Vines for kcpoole

[63pmp]

A long time ago I said I would take some photos of some grape vines for Ken,

Well 99.9% of vines in Mudgee look like this, all horizontal strung out along wire, thousands of hectares of them.

grape vines.JPG

But what does the other 0.1% look like? Fan-bloody-tastic!!!!!!

old vines.JPG

These vines are about 100 years old and there's about 2 hectares of them. Most (I didn't check all of them) are rotted out or the termites have eaten them so there is some interesting shari in amongst them. The steel posts are used to hold them up as the trunks are so rotten. This field still produces grapes every year, even though its not irrigated. Lifting them would be difficult, but possible if given enough time. No, there not for sale.

old vine 1.JPG

old vine 2.JPG

old vine 3.JPG

Cheers

Paul

[MasonC]

hey paul! Yer the grapes in mudgee are EXACTLY the same and when you are driving anywhere out of mudge you can see grapes as far as the eye can see! Where did you get these pics paul? Are the between Gulgong and mudgee or out near Budgee Budgee?
Love 'em!

[Jamie]

paul, when you say these are not for sale, are they your grape vines? or are these just someones vineyard that you walked through?

[MasonC]

i think i have seen these grapes somewhere? Paul, have you been to Gooree Park (the horse stud owned by the Kuwenkos) the grapes there are a lot different there to normal ones aswell. They are not real old but they aren't wired the same onto the posts. They are twisted around a post instead. I also got to meet Desert War (The famous race horse!)

[kcpoole]

Very Nice Paul and thank you

I will have to get back to mudgee one day and seeing these photos reminds me why:-)

I love the old twisted half rotten trunks.

If you ever hear of any going to be ripped up then please let me know as they would be well worth taking the time to dig.

Ken

[Bretts]

My mate Pol god bless his soul dug out about a dozen 120 year old grapes and gave me one I will get a picture tomorrow
It could even be a candidate for literati

[kcpoole]

My mate Pol god bless his soul dug out about a dozen 120 year old grapes and gave me one I will get a picture tomorrow
It could even be a candidate for literati

I am waiting bretts with baited breath

[Bretts]

Just found an old picture for now. I remember finding this with a Queensland bottle tree on the door step after being out for the afternoon
Soon had a smile on my dial.The picture is from that day!
Recently we where sitting together at the Tony Bebb demo and after Tony answered a question of the oldest tree in his collection which was a bougie I think. Pol lent across and said well you have a 120 year old tree

bonsai grape.jpg

[Jamie]

how does the leaf size go with these? for all the grapevines i have seen the leaves have always been huge, obviously this is done to produce fruit, my question is how do they reduce?

[BoNZai]

Hi guys,

Because of the wine glut in Oz, you all have a good chance to score some of these vines as acres and acres are in the process of being pulled out. Can't compete with the brilliant wines we make in NZ

What locations I'm not exactly sure. I would suggest you keep ears and eyes open and spread the word if you find some.

They are easily dug up and transplant well

Some of these grapes will be table grapes which will have huge leaves. I suggest you target wine grape varieties. Most of these will be grown on their own roots. This means not grafted.
The ungrafted plants will have big fleshy roots and little fibrous rootmass.Some will be grafted and will in general be not as vigorous. Their rootmass is in general more fibrous.
However, whatever you can lay your hands on, it'll be worth having a play with especially for the "carvers" amongst you. Don't just collect one, collect a few as you will loose the odd one.
The leaves reduce over time, just keep growth short and compact and don't let any shoots get away on you.
There is a high possibility that some of these vineyards are also virussed. This will give you amazing autumn colours.
If I hear of some vineyards that will be pulled I'll let you know.

Good luck

BoNZai

[Asus101]

just remember the extreme quarantine with grapes. I know here I cant even take grape product from the river land 2 hours down the road into the Barossa and vice versa.

[Bretts]

Here it is today. Just concentrating on pulling the branch in closer to the trunk and building strength at the moment. It had some Gum seedlings growing in with it and when I repotted this spring I found they had colonized most of the growing space in the pot so I am letting it grow out this year again to encourage lots of rooting.
It is in a akadama and terracotta mix now. It can often handle watering twice a day so once summer hits it will need watering 2-3 times a day.

grape.jpg

grape2.jpg

[BoNZai]

Nice one Brett, I can see you are thinking 'Literati'

[Bretts]

Yeah Kinda I was just using the tall twisted juniper as insperation. It only has one branch so Literati may be more apropriate name than informal upright

[BoNZai]

This is a baby one (21 years old) I collected 3 years ago. (cell phone for comparison)
It is a rootstock variety ARG-1, produces sterile male flowers. I'm not happy with the Y shape but will endeavour to change this over time.
Any suggestions are welcome

Cheers

BoNZai