Learn abour Grape Growing for Vineyard or Winery
Get Serious about Grape growing
Ten lessons covering the history of viticulture, the current state of the industry, wine and table grapes, dried grapes, cultural practices (trellising, soils, planting, pruning, irrigation, pests & diseases); vineyard design, improving quality, harvest & post harvest procedures, winemaking, marketing and more.
- Online Course
- Alternatively, study by Distance education using paper based notes or a CD
Lesson Structure
There are 10 lessons in this course:
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Introduction
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Nature and scope of the Viticulture industry both locally and world wide
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Global viticulture
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Major wine growing areas around the world
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The grape; genera and species
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Rootstocks
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Classification of grape varieties
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Table grapes
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Wine grapes
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Dried fruit
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Juice grapes
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Canned grapes.
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Climate and Soils
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Suitable climate and soil conditions for vineyard site establishment
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Temperature; temperature calculations; latitude-temperature index and degree days
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Sunlight
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Rainfall
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Soil; soil types and wine regions; understanding soils; texture; characteristics; soil structure; chemical characteristics of soils including pH and nutrient levels
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Understanding plant nutrition
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Soil water content
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Simple soil tests; naming the soil
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Problems with soil; erosion; salinity; structural decline; soil acidification; chemical residues.
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Selecting Grape Varieties
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Appropriate grape varieties for different situations.
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Grape types
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Selection considerations
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Matching the variety with the site
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Varietal characteristics
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Selecting wine grapes
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Yeild
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Reviewing important varieties; chenin blanc; chardonnay; semillion; muscat ottonel; muscadelle; gewurztraminer; cabernet sauvignon; carignan
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Vitis rotundifolia
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Wine grapes; raisin grapes; juice grapes
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Importance of rootstocks
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Purchasing plants
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Phylloxera.
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Vineyard Establishment
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Procedure to establish a vineyard.
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Vineyard planning
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Site planning
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Vineyard layout
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Site preparation
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Planting the vines
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Vine spacing
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Shelter belts
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Crop infrastructure
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Equipment
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Grapevine Culture Part A (Training & Pruning)
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Techniques used in the culture of grape vines
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Pruning and training vines
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Shoot spacing
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Bud numbers
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Vine spacing
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How much to prune
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Machine pruning
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Summer pruning
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Combination pruning
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Pruning sultana vines
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Trellising
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Trellis construction
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Guyot system
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Geneva double curtain system
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Head training
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Cordoning
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Kniffen systems
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Umbrella kniffen system
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Pergola training system.
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Grapevine Culture Part B (Weeds, Pests & Diseases)
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Types of Weeds
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Controlling weeds
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Safety proceedures when using agricultural chemicals
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Laws and guidelines
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Types of chemicals
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Weed management before planting
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Weed management in new vineyards
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Weed management in established vineyards;
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Integrated pest management
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Pest control in vineyards
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Grape berry moth
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Grape mealy bug
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Grape leaf folder
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Grapevine rust mite
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Grape blossom midge
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Flea beetles
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Birds and arge animals
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Disease control in vineyards
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Fungal diseases; rots; mildew; eutypa dieback etc
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Bacterial diseases
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Viruses
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Organic culture of grapes; organic pest and disease control
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Companion plants
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Managing environmental problems including air, water, damage, frost, hail, wind and shade
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Water mangement; runoff; water saving
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Grape clones and varieties.
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Grapevine Culture Part C (Irrigation and Feeding)
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Irrigating and feeding grapes
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Excessive irrigation
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Seasonal effects of irrigation
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Drip irrigation
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Monitoring and timing
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Feasibility of irrigation
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Design considerations
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Soil and water
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Measuring water available to plants
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Calculating permanent wilting point
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Calculating field capacity of a vineyard
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Available moisture range
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Measuring air filled porosity
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Tensiometer
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Estimating water
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Rate of growth
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Climate
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Drainage in vineyards; improving subsoil and surface drainage; subsurface drainage
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Soil fertility; choice of fertilizer; timing of application; fertigation.
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Improving Grape Quality
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Ways to ensure or improve grape quality.
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Plant stock
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Crop management
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Post harvest impact on quality
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Improving flower and fruit set
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Second set
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Girdling
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Berry thinning.
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Harvesting and Selling
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Procedure for harvest and post-harvest treatment
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Harvesting
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Testing for ripeness
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Influence of weather
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Harvesting techniques
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Selling grapes
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Vineyard resume
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Selling grapes
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Marketing contracts
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Selling online
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Developing a marketing plan
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Advertising
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Market research
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Legal considerations with marketing
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Wine
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Basic principles of wine making.
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Overview of winemaking process
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Production principles
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Fermentation
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Making white wine
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Making red wine
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Methods
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Aims
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Choose an appropriate site for a vineyard.
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Simple Soil tests.
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Measuring ph.
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Water content of soil.
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Choose appropriate grape varieties for different situations.
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Develop criteria to be considered when selecting which grape varieties to grow.
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Devise a procedure to establish a vineyard.
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Specify the techniques used in the culture of grape vines.
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Specify a procedure for harvest and post-harvest treatment of grapes.
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Formulate marketing strategies for vineyard products.
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Explain the basic principles of wine making.
What Grapes Do We Grow Commercially?
Grapes belong to the Vitaceae family. Within this family, only the genus Vitis is of any great interest to viticulture, although four of the nine genera in this family yield grapes. The Vitis genus includes some 60 to 80 evergreen and deciduous shrubs, mainly of a climbing habit, supporting themselves by tendrils.
Almost all commonly cultivated grapevines belong to the species Vitis vinifera, although other species have some use in viticulture: for rootstocks, materials for hybridisation and, in some circumstances, for actual grape production. The commonly grown grape vine (Vitus vinifera – also known as the European Grape) originated from Asia Minor and has been carried with civilisation for thousands of years throughout history. V. vinifera was taken to Mexico by the Spaniards. English settlers took Old World grapes with them and planted them along the Atlantic seaboard.
These however failed due to the presence of the insect phylloxera, and fungus diseases like Black Rot, Downy Mildew and Powdery Mildew, as well as deleterious effect of low winter temperatures and hot humid summers.
V. vinifera requires a warm temperate climate, with minimum temperatures of -2°C while dormant,
-1°C at bud burst and -0.5°C when in full flower. The root system is deep, and as such can draw water from lower levels of the soil; hence the need for high rainfall or irrigation is only moderate. Effective irrigation methods in suitable climates can, however, improve quality and quantity of yields.
The vine does not tolerate wet soils in summer but will tolerate some wetness in winter.
When on a trellis it will tolerate wind reasonably well, but not strong gale force winds. Though sandy soils are preferred, grapes will tolerate most soils provided they are deep and well drained.
Some other grape species that are of significance to viticulture include:
Vitis amurensis
Vitis labrusca
Vitis riparia
Vitis rupestris
Vitis berlandeieri
Vitis aestivalis
Vitis cinerea
Vitis rotundifolia
The Genera Vitis and Muscadinia
Plants from both of these genera are called “grapes”. The world viticulture industry concentrates on growing cultivars of Vitis vinifera. Cultivars of other species from both genera are however grown for edible fruit in various parts of the world.
Vitis has forked tendrils, sheds its bark, has a diaphragm (continuous pith) at the nodes, and elongated clusters with berries that stick to the pedicels at maturity.
Muscadinia has tight bark that does not shed, simple tendrils that do not fork, nodes without a diaphragm, and small clusterlets with berries that detach as they mature.
V. vinifera also have intermittent tendrils, thin, smooth shiny leaves with 3, 5, or 7 lobes. The berry size varies.
Species used for grape production
V. vinifera cultivars produce over 90% of the world's grapes, whether as pure vinifera or hybridised. The most important grape species used in North America are:
V. labrusca Concord, Niagara
V. aestivalis Norton, Delaware
V. vulpina Elvira, Clinton
V. rotundifolia Scuppernong, Eden, Muscadine
V. rupestris Rupestris St. George
The Concord variety makes about 80% of the total American production. Many grape varieties have been crossbred between species and even other hybrids to produce improved characteristics of the fruit, growth habit or even disease resistance.
FREQUENT QUESTIONS
Why Choose This Course
- Unique course materials (developed by our staff) and more current than some colleges (many reviewed annually); as a result, ACS graduates can be more up to date.
- We work hard to help you understand and remember it, develop an ability to apply it in the real world, and build networks with others who work in this field (It’s more than just serving up a collection of information –if all you want is information, buy a book; but if you want an education, that takes learning to a whole new level).
- Start whenever you want, study at your own pace, study anywhere
- Don’t waste time and money traveling classes
- We provide more choices–courses are written to allow you more options to focus on parts of the subject that are of more interest to you; a huge range of elective subjects are offered that don’t exist elsewhere.
- Tutors are accessible (more than elsewhere) – academics work in both the UK and Australia, 5 days a week, 16 hours a day. Answering emails and phone calls from students are top priority.
- We treat students as individuals –don’t get lost in a crowd. Our tutors communicate with you one to one.
- Extra help at no extra cost if needed. When you find something you cannot do, we help you through it or will provide another option.
- Support after you finish a course –We can advise about getting work, starting business, writing a CV, etc. We can promote students and their businesses through our extensive profile on the internet. Graduates who ask will be helped.
- Support from a team of a dozen professional horticulturists, living in different parts of the UK, and in both temperate and tropical climate zones of Australia.
About ACS
ACS was started in 1979 by John Mason, who at the time was a gardening author, horticultural consultant and lecturer in horticulture at several colleges across Melbourne (in Australia). Over the summer that year John discovered that there were thousands of applicants going to be turned away from horticulture courses at Burnley Horticultural College (now Melbourne University). There were simply too few courses being offered for the number of people wanting to study horticulture in Australia. This situation prompted a move to establish a correspondence course at Burnley; but after months of unsuccessful lobbying for support from government; John wrote a course, and with help from a colleague at Council of Adult Education, marketed it.
Standards were originally set in line with what were seen to be the standards of Australia's top horticultural college; and over the years, those standards have never been reduced. This makes our courses longer and more demanding than some other colleges; but it has also led to us building a credibility that stands tall in the horticulture industry across the world.
In the early 1990's John started visiting the UK and becoming involved with the horticulture industry there. Around the mid 1990's ACS began offering RHS courses, and in 2003, John was formally recognised for his contribution to British Horticulture by being made a fellow of the Institute of Horticulture. ACS, as a school, established an office and staff in the UK in 2001, and has expanded considerably since then. Today it is formally affiliated with five other colleges in the UK (including Warwickshire College); all of who license and deliver ACS courses.
A team of leading horticulturists work for the school's horticulture department, including 12 faculty members in both the UK and Australia
How You Study
- As soon as you enroll, we send an email to explain it all.
- We direct you to a short orientation video (downloadable over the internet) to watch, where our principal introduces you to how the course works, and how you can access all sorts of support services
- You are either given a code to access your course online, or sent out a CD or course materials through the mail (or by courier).
- Work through lessons one by one, each lesson typically having four parts:
- An aim -which tells you what you should be achieving in the lesson
- Reading -notes written and regularly revised by our academic staff
- Set Task(s) -These are practicals, research or other experiential learning tasks that strengthen and add to what you have been reading
- Assignment -By answering questions, submitting them to a tutor, then getting feedback from the tutor, you confirm that you are on the right track, but more than that, you are guided to consider what you have been studying in different ways, broadening your perspective and reinforcing what you are learning about
- Other - Your work in a course rarely stops at just the above four parts. Different courses and different students will need further learning experiences. Your set task or assignment may lead to other things, interacting with tutors or people in industry, reviewing additional reference materials or something else. We treat every student as an individual and supplement their learning needs as the occasion requires.
- We provide access to and encourage you to use a range of supplementary services including an online student room, including online library; student bookshop, newsletters, social media etc.
- We provide a "student manual", that is a quick solution to most problems that might occur
Recognition
- ACS has a highly respected international profile: by employers and academics alike. People are more aware of us than many other distance education schools –just do a search for “horticulture distance education courses” and see what comes up on the internet; or search for ACS Distance education on Facebook or Linked in, and see how many connections we have compared to other colleges.
- Recognised by International Accreditation and Recognition Council
- ACS has been educating people around the world since 1979
- Over 100,000 have now studied ACS courses, across more than 150 countries
- Formal affiliations with colleges in five countries
- A faculty of over 40 internationally renowned academics –books written by our staff used by universities and colleges around the world.
Extra Books or Reference Materials
- The course provides you with everything that you need to complete it successfully.
- Assignments may ask you to look for extra information (eg. by contacting nurseries, visiting gardens or searching the internet), but our school's resources and tutors are always available as a back up. If you hit a "roadblock", we can quickly send you additional information or provide expert advice over the phone or email; to keep you moving in your studies.
- Some students choose to buy additional references, to take their learning beyond what is essential for the course. If a student wants to buy books, we operate an online bookshop offering ebooks written by staff at the school. Student discounts are available if you are studying with us. The range of e books available is being expanded rapidly, with at least one new ebook being written and published by our staff every month. See www.acsebook.com
