Near-north Ontario, French River | Jimsonweed, I'm not entirely sure I agree with your point on start up costs being unrealistic, at least not HERE. As you no doubt know grapes dont like 'wet feet" so here the land it leveled then tiled avery 12-13ft depending on row spacing ( tile runs between every other row) , which alone will run you at least $1000/ac. Here the winers are all after the higher end varieties and with our climate that means we are almost forced to go with grafted plants, we need the winter hardy rootstocks to make it work. Throw in posts and wire ( even used) and costs quickly rise. Another problem we have here, even though we are not far from the shores of Lake Erie is winter damage and damage from both early ( in fall) and late( spring ) frost. To counter the cold damage threat most larger vineyards are using 'wind generators", essentially 454 chev's straped to large propellors that mix the air to raise the air temperature at vine height. Those wind machines run $25,000 per and are good to cover 7-10 acres depending on topography and vineyard layout. On top of that throw in three years worth of labour( pruning/tying/suckering) , three years of weed control and three years of fungicide ( disease control ) and the $15-17000/ac figure comes much closer to reality. And dont forget the land cost, unless you inherited the land there will be a cost associated with that, here thats in the 3500-6000 range depending on location/soil type etc. Now you have the crop in the gorund, figure on spending a fair chunk of change to buy ( even used) specialized tractors/sprayers/cultivators to work within the narrow confines of the rows. Can it be done cheaper, sure it can but thats comes down to a decision on whether the vineyard will be a commercial venture ( with hopes of turning a profit) or more of a hobby ( for enjoyment ) |
Growing Grapes
