Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

[NorthernWinos]

I remember weather like that when I lived in Toronto...kind of across the Lake...It would just be steaming with humidity and pollution...then heavy rains.

 

[grapeman]

My vineyardhadit's first bit of publicity today. One of the TV stations in Vermont sent a reporter out today for a story of local vineyards. They featured mine and one other for the story. At least there weren't a lot of weeds to embarass me too much. Now if I can keep them coming to report on the progress ofthe grapes to help enhance the visibility of growing grapes in our region....

 

[Wade E]

Were you wearing your Wine Makers Toy Store shirt???????

 

[grapeman]

Dang it, no I didn't. I never even thought of that! The guy called me and wanted to come right out and I was kind of busy at the time.

 

[OilnH2O]

That's Great News!

Does your local TV station have a website? Often, they will put their video stories up on their web the next day, so others (hint! HINT!

) can also view them.

 

[grapeman]

I checked yesterday to see if they had posted the story- but it wasn't there........

 

[Joanie]

Whooohooo! Appleman's a STAH!! Congratulations!

Can I have your autograph???

 

[Dominick]

very nice appleman!!! congrats!!

very nice setup

 

[grapeman]

Thanks Dominick. I am trying to do the best I can with the limited area I have to work with- like everybody else here. Some have more and some have less room.

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Pretty darn cool Rich! I'm with Dave - I'd love to see the footage if it is online. Wouldn't mind seeing the other guy's vines either for that matter

What was the station, one from Burlington?

 

[BonnieJoy]

How proud you must be. We all knew what a fantastic vineyard you've got growing. But, it's even nicer to have your accomplishments recognized outside of your wine-making circle of friends. Congratulations, you deserve the spotlight

 

[grapeman]

I was also in the local paper yesterday(just my picture). The article covered the conference my supervisor put on a couple weeks ago where we had speakers from the Cornell Grape program come and speak about beginning a vineyard and winery using cold hardy grapes. We had about 60 attendees from NY and Vermont. One couple was here from NJ. In the afternoon we went to the vineyard at Willsboro(I do the day to day work and maintenance on the vineyard). Everyone that sees the vineyard is a bit surprised how well they grow here in the Champlain Valley.


Now if I can just get my vines under control and trained for the year I will be all set.

 

[uavwmn]

Appleman, gratz on your accomplishments!!! Great to hear!!

 

[grapeman]

I am taking a break from training for a bit so I thought I would post some pictures I took this AM. It is raining again and is becoming a real challenge to train when they are dry. It tends to spread disease more whn you work plants when wet, but it seems to rain all the time for the last two weeks.


The Frontenac are just about done bloom and have a tremendous load on them. I know I will need to thin eventually but I will use the crop load to slow the vines down. The shoots are above the top wires, but I don't want to hedge yet. That would force laterals and increase the canopy to the point of being thick and dense. The pictures at the end of the slideshow with all the grape blossoms are St. Pepin- also loaded to capacity, but they are very pretty right now. I did this up in a slide show because I don't have a lot of time to mess with pictures. Hope you enjoy the shots.


http://s268.photobucket.com/albums/jj31/appleman0006/Vineyard/June21_2008/?albumview=slideshow

 

[K&GB]

Appleman,


Thanks for the slideshow. Great pictures. I really appreciate the effort you make to pass on your knowledge. Keep 'em comin'!


Ken

 

[rrawhide]

thanx Appleman

your posts are always appreciated - - - keep 'em comin'

take care of yourself - - -

my vines will be delivered Monday evening - - -

everything almost ready - - - BUT - - - we are having a heat wave - - -

it's 102 in shade right now at 1830 pm. - - - heat warning for the next 48 hours - - then a cold snap - - - into the mid 90's.

no rain until November earliest - - -

rrawhide

 

[grapeman]

Sure, rub it in. You are baking in dryness and we are soaking in sog. Almost 6 inches now for June.........sigh. It is a good thing I am on sand, but, I had to dig some post holes the other day between downpours. I dug down 2 feet and went in to dinner when it started to rain. I went back out a while later to set the post and there was three inches of water in the hole. sigh....


I will ty to link from photobucket to see if they show up this time.
This one is St. Pepin- a white grape.

And a close up of cluster on the St. Pepin.

This is the Glenora seedless vine trained to a fan shape system.
javascript:void(0);

I had just got done training the vines into the VSP catchwires on the Leon Millot when I took this picute.

Here are some of the Frontenac vines gone wild from the heat a week or so ago. Now if only the rains will subside!

I will be thinning thse one of these days.

Well the test went ok for the copy from photobucket- let's see if they stay showing up or not.......Edited by: appleman

 

[BonnieJoy]

I agree with K&GB - your posts are very educational. They help us novices a lot. I especially like how you include the reasons behind managing/training your vines. It would take most of us many years & mistakes to figure it out.


I don't think there's any single crop as beautiful as a well tended vineyard. Cudos to you, Appleman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Rich, did you do a dormant spray this year on any of your vines?

You mentioned the wet weather and disease just now. Are you seeing some of the fungi, and if so, which?

Thanks
Bill

 

[grapeman]

Bill I didn't do a dormant spray this year. I really didn't have much disease last year, just a few spots. I probably should go with a dormant oil, but haven't used it to date. I mention disease because it is ever present in the environment. Without diligent preventative sprays it is likely that we get disease manifesting in one form or another. The rains compound the problem because each inch of rain you get, the spray residue is halved. This reduces the effectiveness of the spray in disease prevention.


Tuesday we had visitors at the Willsboro Farm. A bunch of the personel from the Hort Department were visiting area orchards and farms. We were on their stops. Many interesting folks were there and they all were looking for any pests they could find- be it insect or disease. They all had their little magnifying glasses and using them. I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Julie Carroll from Cornell. She is a plant pathology specialist. We talked a bit about spraying with all the rain pressure we have had. We all hid out in the greenhouse for a while- during a downpour, then went over to the vineyard. After they all left at about 6:30 PM, I went back to work and sprayed the grapes. It remained fairly dry overnight to give the spray a chance to dry on.


How are your vines doing? Did the goo ever go away?