The Grape Grower: A Guide to Organic Viticulture [Hardcover]

Lon Rombough (Author), Roger B. Swain (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2002

Grapes are the most popular and widely grown fruit in the world. From the tropics to Alaska, grapes will grow successfully in almost every climate. Whether you raise them for fresh eating, or for making wine, juice, or jellies and preserves, the right grapes will reward you with abundant crops for a modest investment of time and effort.

Now for the first time comes a book for grape growers who wish to use organic growing methods to raise healthy, thriving vineyards in the backyard or on a small commercial scale. The Grape Grower distills the broad knowledge and long-time personal experience of Lon Rombough, one of North America’s foremost authorities on viticulture.

From finding and preparing the right site for your vineyard to training, trellising, and pruning vines to growing new grapes from seeds and cuttings, The Grape Grower offers thorough and accessible information on all the basics. The chapters on grape species, varieties, and hybrids are alone worth the price of a college course in viticulture. And technical information on the major (and minor) insect pests and diseases that affect grapes, as well as their organic controls, makes this book an invaluable reference that readers will turn to again and again.

Rombaugh also provides a wealth of information on hardy but little-known grapes that are native to North America, and on a wide range of topics, including:
• pruning neglected or overgrown vines
• growing grapes on arbors and in greenhouses
• controlling animal pests in the vineyard
• bunch grapes and muscadine grapes for the South
• winter protection, and how to increase the hardiness of grapes
• creating your own new varieties

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A great how-to book. The only reference you need if you want to raise a few grape vines." -- Rocky Mountain News, March 29, 2003

"It would be difficult to find a book covering any aspect of growing grapes that is not included here." -- Gardening Newsletter, February 2003

"Packed with useful information, this book benefits from the author's personalized writing style. Immensely enjoyable." -- Choice Magazine, May 2003

About the Author

Lon Rombough is a well-known garden writer, nurseryman, and fruit grower. He has more than thirty-five years experience growing grapes and maintains hundreds of varieties in his small vineyard. A prominent member of North American Fruit Explorers, or NAFEX, he lives in western Oregon.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 289 pages
• Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Company (September 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193149830X
• ISBN-13: 978-1931498302
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,478,262 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Still developing this. More later.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical and readable advice on growing grapes, December 6, 2002

By 

Ginda Fisher (Eastern MA, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Grape Grower: A Guide to Organic Viticulture (Paperback)

This is a practical guide that's a lot of fun to read. I read it cover-to-cover within a week. The focus is mostly on bunch table grapes and wine grapes, but there is some information on muscadines and grapes for cooking, juice, and raisins. The information on available cultivars is great. Hundreds of cultivars are described, along with their vigour, hardiness, disease susceptibility, and other useful info. The material on grape breeding is fascinating.

Although It's billed as a book on organic growing, the set of lists of organic options is probably the weakest material. We are in the midst of an explosion of organic methods. Rombough tries to be up-to-date, but that means including stuff that's too new to have a track record, and that he hasn't personally used. Also, despite his efforts, there will be yet newer stuff next year that isn't in this book.

On the other hand, his material on cultivation and pruning is excellent and timeless.  I've read about 8 sets of instructions about "how to prune grapes" and every other one says "do it this way".  That didn't work for me, because I wanted to train my vine over an ornamental arch.  This book says "here's the main goal, here are other goals you might have, and here's what you do to meet those various goals.  Now I know what I ought to in any situation, including my unusual one.

I also know that I may run into trouble because my growing area is too small, but at least I understand the issues, and should be able to make the best of what I have.

I recommend this book to the backyard grower, the small farmer, the aspiring grape breeder, and anyone who enjoys good horticultural books.

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No Sour Grapes Here, April 9, 2003

By 

Dr. Glenn R. Young (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Grape Grower: A Guide to Organic Viticulture (Paperback)

Rombough's text covers growing grapes very thoroughly. It is admittedly biased toward an organic approach, but does not omit comments for non-organic growers. The book is well organized and readable. Rombough presents interesting tidbits, anecdotes and views in shaded boxes, allowing the more experienced grower to skip around. The material is also organized so that a methodical reading results in a solid grounding in organic viticulture. Also included are rudiments for breeding grapes and a list of suppliers for materials mentioned in the text. As mentioned by another reviewer, this text is an especially welcoms addition for the non-California grower. For anyone wanting to do more than plant a single grapevine, this book is an excellent reference and will prove to be a benchmark for some time.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Grape Grower by Lon Rombough, January 12, 2003

By 

Paul Downs (Hartselle, AL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Grape Grower: A Guide to Organic Viticulture (Hardcover)

Finding a grape growing book that is not geared toward the conditions in California is a difficult thing to do but this book does just that. You will find information on growing grapes in those conditions for sure but also for growing in colder climates as well as the difficult conditions in the Southeastern US. The book talks at length about growing organicaly but doesn't preach. Even if you are not an organic grower there will be a lot of useful information to be found. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in growing grapes whether it is 1 vine or 10,000.