines too, a lot of cool varieties, but most of them are still young....so far no fruit or extra seeds.
i'm eventually going to do something with all the different muscadines i have like this, use plum and other fruit trees (serviceberry maybe ?!? + some others)
as a trellis and make some walls of fruit =)
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Linda Listing wrote:Also many cultures cook with grape leaves, Greek and Armenian come to mind.
Hans Albert Quistorff, LMT projects on permies Hans Massage Qberry Farm magnet therapy gmail hquistorff
duane hennon wrote:
I let grapes grow on short trees. in my case I have a lot of russian olive growing everywhere. I plant a vine underneath. the short height 8-10 ft of the russian olive keeps the fruit in reach. the vines spread out into the branches and need less pruning than vines on trellis. any adventurous shoots looking for higher places are easier cut off.
Jd
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THE PLAN IS to send some of these plants to the lab to plant around the arbor. they should have vines long enogh to be above the deer browsing.Hans Quistorff wrote:So twice I have had to deal with grapes that have done there own thing for 30 years. When the grapes are up 50+ feet in an alder tree they are only harvestable by the birds. The ones that were in the hazel nuts were fine they had nothing higher to clime so they stabilized. We cut the alder trees down harvested the grapes then ran the vines through a corn silage chopper leaving the chopped pieces for mulch. Next spring we found hundreds of rooted cutting which we shared liberally so many farms on the peninsula have this vine growing including this one. Before the house burned we were picking apples and grapes from the second story window. The apple tree was destroyed by the fire but the grape vine which was rooted 30 feet farther away survived to where the tips were burnt off. I stretched the vine out as far as I wanted east and west then doubled it back. The base vines are around 4 inches in diameter and I have about 100 feet of row on those vines. There is shade of a 30 foot pear tree to the south near the base vines so the center wants to grow up that. anything over the vines trigers upward growth. So the problem is finding the time to keep it pruned.
The best time to prune is when the fruit is formed but not ripe yet. Then all the growing tips should be cut off. During the hot summer the pruning cut will callose over and die back to the next leaf node. with less leaf cover the small birds don't take shelter and eat as many fruit. Less energy from the mature leaves goes into growing vine and more into the fruit. Doing it with hand pruners, loppers and pole pruners was to labor intensive. Hedge shears worked fairly well but that was too much arm work. So this year I have a hedge trimmer attachment for my kombi motor. All I have to do is tilt the blade up and walk down the row. tilt the blade down and walk back with the blade above the row. Tilt the blade up and walk down the other side. So I think I will keep them in control this year.
I have 2 other patches which I had planed to keep up on an overhead trellis that that could be harvested from underneath. My sister had set up one with the chickens underneath and the other along the east side of the garden was for the ducks on slug patrol. The problem was they got too mated and a heavy snow collapsed both structures so now they are a mess. So I am going to cut off everything that the hedge trimmer can handle and then start pulling vines out and try to get them head height. Even cedar posts don't last very long under the unrelenting vines trees are better. If you have space between 2 trees and they are post size screw an eye bole into each one about head height and run a wire between them. Plant the grape vine in the middle and train it up to the wire and out both directions. When the vine starch reaching for the tree canopy you may want to terminate it at the ends each year and sheer the tips each summer as described above. A spring cleaning of any dead wood is important to keep it open. Any live wood cut in late winter or spring will drip sweet sap. You can collect it like maple sap but generally you want it going into producing bud growth.
If anyone wants to come help there will be a lot of vines that have grown roots where thy are on the ground and we might be able to make some instructive video.
Hans Albert Quistorff, LMT projects on permies Hans Massage Qberry Farm magnet therapy gmail hquistorff
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