The Grape Grower: A Guide to Organic Viticulture

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

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.


No Sour Grapes Here   April 10, 2003
Dr. Glenn R. Young (California)
28 out of 29 found this review helpful

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.


Burn your General Viticultures and Biology of the Grapevines   March 18, 2005
Michel White
26 out of 27 found this review helpful

This book contains absolutely everything you need to know about growing grapes, and is the best value for your dollar on the market today.

Lon is a great writer, a great person and his passion for grape growing is evident in this long-awaited masterpiece.

I own many grape growing books as the author of grapeseek.com but if I need to look up something about how to start cuttings or refresh myself on pruning, THIS is this book that I refer to...It's as simple as that!

You can purchase twenty books on grape growing but you only need this one, no matter if you have one vine or an entire vineyard.


The Grape Grower by Lon Rombough   January 12, 2003
Paul Downs (Hartselle, AL USA)
19 out of 19 found this review helpful

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.


I have to agree with everyone else   March 20, 2003
17 out of 17 found this review helpful

I am new to fruit growing in general. A lot of books seems to have either very little information or to much for me to handle (mostly because it is geared toward commercial production) This one seemed to be easy to understand and complete.

There is also plenty of information on organic methodology with an long list of products complete with how they work and where to get them. The resource section with web and email information alone would help even the general fruit grower.

I will be recommending this one to my friends!