I said I was only going to get two but I ended up picking up 3 grape vines last night via Millers. I located a publication on growing grapes in Ky from the Univ. of Ky (great ag college there). I’ve worked with 3 of the 6 authors of this publication during my time at UK and would go to them in a heartbeat for anything agricultural in Ky.

I was looking for seedless varieties that will live here in the northern part of the state. I found that the Interlaken variety that I purchased a couple of years ago was pretty much at the bottom of the list for winter survivability. Wish I would have read this publication before spending my money. I ended up choosing 3, all American-French hybrids. One each of Himrod (white), Reliance (red), and Candice (red). I believe much of the research on varieties for Ky was conducted in the western part of the state which is a bit warmer than here so this little experiment may or may not work. All 3 are rated to zone 5 (we are just south of the zone 5/6 border) with Reliance doing the best at winter survival. I chose three different varieties as there is a bit of harvest times and disease resistance.

Today was a vacation day so I started it off right with some seeding. I used to plant my tomatoes much earlier but over the years have come to the conclusion that early March is early enough and seems to give the best results for me. I finished up last years tomato seeds, planting Big Beef , Celebrity and Classica in the float tray down stairs. The Big Beef are an indeterminate variety so they fruit over a longer season than the Celebrity, a determinate variety I like for canning. Classica is a paste type tomato I grow for drying. I have about 1/2 of the dried tomatoes from last year left. They are so expensive to buy and so easy to dry. I prefer the flavor of heirloom tomatoes but unfortunately we have no shortage of tomato diseases here. If I want any kind of harvest I am limited to the hybrids with disease protection. Unfortunately I’ve not run across a paste tomato with as much disease resistance as I would like so I have to get them in and out quick before they succumb.

Also in the float tray went some herbs, horehound, anise hyssop and elecampaine along with some dwarf delphinium. The herbs are older seeds so I don’t expect much out of them but I had the space and thought why not.