Grape vines

Stage 0: I've been thinking about grapes in the garden for many, many years, but always chickened out. But now life is short, so today finally decided on doing something about it.

Stage 1:

I've bought two vines - "Autumn Royal", a black seedless table variety, and a Hanepoot or "Muscat of Alexandria" table/wine variety. Now I have to keep them alive until they can be planted into the ground.

Here is some advice on cultivating Autumn Royal. And some on Hanepoot.

Still to be done:

Buy materials for a trellis - 3 x 3m creosote poles, brandring (for bracing?), wire

Dig 5 holes and construct a suitable trellis

Plant grape vines

Sort out irrigation

Update 2015/11/13:

Stage 2

Here's the three 75x100 x 3m pressure treated poles being inspected by one of the trellising fundis.

I fetched the poles from the Penny Pinchers warehouse in the industrial area, and it's next door to a massive - as in huge - unlabelled warehouse which I was informed is where Peppadew store their goods after they're pickled in their Grahamstown factory. There's a story in there I need to follow up on sometime.

And the poles invoice, including sturdy handle for hooked blades used to rip out tyre sidewalls.

Update 2015/11/24:

Stage 3 or maybe 3a. The three poles are dug in 800mm deep (which is deeper than you might expect), and concreted into place. The height is 2.2 metres (one can reach the top of the pole with an outstretched arm) so there's space for a 2 wire system with the first wire 1 meter off the ground.

Missing for the moment are the wires, and bracing. The tyres will contain strawberry plants at a later stage. Just checking for spacing and fit at this point.

The two holes for the grapes. I originally had the idea of surrounding them with a tyre as a grass barrier, but there are spacing problems, so I'll let the grape grow up in an extended inter tyre gap and use concrete blocks or bricks to try and keep the grass away.

Some grape specs from their bags. The grape vines have been hanging around mainly in the shade for a couple of weeks - nearly four - but are still going strong.

Update 2015/11/25:

Some research shows that a quadrilateral VSP (virtual shoot positioning) trellis system might be a good one for a small two vine backyard vineyard. This involves training the vines onto two wires (four lateral shoots, thus quadrilateral), then feeding the resulting annual shoots vertically up between three pairs of positioning wires. The heights of the wires are: Trunk wire = 24" (610mm), Fruit wire 1 = 36" (914mm), FW 2 = 44" (1120mm), Catch wire pair 1 = 52" (1320mm), CWP 2 = 64" (1625mm), CWP 3 = 72" (1830mm). Fortunately the pole size and spacing I have set up will accommodate this. It'll even have a bit of spare length at the top of the exposed 2.2m of the 3m poles to attach rails (or bracing?) to hang bird netting from...

I think I have enough thick fencing wire for the two fruit wires. Not sure if the trunk wire is necessary? Certainly not in the longer term, so maybe a temporary one that'll last a couple of years? Setting up the less heavy duty catch wires can happen a bit later.

I'll start construction later today.

Update 2015/11/26:

Stage 3b

The two endposts, with the trunk wire (actually security fence cable secured with crimps) and two heavy duty fruit wires twisted into place with visegrips. As I don't have an obvious way of tightening them, they don't "ping" when you pull on them. But they're more than solid enough to bear the weight of an adult vine.

I'm still not sure I see the point of the trunk wire for a small home trellis. Not yet, anyway... but it's  been installed anyway,

An overview of the whole thing. The lower three wires go through 8mm holes drilled through the end posts, and hang against clout nails in the middle post. I probably need to staple them, once I find my staples.

I'll make a pair of the keeper wires sometime just to check out whether my idea of using security fence cable and springs will work, but there's no real rush.

One of the holes, showing black PVC pipe down to where the roots will be, cable tied to a 1.8m length of 10mm rebar hammered into the middle of the hole to act as a stake. The three wires are tied on to the two stakes, so there's plenty of support for them - at 5 points over the 6m length of the trellis.

As regards irrigation, I was thinking of putting drip irrigation buttons down into the PVC pipe. 2, 4 or 8 l/hour? They'll run for 10 minutes or so, so maybe 8 litre/hour. Again, no rush - there's still some tidying up to do around here. e.g. compost into the tyres for strawberries. And how to irrigate them without too much grapevine interference?

The other prepared hole - compost mixed with top soil and some bone meal (I read somewhere you're not supposed to do that, but read it after I'd done it) - and soaked several times with a hose. They drain slowly but surely, so there shouldn't be a waterlogging problem.

Stage 4

The vines are planted - Hanepoot nearest the neighbours fence, and Autumn Royal closer to house. Soaked the topsoil after putting it back in to fill the holes. Photo later - my phone went flat.

The sun is blazing down, so the vines are probably going to be in the right sort of conditions once they settle down. Let's hope nothing goes wrong! (Well, later in the afternoon the rain poured down).

The end goal will be to enjoy a bunch or three or more of grapes, but that won't happen for at least a year, maybe two.

This all took about three and a half weeks to put into practice - from conception to completion, and cost about R1.2k - poles (R400), vines (R450 for two), labour (assistance in embedding pressure treated poles and assorted other holes - R240), rebar (R32 for two), wire. Not bad on the time taken to do this - usually I'm much slacker than this. The old fully employed me would have put it off for a year and killed the vines.

I'd hate to think of the costs of doing this on a commercial scale, but I'm sure they've got lots of low cost mechanised bulk methods in comparison to my low volume ad hoc manual efforts.

The next things to worry about will be getting the vines established, then training and pruning them.

Update 2015/11/27:

Ater rain overview of the two vines neatly dug in, with spaced but unfilled tyres. Maybe room for another row of tyres for even more strawberries on this (lower/western) side of the trellis?

Autumn Royal, closest to house. Visible wire is trunk wire. Note the West Indian Key Lime tree to the upper right of the vine starting to look pressurized. It needs to be relocated, but there's limited options. The assumption is that Key Limes won't get too big or bushy.

The Hanepoot, closest to neighours fence, running up its stake. The visible wire is the trunk wire. Maybe there's room to put in the White Genoa fig between the rightmost pole and the fence? The originally selected spot is now in deep shade and would be disastrous, and I'm running out of room everywhere else.

Update 2015/11/28:

Installed lowest pair of catch wires, munufactured from security fence braided cable components. It seems OK, even though I messed up one of them by overcompensating for anticipated cable stretch... with this stuff, there's zero stretch. Fortunately I allowed for fixing this in the design.

Update 2015/12/10:

Cow damage.

There was more cow damage just before Christmas, when the other vine was also munched down below the level of the PVC pipe.

Update 2016/01/24:

Irrigation at last sorted out - it's now apparent what the lowest "trunk" wire is for.

Dripper heads running ino PVC pipes leading to roots, tyres being populated with strawberry runners, some still to be filled with compost.

The vines seem to have settled, and both are recovering from the attention of the cows. Future pruning might be a bit complicated.

Update 2016/02/21:

The Autumn Royal looking like it's establishing itself.

Piquant pepper

I'm not allowed to call it peppadew/pepperdew, which it is.

I have two lots planted, one tub of six are a year old and have already given a small crop. The fruit pickle really well. They're hassle free if you keep them watered.

The most recent batch of four seedlings in the afternoon sun:

I might get more. Because they pickle really well...

Update 2015/11/12:

Update 2015/11/13:

So here's a six pack of new seedlings ready to go into two new tyres once they get filled with compost - maybe tomorrow depending how energetic I feel.

Update 2015/11/14:

Notice the 4 larger seedlings have multiple stems. I've nipped off the tips of the closest three to see if that's how to do it.

Now, even though they do well, sixteen plants is enough.

Update 2015/11/24:

Nipping off the tips of the seedling is forcing the emergence of new shoots at the leaf junction. I never consciously thought of that... but sort of knew it somehow?

Now they'll start looking more like these ones...

Update 2016/01/24:

Flowers and some fruit.

Update 2016/01/28:

Update 2016/02/17:

These, like most of my other chili plants, are suffering from leaf curl. Thrips? If so, what to do about them?

Update 2016/03/13:

Marmalade bush

Starting to flower. Later on, it's covered.

Update 2015/10/30:

Weekly status of tyre garden - update 7

A few overcast days, but no rain. Warm to hot in the day, warm evenings. Bought a wheelbarrow early in the week to simplify compost portage. It makes a huge difference.

All tyres now filled with compost (on average two wheelbarrow loads per tyre, fifteen spade fulls per wheelbarrow load), have room for perhaps three more tyres on ends of rows plus a single extra large one. Irrigation pretty much sorted out. One tyre composted, but not yet used - what to plant? Maybe an exotic giant chili?

Still no signs of pests, other than slugs and a single snail. Aphids conspicuous by their absence. How long can this last?

Planted four pepperdew seedlings into two tyres (they pickle really well), planted more broadbean seeds, planted a bunch of Greenfeast peas in one of the new asparagus beds in order to condition it a bit. One of the brinjal seedlings died, eleven left. Transplanted more chinese cabbage into gaps between tyres, transplanted four strawberries into tyre gaps as well. Florence fennel still small, but doing nicely. Globe artichokes and horseradish getting huge. Kale and Brussel sprouts doing OK.
First crop of radishes coming to an end, but successors haven't formed properly yet. Patty pan and tomatoes all doing nicely.

Started separate potato patch.

Planted another Zantedischia into a pot - bright red one - Majestic Red. The other summer bulbs are all up and doing very well. The Zephyranthus is already starting to flower.

Gladiolus

A red one and a frilly purple white. All the bulbs have come up - ten of each. In quite a shaded corner.

Curry Bush

A small neem tree/shrub. Been in the pot for about a year.

We've tried using the leaves in curry dishes, but must be missing the point somehow.

Orange coloured arboreal ponerine ants

If you sit under a tree in Grahamstown, there's a good chance you'll have one or two of these ants drop down on top of you in the space of half an hour or so. They're small - about 5mm long and 1mm across - and a light orange colour. They're some sort of Tetraponera.

It's not clear if they deliberately drop on to you, or if they fall out of the tree, but once on you they're quite hard to shake off. They're far too small to sting or bite you effectively. I have no idea what they eat or how they get back to their nest or colony. In our garden they occur under our Jacaranda trees and Elderberry.

I first became aware of what they were when my cousin Denis Brothers collected specimens next to the dam near the old quarry on Rhodes campus and identified them (fifty years ago, so I don't remember the taxonomic details). They're nowhere as spectacular as the much much larger Ponerines you get around here, such as Streblognathus Aethiopicus, or Plectrocena Mandibularis, but they're more common and seem to occur in most gardens with large trees. But, they're not just any old ant - they're Ponerines!

There's probably some of the mounted specimens Denis collected in the Entomology Collection at the Albany Museum. I've been meaning to visit it for nostalgic reasons...

Update 2016/04/27:

Could be these guys - Leptogenys castanea? Looks like Denis kept the ones he collected because I couldn't spot any ponerines collected by him. These are ones collected by my dad in the Alexandria Forest..

John Midgley, the entomologist at the Albany Museum, said he'd identify them if I brought in some specimens.

What I did see were the ponerines I collected at Omauni in Northern Namibia in early 1976 when doing national service. These were preserved in cane spirits and posted to my dad, as was a mutillid which got caught in the hole in the top of a tin of condensed milk. There's also a single curled up ponerine of a different species captured earlier at Grootfontein, and preserved in borrowed aftershave.

Strawberries

Planted into "towers" made out of plastic milk bottles stapled to a wooden strip, and cable tied through the handles. The first tower has a single hole per container, most have two, and the last one has three. Three is too many, two is better. They're still in good shape, despite having been in bright all day sunshine for nearly two years.

The first crop I tried in them was a variety of lettuces, which didn't work that well, presumably because of the heat.

They've taken a while to settle, but most now seem to be going for it. I've got several different varieties growing.

Every couple of days you need to scoop out the leaves developing inside the container so that they hang outside.

The drip irrigation tube leads into the top of the column. This is all pretty much hands off, but when a weed gets established inside one of these it's a real bugger to get it out.

I'm trying the more traditional strawberry cultivation method in a couple of tyres in the veggie garden, and in the holes in the concrete blocks around the asparagus beds. Biggest issue for me in the past with strawberries has been irrigation. While not quite a solved problem for me yet, it's a whole lot better and you can see it with the development of the plants, and fruit. It's going to be interesting how to expand all this once they start producing runners.

Update 2015/11/11:

Two healthy looking specimens bought in George yesterday. A toad which must have been hiding in them was a passenger back to Grahamstown. I need to work out where to put them.

Update 2015/11/18:

There you have it - a botanical name for a variety of garden strawberry... purchased from Kirstenbosch, and they should know.

FRAGARIA X ANANASSA TEMPTATION - F. Chiloensis x F. Virginiana (Rosaceae) "Garden Strawberry"

The plant itself ensconced in a tyre.

Update 2015/11/22:

Update 2015/12/06:

Update 2016/02/26:

Tomatoes in tyres propagating happily from runners.