# Vines are WAY behind last year



## David Engel (May 13, 2022)

Hi Everyone,

I live in the PNW, 50 miles north of Seattle. I have kept a good journal for the vinyard since 2019 when I started planting. In 2020 and 2021 I had buds breaks on my Merlot vines in mid April, with good growth and showing the baby clusters by May 12th or so. This year (2022)... all the vines had bud breaks around MAY 1st - 5th. I don't have 2" of growth on any of my 13 vines, Lots of bud breaks and first leaves. After reading my journal, it appears the entire vinyard is a whole month behind in growth compaired to the last 2 years. YIKES! Something is amiss. Hard winter perhaps? A singular vine is one thing, but all of them? Any ideas? Has this happened to any of you?

Thanks - Dave


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## sour_grapes (May 13, 2022)

I believe you had a strong La Niña year in the PNW this Fall/Winter: https://climate.washington.edu/outlook/
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/january-2022-la-niña-update-family-game-night


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## Sage (May 13, 2022)

Mine are just budding now! SE, WA


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## crushday (May 13, 2022)

David Engel said:


> Hi Everyone,
> 
> I live in the PNW, 50 miles north of Seattle. I have kept a good journal for the vinyard since 2019 when I started planting. In 2020 and 2021 I had buds breaks on my Merlot vines in mid April, with good growth and showing the baby clusters by May 12th or so. This year (2022)... all the vines had bud breaks around MAY 1st - 5th. I don't have 2" of growth on any of my 13 vines, Lots of bud breaks and first leaves. After reading my journal, it appears the entire vinyard is a whole month behind in growth compaired to the last 2 years. YIKES! Something is amiss. Hard winter perhaps? A singular vine is one thing, but all of them? Any ideas? Has this happened to any of you?
> 
> Thanks - Dave


Hey, Dave. I live in Olympia and EVERYTHING is a good month behind. We were down in the 20’s overnight again this week. Obviously, not normal!

Other than grapes, I trust you’re doing well!


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## David Engel (May 13, 2022)

Thanks Guys. I don’t know what the year will hold for any of us, but good to know. Learning curve.


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## ibglowin (May 13, 2022)

LOL You guys have had a very cool/wet month. So jealous!


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## Sage (May 13, 2022)

Looks like this today! Also the orchard is running late. Apricots got totalled by frost but everything else seems okay.

There was snow about 100' elevation above me. Patio table had ice on it.


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## Cynewulf (May 14, 2022)

I’m behind last year in Northern Virginia, though not as far behind as you appear to be in Northern Washington. I seem to be about 10 days behind where I was last year and comparing Growing Degree Days from this year vs 2021 on Growing Degree Days | GreenCast | Syngenta that looks about right.


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## Sage (May 14, 2022)

Pouring rain right now, 48 degrees.


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## Fox Squirrel Vin (May 14, 2022)

Sage said:


> Looks like this today! Also the orchard is running late. Apricots got totalled by frost but everything else seems okay.
> 
> There was snow about 100' elevation above me. Patio table had ice on it.
> 
> ...


Love the deer fence!


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## Sage (May 14, 2022)

Don't have a deer fence, you won't have anything!!


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## Chuck Rairdan (May 14, 2022)

Does seem to be a very off year, will be interesting to see how things either round out or potentially not pan out vintage wise.


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## mbrssmd (May 15, 2022)

Cynewulf said:


> I’m behind last year in Northern Virginia, though not as far behind as you appear to be in Northern Washington. I seem to be about 10 days behind where I was last year and comparing Growing Degree Days from this year vs 2021 on Growing Degree Days | GreenCast | Syngenta that looks about right.


Concur. North of you, here in western Maryland (near PA border) we're around 8 days behind from last year. These past 4 or so years around here there seems to be a much greater inland reach of the ocean into our weather patterns, which has tended to keep our March-April temps down.


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## ibglowin (May 15, 2022)

Let's not turn this into a debate on whether or not climate change is real or not.


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## VinesnBines (May 15, 2022)

Strangely enough in SW Virginia mountains we are about two weeks ahead of last year. We may have dodged the late frosts/freeze. Last frost was Mid April. We are at the same as or earlier than Eastern/Northern Va. I’m not complaining.


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## balatonwine (May 15, 2022)

David Engel said:


> I have kept a good journal for the vinyard since 2019



I have kept a journal for two decades. What you experienced is not "out of normal". I have seen bud break a month later than the last year then the next year it is a week earlier. Every year has a lot of variance. It will only become "out of normal" if you notice a trend.

For example, in my "this week in the vineyard" blog posts:









This Week in the Vineyard


Turán / Agria bud break and leaf out.




the-verecund-vigneron.com





My grapes bud break that year was weeks before this year's. But currently, by mid May, their growth is the same due to a lot of warm weather this month. So it depends on many factors and local weather (weather and climate are related but it is complicated).

20th May 2017:







15th May 2022:




Hope this helps.


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## HillPeople (May 15, 2022)

Every tree. shrub and fruit tree has leafed out here in central NH. Grape vines are sleeping. Way late.


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## NorCal (May 15, 2022)

My first season with the front yard vineyard, so don’t have anything to compare to. However, they do seem to be ahead of where I thought they would be. While it doesn’t look like it, the vines were suckered a few times.


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## mbrssmd (May 16, 2022)

ibglowin said:


> Let's not turn this into a debate on whether or not climate change is real or not.


My apologies if that's the way you took my observations of the last couple of years of the climate in my particular location. I'll take that as needing to be more careful.


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## ibglowin (May 16, 2022)

Your comments were fine. 



mbrssmd said:


> My apologies if that's the way you took my observations of the last couple of years of the climate in my particular location. I'll take that as needing to be more careful.


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## Sage (May 17, 2022)

In a former life I worked for a large canning company. We had peas, beans, corn.

Everything was planted in sequence based on degree days so that ripening \harvest would fall in an orderly sequence also.

The old mom nature would step in to screw things up. Ever try to run a 10 ton pea harvester through mud?? The crop was ready and the next field was approaching ready.

The point being, I remember years when the rain quit at the end of May and it turned hot!! Scramble to harvest as fields were ripening too fast. Then years when it rained until the 4th of July! Sit around hoping they got ripe before the cannery had to switch machines over for corn.

Weather right now is not any different. One year a lot of rain (this year), or no rain and hot (last year). Make the best of it!!??


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## David Engel (Sep 26, 2022)

Hi Everyone, 

Update on the vines... the leaves have started to turn on the 6 year old vine and she only gave 7 clusters this year and they are are not even close to finished. I figure we have another 3 weeks left before rain becomes an every other day even here (north of Seattle). Has anyone ever had those years where you get nothing? There are a lot of Vinyards here in Western washington, wonder how they're doing?


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## HillPeople (Sep 26, 2022)

Between the turkeys, bears and weird weather- we got nothing.


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## Obbnw (Oct 5, 2022)

David Engel said:


> Hi Everyone,
> 
> Update on the vines... the leaves have started to turn on the 6 year old vine and she only gave 7 clusters this year and they are are not even close to finished. I figure we have another 3 weeks left before rain becomes an every other day even here (north of Seattle). Has anyone ever had those years where you get nothing? There are a lot of Vinyards here in Western washington, wonder how they're doing?


Even worse, in 2020 I some grapes but they were not quite ripe, went through the effort to make wine but ended up throwing most of it away because it was so bad (a more talented winemaker probably could have made it palatable...) 2021 vintage is pretty good which helps me keep a positive attitude.

This year started slow, then started to look pretty good. But the September heatwave hit my tempranillo's pretty hard. My malbecs fared better but the big surprise was the tannats. They are 3 years old and the first real harvest year, picked yesterday, 25 brix, 3.3 ph. Ph on the tempranillos and malbecs is typically 3.6 to 4.0 so the 3.3 is fantastic. Hoping to do a Malbec tannat blend.

Looks like I'll get just enough heat to finish the malbecs, they are 21 to 23 brix now with high 70's forecast for the next week. I'll be picking grapes almost every night for the next 10 days.

So far I have picked about 250 lbs of tempranillo, 25 lbs tannat, 25 lbs baco noir. Have about 50 lbs tempranillo left and 400 to 500 lbs of Malbec.


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## Sage (Oct 13, 2022)

Mine are ripening very slowly. Did a random brix test yesterday. Most were in the 14-17 range. Low 11 and one oddball high of 22.

Temperature running in the 70's and the days are getting shorter!


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## Sage (Oct 21, 2022)

Not looking good. Brix test showed little to no change. Weather forecast is cold and colder. Rain off and on next 5-7 days and into the 30's. I'm going to leave them hang until it freezes or they turn into rasins.


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## Neb Farmer (Oct 21, 2022)

SW Washington....my 12 year old vines made it through the dry spell we had , watered during the 100 degree period we had, and now I'm going to be harvesting. we have light rain today, so everything is ' coming in '.
The Riesling was picked,destemmed,crushed and pressed yesterday, getting up to 19 brix with a 3.17 ph. about as ripe as they seem to get here.

The cooler evenings is perfect for cold crashing the Riesling must, so I'm pretty happy with that

Compared to previous years, this year seems to be about two weeks behind. I don't consider that to be a big deal, after all, this is farming!


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## Sage (Oct 22, 2022)

Now...... Damned birds have gathered here. Lost some, might need some practice for pheasant and quail season!


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## winemaker81 (Oct 22, 2022)

Sage said:


> Now...... Damned birds have gathered here. Lost some, might need some practice for pheasant and quail season!


Pheasant McNuggets are good ... IF you get all the birdshot out.


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## Sage (Oct 22, 2022)

It's contagious.... 37 degrees 

Now it's snowing! I don't know what has "next" !!


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