Companion Planting With Grapes

Photo by Amy Grant, Gardening Know How

I've been a proponent of the Gaia garden for a long time although I've only put it into practice recently and not on a large scale. But I really do want to learn more about it. So now that the first 10 vines are mature, it's time to start thinking about companion crops -- plants that in close proximity will repel pests and disease, nourish soil, or provide shelter to beneficial insects. Companion plants may act as natural trellises, suppress weeds, or help retain moisture. 

A number of plants grow well with grapevines. I want to choose companions for grapes that have similar growing requirements in Ireland. That is, grapes need full sun with moderately warm temperatures, consistent water, and well-draining soil, so their companion plants should like those conditions, too. An example of incompatible plants is hops. If you're growing wine grapes they should be in harsh soil so all the energy goes into the grapes and not the vines and leaves. Hops prefer a richer soil and put a lot of energy into vine growth and root development. Grapes are generally grown horizontal or parallel to the ground and hops tend to want to grow vertical. Also hops want lots of water and grapes don't want too much water.

Plants that grow well with grapevines are those that lend a beneficial quality to growing grapes. The question is what to plant around grapes? Garlic is good for deterring pests but I certainly don't want to introduce garlicy flavours to the terroir. I want to get the healthiest vines that produce the most fruit, and have a pleasant effect on the grapes. 

Companion planting (mustard) at Tamburlaine – photo by The Wine Idealist

What To Plant Around Grapes 

Companion planting is an age-old art of planting different plants in close proximity to each other to benefit one or both. There may be mutual benefits or one plant may profit more. 

Excellent companions for grapes include Hyssop, Oregano, Basil, Beans, Blackberries, Clover, Geraniums, Calendula and Peas. We have the blackberries covered as they are part of the hedge around the vineyard. Blackberries provide shelter for beneficial parasitic wasps, which also kill leafhopper eggs. Basil doesn't grow outside in Ireland. I would think rapeseed would work and it looks so beautiful adding vibrant colour to the fields.

In the case of hyssop, an evergreen herb, bees love the flowers while the rest of the plant deters pests and improves the grape’s flavour. It has been used in traditional medicine as an antiseptic, cough reliever, and expectorant. It is a member of the mint family so I wonder if it has the tendency to spread like wildfire. Geraniums and Calendula also repel pests, such as leafhoppers.  

Clover increases soil fertility. It is what the Spaniards in Galicia were experimenting with. It is an excellent ground cover, green manure crop, and nitrogen fixer. Legumes act in much the same way and can give you a second vertical crop yield. By planting them once the grapevines are established, the beans can trellis up through them. 

Other plants make good companions for grapevines due to their pest repellant qualities. These include aromatic plants such as Garlic, Chives, Rosemary, Tansy, and Mint. I have been planting the aromatics in the orchard for several years. 

Grapes don’t get along just with herbs and flowers. They are said to do well planted under elm or mulberry trees. 

Companion planting (clover) Paco & Lola vineyards, Galicia Spain.
Photo by Daria Blackwell

What to avoid planting near grapes

Just as people don’t always get along, grapes have a few pet peeves as well. Grapes should never be planted near cabbage or radishes. Besides who would want to risk cabbage flavoured wine?

What the best method of companion planting?

You see two different methods in the photos above. One puts the plants among the rows of vines the other puts the plantings between the rows. I believe both can be beneficial. Plants that keep insects aways and deliver nutrients to the soil can be placed close to the vines. Plants that enrich the soil overall or provide cash crops can be planted between the rows. Both can be done at the same time, or one can be done at a time or even alternated seasonally. It's not rocket science but it will take some experimentation. 

What about fertiliser?

Yara, the fertiliser company, recommends all kinds of fertiliser for grapes but my feeling is that grapes don't like very fertile soil so why augment it? Doesn't that alter the terroir? Why not keep it natural, organic and biodynamic? Mulching with wood chips from tree trimmings apparently adds just the right amount of nitrogen to the soil, and is very beneficial to the plants.

We tried adding some seaweed around the oldest vines for a traditional Irish fertilisation approach. We have plenty of the stuff for free, it's natural and organic and gives us another claim to fame. We'll see how it works. 

Photo in Daria's Vineyard taken in the Autumn of 2020 by Daria Blackwell. 
Note the seaweed applied to the base of vines.  

Late Frost in Texas

The vineyards in Texas have suffered this year. The state, which normally doesn't need to heat homes with the oil it produces, had prolonged severe cold this year and now the latest frost recorded ever. North Texas and High Plains regions hit low temperatures on the night of April 20-21. By the third week in April in “normal” years, vineyards are well on their way to producing a large percentage of the grapes grown in Texas. Some vines would be blooming, others beginning to set clusters, and the threat of frost would be in the distant past. 

The 'winter freeze' which lasted from February 9-17 already did some damage in parts of the Lone Star state. The cold temperatures were the equivalent of a Spring frost for the Gulf Coast region as vines had started to set buds there and in the Rio Grande River valley had already had bud break. To the east and south, some vines were closer to bud break and, therefore, had more potential for cold temperature damage. According to the National Weather Service, the average date of the last freeze in the Dallas area is March 12. 

More vineyards in Ireland

The Journal.ie reported on the vineyards producing the nectar of the gods in the land of Guinness in 2015. They covered some of the more well-known vineyards. UK Vineyard report lists a few more, including ours - Daria's Vineyard. Ireland has a drop in the bucket compared with the UK nowadays. Last year, we recorded bud burst on the 15th of April. 

• Lusca Vineyard - Dublin
• Wellingtonbridge Vineyard - Wexford
• Viking Irish Drinks (Dennison's Vyd) - Waterford
• Ballydrehid House Estate Vineyard - Tipperary
• Watergrass Vineyard - Cork
• Daria's Vineyard - Mayo

We report bud burst to them, but not yet. I checked today and, although the Rondo is getting close, I wouldn't call burst just yet. I'd say we are at late bud swell. The good news is that it appears that the Albarino vines are alive. They really did appear dead a couple of weeks ago but now they have fresh-looking buds. Yippee!

By the way, our honey bees have been very active. I expect the orchard and vineyard to bear lots of fruit this year. Although grapevines are hermaphroditic and self-pollinate, bees are very important in maintaining a healthy organic ecosystem in the vineyard. Many people don't realise just how important they can be. Of course, they can also go after the sweet juices of the grapes if their foraging isn't supported otherwise. If we practice organic biodynamic husbandry, then everything should maintain its equilibrium. 

Rondo

Solaris

Chardonnay

Pinot noir

Albarino

Happy St. Daria's Day by the Julian Calendar. Alex says it's fitting that my name day should come on April Fool's Day!

Native black honeybee

Sap Flow Pruning

Leave two spurs!
If you only use one side of the vine, the other side will die off.
(Wineaustralia.com, 2021)

I was just catching up on some reading and discovered that we may have unwittingly pruned very effectively in our first years. It turns out that if you leave just one renewal spur, it draws sap up one side of the vine only, and the other side eventually dies off. To keep the sap flowing all through the trunk, keeping two renewal spurs or fruiting canes on opposite sides of the trunk saves the wood from dying off. 

Sap flow pruning seems very logical. We did it because we were afraid that only one spur wouldn't;t have a great chance of surviving, and we could always select the stronger spur later on. But now we'll keep it always, with canes going off in opposite directions trained on the overhead wires. I feel fortunate to have been conservative. 

Getting close to bud burst awfully early

Snow (#sniachta) on Croagh Patrick, bees active in the hive, cat climbing trees, vineyard coming to life. Things are happening in County Mayo. Disappointingly, the Albarino are the only vines that don't look good. 

Snow on Croagh Patrick

Beehive with thyme growing below to discourage varroa and Ghost

Cat in favourite tree

Native black honeybee

Rondo

Rondo

Solaris

Chardonnay

Solaris

Solaris

Solaris

Pinot noir

Albarino

A live looking Albarino vine

 

Native black honeybee

Veraison has begun!

 

The grapes have started to turn colour but they are still quite petite. I hope they get to fill in a bit more before harvest. We had two storms back to back in less than a week -- not as bad as further south of us which got the brunt of the winds and rain. Fortunately, we staked just before the storms and we did not lose anything except one branch. I think the vineyard is quite protected by the orchard and hedges. Today, the winds turned to the North and it got quite cool. I hope the heat returns in time to help the grapes reach a good sugar content. 

Only the Rondos have fruited and they are quite heavily laden. Only one Solaris fruited -- the only one left potted in the nursery. No other Solaris even bloomed this year. I wonder what's the story there. 

So far the Pinot Noir vines are the most promising from the newer plantings. The Albarino sadly looks like it is struggling to survive. 

We are experimenting with adding some seaweed around the first ten vines. We'll see if that improves the vigor of the fruit next year, or if the growth gets too robust. 

Rain two days in a row

We got 2 mm of rain yesterday and today, all morning, a light misty rain was falling gently. Now it continues as a steady gentle rainfall. The earth was parched. Now the grass will return to green again. We've supposedly had 35.8mm rain in June as measured in Furnace when 75 mm would be average. Personally, I don't think we've had nearly that much. At least our collection barrels are now full and the pond is topped up and overflowing. 

The vines look okay for so little rain but will the harvest be usable?  Will we get plump juicy grapes or tiny shrivelled ones? It remains to be seen.

We harvested gooseberries yesterday and collected more than ever before. A bucket full. Perhaps there's hope. But the red currants were just getting ready for picking when the birds descended. I have to construct several scarecrows, one for each level of the garden. Better get to work.

Not so crazy after all

Companion plantings under pergolas in Spain

I  have started coming across more and more stories about people doing things as preposterous as we have been. Here's the story of a guy who has planted vines in Patagonia in a region where climate change may take 50 years to produce conditions appropriate for making good wines. But it's a 50-year gamble people are willing to make. And Bloomberg news noticed. Somehow, planting grapevines in the west of Ireland is sounding less and less crazy.

'Navarrete, for one, has come to embrace the plan. Initially, he had found it to be preposterous. “I couldn’t stop laughing,” he recalls. “I thought they were crazy.”'

Wine Enthusiast published an exhaustive article on the effects that climate change is already having on winemaking and they are not all bad -- earlier harvests, better complexity, and higher alcohol content. But in places where the planted vines are having a hard time with extreme weather events, "A greater number of producers are rethinking canopy management, vine trellising or pruning techniques, developing cover crops and extensive shading methods, increasing vineyard biodiversity and finding ways to reuse water." This is all stuff we are already undertaking.

And when The Union of Bordeaux AOC and Bordeaux Supérieur winemakers unanimously approved in 2019 a list of seven “varieties of interest for adapting to climate change: Arinarnoa, Castets, Marselan, Touriga Nacional, Alvarinho, Liliorila and Petit Manseng -- seeing Avarinho among them was truly encouraging. I had also researched Castets, Marselan, and Touriga as well. Let's see where they go with this. I am encouraged.

The fine weather continues but the drought has broken

Last night, we finally had some rain. More than a centimetre of rain fell overnight, and we've had drizzle for much of the day. Halleluja.

The vines seem okay and all have survived thus far. The first ten are leafing nicely and Alex was able to mow the main row with our lawnmower after strimming it first.

And the donkeys returned yesterday having completed their annual migration down the road and up the hill without a hitch. They seemed happy to be back and loved the new driveway -- no more slipping on the smooth cement.

Met Eireann has not identified our area as having a drought, even though we've had little rain.
https://www.met.ie/climatological-droughts-and-dry-spells-2020