The Grape Grower: A Guide to Organic Viticulture

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Summary: The Grape Grower by Lon Rombough
Review: 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.

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Summary: A wonderful book
Review: I have a small backyard vineyard, and have read five books on growing grapes, "The Grape Grower" is the sixth. It has been more helpful than the others combined. If you are growing grapes or want to, buy this book! It is worth far more than its price. It is fun to read and a wonderful book.

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Summary: a compete work for grape growing
Review: In an easy to read and easy to understand volume, Dr. Lon Rombaugh has distilled his extensive knowledge and experience to adress the issues involved in growing grapes, not only in the normally " accepted" areas, but in more marginal areas: the colder climates; and the warmer ones. Including selection of both site and vine; propagation; trellising and pruning; diseases of grapes; and using personal examples, he has produced a book that is fun, knowledgeable, and complete. As a modestly small aspiring grower, I have already found this book to be useful, even though it was released in, for me at least, the off season of growing. I can't rate it hightly enough for anyone casually interested, or very experienced. It is argueably the most complete book on the subject of grapegrowing, and certainly contains the most recent information regarding grapes.

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Summary: No Sour Grapes Here
Review: 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.

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Summary: Practical and readable advice on growing grapes
Review: 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.