This is the south facing side of my garage in the back alley. Unfortunately I don't have any "before" pictures, but before I started this project it was just weeds back here. This is now the second summer of the project and it's progressing very nicely. There are currently four grapes planted in the ground as well as two grapes in pots. The garden planter boxes are also new to this year. They are planted with zucchini on either end (one yellow and one green). There are also cucumbers, eggplant, dill, green onions, basil,rosemary, parsley, borage and a ton of beets packed in there.
Going from left to right in the picture above, the grapes are Marechel Foch, Severnji, Frontenac, F130, Marechel Foch, and Fredonia. I had previously written about Severji, which is an interspecific hybrid of european and amurensis grapes. It was very delayed in budding out this spring and so I took it for dead. Everything I had read stated that the amurensis genes would cause early bud break, but it did not occur for me, or at least not this year. Because I thought it was dead I dug it up, but put it in a pot to hedge my bets. In either case it died back to very close to its base and so it hasn't set any fruit this year, not that I expected much.
 |
| F-130 grape from Boughen Nurseries |
The F130 and Fredonia grapes were new this year. I bought them from Boughen Nurseries in Manitoba. I haven't been able to find any information on the background of F-130, which normally would bug me so much I wouldn't even be willing to try it! They budded out pretty slowly, and I definitely wouldn't call their growth thus far vigorous, but it's early.
 |
| Fredonia grape from Boughen Nurseries |
Fredonia from what I understand, is also called "Early Concord". It is the result of a cross of labrusca and riparia grapes, and in theory has some of the same taste as concord grapes.
The only information I have been able to find on F-130 is that it has "good flavour" and "produces larger clusters than beta or valiant". Based on that I'm hopeful!
 |
| Marechel Foch grape growing in a 10 gallon pot |
This spring I also bought two Foch grapes from the local Home Depot. It was both exciting and frustrating to see. It was exciting for me to see this variety available locally as it saved me the difficulty of hunting it down online, however I also knew that most people would not know what they were going to be getting into, and a lot of plants were going to die!
Foch is a French hybrid grape which is the result of a cross between a European grape (Goldriesling) and a rupestris-riparia hybrid. In theory it is hardy down to at least -32C, however I don't see it being close to hardy enough to survive outdoors in Saskatchewan, at least not most winters. Because of my doubts I have planted one Foch in the ground and will keep the other in a pot which will over-winter in a room that's kept at about 5C. The plant in the container is doing significantly better than the buried vine, however the plants also appeared to be infected with some sort of virus when I bought them, so it may be a difference of infection levels more than anything.
No comments:
Post a Comment