Greg's North Dakota Vineyard

[grapeman]

That's a real job ahead Greg. Sounds like you have the same rains we do here.

 

[HillPeople]

Oh man! 3' Mallow and standing water. You have my sympathy Greg. All I'm contending with at present is Rose Chafers!

 

[GreginND]

Well, my worst fears were realized. The storm on Tuesday dumped almost 5 inches of rain on top of the 8 inches we had a week ago. About 25% of the vines are standing in 3-5 inches of water. The rest are in soggy saturated muck. I was hoping my vines would get moisture this year but not this much. I only found one vine that is dead. All the rest were growing well but some in the water show some signs of stress. This unprecedented water is flooding all the farms and the creek is well over it's banks and flooding the pasture all the way up to my old tractor shed. The weather forecast looks good for the next 10 days. I need some drying out asap.

Between my wife and I we spent 8 hours pulling weeds by hand from around every vine. At least they can get some sun now.

How long can the vines survive with wet feet like this?

 

[BobR]

I feel for you professor! It's times like this that make you realize just how small you are in comparison to the forces of nature and my gosh, they are talking about more flooding around Fargo. After all of your time, money and hard work, I hope things work out for you.

 

[GreginND]

Well, it looks like a spell of dry weather is here finally. I am hopeful. Things could be worse. If you haven't read the thread about Bob's farm and vineyard being devastated by the Missouri river flooding a couple of years ago, you should. My problems pale in comparison. If he can have grapes survive after two months under 5+ feet of water, I am hopeful mine will be ok.

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f25/kennell-estates-vineyard-winery-25338/index8.html#post334329

 

[grapeman]

I was thinking the same thing Greg. Good luck drying out. We are getting another round tomorrow. Yesterday where I was we got three inches of rain in two hours, but luckily at home only .3 of an inch- up to about 7 inches for June so far with another few inches expected tomorrow. Where is the ark?

 

[Runningwolf]

Good luck Greg, I always think about Bob and what he went through when I hear about rain in the vineyards. He lead us through the entire story from rising waters to rebuilding. I hope he saved the entire story and pictures to pass down to his grand kids. Again good luck and keep pulling those weeds while it's easier. I imagine you'll need to spray the vines also first chance you get.

 

[fivebk]

Greg, Hang in there. I found out that grape vines can take quite a bit of abuse from good ole mother nature. What type of soil do you have? The soil my vineyard was on was sandy loam. I think that if the water recedes and your ground drains quickly you'll be ok. It never hurts to ask the man upstairs for a little help!! I'll throw a little prayer your way.

BOB

 

[GreginND]

Thanks. The creek (well, drainage ditch) has already dropped a couple of feet and the water is draining out of the vineyard. Went from about 25% under water to about 5% in one day. I have loamy soil but with tons if organic material. It does hold moisture some and I'll be grateful for that some day. Looks like a week of dry weather will allow the water table to finally drop.

If I can get a good non windy day I'll spray it. I do have round up but was recommended to use rely instead. Need to find some. Unless you think careful application of roundup would be ok?

 

[HillPeople]

It's pretty much a northern rainforest up here in central NH. Way too much rain lately and not nearly enough sun. The ferns are around 4' tall, mosquitoes will eat you alive and flash flood warnings out for the next few days. In this picture you can see the blue tubes in our upper vineyard just behind the hummingbird coming into the feeder. Crazy stuff.

 

[GreginND]

Well, the water has all dried up and I was able to mow down all of the weeds. Today was a nice calm day so I took the chance and carefully sprayed it all with round-up. Crossing my fingers that there is no spray on vines that have already cleared the tubes. I hit a couple of vines that had a straggling shoot out of the bottom so I quickly cut them off right after they got hit with the spray.

I hate to use glyphosate but I really have no choice. It seems to be the only thing that will get this mallow. As soon as it's died off I'm going to get grass established.

 

[grapeman]

Glad it has dried up for you. We are still getting flooded with rains every day.

 

[fivebk]

Are your grapes looking ok after the water receded?

BOB

 

[GreginND]

Time for an August update.

After probably 2 feet of rain in June, July brought only 0.5 inches. And I'm perfectly fine with that. The vines look great and the weeds are easier to control. Since the soil held so much water, I'm hoping that the moisture is slowly receding down from the top so that the vines are able to grow their roots down deeper without being stressed. So far so good.

I have managed to mow and spray and beat the weeds back. It remains for me to get my trellis posts installed and seed the rows with grass.

More photos: http://4elementswinery.com/august-vineyard-update/

 

[UBB]

Looks great. My new plantings are a bit behind yours by the looks of it. When do you plan on removing the tubes??

 

[GreginND]

It's been a while since I did an update. After a long cold winter with less snow the vineyard is emerging and it's time to think about pruning. The long stretch of bitter cold sent the frost lines around here down 8 feet or more in places. Here are some pictures from this past winter and now when the soil has started to thaw and the snow is gone.

I need to examine the vines carefully but it looks like the canes from last year's growth are pretty brown. My plan is to prune them close to the ground and grow some proper trunks this year. Any advice on how to prune them and what to look for when I'm pruning would be much appreciated.

 

[grapeman]

If you are pruning back, just prune down to where you are leaving tow or three buds to make sure at least one is good. Are you going for single or double trunks? Not sure what we are looking at in the last couple pictures, except for brown grass. I don't see any vines there.

 

[GreginND]

The first one is the vineyard without the snow. The dormant vines are hard to see. The second one - the vineyard is behind the fence.

By the way, I have had some advice from our university folks. Because my soil is so rich, it may encourage bull canes. They suggest I let 5-6 canes grow and select moderately sized ones for the trunk later. I think I will grow two trunks but I still haven't made the final decision to do a TWC or something like your mod-GDC. I want to see the vigor first. As you can see I don't have my trellis in yet. The posts and at least a guide wire will be installed this spring.

 

[grapeman]

They certainly are hard to see against the soil.
They may be right about the excessive vigor to where you need to leave more buds to spread the energy. I have had vines make more growth than that the first year and never had problems with bull canes cutting back to the 2-3 buds. They grew very quickly, but were not bull canes as the internode spacing was only in the 4-5 inch range.

 

[GreginND]

I pruned all my vines today. I was considering trying to save some canes for trunks, but decided to take all the vines down near the ground and let new canes push up. Mainly because I did no training last year and the canes were not very straight. These should push lots of growth this year, so I'm not too worried. I was very pleased to see all of the vines were healthy and alive and vibrant green.