I'm alive! Grape growing 2023 begins

[Snafflebit]

I pulled leaves on all the vines today. I am seeing a large variation in grape size. I see that the vines that have renewed cordons also have quite large berries. My piecemeal renewal of the vineyard has created this wide variation. Not ideal, but I have to live with it. On the other hand, there may be merit to cane pruning Cab if I can get these results. I am resistant to the idea but I can be taught.



Here is another Cab Sauv in the vineyard. Much later development.


Overall, I am seeing open clusters with fewer berries, but still plenty to call it a healthy crop this year. The clusters always fill out by September.

Here is the Cab Sauv performing what I call "crossing swords". I used to fight the vine and try to make the canes stand upright. But Cab has a mind of its own. I just pull more leaves where the clusters look to be bunching. So far, so good.


It looks like a big harvest is coming in 2023.

 

[Snafflebit]

I'm really enjoying following along this year, your vines are looking great!

Thank you. I enjoy documenting the process and having a record to go back to. I almost enjoy growing grapes as much as the winemaking.

 

[Snafflebit]

The laterals on the Cab are starting to lignify and the leaves were not popping off so easily either. I waited too long to pull leaves.

 

[vtoddw]

I had a marathon suckering session last week. It was exhausting. The vines are pushing out a large number of shoots. The spring "monsoon" has brought the vines back to life after 3 years of drought. Lots of flowers in various stages of bloom. I am calling the first day of bloom May 30 this year. That is a delay of about 3 to 4 weeks from normal. I decided not to spray again until after the blossoms have set. There is nothing I have found to confirm that it is good or bad to spray during pollination, but I am not taking any chances this year. And, I can still detect sulfur by smell on the vines.

I think this year will be a large crop, because many of the shoots have two large clusters. I have had to sucker shoots with clusters. (also unusual) Here is Cabernet Sauv. I had a lot of shatter last year. Crossing fingers for 2023.

View attachment 102008


This is the normally "sick" part of the vineyard. Last autumn I laid down new canes to renew a lot of cordons over here, I am seeing 100% fruitful buds on the new cordons and they will need to be cluster dropped for sure.
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Even the rootstock is poking up volunteers around the vineyard.
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I recently read somewhere that you should spray before bloom and then after fruit set when the berries reach 1/4" in size. That window this year was several weeks for me and one of those days it rained so I (anxiously) waited about 2 more days after the rain and decided to spray sulfur again, which was well before the flowers had become 1/4" berries. Several weeks later now, all the clusters are still intact as expected and I see no sign of adverse effects of spraying.

My point is, I have no idea why it is advisable to avoid spraying during bloom and I can't seem to find that link for reference. I also find that when people make those kinds of statements like "don't do this, or that" they rarely explain why, which is the frustrating part.

 

[vtoddw]

I am very interested in starting a vine in my back yard. I have about 40' in one line available. Where did you get your plantings? Online or a local garden center? I think I want grapes for a Riesling, but not sure. What kind of grapes are you growing?

To answer your question, I've had really good luck with vines from this site. There is a limited selection and I can't say of they will ship to your location, but the vines i grew from these dormant plants are extremely vigorous in their second year.

https://www.groworganic.com/products/grape-wine-zinfandel-each
Keep in mind with 40' the standard is to have the vines 8' apart, which would mean only 4 vines of you want to do a 4' double cordon. I have seen a lot of local wineries here in Temecula who have their vines as close as 4' apart, so maybe you could pack in 8 vines and see what happens. I believe the average yield for a mature vine is 10 lbs per season and it takes on average about 100 to 120lbs of fruit to fill a 6 gallon carboy. With 8 vines you might pull off 80 to 100 lbs per year which means you'll likely only be able to fill a 5 gallon carboy, which is 25 bottles of vine. These are just estimates from my experience, hope that helps.

 

[vtoddw]

I am very interested in starting a vine in my back yard. I have about 40' in one line available. Where did you get your plantings? Online or a local garden center? I think I want grapes for a Riesling, but not sure. What kind of grapes are you growing?

Here are some pics of the vines I bought from the above link.

Planted 2/13/22:
Growth by 10/13/22:
Growth by 6/11/23 (I cut the canes off to about 2' because they were so heavy they were breaking off the trunk and I'm doing a head trained system)

 

[Obbnw]

I pulled leaves on all the vines today. I am seeing a large variation in grape size. I see that the vines that have renewed cordons also have quite large berries. My piecemeal renewal of the vineyard has created this wide variation. Not ideal, but I have to live with it. On the other hand, there may be merit to cane pruning Cab if I can get these results. I am resistant to the idea but I can be taught.

View attachment 102543

Here is another Cab Sauv in the vineyard. Much later development.


Overall, I am seeing open clusters with fewer berries, but still plenty to call it a healthy crop this year. The clusters always fill out by September.

Here is the Cab Sauv performing what I call "crossing swords". I used to fight the vine and try to make the canes stand upright. But Cab has a mind of its own. I just pull more leaves where the clusters look to be bunching. So far, so good.


It looks like a big harvest is coming in 2023.

The cluster in the first pic is huge, I never see anything like that.

 

[Snafflebit]

The cluster in the first pic is huge, I never see anything like that.

Right? I will post updates on the Frankencluster.

 

[Snafflebit]

Well, the frankencluster is now just a cluster There is growth happening throughout the vineyard. One week makes a lot of difference during this period of the year.


"Frankencluster":



Neighbor clusters:


but also some failures:



Vines are beginning to meet in the middle. I will begin hedging after Independence Day vacation.

 

[Snafflebit]

Today was hedging the vines, and some leaf pulling. I sprayed sulfur three weeks ago, and I think that was too long between treatments. Tomorrow I go back to spray. There is more powdery mildew this year than I remember and I think that I have lost a number of clusters. It was a wet spring. It is good to remember and be prepared next time.

A whole lotta powdery mildew on these grapes. The whole row seems to have problems.


Cabernet Sauv in the other vineyard looking great


As is the Merlot


A little sunburn due to my late leaf pulling

 

[wood1954]

Sorry to see that. I use sulfur for my first spray and then tebuconazole for the rest of the season.

 

[Obbnw]

Today was hedging the vines, and some leaf pulling. I sprayed sulfur three weeks ago, and I think that was too long between treatments. Tomorrow I go back to spray. There is more powdery mildew this year than I remember and I think that I have lost a number of clusters. It was a wet spring. It is good to remember and be prepared next time.

A whole lotta powdery mildew on these grapes. The whole row seems to have problems.
View attachment 103560

Cabernet Sauv in the other vineyard looking great
View attachment 103561

As is the Merlot
View attachment 103562

A little sunburn due to my late leaf pulling
View attachment 103563

Must just be the year for pm. As you likely know I feel your pain.

It's to hot to spray sulfur here. I ordered a new gallon of "cease" for my pm mess. Should get here Saturday. I'll post if it seems to work...

 

[Snafflebit]

Keeping an open canopy is important, and on the vines with the most powdery mildew pressure, the vines are congested. This congestion is sometimes due to my attempt to renew cordons. So, it is kind of my own fault. C’est la vie. Also, the vines with the most mildewed clusters are the early bloomers, (aka. Frankenclusters), probably due to being severely pruned because of the cordon renewal.

It goes to show how important vine balance is, and to get the development rate normal. Next year will be better.

 

[Snafflebit]

First the bad news. I have extensive powdery mildew damage to a lot of Cab Sauv in one vineyard. I attribute that to the extremely wet winter and delaying the sulfur spraying until after bloom. I will not do that again, although the rains would have washed away much of the sulfur anyway. Sometimes you have to take the hand that nature deals to you. I may lose a lot of fruit up here. We will see how it develops.



One cluster has hit veraison, but it is on a sick cordon flagged for removal. I don't believe it will last till harvest.





The good news, in the second vineyard the Merlot are looking great, as usual. They have not disappointed me yet.



And their neighboring Cab Sauv is sparse but healthy, at least





I had big hopes that the wet winter would bring on a huge crop this year. It looked that way early in the year, but now I am not certain what I will end up with.

Harvest in September? Maybe?

 

[sour_grapes]

I wish you the best possible vintage under these circumstances!

 

[Nebbiolo020]

First the bad news. I have extensive powdery mildew damage to a lot of Cab Sauv in one vineyard. I attribute that to the extremely wet winter and delaying the sulfur spraying until after bloom. I will not do that again, although the rains would have washed away much of the sulfur anyway. Sometimes you have to take the hand that nature deals to you. I may lose a lot of fruit up here. We will see how it develops.

View attachment 104035

One cluster has hit veraison, but it is on a sick cordon flagged for removal. I don't believe it will last till harvest.

View attachment 104039



The good news, in the second vineyard the Merlot are looking great, as usual. They have not disappointed me yet.

View attachment 104036View attachment 104037

And their neighboring Cab Sauv is sparse but healthy, at least

View attachment 104038



I had big hopes that the wet winter would bring on a huge crop this year. It looked that way early in the year, but now I am not certain what I will end up with.

Harvest in September? Maybe?

I have been seeing sparse clusters on vines this year, it seems despite the rain and cool weather that we’re getting both low yield and very late harvests and it has me a little bit worried I’m hoping that despite that we get an exceptional vintage as this year is becoming a little financially risky for our winery.

 

[Snafflebit]

Here is an interesting detail about powdery mildew I did not know. From Wine Business

"PM does not like sugar. When Brix levels in grapes reach a certain level (about 12 degrees) PM will stop growing." At this point, it is usually safe to stop PM fungicide treatments, however, Botrytis growth and infection can be an issue after that.

There may be hope if I can get over the véraison hump

 

[Obbnw]

Here is an interesting detail about powdery mildew I did not know. From Wine Business

"PM does not like sugar. When Brix levels in grapes reach a certain level (about 12 degrees) PM will stop growing." At this point, it is usually safe to stop PM fungicide treatments, however, Botrytis growth and infection can be an issue after that.

There may be hope if I can get over the véraison hump

Thanks, I thought there was a point when grapes were no longer infected but didn't know the criteria.

 

[Snafflebit]

I visited the vines again, I pulled a few leaves and mainly dropped lagging clusters. Veraison is in full force now.
It seems that I will have a grape crop in the problem Cab Sauv vineyard. It’s not picture perfect grapes but good enough. This vineyard has a great amount of variability. Some places are rocky, some deep soil. And the places where powdery mildew hit the worst are the places that grapes tend to be big and full, on the lower end of the rows that get less afternoon sun. I will leaf pull both sides of those ends of the row next year for better air circulation.

I think that I will start fertilizing and irrigating the heck out of this vineyard and simply be satisfied with whatever I get. I am starting to suspect that this is what the previous owner did.


The Merlot is looking great and almost completely colored now

 

[Snafflebit]

I visited a local winery, Dorcich Family, for the first time and walked their Syrah vines. Ripeness is all over the map and now I do not feel so bad about my grapes!