And it begins

[Sage]

And it has officially ended 10/22/2020.

All picked, crushed and in fermenters. Tops of all vines are frost bit. They will be hit again tonight and then the big low teens temps Saturday night.

 

[Sage]

And this morning 33 and snowing.

 

[Sage]

This is the end of year shot December 15. Looks almost exactly like my first photo!!

Pruned, trimmings cleaned up, last load out of the gate.

 

[Obbnw]

This is the end of year shot December 15. Looks almost exactly like my first photo!!

Pruned, trimmings cleaned up, last load out of the gate.

View attachment 69597View attachment 69598

I'm curious as to how your grapes do in the heatwave.

We are just south of the main high pressure dome so temps here (high 90's) aren't too bad.

Good luck.

 

[Sage]

Photo taken Tuesday. Looking good and needing a trim. Trim tommorow morning, early before it gets too hot.

 

[Sage]

6\28 I did trim today and watered. Some vines are blooming. It was just over 100 when I finished!

Photos before, after and trimming weapon of choice sitting on the vineyard table.

 

[Sage]

I don't know what others use to trim, but that battery powered hedge trimmer does a fantastic job. I trimmed the vineyard, sides and topped in about 40 minutes (140 vines). Used one large battery and about 15 minutes of the second. Changed batteries before the first died so that I wouldn't get caught at the far end with a dead battery. The first one might have done the whole job.

 

[Dennis Griffith]

How do you sanitize those? Dip them in a bucket of bleach water? Don't forget to dry and oil when done.

 

[Sage]

I do not sanitize them. Can't see much point in it. Only used here in the vineyard.

Each time I'm done they are cleaned, oiled, and the hard plastic cover put back over the blades.

I watched a small tractor going down each row of a commercial vineyard. It had a big spinning blade on one side trimming vines. Results were similar to what I'm doing. (Don't think he sanitized either).

 

[Dennis Griffith]

It all depends on if you have any vines with any diseases. Especially galling, which can infect other vines via cutting tools.

 

[Obbnw]

It all depends on if you have any vines with any diseases. Especially galling, which can infect other vines via cutting tools.

I saw your comment on cleaning and thought I should probably pay more attention to cleaning my clippers. I once spread fire blight between trees I trimmed because I didn't know it was fire blight so I understand the danger.

I trim almost daily, spend a half hour to hour each day after work pulling leaves, trimming a stray. I move pretty slow so it takes a few weeks to go through all the vines. Do you think leaving my clippers in the baking Utah sun sanitizes them ; ).

It is the disease you don't know about that is the worry.

Hopefully Sage's vines will get through the heat unscathed. I did get some shatter from our heat wave a few weeks back, but not enough to worry about. Plus I probably have too many clusters anyway (contributing to the shatter).

 

[Dennis Griffith]

Do any of you have issues with herbicide damage? If so, do you leave the affected parts alone? I tend to truncate any off-shoot showing any sign of mutation.

 

[Sage]

I always carry nippers. If I see anything that doesn't look normal, it's cut off and removed from the vineyard.

 

[Dennis Griffith]

How about herbicide damage?

 

[Dennis Griffith]

Gee, my hand looks abnormal in that shot. It's a regular hand (so far).

 

[Sage]

Since I'm the only one spraying within 1\2 mile, and I'd be way uphill from them, I rarely see any chemical problems. Can't always control my wife's weed spraying..

I remove ANYTHING that doesn't look normal and remove it from the vineyard to the burn pile. The only exception is powdery mildew. If I see see it, I head for the sprayer. After spraying I will remove and put in a bucket any leaves showing PM.