Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

[Wade E]

Are the seedless grapes for eating or winemaking?

 

[Joanie]

I was going to ask that question too, NW! Great minds do think
alike! =) I just went out behind the barn and took some photos of some
of my wild ones and they don't look like Appleman's!

 

[Joanie]

Appleman! Do we have enough questions for you?

 

[grapeman]

Wade the Glenora are for eating- black seedless grapes. I need to eat a few

. I have the Glenora(Black), Reliance(Red), Marquis(White) and Canadice(Pink)-8 out of 600+ vines. Ifthey do OK, I will expand them.


Joan, those are what mine looked like a few weeks ago too- very fragrant. The small bright red berries are really attracting the robins. I went to take a picture of the big bush yesterday and all but a few berries had been picked clean by them. I hope the birds stay out of yours. When they ripen they go from red to black. Last year I was lucky to find a couple bushes they hadn't eaten all the berries off of out of dozens of bushes.


Here is one I cut off this spring. It is 6 feet tall again already and the leaf branches are over a foot long each. Very vigorous.

Edited by: appleman

 

[grapeman]

Here are some pictures of the vines I planted a few weeks ago. The grow tubes had been on 2 weeks when I took the pictures.

 

[grapeman]

Joan:
Yes the Frontenac are second year. They were 1-Yr-X last year(bareroot)


NW- Yes they are wild ones, they go from red to black when ripe. Yes they do make good wine.


OilnH20: There is a 12 -14 inch high wire in the bigger ones. I put it there for training and a drip line, but didn't need the drip there last year with all the rain. I am using three wires in some varieties for the drip wire and 2 cordon wires for 4-Arm Kniffen on some of them. I am moving over the VSP for most of the new ones. First wire at about 32-36 inches, then two wires(either side of post) every 12-14 inches(four catch wires total) and then the top wire to support bird netting for a total of 6 wires. I stapled this first one for now on the ends, but I can see it will be hard to tighten and adjust with just the gripples. Others put a chain on the ends and hang the wires from nails. I'm trying that next, but need to get some wire splices to accomplish the chain trick.


Did I forget anybody?

 

[grapeman]

Anybody that hasn't seen them yet, I have posted some updated pictures of the vines on the previous page.


Here is a sample

 

[grapeman]

Anybody interested in seeing an update on the vines from the Wilsboro Research Farm cold hardy trials? I was feeling a little sluggish today so only worked in the vineyard for about 6 hours hoeing and decided it was time for a little road trip there. I hadn't seen the vines since we pruned them this spring. They trained them in kind of an umbrella kniffen system- training the canes over the top wire and back down to the next. I think some fruit thinning will be necessary on most varieties. It looks like the average vine has between 50 and 100 clusters. This is the third year for them growing and it is amazing they have that much fruit. It looks like it is keeping the vigor in check fairly well with the canes running three to five feet so far. I'm seeing 6 to 8 feet on the more vigorous varieties so far. It will be interesting to see how the crop ripens on the vines at Wilsboro. If anybody wants to see them I will post some tomorrow.

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

To barrow from Waldo, We Like Pictures!

 

[NorthernWinos]

I too would love to see photos of grapes...I know I am not doing it 'According to Hoyle'...but what the heck....as long as I get some fruit.

 

[grapeman]

Ok. Here are some pictures from yesterday at the Willsboro Research Farm. This was a trip I took back to see how the varieties are doing since I last saw them at pruning. They were trained up over the top wire into what I would think to be an Umbrella Kniffen. May not be the best choice for all varieties, but they are treating them all the same. Most varieties continue to do very well in my opinion. Anyway here they are. First a cloudy day in the 60s on Lake Champlain- just south of Burlington Vermont(vineyard on the NYS side).

A look down a couple rows

Frontenac

For NW- Edelweiss

Frontenac Gris

GR-7

LaCrescent

Edited by: appleman

 

[grapeman]

Had to split them up- so here are some more pictures


Leon Millot

Marquette

St. Pepin

For Joan-Vignoles

Remember these are the third year on these in the ground. You can expect a limited small crop in the third year- yeah right. You can't tell from most of the pictures but there are about 50-100 clusters per vine. They have already started dropping some clusters on the less vigorous varieties. You can also see the difference in flowering times. Some have just set and others have pea sized grapes. Seeing what is growing there for quantities, I am beginning to wonder what the heck I'm going to do with 600 vines worth of grapes(this project only has 300 vines). I know- I will make a little wine!

Edited by: appleman

 

[Joanie]

Thanks Appleman!! I can taste the Vignoles already!! It makes a fantastic ice wine!!

You definitely need more carboys!!! It may be time for stainless!!!

 

[NorthernWinos]

Thanks Appleman...It's nice to see other styles of trellising...thanks for taking the photos and sharing them with us.


I notice they might have some multiple trunks....not as attractive way of trellising. I am doing that now on most of my vines since I had die-back on a single trunk.


I also notice they have straw mulch, is that only because they are young vines?? To protect from cold or suppress weeds???


A few years ago I ordered some hard to find hardy vines from Tom Ploucher [author of Northern Wineworks] He told me that straw mulch reflects the heat of the sun, good in spring when you don't want the soil heated up and start the sap running too early, but bad in the summer when you want the heat for ripening....also it harbors diseases...so I removed the straw from some very disease prone vines...That was the winter that the old big trunks split...I often wonder if they froze beacause...the roots were shallow from the mulch...or...the ground heated up too early in the year, caused the sap to run and they split the trunks when we got a cold spell...they were suppose to be the hardiest vines....-40* to -50*.


I continue to mulch the very tender vines and the newly planted ones....am still in question about keeping mulch on the new rows of hardy vines...most of the newer ones I planted are disease resitant....to mulch..or...not to mulch???

 

[grapeman]

Joan, I thought you might like to see Vignoles. I can see why they would make ice wine out of it- It is LATE. My Chardonel seems to be about as late as the Vignoles. I will see how they ripen later at Willsboro and may plant some next year myself. What am I saying- "Somebody Please Help Me!" I can't seem to stop planting

Yes I think I need some new carboys. Heck I may need a few barrels in a couple years.


NW that isn't straw mulch. When planted, they were put on black plastic mulch with the center aisles seeded to a grass/ clover mixture. What you see is the grass along the side of the plastic. They sprayed it with Roundup and what you see is the dead grass not mowed. They will go through later if needed with a string-trimmer to get rid of it. It would make a nice haven for mice if left. I don't plan on mulching either. There are multiple trunks where possible. They kept three for now to help insure survivability.Edited by: appleman

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Richard,
What is their philosophy regarding leaf pulling and shoot thinning, along with crop thinning that you mentioned? There's a ton of vegetation on those vines! They've had Marquette for three years already? They must have gotten them when they were just released. Again, thanks for sharing.

 

[grapeman]

Bill I have no idea what their philosophy is on leaf pulling and thinning. This isn't a commercial operation only a trial for variety hardiness, so such issues aren't emphasised This is a remote site so the vine experts only visit every few weeks. There is a site manager, but he is responsible for many other chores like maintaining the hundreds of acres and the experimental crops. As far as them having Marquette, they are part of Cornell, so they were able to obtain unreleased varieties for trials. They have several unnamed varieties under trial I haven't even mentioned.


The canopy isn't terribly thick and I wouldn't worry about leaf pulling if it was mine, yet. You can see almost every cluster really well with even a few clusters I noticed sunburning. How are yours doing this year?

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

I'm about to put up some new photos. Check in to my thread.

Sorry, having trouble uploading photos for some unknown reason. When I get things straightened out I'll show the pics.Edited by: bilbo-in-maine

 

[grapeman]

Bill I found if you don't load more than 3 at a time, they will post OK. If I try 4 or 5 and then try post it give a db error and I have to try again. That's why you notice I need to edit so many posts. Good luck. Looking forward to your pictures.

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Richard - That wasn't the problem. I received an "access denied" screen when I clicked on the file upload button. It happened several times in a row, then stopped being a problem. Go figgah...