2018 in the vineyard

[Johny99]

Well,I won’t say my 2017 thread was a hit, but I enjoyed, and learned a thing or two, from seeing what folks we up to in their vineyards. So, here goes again, come one, come all. Post what is going on in your vineyard, large or small.

Mid January, and it finally has delivered real snow. About 8 inches of nice wet stuff. Gues prun8ng will wait.

 

[Stressbaby]

I liked the 2017 thread and hope to be a regular contributor to this one.
I'll get some pics tomorrow. Yours are beautiful.

 

[havlikn]

Here is a few rows of Frontenac grapes from Wisconsin ready to prune. Work will probably start later this month.

 

[balatonwine]

First snow here was last night. 3 to 4 mm (1/6th inch). I don't think I will get out my Nordic skis just yet. And it will 8°C (46°F) tomorrow, so that snow dusting will will not last.

Normally, the vineyards lay dormant work wise here till late February or early March. But with local weather as it is, i am pondering getting a head start this year on some tasks.

 

[Stressbaby]

We are already dropping from today's high of 24F. Low tonight -1F. I haven't really even thought about pruning.

 

[Johny99]

Spring has arrived, sorry folks in the NE. 60 on Sunday so I got a little pruning done. Now I have the flu, so that is on hold. At least Wines and Vines and Wine Maker arrived so I have something to read.

 

[garymc]

Sunset on the muscadines. This is a Geneva double curtain trellis with the wires at a little over 5 feet high. The wires are 4 feet apart. Each vine has between 36 and 40 feet of cordon. I've been pruning for a few weeks and I think I'm a little over half done.

 

[balatonwine]

Nice "spring" weather this past week. But looks like another cold front coming in. Freezing at night. Maybe some snow. Forecast to be like that all next week. And the Almonds just bloomed this week. Looks like no almonds this year. The freeze will probably kill them off.

Raining today. But looks like I will have to get wet and put some low tunnels on my garden as well. Just lettuce and carrots seeded this week. Should be okay (I hope).

 

[Masbustelo]

It's a gloomy day in Illinois. No weather warmer than 47F prognosticated for the next 10 days. I pruned 6 pounds off of one of these vines, this week. I think they will be way out of balance until next years pruning. This is their third year. I am establishing the cordons. An after thought was that I could have used the uprights as my cordons and grown the shoots out sideways. Then I could have had more buds this year, but I decided in the long run it will be way less work to let the shoots work with gravity versus against. So I went semi- conventional. These are Petite pearl. They have shown extreme vigor. The top cordons are separated by 5 feet from the lower cordons. The lower cordons are five feet off the ground. So the top cordon is at ten feet.

 

[balatonwine]

Well. Yep. It snowed......

 

[VillaVino]

Welcome to January 96th in Wisconsin.

 

[Johny99]

Well, Spring has gotten away from me, but I’m mostly keeping up with the vineyard. Tucking shoots and pulling suckers is a daily escape from the pressures of life. Looks like bloom is about 50% give or take a little for the different grapes, maybe 20,21 on the Coombe E-L stage system.

 

[KevinL]

Summer time!

My 3 year Frontenacs have taken over their trellis. The Vidal Blanc had it's buds break late so it has some catching up to do. This year's plantings are coming along fine, and last years are looking healthy as well. I obtained this aerial shot with my new fancy spy drone... or by climbing onto the roof of my garage. You decide.

 

[Johny99]

Hot, dog days of summer. Most grapes are pea-berry size. We were nice and cool until mid last week. Now pushing 100. 8 hours of water this weekend. A little mildew has showed up on the Tempranillo, but nowhere else. Leafhoppers are under control, for now. I visited a wine tasting room yesterday on the way home from a hike. The owner/winemaker is interested in buying some of my Sangiovese for a rose and some Pinot Blanc. With changes at home, that is attractive as I have more grapes than I want to make wine from. Different pressure growing for someone else! I’ll take him a couple bottles of wine and ponder it further.

 

[CK55]

View attachment 49803 View attachment 49804 Hot, dog days of summer. Most grapes are pea-berry size. We were nice and cool until mid last week. Now pushing 100. 8 hours of water this weekend. A little mildew has showed up on the Tempranillo, but nowhere else. Leafhoppers are under control, for now. I visited a wine tasting room yesterday on the way home from a hike. The owner/winemaker is interested in buying some of my Sangiovese for a rose and some Pinot Blanc. With changes at home, that is attractive as I have more grapes than I want to make wine from. Different pressure growing for someone else! I’ll take him a couple bottles of wine and ponder it further.

Nice those grapes seem well on the way to developing. A little mildew isnt bad but you really want to control that and keep it from spreading. Im intrigued by that guy wanting to use Sangiovese for a Rose thats not what its used for normally. But to each their own. I really like Sangio. And Tempranillo, but tempranillo where I live tends to make hot tasting wines, with agressive alcohol that need a good bit of aging to mellow out. Ive got a guy pretty much half a mile away that runs a small winery, that grows tempranillo.

https://www.peacockcellars.com/

 

[balatonwine]

This year has not been good here.

Really hot weather in the spring put everything at least two weeks ahead of "normal" schedule. And a week of heavy rain, quite unusual for early June, and right at the end of the bloom this year because of the hot weather, and then a week of heavy winds after that (combined which prevented effective spraying) resulted in a bucket load of mildew on the grapes and leaves.

What a mess. Significant losses.

Oddly, my one "experimental" variety, which is early to bud and bloom (thus hightly susceptible to "normal" late frost) is actually the one doing the best since its very early bloom missed most of the two weeks of storms.

Oh well. Such is farming. C'ste la vie.

 

[Dennis Griffith]

Ok, I've a couple of shots as well for this year. The routine is typical beetles and fungi, with a virus scare.

And some of my first year vines..

 

[keverman]

Hello, novice grower and winemaker here, with Marquette vines in their third year in Ohio. Did not spray fungicide, being a tree-hugging wannabe, and no signs of disease first 2 years. Black rot got about 1/2 my 3rd year crop, but I still have a lot left that look nice. Next year the spray tanks will be primed and ready. It was actually a pretty full crop for year 3, more than I expected, anyway, so I guess I'm prob. still where I thought I would be in terms of yield this year. 18 vines. Bought some "practice" Marquette grapes last fall from Michigan, and the carboy is about ready to bottle, and I'm optimistic about the potential! I do have one vine showing colors, but when I looked closely, I see the vine is stressed. Funny little spongy "fingers" coming out of slightly swollen area around the base, picture included. Crown gall?

 

[CK55]

Hello, novice grower and winemaker here, with Marquette vines in their third year in Ohio. Did not spray fungicide, being a tree-hugging wannabe, and no signs of disease first 2 years. Black rot got about 1/2 my 3rd year crop, but I still have a lot left that look nice. Next year the spray tanks will be primed and ready. It was actually a pretty full crop for year 3, more than I expected, anyway, so I guess I'm prob. still where I thought I would be in terms of yield this year. 18 vines. Bought some "practice" Marquette grapes last fall from Michigan, and the carboy is about ready to bottle, and I'm optimistic about the potential! I do have one vine showing colors, but when I looked closely, I see the vine is stressed. Funny little spongy "fingers" coming out of slightly swollen area around the base, picture included. Crown gall?View attachment 49839 View attachment 49840

Looks good, I dont have that many threats to my vines here in california so i dont spray them, ive got some Criolla vines that have made it 40 years with no spray. Which are my only vines that are producing, my Cabernet ,Merlot,Barbera and Alicante have only been in the ground 2 months now.

 

[GreenEnvy22]

My muscat looks good, no sign of disease so far.
Riesling has some erineum mite on it, trying to control it with Kumulus (sulphur).
Table grapes also look good.

Muscat on trellis:

Muscat rows:


Riesling with some mite damage:

Muscat on trellis:

Muscat on trellis: