Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

[grapeman]

Absolutely Al. That was my assumption. There are those that tell you to cut back on cordon or cane length and yield to increase quality. At least in this case, that just didn't hold true. Frontenac or LaCrescent(examples) are not vinifera grapes and bring a whole new set of rules to their table.


How is the Scott Henry system to maintain? Is it labor intensive?


I still need to make a final decision on my last training method for the trial planting. I will definitely have VSP and TWC in it. I also want at least one type with 4 arms of some type. I can either have 4 reps with 3 training systems or 3 reps of 4 training systems. Rather than a straight 4 arm kniffen, I have come up with another system to try out. It will be a modified 4 arm system similar to GDC, but without as much spread and the south side will be two feet lower and 14 inches to the side of the upper set of canes or cordons. This will allow 2 wires with shoots hanging down, yet spread them apart from each other a bit more. More on this system at some future date. I don't know if this has been done before, but I am going to give it a shot and see what happens.

 

[AlFulchino]

scott henry has been good so far....although i have to over time make some changes...some of my vines tend to want to trail....ie brianna....so its a bit tough to do the SH or even vsp when the vine wants to drop and trail....so i may have to install more catch wires...or change the system for one or two varieties

the vigor of most of the vines lends itself to doing any time of 4 arm system

i did set up about 300 vines last yr to go VSP because i was maxing out my effort and getting pretty tired in the vineyard...BUT as this is a new yr, i would like to do those also in the SH and will train them that way as well

the biggest thing for anyone to remember is to give the fruiting zone room as well as the shoots....and definietly w a four arm system...you have to let the plant photosynthesize and have air flow..and sunlight...its all a balance.....but its sort of like flossing teeth.....bad things happen where their is no room, sun and air ...each cluster is like a child...needs certain things

 

[BonnieJoy]

Very Nice Website. Can't wait to drive east to support you & Al.

 

[grapeman]

I have been working on the website some more today. It's the same thing but I'm startting to clean the pages up a bit.


I have put menu items for our local Association- Lake Champlain Wines. There is a button for the forum, which I started. I also have a button for the LCW-Website. That is a false start someone else began. Another person and I are working on the new website for that. You won't find anything useful there yet, but in the future we hope to have a lot of good information there on growing grapes and making wines out of Cold Hardy Grapes.


Again, just hit the link at the bottom of my signature or one of these links. They are all forwarded to the site and I will soon get rid of the reference in the url to my drafting site (need to update that soon also).


www.hipvineyard.com
www.hipvineyard.us
www.hipvineyard.net

 

[rrawhide]

Great website Rich - I am impressed.

Good luck and great success!!

rick

 

[grapeman]

I got an e-mail today that was pleasantly received. Last November I prepared a grant proposal for studying improving quality of cold hardy wine grapes through training systems and canopy management. The idea is to study the feasability of this improvement to see if the quality of the harvested grapes can be improved to increase the quality and thus the value of the wine made from these grapes. I was hoping this could get some funding through the SARE Grant system for Sustainable Agriculture.
My project was one of 23 out of 77 approved for funding. WooHooo!

This will help me with expenses to gather this valuable information for others. I love compiling the data collected from my research. I will be performing this work in my vineyard at my home, gathering harvest weights and other pertinent data as well as recording growth stages, etc during the growing season. I don't want to bore anyone too much with the details, but as I gather this information I will share with others here- probably in a new post.

This year there were 58 farmers applying for this type grant through the NE SARE program. There were 27 applicants this year approved for funding. I got the e-mail today, a few weeks earlier this year than last. and I GOT APPROVED ONCE AGAIN

This years grant continues on last year's work and will include additional vines in the trial to give further validation to the trial. I am also establishing the trellis in the new plantings from last year and will use that new plot to show proper procedures for initial training systems. In light of hard economic times across the country I feel blessed to once again receive this grant.

 

[AlFulchino]

NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[peaches9324]

CONGRATS! appleman can't wait to read your posts on this!

 

[grapeman]

I have added more pictures into the Photo Gallery of my Website. I only have active pages in the Photo Gallery now, so if it is listed it has about 20 pictures per page. I broke them down to the vineyard, Harvest and the Winery. I will add more as time permits- it takes a while to dig through pictures, find some I want, size them move them and put them into the website. I hope you enjoy them.


Here is a link right to them:

Hid-In-Pines VineyardPhoto Gallery

 

[peaches9324]

BEAUTIFUL!

 

[BonnieJoy]

Congrats on the grant, Richard. Looking forward to following your results. Keep up the great work.

 

[fivebk]

Congrats Rich on the grant!!!!

BOB

 

[admiral]

Rich, congratulations on the grant. They know a quality operation when they see it.

 

[grapeman]

Spring feels like it is in the air this year! I keep waiting for the cold weather to come back and the snow to rear it's ugly head, but the next week we will continue to see mild temps mid 40's to mid 50's. I like it. I may even go out and begin the monumental task of pruning 2000 grape vines.


I am expecting my new 3 compartment stainless steel sink to arrive tomorrow. That will get mounted in the current winery. I made room last weekend by moving the 75 cases of wine I had stored in the corner and moving 14 -5 gallon carboys full of Frontenac wine over to that corner.


I will soon be busier than a beaver trying to juggle all the jobs again for the year and I wouldn't have it any other way.


As I posted elsewhere, I sent 11 bottles over to Vt for judging. I hate to spend the money on that, but it gives me an idea what the masses like in wine. I have my favorites, but I need to keep reminding myself that I need to produce what the masses like because soon I will be producing for the masses.

 

[fivebk]

As soon as you start selling to the masses I know someone that would like to start consuming !!!!!

BOB

 

[grapeman]

I stood up the sink today after putting the legs on it and taking the protective film off it. Overall it is a great sink. It came complete with the faucet on it (I just temporarily stuck it on there to show it), drain baskets and even an allen wrench to tighten the set screws for the legs (included 2 extra in case any get lost). So far I'm very satisfied with it and look forward to using it soon.

I then went out and began pruning. These are Frontenac and I just rough pruned. I will go back soon and take out the extra spurs after I weigh the prunings to see how many buds to retain. The first pictures are the VSP and then the last is 4 Arm Kniffen.

 

[AlFulchino]

wow that sink looks fabulous

but did you have to beat me to the punch on pruning? i wont start till april

 

[Runningwolf]

Looks awesome! Reminds me I need to get out and prune my apple trees.

 

[grapeman]

The weather was just too warm not to get out for a while. I like to start out pruning a few hours at a time to keep my old hands from cramping up too badly. Still plenty left to do.

 

[Wade E]

The vineyard and the sink look awesome Rich!