What they heard was bittersweet.
“Having a young vineyard is much like being a parent … there are a lot of sleepless nights,” said Fran Pontasch, a viticulture adviser with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service. “But suddenly things happen so fast, you bend down and tie your shoe, and they’re grown.”
One Bell County couple with a background in the nursery business decided to take a closer look and see if their 46 acres near Troy would make a good location to grow grapes.
“We’re not anywhere near ready to put in a vineyard. We’re here to find out if we want to begin looking,” Jo Ann Zerkle said. “We both right now are working full-time jobs. I don’t think this is something we can do and have full-time jobs.”
Viticulture experts from the Texas AgriLife Extension Service explained the pitfalls of growing wine grapes in Texas. Animals and insects, disease and weather can all destroy your fruit before it is ready for the winemaker’s crusher.
Penny S. Adams, a viticulture advisor for the Hill Country, takes calls from new grape growers distraught about the devastation inflicted on their grapes by the animal kingdom. Eight-foot fences may keep out deer, but some critters climb. And they love to gobble grapes.
“Raccoons can walk down the vine rows, on the trellises that you provided for them, and take out an entire vineyard,” Ms. Adams said.
Grape danger not only comes from animals on the ground, but also up above. Mockingbirds and cardinals swoop in and help themselves, Ms. Adams said.
The viticulture team also explained insects with such descriptions as borers and sharpshooters need to be controlled. And ominous-sounding diseases like black rot can decimate a young vineyard.
Here in agriculturally rich Bell County, a few “pioneers” have already dug in, and are close to harvesting their crops for area wineries.
Much like the experts up in Stephenville, Salado grape grower Kathy Grisham advises prospective growers to take a hard look at what they’re thinking about.
“I would encourage everybody to learn what the cost is going to be,” Ms. Grisham said. “Your return is so minimal the first couple of years it’s hardly a drop in the bucket.”
For additional info log onto http://winegrapes.tamu.edu.
More workshops will be available this fall.
