Acquired a Grape vine late last year, a find of a lifetime for me, there was a wine exhibition in a very large supermarket here in france, I was just passing through and spotted it on a pillar of wine cartons. I had to have it, went to see the salesperson and they said they couldn’t sell it until the wine show was over maybe 2 week. I reserved it and they put my name on it.
Finally I got to go and pick it up. Well my wife did, HUMMMMM she gets there and collects the vine, takes it to the car, the car isn’t big enough, in effect when the tree was up high you couldn’t really tell the real size, when it was down it was absolutely huge. she took it back in and the next day I went with the van to collect it.
Once home quick look over her watered and trimmed dead stuff off.
Its been in the same its pot for i don’t know how long and would like to transition it into something maybe just a box to push it forward.
this is the tree as it is now just, it’s just starting to push buds.
My questions are what is the best time for repotting grape vines and what would be the best substrate to use.
I was thinking 100% acadama but not sure if it would be to water retentive.
I hope my little story doesn’t bore you to much !!
Thanks in advance.
Hello, check out my previous post related to grape vine.
Now would be a great time! It appears to have hardened off, as the leaves look to be dark green and waxy. Keep it watered and don’t let completely dry out. That said akadama would be a perfect substrate for planting.
When my wife and I collected the one I own we did in mid summer. It had just 2 large structural roots, it rooted and grew amazingly well. To assist with establishing roots I did not prune any foliage the first year. Elongation = root growth. Check out my post pertaining to your topic.
maybe add some pouzzolane and/or pumice to the akadama as it may be too retentive for Picardie. Bricomarché stocked cheap-ish bags of 2mm-8mm pouzzolane last week. Of course, now that they’re closed for the next few weeks it’s not much help to you.
As you’re not that far away… should the situation evolve positively by end of May… the national bonsai exhibition is happening on May 23 and 24 in Vivier-au-Court (between Charleville and Sedan). That’s about a 90 minutes drive from your place.
Thanks @Michael_P, i have plenty of pouzzolane and pumice, will look see what the majority say and go from there.
As for the show May 23 -24, i hope this all clears up so it can go ahead.
Great find. Based on absolutely no knowledge at all, I repotted a similar size grape vine two days ago from its nursery container and put it in a 1-1-1 Akadama - Lava - Perlite mix. Keep us posted how the repotting went for you and what soil you used. I’m curious.
How’s the nebari of your tree? I found that my grape vine has some very bad inverse taper and I am considering to air-layer it next year if it recovers well from the repotting.
Its a vine, they can be rooted in water or a moist potting mix readily. They will thrive in almost any mix they aren’t that picky of soil composition. They can be grown successfully in alkaline soils as well as acidic soils. Vineyards have grown the same grapes with different flavor and aromatic profiles largely due to the soil condition. What they can not do without is water, dont let them get bone dry. Grapes tend to have very large leaves and transpire a LOT of water. They reduce pretty well, but watering is most important to keep them thriving in bonsai culture.
Based on absolutely no knowledge at all, I repotted a similar size grape vine two days ago from its nursery container and put it in a 1-1-1 Akadama - Lava - Perlite mix. Keep us posted how the repotting went for you and what soil you used. I’m curious.