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lørdag 11. mai 2013

Knoppsprett kapittel 1

For å bøte på sommerens manglende varme har jeg fått meg et lite drivhus. Huset er lite og på vår og høst blir det mye kondens på blader som igjen gjøre de lett mottagelige for sopp. Ifjor satte jeg ut en ovn på høsten som ikke bare hevet temperaturen noe, men også tørket opp luften slik at sopp ikke lenger var et problem. I år har jeg dratt det litt lenger. Drivhuset er litt undersolt på høsten så derfor ønsker jeg å bruke mest mulig av lyset på våren. Jeg startet derfor opp med ovn i drivhuset 1. mars. Selvfølgelig skulle det bli den kaldeste mars i manns minne. Men man ved da råd. Jeg kledde innsiden av drivhuset med vekstduk og plutselig var det 10 graders forskjell mellom inne og utetemperatur uten at det krevde for mye strøm, en liten grønn oase midt i frostrøyken.

Det tok likevel litt tid før druene i bakken våknet til liv. Telen var lei å drive vekk siden jeg ikke har isolert grunnen rundt drivhuset. Men jeg fikk Schuyler til å sprette før 1. april. Det er tre uker tidligere enn ifjor og det vil nok gi denne druen tre etterlengtede uker med solskinn om sommeren som forhåpentligvis fører til at den modner i september før mørket senker seg over drivhuset igjen.
Schuyler 1. april (Vekstduk festet på innsiden av drivhusveggen  gir ekstra isolerende  luftlag.)
Nå er ikke prosjektet med duk på innsiden av drivhuset helt problemfritt. Det var forsåvidt forbausende lett å legge, men det ser ut som kombinasjonen av duk og plater reduserer lysmengden for mye. Jordbærene jeg ønsket å drive frem var pistrete og tomatene som jeg kunne sette ut allerede 15. april ble det heller ikke så mye fart i.
Når kulda gav seg  et stykke ut i april valgte jeg derfor å fjerne duken og nå ser det ut som om veksten kommer seg. Tomater på enkelte av plantene har allerede knytt seg og et vakkert rødt jordbær åpenbarte seg forleden. Verdt arbeidet? Selvfølgelig. Forhåpentligvis vil det mer resultat utover sommer og høst.
Schuyler med to blomsterklaser.
Utenfor drivhusets beskyttende kokong er det imidlertid lite som har skjedd. Druene ble klippet i desember for å se om dette kunne gi noe tidligere modning. Det virker som om blødningen er mye mer uttalt i variantene med mye vinifera i seg. Har ikke lagt merke til dette tidligere. Hasansky Sladki og Skandia blør nesten ikke (Og jeg tror IKKE det er fordi de har dødd i vinter). 

Frøplantene fra riparia og amurensis jeg plantet ut på friland ifjor ser døde ut alle sammen. Kanskje en effekt av svært lite snødekke i vinter, men jeg får vel gi dem noe mer tid. Men en amurensis som vokste svært mye ifjor og som ble satt mot garasjeveggen ser ut til å være førstemann ut i år. En lite grønnbrun Q-tips trosser 4 grader og regn.
V. amurensis og mosegrodd garasjevegg

4 kommentarer:

  1. Spring came very late here in Northern England too. I too considered getting a greenhouse for a while, but ultimately I mostly want varieties that are reliable outside.

    Vitis amurensis is supposed to be tolerant of cooler temperatures, so it's interesting that it's shown that for you.
    But I've seen Russians suggesting that pure amurensis varieties don't ripen early, unlike amurensis / vinifera crosses. It'll be interesting to see how it is for you anyway.

    SvarSlett
  2. Yes, I suspect that pure amurensis might ripen too late, but after the early budburst the plant have at least continued to grow quite well and is still the best developed plant I have in my garden.

    Winter was bit hard on my seedlings. Actually only one of the riparias I left outside the whole year survived. Hopefully this means it has slightly better genes and that it wasn't just a chance event. Some of the plants that seemed to grow better than the others where plantet in a more sheltered location and all of those survived. None are showing explosive growth, though.

    The experiment will be repeated as I'm not exactly being overrun with new varieties. An update on this subject will follow.

    SvarSlett
  3. I think riparia is adapted to drier climates, I've noticed that winter hardiness in many plant species is greatly reduced if the winter is wet.
    But the Amur region also has very cold, dry winters. The summers are hot, wet and humid, warmer than Norway or the UK but I'd think that amurensis would be adapted to set fruit better in damp conditions that characterize our spring as a result.

    I'am very keen to cross a few varieties, mostly American seedless table grapes with amurensis hybrids to get varieties that will grow at lower temperatures and in poorer conditions but ripen early and be of a good quality - and seedless. Not an easy task.
    I'm going to get some new varieties in autumn, and maybe get rid of some of the inferior ones.

    But the main problem I have is limited space. I would get many varieties if I could, perhaps as many as 20 or more, but I think I could only have 10 maximum. So as a result, I'm limited to what I can get, some of the varieties that I'd get purely for breeding purposes have to be sacrificed because I actually want to produce some edible fruit, which is the whole purpose in the end.
    Many varieties are probably reliable, but I've never really enjoyed seeded grapes so the choice is much less.

    SvarSlett
  4. I'm not so sure that one can say that riparia is adapted to one climate or the other. When you look at the species distribution in North America it is very wide from Quebec in the east to Washington state in the west all the way down to Lousiana state in the south. The name riverbank grape indicates to me that access to water may actually be important for some of the varieties.
    Probably, there are many local varieties. The problem when you buy seeds is that they don' t tell you where they have been collected. There is one seller though that is a bit different (http://gardensnorth.com/site/). The ripara seeds I got from her was from Ontario. I know, Ontario is a big state, but at least I didn't get seeds from grapes better adapted to "the deep south."

    When I get wines that flower regularly I will try crossing, but currently I'm waiting for many of them to do so. It takes some time and since I moved to a new house a little over two years back I had to start all over again.

    I do agree with you that crossing riparia and amurensis should be interesting. I have read that there are selections of "high quality" riparia and amurensis i USA and China with bigger clusters and better taste than the regular wild type, but obviously these will be hard to access unless somebody find it interesting to go through the whole process of taking them through quarantine. Keeping vinfera out of he mix altogether might be the way to go.

    Have you tried Somerset seedless, by the way? It might perform better where you live than in Bergen. And people who have tasted it says it is a good seedless grape. I think http://www.sunnybankvines.co.uk/ have it in their collection (At least they have a grape called Somerset). Korinka russkaja is also seedless according to people who have grown it (although Sunnybanks have not classified it as such.) Korinka means raisins that should indicate that it is seedless. Both these grapes are grown successfully by enthusiasts around the Oslo fjord where summers are warmer than in Bergen

    SvarSlett