Preparing to plant

So you’ve got the land, the doubts about being a vineyard owner have long been dismissed, your husband/wife/partner have given the enterprise their blessing and the box that your friend Pandora has been keeping for you all these years is well and truly open. Of course, by now, most of those planning to plant in 2025, and even 2026, will be well under way with their planning. However, there will be some who haven’t made too many plans (or even any), and even though planting is only seven to eight months away, I thought it helpful to look at the basics. Given the importance of getting this part of your vineyard establishment right, I will be spreading this subject over two months. I am starting from the standpoint that the land has already been acquired.

Ordering your vines

The first task is ordering the vines. You will have done your business plan, worked out what varieties, clones and rootstocks to plant (and in what proportions) and got them on order. Of course, before you do that, you need to know the plantable area, allowing enough space for headlands, alleyways, loading areas, space for windbreaks etc.

Picking machines are becoming more common in Great British vineyards, and some operators are only prepared to pick if they have sufficient turning area at the top and bottom of the site. I have always allowed at least 9m from the first vine to the boundary and often 10m. Some picking machine operators are now saying 12m is ideal. Remember that your end-post, tie-back and anchor will take up around 1.25m of this space.

How you actually measure the site depends on lots of different factors and also on how accurate you need to be. If you do not intend to fill the field to the last corner, then using a programme on your mobile (such as Google Earth) will give you a pretty accurate answer and as long as you slightly underestimate the area to plant, you won’t have lots of vines over at the end. If pin-point accuracy is required, then ask your planting contractor to help out as they should have a GPS system which is accurate down to 12mm which can work out the area to be planted, vine numbers, row numbers and your whole trellising requirements.

Vine density

It also goes without saying that your row widths and intervine distance will have been decided by this time, but in case not, here are a few thoughts.

Don’t just fit the row width to the tractor you happen to have, unless that is, it’s a narrow vineyard model. Vine density i.e. the number of vines per hectare, is one of the key factors in getting sustainable yields – by which I mean at least 8-10 tonnes per hectare over a ten-year average using mainstream varieties – and in getting fully ripe, high-quality grapes (and therefore good wine) into the bargain.

The reasons are quite simple to understand. Great Britain still has a cool climate relative to most other growing regions, and excess vigour results in vines being shaded, especially if grown without proper canopy management. Vigour is controlled in part by root competition and the less space each vine has, the more competition there is for nutrients and water, both of which are constant and unrelated to the vine density. That of course is assuming that irrigation is not installed and used.

The research carried out for the ICCWS-WineGB Yield Survey and summarised in the 2020 report, showed this quite clearly. The reports can be found at: www.englishwine.com/harvestreports.php

Rootstocks

The choice of rootstock is also one of the keys to helping keep a good balance between fruit and growth, and in suitable soils where high active calcium is not present, low-medium rootstocks such as 420A and 3309C certainly help. SO₄, the rootstock beloved by nurseries because of the high success rate achieved in the nursery beds, is often very vigorous in Great British vineyards, especially in the first five to six years.

The later you order vines, the more likely it is that SO₄ will be your only option. Using SO₄ isn’t a deal-breaker, but it will mean more canopy management. In sites with high active calcium – 20% or higher – Fercal and 41B are your only real options with 41B having significantly lower vigour. The low vigour rootstock 161-49 is also an option in chalky soils, but it doesn’t suit all varieties.

Grafted vines take around 18 months to produce from securing the scion and rootstock wood, via grafting, rooting, six months in a cuttings bed, lifting and preparing for planting. Ordering vines even 12 months in advance means that you can only order what’s already been grafted and is in the ground. If you really want the right match of vines to your site and soil, ideally your vines need ordering at least 18 months in advance, especially if you want German varieties (including Piwis) for high active calcium, sites.

Site preparation

Of course, all sites are different and there can be no one method of preparation that is right for all sites. The basics however are the same.

Drainage is the first thing to consider on all sites and if the site is at all liable to water-logging after heavy rain then consider a professionally installed drainage system. Yes, its expensive – £5,000 per hectare for a suitable fruit scheme – but its for the life of the vineyard and will pay dividends year in and year out.

Secondly, make sure the site is thoroughly subsoiled down to at least 30cm with 60cm being much better. Over the years I have seen many, many sites where vines are planted into land which is poorly drained and where deep ploughing and subsoiling has not been adequately carried out (or even carried out at all) and in some cases those vines never thrive or give good crops.

Make sure the fertiliser status, including lime, is adjusted before planting; young vines, which, one must remember, have very small root systems when they are planted, need every advantage in order to put out roots as soon as possible, seeking access to water and nutrients. I know that in recent years there have been some suggestions from the regenerative agriculture brigade that ‘destroying’ a soil structure by deep ploughing and subsoiling is something to be avoided (although it doesn’t stop them advising that regular and structure-destroying undervine cultivation is the best way of keeping weeds under control).

Whatever you do, please do not think that you can plant directly into a grass field, whether or not it has been burnt off with herbicide. I’ve seen it done and I’ve seen the problems that can arise.

Planting

If you are planting less than say 5,000 vines you will probably find that hand planting is your only option, although with more planting machines working in GB now, it is certainly worth asking one of the contractors if they will plant for you. Hand planting requires marking everything out correctly and accurately, and digging holes with a decent spade, something like the one I saw in my local garden centre the other day. Please do not think that you can just make a narrow slit in the soil and push the vine in it. That way lies problems. Your vines will be in the ground for 30-40 years and deserve to be planted well.

Machine planting is to my way of thinking much the best way of getting your vineyard established. There is no marking out needed for individual vines, although you will need to establish your initial register line parallel to which all rows will follow, and make sure you leave enough space for headlands (as discussed above).

With the right soils, correct soil preparation and reasonably long rows – say 250 metres – on a good (long) day it is easily possible to plant 20,000 vines with a machine. Steep sites that need planting one way only i.e. not from both ends, or sites with awkward corners and short rows will obviously be slower to plant.

However you plant you need to make sure that the holes are deep enough with the graft around 50mm above soil level. The vine’s roots also need to be in good contact with the soil and when planting by machine into clay soils, problems can occur if the planting trench doesn’t close up properly immediately after planting. There are many different ways of planting vines and space in this article limits what I can say about each. The subject is of course covered very comprehensively in my book Wine Growing in Great Britain.

Next month I plan to cover the other pre-planting tasks that need to be covered namely the all important task of weed control, what trellising to install and what plans you need to make for looking after your baby vines in their establishment phase.