New Leon Millot and Foch Vines

So this spring we planted just over 2100 row feet of Leon Millot and Marechal Foch vines.  The vines come as dormant rooted vines and before planting them you need to soak the roots for about 24 hours. This gets alot of water into the roots right away and climatizes the vines also.

In preparing the land we drilled a 10 inch hole 3 feet down into the grownd.  This provides a great conduit for a tap root to grow so that the young vine gets roots deep into the ground where there is plenty of water.  Drilling the hole also mixes the soil profile to at least 3 feet down.  When we planted the vines in the hole we actually sank them quite deep into the ground so just a few inches of the trunk as well as the top buds on the vine were sticking out.

Leon Millot

Marechal Foch

We are told that this is a preferred method of planting as the vines being deeper have lots of moisture in the soil and also will take a bit longer to bud out which could afford some protection from a late spring frost in the first few years while the vine gets established.  After a few years the vines root system will gradually fill in to a less shallow depth and also will send deep roots.

Its true while the other older established Foch and Millot vines in the vineyard were already leafed out, the new vines were just starting to show green leaf.  So the vines have been slow to get going but they are starting to take off now.