Approximately 15 years ago i planted 2 chardonnay, 2 concord, and 2 flame tokay grape vines. just yesterday my father told me he wanted to get rid of the chardonnay and tokay plants but keep the concord. however he wanted to move the concord to where the chardonnay are currently. so with this dilemna i have many questions. i will try to post them as clearly as i can to avoid confusion. 1 - my father lives in the sacramento, ca area (zones 8-9) and i live in clearfield, ut (zones 5-6). will i be ok doing the transplanting in late november? (only time i have available) 2 - will the concords be ok if i put the in the same hole the chardonnay came out of or should i put them in new holes? 3 - how far can i relatively safely cut the tokay and chardonnay back? transport will be in a car so length of the main shoot will be limited. they are currently growing on a "trellis" about 6-7 ft up. the trellis was put up about 3 years ago to try and train the vines higher as the origanal "trellis" was only about 4 ft up. so i do not know the height of the lowest spur, scion, node, bud etc. 4 - what other special tricks etc can be used to help this succeed? i have heard about root growth hormone and vitamin b-1 solutions, just seeing what most people would do. 5 - would i have more success doing the full transplant or just by taking a few cuttings? thank you Kris
The most important factor in transplanting anything is that the plants be dormant, which may be a problem in California in November, but if that's the time you have then that's when you will have to do it. Consider that the relatively small root ball (relative to the size of the existing root system) will not give much of an advantage over cuttings - maybe a year, and if you go for cuttings you can over plant (in pots) and then select the best to plant out. If they are dormant (all the leaves will have turned brown and most will have fallen off), then just prune, dig them up, transport and replant. No problem putting the Concords in the Chardonnay holes - saves digging but loosen up around the hole. Prune severely (as per normal dormant season pruning) but leave a few more buds than you would ordinarily to allow for physical damage during the move. You don't need any "special" tricks, hormones... Doing cuttings would leave you a lot more time with your Dad, but digging them together could be a better "bonding" process. I'd recommend cuttings. Ralph
me and my frineds Mike Everio , Alison Sharman ,Christopher Freville have degree in agriculture and we completed on 10th November 2002 , our research was also about grapes , in our research we found people are very found of grapes , but its odd to hear that your dad said to take out that .
