This week, winter sure let us know that she was just around the corner.
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A few of us have still been fronting up in shorts, but I for one did relent and donned a beanie.
The cold, cloudy snap was a bit of a shock after being spoilt with all the beautiful sunny autumn weather we had been enjoying.
It would seem that the deciduous plants have also realised it is time to pack it in for the winter and have started going into dormancy.
We have finally been given expected delivery dates for a good proportion of our bare-rooted stock for this season from some of our growers.
The first of these is due in next week, which is about two weeks later than normal, and the next delivery is due in a further two weeks after that again.
We have also received confirmation on numbers for our bare-rooted table grape vines ordered for this year.
Numbers have been cut back substantially from last year, so I am guessing we will be selling out a lot sooner.
We have black, red, and white varieties coming in and all are seedless table grape varieties.
We will have the very popular Menindee seedless, considered to be one of the best eating white table grapes.
It is a large, oval grape with light green skin and a crisp, fresh-tasting flesh.
They will be ready to enjoy eating from around late November to March in a few years’ time.
Another popular white grape is Thompson seedless, which is an oval-shaped, pale to amber green grape.
Claiming to currently be the number one white table grape variety grown in Australia, it is cultivated worldwide for use as a table grape and for drying as raisins.
Thompson seedless is very sweet and produces large, long, thin bunches of large berries.
Maturing from January to April.
In red grapes, which over the past few years seem to be in the greatest demand, we have varieties such as blush seedless, which have large, long bunches of uneven globe-shaped grapes.
They are a late-ripening variety developed in America and have a very long growing season with the potential to give you a high yield.
The vine is very vigorous and should be thinned during the season to increase airflow through the vine.
Ruby seedless is another of the red varieties that we have coming in.
It has large ruby red berries similar to the sultana grape in size.
The skin and flesh are firm, and the fruit is very sweet and juicy.
Being a late-fruiting, long-keeping variety, you will be able to enjoy them late into the season when most others have finished.
My favourite table grapes are the black seedless grapes, and autumn royal is very hard to beat, with its deep purple-black colour and crunchy crisp texture.
The grapes are large and elongated in shape and ripen from March to late April.
They have a crisp, sweet, distinctive flavour, making them an ideal table grape and a popular choice last year.
Grapes are relatively easy to grow but do need care and maintenance to get the best out of them.
They like an open sunny position with good airflow around them.
They can be grown over an arbour or trellised like you see in vineyards.
Either way, they will require a heavy prune and shaping every year in winter.
It is also maybe necessary to thin out the vines throughout the growing season by removing some of the leaf to allow more light through and increase airflow.
This helps in the prevention of mildews and bunch rot, which can become a problem if the air gets too humid around the vine.
I would also recommend a lime sulphur winter spray to kill fungal spores that may overwinter on the vine.
If you are unsure about pruning or general maintenance of your grape vine, call into the Garden Centre and have a chat to one of our qualified staff, who can quickly give you a demo or a run-through on what you need to know.
With their popularity over the past few years and with the numbers being cut back as much as they have, we are taking forward orders on the stock coming in.
These vines are bare-rooted and supplied to us with a health certificate to ensure that they are virus-free and capable of being shipped into our region.
If you do have bare-rooted deciduous trees forward-ordered with us or are keen to get in early for some, please allow us a few days to get them sorted, labelled, orders put aside, and the rest moved into our sales area.
We will be contacting people with orders and have the remaining plants on display from mid next week.
Enjoy your last few days of autumn.
Winter starts next week.
Growing For Success