I'm alive! Grape growing 2023 begins

[Snafflebit]

This year I am going to break out the vineyard tending thread from the winemaking. It was confusing in the past and hard for some people to find the thread.

No pictures yet. I was too busy suckering the vines today. But, I am going back tomorrow to spray and will show how the vines are doing. We are lagging this year, probably due to the very wet start of the year and unseasonably low temperatures. There was snow in San Jose in March! crazy...

And, a very exciting event for me, my partner and I bought a house nearby on a half-acre of land. We are exhasuted from fixing the neglected, 1961 era house built during the time when fruit orchards covered the land and the results are starting to show. The plan is to put about 40 head pruned Zin and/or Petite Sirah in the front for a little landscaping, and a small, 5 row x 20' trellis in the back yard. The back variety is undecided. I could just go all Zin and have a decent sized batch of wine, or plant some own-rooted Cab Sauv or Merlot from my pruning. I am currently running an experiment with own rooted Cab. I hope that for small plantings far away from other vineyards, the phylloxera will not be an issue. We will see.

 

[ibglowin]

Looking forward to reading about your journey!

 

[GSMChris]

Congrats on the new home and best of luck to you with the new vineyard!

 

[CDrew]

Wow. 1/2 acre in San Jose! Where do you park your Gulfstream?

 

[sour_grapes]

Good luck on the endeavor! Keep us posted

 

[Snafflebit]

Wow. 1/2 acre in San Jose! Where do you park your Gulfstream?

There is a slot! That was part of the plan, to not need to rent an RV space. They don't make lots like this anymore in San Jose, bless those old fruit growers!

 

[Denden5136]

Nice! Looking forward to the photos. 1/2 acre is perfect.
My vines are a couple weeks behind last year as well. They did love the rain this winter. I'm north of you in Antioch. This is year 3 for me so it will be my first harvest from my yard.

 

[Snafflebit]

Here are some teaser photos after suckering the vines. The background is busy and makes it difficult to see the clusters but most shoots have 2 clusters and the rains have made the grapes very happy

Cab


Merlot

 

[Snafflebit]

…and you might remember my story last year about the new dog the owners rescued. Here is one of the dog chew toys from last year.


This is what has sprung out of the stump! Dog spit must have healing powers.



same stump is on the left and his sickly buddy on the right. Notice the yellow color. I have not determined the exact cause. Some patches of the vineyard have these weak yellow vines. Maybe the soil is shallow or it could be a virus or the graft is dying. Soil tests indicated a nitrogen deficiency. I reluctantly added ammonium nitrate and most of the vines seem generally greener and healthier now. But there are some stragglers.

 

[wood1954]

Looks like good potential, those vibes look really old

 

[Snafflebit]

The vines are 20 years old, I think (it is just a guess), but also I think that the previous owner over-fertilized the vines, creating those beefy cordons. Vines will become dependent on fertilizer. I have some more posts to show how I am renewing trunks and cordons.

 

[vtoddw]

…and you might remember my story last year about the new dog the owners rescued. Here is one of the dog chew toys from last year.View attachment 101212


This is what has sprung out of the stump! Dog spit must have healing powers.
View attachment 101213


same stump is on the left and his sickly buddy on the right. Notice the yellow color. I have not determined the exact cause. Some patches of the vineyard have these weak yellow vines. Maybe the soil is shallow or it could be a virus or the graft is dying. Soil tests indicated a nitrogen deficiency. I reluctantly added ammonium nitrate and most of the vines seem generally greener and healthier now. But there are some stragglers. View attachment 101214

At risk of hyjacking your thread...I actually have a lot of short possibly stunted shoots like those near the trunc in your 3rd picture. Haven't quite decided yet what to do about it as I'm apprehensive about adding fertilizer before berry set. Last time I fertilized was post-harvest in the prior season, which from what I've read/heard is too soon and I should've waited until full dormancy.

I'm interested to see how those short shoots respond to the nitrogen. Any chance you could tell me on what date you fertilized, what date you took this last picture and how much you fertilized per plant?

Here's an example on one of my 8 year old zinfandel vines, right in the center of the picture.

 

[vtoddw]

This year I am going to break out the vineyard tending thread from the winemaking. It was confusing in the past and hard for some people to find the thread.

No pictures yet. I was too busy suckering the vines today. But, I am going back tomorrow to spray and will show how the vines are doing. We are lagging this year, probably due to the very wet start of the year and unseasonably low temperatures. There was snow in San Jose in March! crazy...

And, a very exciting event for me, my partner and I bought a house nearby on a half-acre of land. We are exhasuted from fixing the neglected, 1961 era house built during the time when fruit orchards covered the land and the results are starting to show. The plan is to put about 40 head pruned Zin and/or Petite Sirah in the front for a little landscaping, and a small, 5 row x 20' trellis in the back yard. The back variety is undecided. I could just go all Zin and have a decent sized batch of wine, or plant some own-rooted Cab Sauv or Merlot from my pruning. I am currently running an experiment with own rooted Cab. I hope that for small plantings far away from other vineyards, the phylloxera will not be an issue. We will see.

All my cab vines are own-rooted here in Murrieta, CA and I haven't had any phyloxera yet in the 8 years they've been in the ground (knock on wood), so unless it's rampant in San Jose hopefully you'll be fine.

 

[Gilmango]

Congrats on buying a place with your partner, with room for vines no less! Looking forward to following this thread.

 

[Maheesh]

vtoddw, why do you have two water lines?

 

[vtoddw]

vtoddw, why do you have two water lines?

Laziness...I ran a new line along all trellises a couple years back and just left the old one in place with it cut off at the end but didn't bother pulling it all out of place.

 

[Snafflebit]

All my cab vines are own-rooted here in Murrieta, CA and I haven't had any phyloxera yet in the 8 years they've been in the ground (knock on wood), so unless it's rampant in San Jose hopefully you'll be fine.

That is good information. I think that since I am not a commercial producer, taking a chance on own-rooted vines is worthwhile. San Jose is close to the Santa Cruz mountains where a lot of pinot noir grows, but in the valley it is all backyard vineyards. Land is too expensive.

At risk of hyjacking your thread...I actually have a lot of short possibly stunted shoots like those near the trunc in your 3rd picture. Haven't quite decided yet what to do about it as I'm apprehensive about adding fertilizer before berry set. Last time I fertilized was post-harvest in the prior season, which from what I've read/heard is too soon and I should've waited until full dormancy.

I'm interested to see how those short shoots respond to the nitrogen. Any chance you could tell me on what date you fertilized, what date you took this last picture and how much you fertilized per plant?

Here's an example on one of my 8 year old zinfandel vines, right in the center of the picture.

The heads of your vines look like they need to be suckered. I don't let canes or spurs grow in the head because of this congestion problem. My experience says that crowded spots on the cordon are not caused by fertilizer, it is just natural growth habit

I fertilized a couple of weeks after harvest. There was no rains for months afterward and the fertilizer just sat waiting for the winter. I have run the calculations for the amount of ammonium sulfate to distribute per vine but my logbook is buried somewhere in packing boxes. I will let you know when I find the data.

 

[vtoddw]

That is good information. I think that since I am not a commercial producer, taking a chance on own-rooted vines is worthwhile. San Jose is close to the Santa Cruz mountains where a lot of pinot noir grows, but in the valley it is all backyard vineyards. Land is too expensive.


The heads of your vines look like they need to be suckered. I don't let canes or spurs grow in the head because of this congestion problem. My experience says that crowded spots on the cordon are not caused by fertilizer, it is just natural growth habit

I fertilized a couple of weeks after harvest. There was no rains for months afterward and the fertilizer just sat waiting for the winter. I have run the calculations for the amount of ammonium sulfate to distribute per vine but my logbook is buried somewhere in packing boxes. I will let you know when I find the data.

Here's another pic showing more of the head and cordon. I've just been hesitant to get rid of that Spur above the trunk because of all the gaps I have in the rest of the cordon, I've been using that Spur to make up for some of the lost fruit due to those missing Spur positions. If I can get some suckers off the upper part of the trunk one of these years I'll just replace the cordon all together, but so far I haven't seen any buds come out of the upper part of the trunk for many years.

One common theme I'm seeing with the little stunted shoots is that they're pretty much isolated to my cordoned zinfandel vines. I went with the cordon training many years ago because I didn't know any better, but I've since learned that zinfandel do best when head trained, so I actually have a new row further down the slope of zinfandel which are all head trained.

Good to know you fertilized after harvest, sounds like we're in about the same situation there, although personally I did see some new green grown on the shoot tips a few weeks later, which from what I've read is the risk of adding nitrogen before the plants go into hibernation, so who knows what that did to the vines storage of carbohydrate reserves. It sounds like you turned off your irrigation after harvest, which I did not until about December, I just cut it way back, so maybe that's why you didn't get any post-harvest growth.

Thanks for the info, I'm interested to hear your formula for calculating nitrogen (personally I have calcium nitrate though, so i imagine it may be different) if you find your notes, thanks again.

 

[Snafflebit]

Here's another pic showing more of the head and cordon. I've just been hesitant to get rid of that Spur above the trunk because of all the gaps I have in the rest of the cordon, I've been using that Spur to make up for some of the lost fruit due to those missing Spur positions. If I can get some suckers off the upper part of the trunk one of these years I'll just replace the cordon all together, but so far I haven't seen any buds come out of the upper part of the trunk for many years.

One common theme I'm seeing with the little stunted shoots is that they're pretty much isolated to my cordoned zinfandel vines. I went with the cordon training many years ago because I didn't know any better, but I've since learned that zinfandel do best when head trained, so I actually have a new row further down the slope of zinfandel which are all head trained.

Good to know you fertilized after harvest, sounds like we're in about the same situation there, although personally I did see some new green grown on the shoot tips a few weeks later, which from what I've read is the risk of adding nitrogen before the plants go into hibernation, so who knows what that did to the vines storage of carbohydrate reserves. It sounds like you turned off your irrigation after harvest, which I did not until about December, I just cut it way back, so maybe that's why you didn't get any post-harvest growth.

Thanks for the info, I'm interested to hear your formula for calculating nitrogen (personally I have calcium nitrate though, so i imagine it may be different) if you find your notes, thanks again.

I can't say that head training Zin is better than spurs or cane pruning, I have seen all training styles used. You do have a lot of blind wood on your cordons, but those cordons look young. Why aren't they pushing shoots? You could train a lateral shoot off one of your canes near the head this year and replace your cordons. Just an idea.

 

[Snafflebit]

When I talk about congestion, this is what I mean. The rain has helped push a bunch of buds this year all over the vines

Before suckering


after suckering


This spur is closer to the head than I like.