Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

[bilbo-in-maine]

Good, proceed with the trial - it will provide good information for the program! I'm going to muddle through with whatever growth I get from Frontenac and L. Noir and be thinking of a single replacement variety for next year.

 

[grapeman]

I got my 8 vines of NY95.0301.01 yesterday. They were greenhouse grown and about 24-30 inches tall grown in peat pots. I planted them this evening and reluctantly put growtubes on them. I don't like the growtubes, but decided it was the best way to harden them up with heavy wind expected. I will take them off in about a week. This is a product of the breeding program at Geneva. I like the looks of it and want to test it out further.


I got my last chunk of ground finished preparing before planting- hopefully this coming weekend if not starting sooner. I got the two huge stumps removed yesterday- massive roots. There are a lot of pieces of roots all over, and normally I wouldn't put a piece of ground into production for a few year. I think though that with the grapes, by the time they are producing the roots will be gone - either rotted away or I will pick out while weeding - advantage of hands on treatment.

 

[grapeman]

Nothing super special to look at, but here is how the ground turned out after the stump removal. The picture is a bit off because of the sun shining last evening when I snapped the picture. There is room for 6 rows with 36 vines each in them in this block.

Hopefully I will get most of it planted this weekend and then will be awaiting the Marquette vines from Andy Farmer to finish up this year's main plantings. I will still need to plant out the nursery as soon as they have rooted enough in the plug trays.

 

[grapeman]

Another tough day here in the vineyard trying to plant vines. I am inside waitng out another downpour. I have been rained out 3 times now- and the showers are supposed to begin at about 5:00 this evening

I'm down to 54 St. Pepin to plant and then it will be just fill-ins and the Marquette. I got some pictures, but will post them later.

 

[grapeman]

Well the rain keeps a coming! It quit for a while between 5:30 and 6:00 so I went out and planted the St. Pepin. I got more pictures and they show some of the water, before it got really wet. Now there is a LOT of standing water. I thought I would get the truck stuck but spun my way through sideways. Luckily I kept it between the grapes. Some of the holes I had to plant in were full of water, so I pulled the soil into them until it ran out and away. I will need to go back and clean up the soil around them, but then there are a lot of sticks and roots to get rid of anyways. At least I don't need any drip irrigation right away! LOL!

 

[rrawhide]

hey hey hey and hi rich


question - why don't you like grow tubes? Just planted 30 merlot vines along the driveway and covered with blue growtubes. I was kinda thinking about protection from the ground squirrals. MOST of last years vines are doing well - hopefully they will continue since we had to dig them back up(last year)and make wire baskets for the roots to protect them from moles and stuff!!! I have about 65 vines in now most with wire baskets. However, the 30 along the road do not have them -- - - just hoping!! AND I am building and installing an OWL box to look over them!!! We do have owls flying around the property so hope they will like their new home!!! I found another 1/4 acre that I am going to improve this year and plant next spring - - - and the owl can watch over them too!!!
I'll post pictures later - - -


Have a great day all - - -


rrawhide

 

[Wade E]

You wuss, put on your rain coat and get out there!

Just kidding, its looking great there Rich!

 

[grapeman]

question - why don't you like grow tubes?


rrawhide

It's one of those things where you really like the grow tubes or you hate them. They do add some protection for the vines, but in general I think they cause more problems than do good. If you use grow tubes figure on losing all that growth next year. Vines grown in the tubes are very thin and it all needs to be cut back to just a few inches of stem next pruning. I have seen vines that were 1/8 of an inch in the tube and the growth above it goes up to 3/8 of an inch. That is a totally undesireable situation and makes for an extremely weak trunk. I would rather just place a small bamboo rod and use the tapener tool to keep growth straight. In the tube you only get one or two weak shoots where without you can get multiple canes to feed that root during the year of establishment.


They do make it easier to use roundup around them though.

 

[grapeman]

I am just getting the pictures in the computer to upload this morning.

Here is the latest cleared piece of ground ready to plant looking towards the west, with the holes drilled.

Drilled hole

Young vines ready to spade up

The same vines in a tub of water

Here is the other end of the field with lots of roots and stick to pick up (and some plastic also)

And piles of stuff dug out and pushed up (will clean up some later)

The first vines in

And then the rains began.

I didn't get any pictures of the area after all the rain showing the holes full of water.

 

[grapeman]

To follow up on some of the wines, from time to time some of you ask about the wines I made. Does anyone remember this picture?

Those wines won a gold and three silvers at the WineMaker Magazine Competition for 2009. It was bottled mid-summer 2008.


From left to right: LaCrescent:Gold. Adalmiina (ES6-16-30):Silver, St. Pepin:Silver, Petite Amie:Silver

 

[AlFulchino]

congratulations!

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Nice going Rich! Was there a specific category in which they were entered, such as northern hybrid?

 

[grapeman]

The whites were in the White French/American Hybrid category. You need to use the categories they supply. The Leon Millot was in the Red French/American Hybrid category.

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

Nice Going!

I thought those all looked great the first time you posted them! Some well deserved recognition for all your work.

 

[BonnieJoy]

Congratulations, prize winning wines from a first classvineyard.

When you have some time, would you mind posting some tasting profiles?

 

[grapeman]

Time for a bit of an update on vine growth. The hybrids are going nuts, especially the Frontenac. They have grown 4-6 inches since I took the pictures yesterday AM. I'm hoping we get past the freezing weather soon. I would hate to lose them now!

Here is the vineyard Guard Dog- yeah right! Notice the poor Chardonel on the left- no crop this year for them!

 

[grapeman]

I had a fairly productive 3 day weekend. First I got the last of the vines planted - 108 Marquette. Then I applied fertilizer to all the vines. The older vines got a pound of fertilizer and the small ones got a half pound. I cultivated the small ones to loosen the soil after the torrential rains last weekend and harrowed them after. I hoed weeds in some of the older vines and then ran the roto-tiller throught the small ones in a figure 8 to get rid of some weeds already trying to grow with the new vines. I installed some new clips I got for fastening the wire to and set the wire below the fruiting wire in the VSP vines. Some are almost large enough to bring the wireand thus the vines up. I will do that in a few days if it doesn't freeze them all tonight. Today I finished tilling the small vines and then got the four row markers from the farm and marked out the rows for a new nursery. I then set the 500 Chardonel and 300 Traminette I had calloused earlier. I figure I may as well grow out what I can and then let others use them if I can't. I will plant the plugs with small cuttings in them when they get rooted just a bit more in that nursery.


I'm going out now to hook up the sprayer to the tractor so if the wind dies down later I can spray for the first time this year.

 

[AlFulchino]

hey...looking good..what is that trellsi system called...the one showing a lower cordon and the higher one that looks 30-36 inches abobe the lower one

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Looking VERY good Rich, other than your Chardonel, which looks like my Landot Noir. Tell us what the fertilizer is, what ratios, and why now rather than at berry set.

 

[grapeman]

First Al, I don't know if it will work or not, but the idea of that setup is to spread the vigor of the vines, The wires are just what you said and the whole row was set up VSP. That is one row of the grant study. I want to add more shoots to try to cut the vigor of all of them and thus keep them under control. Will it work? Don't know, but that the reason for the study.


Second Bill, why the fert now? Because it is very sandy soil that holds little fertility. I need it to supply spring growth and set the blossoms up for in a few weeks. If I wait, it is too late. It is just general purpose 15-15-15 with micronutrients. I hear the groans now, but that's what went on them. This application is meant as being a base fertilizer for the year. It has enough of everything in it to support roots, top growth and fruit. It's not enough for the whole year, but I supplement later as needed.


I put on my first application of spray for the year since U have a foot of growth. I applied 3 pounds Manzate 75DF, 4 ounces Elite, and 1 quart liquid Carbaryl (tanished plant bugs). That pretty well covers everything out there. It was then or not at all before bloom, and I felt I wanted the protection there with a week of rain headed our way.