Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

[AlFulchino]

yes, 50 is what i assumed, but NH has not gotten to the point where they spend a lot of time on grapes at the ext service....but we are coming online bit by bit

started seeing verasion on one variety earlier this week....so its time i get back on my netting research...thus far am leaning toward spec trellis vine side netting...they sent me a sample...looks rugged enough to last and to do the job

 

[grapeman]

Wow! You acturally have a variety in veraison? Unbelievable. Even in a good year, we don't have any turn until August here! What kind is it?





Well I had visitors here yesterday. Wayne Wilcox and Justine Vanden Heuval of Cornell made the stop with Kevin Iungerman from the Northeast Fruit Program. They were visiting a few area vineyards the day before our joint event with the University of Vermont.


Wayne couldn't find any diseases in the vineyard and as harrd as I tried to get Justine to say things were too dense or too much fruit, she would just say, "They look great to me. I wouldn't do anything different." I did get something for Wayen to be interested in. I have a large grapevine (Riparia) hanging in a tree a matter of 25 feet from the ends of a few rows. Yesterday all the fruit hanging on it came down with Downy Mildew. He loved seeing it, since riparia is normally resistant to downy mildew. The leaves were spotless but all the fruit was just plain fuzzy. He snapped a zillion photos of it. Today he even commented on it and said he had filled a memory card with pictures of it. Great, just what I want to be known for- a downy mildew infestation on wild grapevines that should be resistant!


Last evening after their stop at my place we all went to a Mexican food restaurant. We all chatted about grape culture, disease control and who has great wine in the Finger Lakes and Ontario. It was a very interesting time.

 

[AlFulchino]

hey that is great Rich.....it can be hard to get the educated to be real talkative when they are absorbing what they are seeing...and i mean educated in a good way.....people who have a great interest such as with grapes are all EYES when they are gathering info from observation

the verasion is just a hint and i caught it on the west side of a frontenac row, that was the good news...the bad news is that i had to cut back 5 different cordons on foch(3) and millot (2) from that dieback i mentioned....sure hope it was just a hardening off issue

 

[grapeman]

Did you get a chance to e-mail Wayne? I printed the paper out and then never had it with me when I talked to him.


I talked with Andy a bit today at our meeting on this side of the lake about the Marquette Crown Gall issue. He felt it was isolated to a vineyard that may have issues. Right now he is just monitoring it. He says it is just suspect since the other varieties don't have it and there seemed to be no physical cause for it developing so thinks the vine may just be more susceptible. We got a chance to talk a bit more than we normally do at these events. He stayed late along with some others and we had an impromptu wine tasting. I had a few whites and there were a few others that had brought some. We all stood around shot the bull and tasted a bunch.

 

[AlFulchino]

yep i emailed him...hopefully he has some time when he gets back

i have not seen any crown gall on marquette..hopefully what he was telling me is...as you say...isolated to that vineyard he spoke of

glad you had a great time!

 

[grapeman]

We have moved into a new dimension at the vineyard! WET! Pure sand here and it is WET!


It has been a very wet year and things are growing, but a bit slow. Last evening we got another 1/2 inch of rain on top of the other rains we have gotten. It was so wet this morning that I couldn't even hoe in the sand- too wet. I gave up and was filling out paperwork instead. We were due to go to an outdoor pool party this afternoon. No problem. The foecast was for mostly sunny with an outside chance of a passing shower. Well tell that to the clouds!


It started to rain with big drops and then started dumping copious amounts of rain. Within 15 minutes it rained 1.5 inches and kept raining. It was running rivers everywhere and we had inches of water even on our sand. By the time it got done in a half hour we had gotten 2 inches of rain.
As bad as it is up here at the vineyard, it is ten times worse at the other side of the farm at my brothers greenhouses and vegetable farm. The rains eroded huge gullies through the fields and moved tons of topsoil, not to mention everything else not bolted down!


The last time it rained this hard was 40 years ago..................

 

[AlFulchino]

2 inches? that is it?

i got 3.5 inches thursday overnight

 

[grapeman]

Yeah that's all Al, but it was in a half hour! That is a four inch an hour rate. If that was snow, it would be equal to 4 feet of snow per hour- talk about a dump!

 

[AlFulchino]

it does make viticulture challenging...in addition it reduces the number of days available to work in the vineyard

 

[grapeman]

The vineyard has been drying out recently. Until today we have gotten less than 3/4 inch of rain and overnight got enough to bring us up to almost an inch- just about normal. The skies have been at least partly to mostly sunny most days and some days it has been in the 80's. Yesterday made it to 86. The vines and the grapes have been doing well. Things are actually starting to look good.

And then came this afternoon............................
and it started to rain......................... and the storms starting sitting stationary and training. Since 2:00 this afternoon, we have gotten another 3 inches of rain so far bringing us up to our normal monthly total in just a few hours.

Look out Al, it is probably headed your way and you will get 10 inches! Better put some more fill in there and raise that building up some more- maybe we should do like on the Gulf Coast and put our buildings on stilts!

 

[hannabarn]

Rich, I wonder if there is any way you could send some of that rain back west about 800 miles. I sure could use some of that. It is very dry here!!

 

[AlFulchino]

getting a drizzle now...first rain in about a week....last spray was aug 6....a front is pushing thru so who knows maybe more rain will come ( not that i want any)

 

[grapeman]

You can gladly have some Barney if I can figure out how to get it to go backwards. We were doing pretty good, for a whole week there!






It is heading slowly southeast- so probably about 12-2AM tomorrow morning. Maybe it will be raine out by then Al.

 

[grapeman]

Summer finally arrived this last week. We have pegged about as many growing degree days in the last week as the whole previous month. It has been generally dry for that time, ever since the almost 3 inch rainfall last Tuesday. Humidity has been about 75-90 percent and the temps generally around 90 with lows in the mid 60's. If we were used to it, it would be vry nice, but seems hot when you get used to 75 all the time.


Veraison is just getting going and the grapes are starting to size up quite a bit again. This evening, the vines just have a "greener" look to them than usual and grew again today. The one vine of St Croix that I believe is Blueball instead has really turned. Half to two thirds of the grapes on it are blue. I tried one and it definitely tastes like Concord. It could make a good grape to grow for early sales even beraring well after a very cold winter.


I'm beginning to think I should have had the trellis up in the new vineyards this year after all. I used 5 foot bamboo poles with over 4 feet out of the ground. Most of the vines are almost to the top to some 3 feet above the top of the poles - and they have another month or so of active growing!


All the vines that had winter killed almost to the ground have come back fiercly with most of them well above the top wires. SOme of them are 12 feet or more long. I can train them to the wires next year if they don't freeze again and have them bearing. If they freeze again, it's light out for them. I have already planted other vines next to the Alden and Cab Franc in anticipation of their demise.




I really need to get some updated pictures, but you will see some weeds since I can't get rid of them all in the small amount of time I seem to get between rain storms this year.

 

[Wade E]

Man I wish I lived near you as I would love to help and learn eve though Id probably ever grow any due to my yard. I love to do that stuff and Ive been picking fruits for the past few months now and it too gets addicting.

 

[AlFulchino]

now now Rich..when it is raining out it makes it easier for us to crawl around on the ground and hand pull those weeds

 

[grapeman]

I tried that a few times Al. They come out of the ground easier, but just keep on growing where you throw them! If you are all caught up on yours, drive on over and you can show me how to pull them! I might catch on after a couple acres worth!

 

[grapeman]

As I keep promising here are a few pictures.

First, remember the Chardonel that froze back to the ground? Here they are now.

Here are the small vines in part of the new plantings

Here is some Frontenac 4Arm Kniffen

Frontenac on VSP

Here is one misidentified vine- maybe Bluebell?

and a closeup of the grapes on it.

And a couple random shots....

 

[Wade E]

Starting to get some good color there!

 

[rrawhide]

lookin' very good - - - - -


keep it up - - -


good job - - -


rrawhide