# Latest southern WI vineyard



## WI_Wino (Jun 1, 2017)

I took the plunge as many others have and started a small vineyard this spring. 75 vines total, 25 each of Marquette, Petite Pearl, and LaCrescent. My neighbor put in 50 Petite Pearl vines as well. We planted in the steady rain we had two weekends ago as that is when the vines came and I had time off of work. At least they are all in the ground and stating to leaf out. Trellis system will have to be installed later this summer. Not ideal but I didn't want to wait another year.

Vines came from Northeastern Vine Supply. So far I highly recommend them. Andy spent more time on the phone than I probably would have for a small order discussing planting times, varietal selection, spacing, etc. Shipping was prompt and the vines look great. Some root systems were > 3' long. We had to trim a lot of the roots to fit them into the holes we dug (lots of limestone about 12" down).

Vine spacing is 8', row spacing 10'.


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## grapeman (Jun 2, 2017)

Welcome to a new obsession. There will be a ton of work involved but also a great deal of satisfaction along the way.


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## CTDrew (Jun 2, 2017)

Welcome to the fun of growing grapes. Good luck with the vineyard!


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## richmke (Jun 2, 2017)

I'm in the Milwaukee area when you need help with the harvest/crush, and bottling (150-200 bottles?). I have a Swiss corker (Rapid 12?), which is smoother than the Italian corker.


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## WI_Wino (Jun 2, 2017)

richmke said:


> I'm in the Milwaukee area when you need help with the harvest/crush, and bottling (150-200 bottles?). I have a Swiss corker (Rapid 12?), which is smoother than the Italian corker.



Thanks! But we are probably three falls out before a first harvest.


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## richmke (Jun 3, 2017)

WI_Wino said:


> Thanks! But we are probably three falls out before a first harvest.



I'll probably still be here.


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## WI_Wino (Jun 6, 2017)

All vines minus 1 are leafed out.





Should I be concerned this one has some below ground growth popping out?


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## havlikn (Jun 6, 2017)

No. It will keep happening


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## WI_Wino (Jun 15, 2017)

Walked the vines this morning, pinched off the beginnings of grape clusters on 15 or so. All look great minus these two:


Insect damage:






Rabbit or deer damage:


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## UBB (Jun 15, 2017)

WI_Wino said:


> Walked the vines this morning, pinched off the beginnings of grape clusters on 15 or so. All look great minus these two:
> 
> 
> Insect damage:
> ...



Yup, looks like deer to me. I've been dealing with a ton of damage on my newest vines. Out of 126 vines, the deer and rabbits got 123 of them. A new fence will be going up this summer


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## WI_Wino (Jun 16, 2017)

Sprayed last night with Bonide multipurpose fruit tree spray. Forecast is calling for rain over the next couple of days so I wanted to get some sort of a fungicide on the vines prior.

Found some interesting DIY recipes for mammal deterrents. I might have found a use for the super cayennes my wife won't let me cook with!


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## WI_Wino (Jun 17, 2017)

Had a nice hard rain last night so I got the bamboo stakes in. Also taped up some of the vines. The tape gun is worth every penny.


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## WI_Wino (Jul 22, 2017)

Vineyard continues to do well. We had a lot of rain throughout last week. Vineyard is at the top of a hill though so I have really good drainage. 

Some of the petite pearl are 4 plus feet tall. I'm pretty stoked since I have heard mixed reviews on how fast they grow. 

Pruning question, I've been letting everything go. No pruning thus far. Several vines have multiple shoots from the base with no real leader to speak of. Do I let it go until next spring? Or do I prune some of the growth back to encourage one or two of the shoots to take over?


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## Masbustelo (Jul 22, 2017)

I only have one more year of experience than you, so maybe the experts will see it differently. I think most would say let them grow however they want the first year. The multiple shoots are helping with root growth and development. Next spring prune off everything that isn't the size of a pencil. Most will say prune back to three buds and start over, but next year they will grow like crazy because they have been established with good root development this year. This year you are growing roots. Next year the roots will grow the vines.


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## Masbustelo (Jul 23, 2017)

I ran across this today. http://mnhardy.umn.edu/sites/mnhardy.umn.edu/files/pruning_training_and_grape_canapy_management.pdf


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## BigH (Jul 23, 2017)

WI_WINO,

I am a couple hundred miles SE of you in zone 5A. Sandy loam soil with about 3.5% organic matter. My backyard vineyard has 10 different varieties. Petite pearl is probably by best behaved vine that I have. It lacks the vigor of St Croix, Frontenac and Marquette, but that can be a good thing. It has been more vigorous than Foch. Breaks bud quite a bit later than the Marquette does. It has stayed a lush green this season, whereas some of the other varieties have been more pale looking. Doesn't go crazy growing laterals. Two big things I am noticing:

1: The shoots on each petite pearl vine tend to grow more uniformly than the others. I have it on a TWC. Lots of nice shoots growing down to the ground without needing a lot of training. The other varieties tend to be grow highly vigorous shoots at the head and very tips of the cordon with some runts in the middle. Granted, that could be my fault for how I manage them, but either way , the PP has been easier to manage.

2: I have had herbicide drift problems the past 2 seasons (24-D I think). My petite pearl acts like it is almost immune to it, whereas the edelweiss and marquette on either side of it, and the foch in the same row, all exhibit sickly looking withered up leaves. 

My PP did not produce much of a crop in year 3. Just enough to experiment with. This year will almost be a full crop.

H


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## WI_Wino (Jul 24, 2017)

Masbustelo said:


> I ran across this today. http://mnhardy.umn.edu/sites/mnhardy.umn.edu/files/pruning_training_and_grape_canapy_management.pdf



Thanks for the link. The difference in root systems is impressive. I'm going to continue with my plan of no pruning first year and anything that trains up is a bonus.


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## WI_Wino (Jul 24, 2017)

BigH said:


> WI_WINO,
> 
> I am a couple hundred miles SE of you in zone 5A. Sandy loam soil with about 3.5% organic matter. My backyard vineyard has 10 different varieties. Petite pearl is probably by best behaved vine that I have. It lacks the vigor of St Croix, Frontenac and Marquette, but that can be a good thing. It has been more vigorous than Foch. Breaks bud quite a bit later than the Marquette does. It has stayed a lush green this season, whereas some of the other varieties have been more pale looking. Doesn't go crazy growing laterals. Two big things I am noticing:
> 
> ...



Your 2,4-D experience is exciting to hear. There is a cornfield fairly close to my vineyard and they spray something but not sure exactly. Probably round up but with the new seeds coming out could be 2,4-D. My neighbor also has 50 petite pearl vines and his are much closer to the corn field than mine. Will be interesting to see if he gets any drift.


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## WI_Wino (Sep 4, 2017)

We spent the last several days putting posts in for the trellis. We landed on 8'-10' black locust posts. We were a little ambitious as most places we hit limestone at 6" with the auger. But we still got every hole to a depth of 24" minimum. Lots of hand work with the chisel to bust through the stone.


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## WI_Wino (Sep 4, 2017)

Posts in place before backfilling and tamping. I'm so tired of tamping dirt, clay, and stone.


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## WI_Wino (Sep 4, 2017)

View of the vineyard from our deck.


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## TonyR (Sep 4, 2017)

Looking real nice


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## Stressbaby (Sep 4, 2017)

You said earlier you sprayed with Bonide fruit tree spray. I just installed my vineyard this year as well, and I sprayed once with that same spray and immediately noted spray damage on the leaves. Did you see any spray damage from the Bonide?


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## WI_Wino (Sep 4, 2017)

I did not notice any spray damage from the bonide spray. What did you see? Wilted leaves? Spotting on the leaves?


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## Stressbaby (Sep 4, 2017)

Spotting on the leaves, brown spots. Clearly the spray because 1) occurred immediately afterwards and 2) you could see the spray outlines on some of the leaves


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## VillaVino (Nov 7, 2017)

Andy from NE Vine Supply is great. I’ve met him at the Wisconsin Grape Grower association meetings at the Dells. We’re just 45 miles NW off 90/94. We go to southern WI frequently to see the family. You’ll like the Marquette and will scream at the Lacrescent vines. I’ve tasted some wine made from PPearl and is was excellent. Be careful because your 75 vines might turn into 750!


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## WI_Wino (Jul 29, 2018)

The vineyard continues on. Some vines are doing better than others. I got behind in my spray program and am fighting some leaf wilt and Japanese beetles.

Petite Pearl are doing the best as a whole. Marquette just behind it and La Cresent is lagging. Most of my slower growth vines are La Crescent.

Here are some of my petite pearl (second year). I had to trim some of the growth as they were hanging down to the ground. High wire is about 5.5 ft high.


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## Stressbaby (Aug 4, 2018)

Very interesting to compare vineyards similar age.


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## WI_Wino (Aug 13, 2019)

Got behind on my updates. Polar vortex was brutal on the Lacresent. ~80% were knocked back to the ground.The Marquette and Petite Pearl faired better. Several couple of each were knocked back to the ground. All but one vine across the board have come back and pushed out new canes. Japanese beetles are ferocious. Sevin and imidacloprid are doing an ok at keeping them at bay. Didn't get my spray program going in the spring due to cold and lots of rain. Dealing with black rot and some mildews. Sigh. But looking like we'll get some grapes this year to play with.

Marquette




Petite Pearl


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## stonewallvines (Aug 23, 2019)

Thanks for sharing your experience so far! We are planting our vineyard next spring about an hour north of Crivitz. Petite Pearl, Marquette, and Itasca...


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## wood1954 (Aug 23, 2019)

very nice, are those black locust posts?


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## Rice_Guy (Aug 24, 2019)

Shane Reddemann said:


> Thanks for sharing your experience so far! We are planting our vineyard next spring about an hour north of Crivitz. Petite Pearl, Marquette, and Itasca...


Another thought on vineyard. . . . . with spraying JB this year it became obvious that there in value on spacing crops so it is possible to harvest berries after grapes have been sprayed.


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## robert81650 (Aug 24, 2019)

Looking good..............


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## WI_Wino (Aug 24, 2019)

Yes they are


wood1954 said:


> very nice, are those black locust posts?


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## WI_Wino (Aug 24, 2019)

Marquette 18 brix
Petite Pearl 15 brix


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## WI_Wino (Aug 27, 2019)

Getting close on the Marquette! 

Marquette 19-20 brix
Petite Pearl 16 brix


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## Spudwrench12 (Aug 27, 2019)

Good luck


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## VillaVino (Sep 2, 2019)

Wi_Wino, 
Have you checked sugars since Tuesday? Just by the taste test, I’m still a couple weeks out from harvest at least. Up by Lacrosse.


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## ibglowin (Sep 2, 2019)

Looking good. How cold did you get this past Winter? I remember the first Winter after planting my Marquette and Noiret we had a 3 day cold snap and got down to -20F for three solid days straight. They all came back the next Spring like "is that all you got Mother Nature"....

Have not seen anything that cold since then.


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## KevinL (Sep 2, 2019)

I'm not too much further south (northeast Illinois) and we got -38F ambient for a night. I had about 90% bud loss on my Vidal Blanc. The Frontenac, Petite Pearl, Itasca and Frontenac Gris all handled it with minimal damage.


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## WI_Wino (Sep 3, 2019)

Sunday morning Marquette was at 21, petite pearl 19


VillaVino said:


> Wi_Wino,
> Have you checked sugars since Tuesday? Just by the taste test, I’m still a couple weeks out from harvest at least. Up by Lacrosse.


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## WI_Wino (Sep 3, 2019)

About - 40F for at least one night. Plus a cold spring.


ibglowin said:


> Looking good. How cold did you get this past Winter? I remember the first Winter after planting my Marquette and Noiret we had a 3 day cold snap and got down to -20F for three solid days straight. They all came back the next Spring like "is that all you got Mother Nature"....
> 
> Have not seen anything that cold since then.


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## WI_Wino (Sep 3, 2019)

Permethrin really knocked the Japanese beetles down for us. It appears to have a couple week residual affect as well.


Rice_Guy said:


> Another thought on vineyard. . . . . with spraying JB this year it became obvious that there in value on spacing crops so it is possible to harvest berries after grapes have been sprayed.


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## WI_Wino (Sep 6, 2019)

Brix still at 20-21 marquette and 19 - petite pearl. I think my first rounds of readings I grabbed the most ripe ones. Now I'm taking more of cross sample. The waiting is excruciating.


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## havlikn (Sep 6, 2019)

Yes and now we have colder weather to delay ripening to allow the coins birds and every creature to feast. Good luck on harvest. We are still a couple weeks out by Port Washington


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## WI_Wino (Sep 9, 2019)

Forecasted highs this week are back in the mid 80s. Should help move this process along I think.


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## VillaVino (Sep 10, 2019)

Tested on Sunday. 
Marquette's were 20.0 with a pH of 2.81
The rest were around 15.0
This rain will not help. Looking to harvest on the 21st in central western WI.
I'll be in the Monroe area this weekend. Are you close?


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## balatonwine (Sep 10, 2019)

VillaVino said:


> Marquette's were 20.0 with a pH of 2.81



From the ripeness formula, brix * ph^2

20 * 2.81^2 = 157.

Not even close to the ideal number of 260 for a red wine.

My advice is let it hang. Too often grapes are picked too early out of fear of loosing grapes to weather. But if you can put aside those fears, and pick when ideal or only when conditions really will destroy *all* the crop (not just part), you may end up with a better wine (maybe less wine, due to weather, but a better wine).


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## VillaVino (Sep 10, 2019)

Thank you very much. I just started using my Vinmetrica 200 this year for pH levels so this helps. This year was about as "ideal" as I've seen in my ten years of growing grapes right up to the rain that started over the past weekend and continues at this very moment. Thx


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## DriftlessDoc (Sep 10, 2019)

VillaVino said:


> Thank you very much. I just started using my Vinmetrica 200 this year for pH levels so this helps. This year was about as "ideal" as I've seen in my ten years of growing grapes right up to the rain that started over the past weekend and continues at this very moment. Thx



Hope you didn’t get too much damage last night. It didn’t hail at our place but the wind and rain was terrible


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## sour_grapes (Sep 10, 2019)

DriftlessDoc said:


> Hope you didn’t get too much damage last night. It didn’t hail at our place but the wind and rain was terrible



Ditto for us. Lots of banging and thumping.


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## WI_Wino (Sep 11, 2019)

Marquette up to 22-23, picking this weekend. Petite pearl up to 19 ish


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## havlikn (Sep 11, 2019)

Hope you don’t get the bad rain as We do by Milwaukee. I would imagine our bricks is going to drop across all of our varietals


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## VillaVino (Sep 12, 2019)

DriftlessDoc said:


> Hope you didn’t get too much damage last night. It didn’t hail at our place but the wind and rain was terrible


I heard Lacrosse area got hail. We did not east of Lax. Just plenty of rain.


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## VillaVino (Sep 12, 2019)

WI_Wino said:


> Marquette up to 22-23, picking this weekend. Petite pearl up to 19 ish


Good luck. We will harvest next weekend.


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## WI_Wino (Sep 14, 2019)

Marquette harvested. 12 lbs after destemming. 23 brix. Grapes are in the freezer until we harvest the petite pearl.


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## VillaVino (Sep 14, 2019)

Congrats. It will only get better. I wish my vines were as nice as yours. I’ll have pictures next week if the weather, birds and bugs cooperate.


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## wood1954 (Sep 16, 2019)

In waupaca wi I came yesterday after being on vacation for two weeks. While gone it seems the weather was cool and very wet. When I left my Marquette was at 18 brix, when I got back it was only at 20 brix. I harvested anyway as the pressure from wasps, ants and fungus was scaring me. Due to the deer eating most of the flowers in spring I only have 8-10 gallons of must right now about. I took my time and destemmed by hand and removed all berries that had been attacked by bugs etc, should be good tasting wine. The berries tasted ripe just low on sugar maybe due to the 10 inches of rain we got over the last two weeks. The PH was 3.2, I like a higher PH for drinkability so I added 20 grams each of calcium carbonate and potassium bicarbonate and got the PH up to 3.6.. even with that much the flavor is unaffected.. can't wait for next year.


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## Stressbaby (Sep 17, 2019)

The posts here kind of confirm my experience - the critters start getting the fruit at pH of about 2.8 and 18 brix.


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## BRD (Sep 17, 2019)

I harvested my Marquette here in northwestern PA last week. About 60 lbs which is a record for me! Only 20 brix but a stretch of bad weather was forecasted and I think the critters were casing them. pH 3.1 and acid at 1.20 so ameliorated and adjusted to 22.5 brix. Yielded 6 gallons of must. Pressed yesterday as fermentation went quickly... 5 days. Planning on MLF along with juice pails in a couple of weeks. Has any one done amelioration on Marquette with good results? I was concerned acid wouldn’t come down enough on own through primary, MLF and cold stabilization.


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## Masbustelo (Sep 18, 2019)

There are a number of yeasts that consume the malic acid. They really are quite remarkable at bringing down the acid levels. Maurivin B is one that I have used.


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## WI_Wino (Sep 19, 2019)

The petite pearls appear to have stalled from a brix perspective. We had decent weather this week, highs in the upper 70s and still brix is at 18-19. I even had one grape test at 15 Brix. Tasting some the seeds are still super hard and the fruit is more tart than sweet. Good thing this isn't my living!


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## Masbustelo (Sep 19, 2019)

I picked my Petite Pearl in N. Illinois yesterday. Mine got stuck at 19-20 brix, and the quality started going downhill. They don't hang well. With all the rain coming I thought it was best to pick. Ph 3.65. I got six gallons of must.


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## WI_Wino (Sep 21, 2019)

The wasps were feeding heavily so we harvested the petite pearls this afternoon. It was rushed so I haven't taken brix and pH readings yet. Between my neighbor and me we got 72 lbs of petite pearl (from 75 vines) resulting in 8 gallons of crushed must.


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## Masbustelo (Sep 22, 2019)

I had the same problems with wasps and hornets. I learned this year that when they show up things are going to deteriorate quickly. I probably waited a week too long to pick.


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## fathertom (Sep 22, 2019)

Here in Texas, I have to spray my vineyard well in advance of bugs several times a summer. My first year, I had hornets. (Now it is just birds, and they are even worse, but I figured that out.) Every pesticide has to be approved for grapes. I have found Bug B Gone. I order it from Home Depot, and it keeps the bugs away, including the hornets and wasps. You can spray it up until just a short time before harvest. Maybe that or something like it would be an option for the future. I am so glad you got your Petit Pearl, and it made so much. I have heard that it is the northern go to grape to plant and produce. I have Cabernet, Vidal Blanc and lots of Tempranillo.


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## Masbustelo (Sep 22, 2019)

Here is the Bug-B-Gone product label. It isn't easy to find. https://www.ortho.com/sites/g/files/oydgjc116/files/asset_images/CFLs/ortho_bugbgon_concentrate.pdf The active ingredients are Bifenthrin, and Zeta-Cypermethrin. It says you can use it on raspberries, but doesn't say anything either way about grapes.


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## fathertom (Sep 23, 2019)

I don't have that bottle. They must have changed the bottles, and I will contact Texas Ag to make sure, when comparing bottles. My old bottles I bought last year have the same ingredients, and included the instructions where they can be sprayed within 7 days of harvest. I will let you know what they say.


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## WI_Wino (Oct 4, 2019)

Time to catch up here! After crushing everything and let them sit for a while, brix for the combined batch ended up at 19 and pH 2.75 . Added sugar to get up to 23 brix, adjusted pH to 3.16. Called it good enough for now. Fermentation went fine and we pressed 7 days later. Wine tastes tart still, haven't measured pH again yet. Our fall juice buckets just arrived and while pitch MLB in everything at once here in a few days.

















We netted about 6.5 gallons of wine after pressing.


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## wood1954 (Oct 4, 2019)

Update on my small batch, I added too much acid neutralizer, ph went to 4.1 so added acid back to 3.7, mlf is almost done. Left it on fine lees still and used the Avante yeast, the wine smells really good no hydrogen sulfide at all.


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## BigH (Oct 4, 2019)

BRD said:


> Has any one done amelioration on Marquette with good results? I was concerned acid wouldn’t come down enough on own through primary, MLF and cold stabilization.


 
I typically only ameliorate if fermentation, MLF, and cold crashing come up short, and only on grapes that had a starting brix above 25. Prefer to blend or reduce acids chemically if my starting sugar was on the low side. Also, I don't make many acid adjustments before fermentation if I think the yeast will be able to take off. From experience, I know that 71B can get started if the pH is 3.0 or higher. I re-assess prior to MLF.

I did slightly ameliorate some the Marquette that I fermented with ICV-D254 this year to keep me well below the alcohol tolerance of the yeast. Starting brix was just above 25.

H


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## BigH (Oct 4, 2019)

WI_Wino said:


> After crushing everything and let them sit for a while, brix for the combined batch ended up at 19 and pH 2.75 .



How many GDD were you at on the day you harvested? Did you see any bunch stem necrosis on your clusters? You said you picked 72 lbs from 75 vines, so overcropping doesn't sound like the issue. 

If everything was healthy, then it sounds like you were 150-200 GDD short. Not sure where that heat is going to come from at this point in the calendar. It took 3100 GDD to get my PP to 22.7 brix and a pH of 3.4

H


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## WI_Wino (Oct 8, 2019)

I have no idea GDD we were at. This year was not great. The 75 pounds came from a subset of the vines, maybe 50? Many of our 3rd vines were not mature enough to let fruit set. I had to Google bunch stem necrosis. I think we had some of that but not wide spread. The wasps were doing a lot more damage. I did not realize how late into September we had to wait for petite pearls to ripen. I would have done another insecticide spray or two. Note for next year!


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## fathertom (Oct 9, 2019)

Your pressing color is beautiful. It is dark like Petite Sirah. I noticed you use 409 around your wines. In my Texas Tech Oenology classes, I discovered it is not good to use any chlorine products even in the same room as making wines. It causes a chemical compound that will make a wet dog smell or wet basement or something like that in wines. Oxyclean is a great alternative. Here is a paper from Purdue on that. https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/FS/FS-50-W.pdf I really am interested to hear how wonderful your Petit Pearl turns out.


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