Maine vineyard

[OilnH2O]

Sorry -- I've been off in Glacier this week,painting -- maybe I can have another new avatar soon!


Bill, I've tended the Foch and Landot Noir cuttings with great care, and while I think I may have some small "hairy" roots, for the most part they haven't done much. You sent some St. Pepin too, and I planted a couple that rooted in the vinyard but don't know if those are yours or from the local Ten Spoons vinyard. The Foch cuttings that popped up (and are in the ground) are local as well, but we're still working on the callousing project with great hope!


Right now I'm putting up netting to keep the deer away -- or maybe I've got a squirrel or rabbit that nipped two vines' new leaves. Here in city limits I'm "limited" at what measures I can take on critters!

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

OK, for all of us who like to see pictures, today was a good day to take some as we worked outside. It was the holiday, but there is so much to do out there!
First, an overview of the portion of the vineyard which was planted last year - five rows with room for 30 vines. Prior to planting, the area was fairly wooded and needed a lot of clearing:

The following 5 shots show each row in its full length. The first row has Frontenac and Landot Noir planted.

The second row has Marechal Foch and St. Pepin.

Third row has St. Croix and one first year St.Pepin planted several weeks ago.

Fourth row has 2 Frontenac Gris and 2 new vines, another F. Gris and St. Pepin.

The fifth row has 2 new F. Gris but I didn't shoot it.

The following photos show a single example of each variety. All 5 varieties have been trained to the VSP system and have fully filled their trellis space laterally and are in various stages of vertical shoot growth up through the catch wires.

Frontenac

Landot Noir

Marechal Foch

St. Croix

St. Pepin - I show the three second year vines so Richard can see how modest their growth is compared to, say, Foch and Frontenac. I got the impression that his St. Pepins were very vigorous. The leafy vine on the left is the last Foch.

Finally, Frontanac Gris. These guys are probably the best growers I have. All the varieties have grown laterally well past the point where I'll have to prune them next year, the half way point between neighboring vines, but maybe you can see the growth of the right hand vine going around and up the end post. Now I can only train it out along the top wire until it decides to quit growing.

I've thrown in one shot of one of my Marquette vines that I planted early in June of this year, just to comparably show what one full year of growth does to happy vines, as shown in the previous photos.

I've read of others being infested with Japanese Beetles already, but so far I've seen just a few, and no fungi so far.

The weather has been dry and now we are into a mini-drought, with shrubs wilting and grass turning brown and crunchy underfoot and no good rain in sight. The mulched vineyard rows are still pretty moist under the top 4-5 inches, so I'm happy with the decision to put down the mulch last year.

 

[Waldo]

Looking very good bilbo

 

[grapeman]

You are getting a really good foundation going for those vines Bill. Next year should give you a decent crop for making some wines. They all look great. You are keeping them well trained and manicured. It can be really time-consuming. I also spent a few hours in the vineyard again yesterday before we went to a July 4th/ Birthday party. The kids were supposed to be swimming, but after the rain holding off untill 2 when we left for the party it cut loose. You should have some more rain soon. We had been dry too and have got a few good showers the last few days.


The Marquette vines are looking good. I keep hearing good things about that variety. Keep up the good work and keep us updated.

 

[OilnH2O]

Looks great Bilbo!

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

General question for anyone in the northcountry - is anyone seeing signs of veraison yet??!! My Frontenac bunches are green, my Foch bunches are green, my table grapes are green... Granted, June was cool and cloudy, as was the first half of July around here - could be the reason I guess. It is hard not to feel impatient when you know the growing season is already slowing and essentially ends in a month.

 

[swillologist]

I'm not as far north assome here.But here is a picture I took a day ortwo ago. These are fredonia grapes.

These are himrods.

Edited by: swillologist

 

[Waldo]

Looking good swill...Also, looks like you have a couple of nice pictures there for some labels.

 

[grapeman]

Nothing over here yet Bill. I keep expecting it to begin soon, but it hasn't yet. Last year it began about August 5. I know folks even in Minnesota are starting to see the signs of it.


Are you having lots of trouble with Japanese beetles? They just keep coming back here. I sprayed for them last week and a week later they were back here again bad enough I had to spray again.

 

[swillologist]

Thanks Waldo! Now if I just knew how to make labels.

I need a picture of rhubarb and cherries. I might have to barrow one off of NW. Their looks so nice. Edited by: swillologist

 

[NorthernWinos]

Just right click on the photo and click on 'Save As' and put it on your desktop or in a folder of such photos you wish to use for labels....then move them to your label program or what ever program you'll be using.

 

[Joanie]

Wow!! Your vineyard is beautiful, Bilbo!!!! I can't wait until next year when my vines look like that!! You give me hope! Great pictures!

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

To Swillologist - I remember from my 4 years at ISU just how long and hot Iowa summers are, so I can easily understand your grapes' faster rate of development. If you are out in wide-open prairie country with sun exposure from dawn to sundown, so much the better! Things just aren't that way on coastal Maine with the fogs and forest...

Richard - Yes, the JB's are bad. I have sprayed twice, which keeps them at bay for at least a week, but the grapes put on new succulent growth quickly, so within that week there is always new unprotected growth - I'm sure you know.

I've been seeing a fair amount of basal leaf degradation on this year's new cordons. Many leaves close to the trunk ends of the arms are shriveling. It is interesting to see, but the vines don't appear to be declining in any other ways (except for leaves that have been turned to lace by the beetles.) Actually, several shoots near the trunk end of one cordon show yellowing and shriveling on one Frontenac Gris vine, but the huge amount of vegetation on the rest of the vine still looks good with constant growth at the shoot tips. One thing can be said for all the vines, the rate of growth has certainly slowed compared to early summer's initial burst.

 

[Wade E]

Nice pics swill. You can find some nice labl pics at Allposters.com and
just enter the fruit that you want into their search engine and you
will come up with a lot of fruit picsand then right click and save as
any folder you wish, I usually create a folder on my desktop for this
so I dont have to go looking for it at a later time.

 

[NorthernWinos]

A little bit of coloring up here in NW Minnesota....These are aver early Beta, Valiant, Frontenac and King of the North..

And others are showing nothing yet...

 

[swillologist]

Thanks NW. When I get better with this label thing, I will do that. Your grapes are really looking nice.


Bilbo
We werein Ames just a week or so ago. We wentup and ateat Hickory Park. Pretty much sun all day. We have some spruce trees that shade them awhile around noon. I think they are still just a little early this year. Frost was hard on the grapes last spring. There is not going to be as many grapes this year. Hope fully en ought to make a small batch of wine.
My official wine taster came out earlier this week. I brought up a bottle that I made last fall. She act like she was impressed but may be she just wanted another bottle.

Thanks wade! I'm still playing with the labels. I'm still not really satisfied with what I have done so far.Edited by: swillologist

 

[grapeman]

Bill after getting to almost 100 yesterday I saw a single red berry on the Frontenac! I guess there is hope yet! We are jealous in the NE here after a relatively cool, wet July(almost 10 inches of rain here -average 2.5 for July). It's nice to see others grapes turning. We should follow shortly if the heat and sun keep it up for a while.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Okay Appleman...I begged for rain in June and got near 10 inches....July had been dry and we haven't had rain to speak of now for 3 weeks, it has been blast-furnace hot and very windy...the moisture is sucked out of everything....The lawn is drying up....the soybeans are thigh-high and in dire need of moisture, the corn is doing okay so far...the garden needs watering..[my job for today]....Not much chance of rain in our future....It has cooled down the past couple days but the heat is headed back....SO...if you guys could be so kind and fill my request once again to send some excess rain back up this way.....THANKS!!!

 

[grapeman]

NW, I'm hoping it doesn't get super dry here now after all that rain last month. Last weekend we got about an inch and a half and then nothing all week until today. Got a quick quarter inch this morning and there is another small storm about 5 miles away right now headed here. Then we are expecting heavy thunderstorms this afternoon. Now it's 95 out with an expected high for the day of 84 - go figure. The storms may really build with all this humidity and extra heat. I may have to shut down work again for a while this afternoon. Of course if the power fails I certainly will shut down

NW, Hope you get your rains soon again.

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Richard - re: veraison, still no color on anything here. I include update photos of the vineyard a month after the last photos I posted.

To show just how green my berries still are:

Three overall views of the vineyard rows:

Views of each variety by row - note that the rows get progressively shorter due to site constraints:

Frontenac at the near end, Landot Noir at the far end:

Marechal Foch at the near end, St. Pepin at the far end:

A row of St. Croix:

Last row is Frontenac Gris:

View of the first row from the Landot Noir end, garage in the background:

Shifting to the left a little, with the house in the background and the granite quarry below the vineyard:

We have an arbor for four varieties of table grapes on the far side of the house. The Japanese beetles are decimating them, along with all the roses, but I don't want to spray with Sevin because our bee hives are also quite near the same area. Up in the vineyard I've sprayed twice to control the beetles and have noticed some minor "collateral damage", mainly some bumble bees, which I hate to lose, and some spiders on the vines. We probably lost a few honey bees too because they found the white clover that is so thick in the vineyard aisles, and each time I spray I can see drift of the spray settle down on the grass. It is a hard trade-off, but I know just how much damage the beetles will do. My feeling is that in year two the vines still need to put on as much leaf area as possible to continue root development and carbs for winter storage. But hey, maybe with global warming accelerating, winter won't be as harsh as we're used to!