Playing in the Dirt

We began the testing with a little assistance from our LGD.   His native curiosity is what will keep the four and two legged critters away from our vines.

Even in the small (0.08 acre - 3500 avg sf) area where we will be planting our first vines, the soils range in color.  

 The entire area we selected is supposed to be a type of soil known as Appling Sandy Loam which should be good for growing.  It is well drained, particularly on our 2-5% slope but it will also hold enough water to sustain the vines once they establish their root system.   Here is the description from the USGS Soils web site:
  

APPLING SERIES -The Appling series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils on ridges and side slopes of the Piedmont uplands. They are deep to saprolite and very deep to bedrock. They formed in residuum weathered from felsic igneous and metamorphic rocks of the Piedmont uplands. Slopes range from 0 to 25 percent. Near the type location, mean annual precipitation is 45 inches and mean annual temperature is 60 degrees F.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, kaolinitic, thermic Typic Kanhapludults

The trick is going to be figuring out which root stock will work best with which varieties on the soils we have.  At 35 inches, the bottom of our test pit, we hit this yellow clay with white striations.  It may be kaolinitic clay.   We sent a sample to the Virginia Tech lab for identification.  Hopefully it is something our vines can work with.

As you can see, this soil is still holding moisture around two feet down.  Our last rain was almost a week ago.

Virginia Vineyards Association

Today we submitted our membership to the Virginia Vineyards Association  an organization of viticulturists and associated business entities dedicated to growing great wine in Virginia.  I wish we had found the organization sooner as they sponsor some great seminars.   The Summer Technical Seminar is to be held on June 5th at Barboursville Winery & Vineyards.   Unfortunately we are unable to attend, but the Winter Event will be a must do event!

Another recommended resource we have purchased is the Wine Grape Production Guide for Eastern North America


We also marked out the location for our test plot.   It is roughly 0.08 acres that could fit 104 vines at 8 x 4 foot spacing.   The area is 60' x 64' x 80' x 40'   Tomorrow we'll take soil samples for testing. Once we receive that information we will have a better idea of the varieties we can grow.

Once the test soils are gathered, we begin the process of marking rows in the field.  Instead of using herbicides to kill off grasses/weeds in the vine rows, we will be using a leaf litter mulch i.e. clean chopped leaves.   This will kill the vegetation, add some organic compost and prevent weed seed germination all at the same time.