Planting

We typically plant in late fall going into winter. The plants are dormant and the soil is moist. This allows the winter rain to seal the soil around the plant roots. We always plant a cover crop to help hold the soil in place over winter. Holes are drilled with a 4 inch hole auger. The plant roots are trimmed back and shook free of potting soil so they can be immersed in natural soil. 

After planting, grow tubes are placed over the plants. This keeps them a little warmer and protects the fragile shoots from spray, wind, and wildlife during the first year. 

With our first planting, we chose to have the field layed out with a tractor under GPS guidance. The markings were made with disk blades leaving a slight groove in the soil. That proved to be disastrous as mother nature provided 3 inches of rain in 15 minutes Halloween night of 2015. The hard rain found those markings, following them down the sidehill. In the process, it washed out nearly 500 newly planted plants. Though heartbreaking, it was a learning experience. We have since changed methods and lay out the field by hand with a measuring tape and transit. 

A crew of 6 Kuenzi Family Vineyard family/friends plant 200 plants in an hour on average.