My grapes arrived too soon!!!

[Smiles Jr.]

Back before Christmas I ordered a bunch of stuff from Gurney's and my order included 8 grape plants. The grapes were delivered yesterday and I'm not ready at all. I'm sure they were supposed to be shipped at the end of March not the end of February.

The area of my new grape arbor is sloppy mud covered with 4" of new snow. So the soil is not going to be workable for quite a while even if we do have dry weather. The instructions say to store them in an unheated garage if they cannot be planted right away. I wonder how long I can do that until they sustain root damage.

Any suggestions?

 

[baymule]

Can you pot them until ready to plant?

 

[journey11]

I think you'd be fine for at least a month if you don't let them dry out. That happened to me last year...my stuff arrived while I was stuck at Children's hospital in Columbus, OH dealing with my newborn's heart defect. All my berries and trees survived the wait.

 

[897tgigvib]

However you do it, keep them cool and moist, and allow no mildew.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Are they potted or bare root?

 

[Smiles Jr.]

They're bare root and the roots are packaged very well with lots of moist shredded paper around the roots and nice bubble-wrap bags around each clump of roots.. I'll keep them out in a barn until I can pot them on Saturday or Sunday. It looks like we're in for a warming trend here (40s and 50s) and they may be OK out there. I can check them for moisture daily. My primary concern is that the area where I drilled the holes for my arbor posts last Saturday is a soggy mush from all the snow/rain we have had the past two months. It could be June before the soil is dry enough to work. I selected that location for two reasons . . . it's about the only space I have left and it's a nice gentle slope for good moisture run-off. Oh well, we'll see how it works out.

 

[MontyJ]

Like Bay said. I have bought bare root grapes from Walmart late in the season before. They were very dried out and I felt sorry for them. Clearance price was $1. I potted them and sure enough 4 of the 5 survived and are doing well. I gave two to one neighbor and two to another friend.

 

[journey11]

Keeping them cool is the big thing. If they're wrapped well with the plastic, you shouldn't need to add any water. Just a dribble, if that. Check on them every few days.

If the weather really warms up and you can't keep your garage cool, you might want to find a good spot in your yard, dig a trench and hill them in for the time being. They won't make many roots in that space of time and you can easily dig them up and move them when you're ready.

 

[Smart Red]

Grapes are really quite hard to kill off. I had prunings in the refrigerator for a year and some months - and I'll deny that rumor if it goes further than this site - and most of the cuttings grew once they got close to soil.

Keep them cool. Don't even open the packaging ( or only enough to add a few drops of moisture ) and you should have no problems.

Love, Smart Red

 

[MontyJ]

I had prunings in the refrigerator for a year and some months - and I'll deny that rumor if it goes further than this site -

Dw monitors everything I put in the fridge these days. I think it's because of the homemade catfish bait episode, but she won't confirm or deny that. I didn't think it smelled that bad. :/