Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

[grapeman]

This field that was trees less than two weeks ago is now 3/4 planted with grapes. Here it is as a reminder.

I marked the field out today into 6 rows of vines that are 36 vines long. This is half of a planting I am putting in to study the effects of various training methods and canopy management on the quality of the juice from them and thus the quality of the wine. I am planting 4 varieties of grapes and put in the 6 rows x 9 vines each of Minnesota 1200 , St. Pepin and Petite Amie. I didn't plant the Marquette because they aren't delivered to me yet from Andy Farmer of Norhteast Vine Supply. Once the other chunk has a couple stumps dug out this coming week, I will till that new field and duplicate what I planted today. Then when the Marquette arrive, I will plant those in both fields. I took some pictures today but was too tired after 12 hours of planting to upload them today.


Tomorrow I will hopefully begin planting the other field. I only got in 162 vines today because I had to mark the rows, auger the holes, dig up the vines from my nursery and finally plant them. I did have a slight reprieve since I had to purchase 40 Petite Amie from Double A Nurseries, because I only have 68 in my nursery of the Petite Amie out of the 108 needed (12 rows x 9 vines each). Tomorrow I will plant a mixture of purchased grape vines and ones I need to dig in the nursery.

 

[OilnH2O]

Yeah, Rich. I hear you. PHeww... (wipes brow) I'm tired just WATCHIN' you!

 

[Waldo]

What the heck did you use to get all the stumps and roots out of that field with appleman.

 

[grapeman]

We used a Payloader to push the apple trees out Waldo. It gets most of the roots out along with the stumps. There are still small roots left which worked up fairly well. Ideally you should till the field a couple years before planting to allow the trash and weeds to break down some. I'm impatient and will probably pay for it later with more weeds and grass to control with a hoe.

 

[grapeman]

Ok, first here a few pictures of vines I planted on Saturday. Some holes awaiting vines.

Some St Pepin waiting to be planted, trimmed up and then in the hole.

Next onto Sunday's field- one you guys haven't seen before. It is newly plowed and harrowed. Yes it is sandy also.

Then after marking rows.

Layout vine locations and spray the spots.

And then auger the hole and back to where I started, rows with holes waiting to be planted. Oops I didn't get any pictures of the holes- well, just use your imagination. There are holes where the flags and paint were.

 

[Wade E]

You sure do get a lot of work done over there Rich!

 

[AlFulchino]

what is the average hours of sunlight in these fields?

 

[grapeman]

what is the average hours of sunlight in these fields?

Geeze, I don't know Al.................
The fields at home are sunny almost all day- I lose maybe 2 hours a day to shade in spots. During the summer, the sun is overhead high enough that there is very little shade.


The other field has sun basically all day, with just a late sunrise in the morning. The pines are on the east, south and north. The west side is open. The south doesn bother because they are down in a 25 foot deep ravine, so they aren't much above the soil line. I need to work with what I have. I know my vineyard locations aren't perfect, but they are mine....... I need to live with them and make the best wine I can from my grapes.

 

[AlFulchino]

same here...i work w what i have.....i just was wondering because the deciduous trees have not leafed out yet....the shadows had me curious

 

[grapeman]

I had to look back at the pictures Al. Those aren't shadows...... the darker spots are the true color. The sun was so bright that the light colored areas are actually just bright reflective spots! This is one HOT field! I first cleared the junipers off that field in 1970 and planted potatoes when I was 16. It is sandy, but very fertile. It should be a good combination for grapes!


"The deciduous trees have not leaved out yet" - remember Al we are north of you and they are just starting to leave out! Your grapes are undoubtedly ahead of mine also. Just as well. I am trying to beat the leaves getting the vines in the nursery planted.


I hear you about a busy time of the year. My brother opened up the greenhouses this last weekend and he will be out straight for the next 8 months.

 

[grapeman]

I am adopting a hardline attitude in planting new vines this year. I originally put in a wide variety of vines, and a lot of them are edge sitters for our climate. They make nice wine, but will they live good long lives here? That is what I wanted to determine before maker larger plantings. Last winter was a great one for weeding out the week ones that just aren't quite hardy enough for my climate. I lost a lot more vines than I would have liked to see, but better to lose 25 of a variety than 2 acres of them. So far the losers that will most likely be replaced are in order of disaster - Noiret, Corot Noir, Cab Franc, Alden, Traminette, and Chardonel. The first four will LIKELY be replaced either this year or possibly next. I may give the Traminette and Chardonel a reprieve. They are definitely alive and have good growing buds 16 inches above the ground- or just below the average winter snowline this year. I will let them show me what is growing and I will then trim them back to that. I will then train to fans and probably lay the canes down before winter. Will it be worth it in the end. Only time will tell.


I have vines I consider less than hardy enough in my nursery that I began last year to test them out. I have Cayuga and Vignoles that are nice year old vines- about 60 of each. I had them on the list to plant- they have been scratched from the list. I also made cuttings last fall of Corot Noir and Noiret and put them in plug trays. They are rooting and budding and will probably be destroyed. I have 250 Traminette cuttings and 500 Chardonel cuttings buried underground and was going to soon plant them in the nursery for rooting to expand - those plans are on hold for the foreseeable future. I may grow them anyways.

 

[OilnH2O]

Did you do the Leon Millot and Marachal Foch that Bilbo and I have tried? (I can't recall from your past posts) Was curious how they have done this year...

 

[grapeman]

I have the Leon Millot and it did alright this year. There are some dead buds, but in general it is fine. We have Marechal Foch at Willboro and it is very close to the Leon Millot, so it also is alright. There the Cayuga White and Vignoles don't look so hot. The Landot is variable- some are OK and some are quite pathetic.

 

[BonnieJoy]

Yep,vineyard space is too valuable and time spent in vineyard management is aconsiderable investment.


So, any thoughts on what varietiesyour vineyard will migrate/gravitate towards?

 

[grapeman]

I am putting in close to 400 St. Pepin this year. It makes an excellent wine base for a fruity white wine. ES 6-16-30 (Adalmiina)is being called upon for the roll of pollinator for the St. Pepin- excellent body to boot!LaCrescent is being expanded to give the white wines a great fruity PUNCH. Full of lovely esters. Petite Amie is also arriving in a fairly big way for me- 108 of them. It makes a very nice wine by itself! The reds that didn't make the honor roll are being replaced with St. Croix and Marquette. The grape you have never heard of yet - Mn1200 (sister to Marquette) is coming to the vineyard compliments to Peter Hemstad of U Minn breeding program. It is part of my new trial planting aimed at improving fruit quality of wine grapes in cold environments through training systems and canopy management.


So there you have it in a nutshell Bonnie! \


I was looking at the hourly NEWA readings for a town about 8 miles away for January. It reached -28 F and fluctuated through the night. At home my thermometer reached -22F but it may have been a bit colder. This was 10 degrees colder than it has reached in the last 15-20 years. Ah Global Warming! How cold would it have been without it?!

 

[AlFulchino]

question...have you heard anything at all about the polinators for St Pepin as having any effect on the taste of the st pepin grape?

 

[grapeman]

No I haven't. Why have you heard something?

 

[grapeman]

It has been a pretty productive week getting vines in the ground. I still have quite a ways to go, but a lot less than about a week ago. So far this year I have gotten 692 vines planted despite the weather.


Yesterday was abysmal. We had a chance of a passing thunderstorm late, and it was raining before sunrise. It was so humid that with the slightest sneeze, it would start raining. I did the best I could marking, drilling holes and planting vines. About 11:00 AM we had such a downpour that the marking paint I had just put on, washed into the ground. I had to remark before using the auger. Then we had several horrendous thunderstorms move through for the next hour dropping over an inch of rain.


Today hasn't been much better. The wind has been blowing nonstop making the mid 40's seem much colder. I will tell you my hands got cold pulling vines out of the ground after loosening with a spade fork. I got odds and end planted to replace frozen dead vines.


I still have odds and ends to replace, but now I am waiting the guy with the backhoe to dig out two pine stumps for me. He was going to do it yesterday afternoon if it didn't rain - but it did! Now I don't know when he will be able to come. I need those stumps pulled and that ground prepared soon to plant.


I hope you all have been able to get your outside work done also.

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Rich,
The weather today is very similar here, a constant drizzle with chilly NW wind. I did my finish pruning yesterday and did a good analysis of condition of all the vines. I chopped two and a half Frontenac right to the ground due to mouse damage. At this point none of my Landot Noir look alive, and we too hit 22 below in February, as you did. I have a feeling it may be why L. Noir looks like it does.
You mentioned the new Mn1200 variety that you are getting to try out. Is it for limited release at this point, or are they available upon request? My Marquette are looking great, and if the sister variety is developed for superior characteristics, count me in as interested. They would be the perfect replacement for Frontenac and L. Noir here.
Once we get this April weather out of here and can get May under way, I hope you get those planting chores finished finally. Good luck.
Bill

 

[grapeman]

Bill the Mn 1200 has been growing at Willsboro since the vineyard was planted. The selection team had asked for input from breeders/etc before selecting the varieties to plant. Peter Hemstad sent out Mn 1200 and Mn 1211- which was named the next year as Marquette. Mn 1200 hasn't been released to very many places yet and generally isn't available. I requested permission to propogate enough vines for my training study and was granted permission for that only. I see this variety here as being promising but it does have some negative aspects. It can try to set up to 5 bunches of grapes per shoot and thus does require cluster thinning. If left to overcrop, the clusters and berry size get small. That is part of the reason I selected this variety for my trial. It is a good one to demonstrate the effects of proper training and canopy management in improving wine quality. My other red I selected was Marquette - as that one can get very vigorous.