The message
from Tim Nicholson contains these words:

On Tue, 11 May 2004 20:53:03 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades
wrote:


Water profusely. (Your vine should be planted outside the greenhouse,
BTW, and be guided in, using something soft or which will push aside as
the stem grows in diameter.)

Having watered profusely, water it again.

That's interesting - I'd heard this somewhere before, but no-one was
able to tell me 'why' I should plant the vine outside. As we were
building a new greenhouse, I figured the ground inside (once you got
below the 3 inches of gravel and the anti-weed, water-permeable
membrane) was likely to be the same as that outside, and as anything
above ground was going to be inside the greenhouse anyway, it probably
didn't make much difference. So my vine is planted IN the greenhouse
(simply to make it easier to apply water to the root system near the
stem/trunk). Is this a major error?

In the opinion of most of the pundits, yes. Water tends to drain
straight downwards, with only a little sideways wandering, and the soil
under a greenhouse is quite soon very dry. Copious watering inside the
greenhouse leads to high humidity and an increased risk of moulds.

If you can't move the vine, you can persuade the roots to move
themselves by watering outside the greenhouse.

I'll be installing an auto watering system in the next couple of
weeks, can anyone tell me how much water a decent size vine needs. I
intend set the system to water twice as day as I do now, but I'm not
sure about the amount. At the moment I give the vine a good sized
watering can - about 1.5 gals? - at each watering. Is that enough? The
plant seems healthy, and no signs of any problems so far.

I would say that wasn't enough - depending on the size of the vine.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
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