I'm researching soil conditions for Marechal Foch grapes. Does anyone here grow them? Do their soil preferences differ from traditional vinifera?
I understand that grape clusters are smaller. What are some healthy yeilds per vine? I know this varies depending on pruning and vine age, but a ball park figure would be suffice.
Regards
Jeff Chorniak
Jeff ,
I would assume like all vines Marecal Foch likes well drained soil. It's a hybrid so they are said to grow better in soil with a little lower ph between 5.5 and 6.5 but if the soil was between 6.5 and 7.0 I wouldn't sweat it. I personally like medium to large clustered varieties. The picking is alot easier.
Bob
I have mine on an over-fertile silt loam, tending to clay loam and then clay at depth. They are horribly vigorous: I have some lower vigour ones at 1.8m, others at 2.4m and the most vigorous at 3.6m, all with double fruit zone (some canes up, some down from a main wire at 1.05m). pH doesn't seem to matter much.
On less fertile soils things are easier!
Yes - the clusters are smallish. If I ever manage to get half the canes to go downwards and so fill both canopies, I expect to break 10 tonnes/ha (4t/acre) but not by much. That would be around 80-100 canes on the 3.6 m vines and around 10 kg/vine or only 100-125 gm per cane. I would need to do some serious crop thinning to hold them down to that and get decent fruit quality. I am currently only getting partial filling of the lower canopy with a total of around 60 canes on the
3.6 m vines and they are trying to kill themselves producing 200 gm/cane which is severe over-cropping in our cool, short season area (Nova Scotia) so the small clusters are not exactly a hindrance - saves some of the crop thinning effort!Andrew Bennett, Avondale Vineyard
DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.