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I started seeing signs of veraison in my Marquette on July 12 in each of the past two seasons. West central Iowa. H

I use a Hudson SP0 backpack sprayer fitted with a brass conejet spray nozzle (5500-X6) . H

My wife and I toured the wineries of Arkansas and South Missouri last summer. Every one of them grows norton/cynthiana. I only had one that I really like. That grape has a distinct bite to it. Love it or hate it, cab sav it isn't. We had a chambourcin in Missouri that we really liked. One grape...

I like hearing good things about Verona. Last year, I ripped out my Foch vines and replaced them with Verona. My biggest concern, if I was in your shoes, would be getting enough heat to ripen a crop of Verona. It is supposed to be the biggest GDD hog of the three. H

Sounds very similar to killer yeast strains. I don't know anything about allelopathy, but the black walnut tree seems like a good example of what you are talking about. H

Just read through this entire thread. I don't know why your shoots didn't produce fruit clusters this year. Did you get hit with a late frost? Were the shoots growing from one year old wood? Primary buds growing from 1 year old wood should produce fruit. My guess is that your growth is from...

Since you have grow tubes on, you could kill the grass around the vines with a non-volatile herbicide like glyphosate or glufosinate. H

For immobile nutrients like phosphorous and zinc, the short grass roots probably don't compete with grape vines. Mobile nutrients are a different matter. One key form of nitrogen (NO3) is highly mobile and moves with water throughout the soil. I would expect grass and grape vines to compete...

I pruned vines that didn't produce a decent, pencil thick, trunk, back to two buds. More than half my vineyard got this treatment after year one. Also, make sure to avoid keeping bull canes as trunks. They are not very winter hardy. There is a lot of debate on the second question. I bend them...

Don't have a scientific answer. I did 3 ft weedless lanes the first year. You could look at pics of 1st year root mass to get an idea. I remember a study on growth tubes vs no growth tubes that posted pics of first year root growth, but now I can't find it. H

These are my thoughts: In year 1 and maybe year 2,vines should not compete with weeds and grass. It is important in these years to keep the rows clear of competing plants In year 3 and beyond, the decision on whether to control weeds is site and variety dependent. You may want to kill weeds if...

My vote is that the leaf in your pics is wild vitis riparia. H

There are two general schools of thought for the first year: Keep one or two shoots. During the summer, remove competing shots and laterals from the shoots that you kept. Force the vine to puts its energy into growing vertically to your fruiting wire. In the winter, prune back to pencil thick...

Daconil/chlorothalonil is not labeled for use on grapes. According to the midwest fruit spray guide, Captan offers "Fair" control for black rot. You need to spray something that offers "Good" or "Excellent" control. Agree with others that Manzate/mancozeb should be the cornerstone of your spray...

Any chance this guy is sitting in a low spot relative to the others? Or a spot that doesn't drain as well? Looks like excess water to me, but my vines grow on a beach, so this isn't something I really have any experience in. H

Greg, do you kill the weeds in your Frontenac rows, or have you decided to let them grow in? H

My vote is anthracnose, but I admit that I am not very good at disease identification.

Unfortunately, the Fungi kingdom rules the "all natural" world. Think about it, every insect that can be a pest has some predator that is on your side. Weeds can be eaten by goats or out-competed by other plants . But the Fungi sit pretty much at the top of the food chain. Organic grapes are...

It is worth a shot. I have read posts in the past that would say it is too late to start spraying for black rot once you see it on the leaves. I don't have enough experience to say either way. I don't think the news is quite as gloomy for downy mildew. I would spray if I were in your shoes. If...

In my vineyard, everything seems to grow upward until it reaches 3 to 4 feet in length. At that point, some varieties start to lay down nicely on their own (brianna, petite pearl, st croix, and the frontenacs). Some varieties try to stay more upright and need to be aggressively combed down. La...