Marquette harvested today

[wood1954]

Once again I overdid it in the vineyard. Harvested about 700 lbs of Marquette and 20 of itasca. I mixed the itasca with enough Marquette juice to make a 6 gallon batch of rose. I’ll Wait till
tomorrow to measure ph and Brix. No bees, wasps or fruit flys, perfect harvest conditions. Next year I’m definitely asking for help. One big take away was some vines were way over cropped. The vine that gets the most sun and has the best soil had 157 clusters. A lot of the vines up the hill had small clusters where the soil is poorer so fertilizer is needed. It’s a great feeling to have all that hard work in fermenters waiting for yeast. Thankfully I have a lot of wine to help my sore back.
Wish everyone a great harvest.

 

[Cynewulf]

Congrats! Keep us updated on how it all turns out!

 

[jackl]

Just wondering what trellis system you are using? Have fun!

 

[wood1954]

I use a wire at about 5 feet with two wires below to tie the growing canes. I use spur pruning but am thinking of switching over to cane pruning to help prevent trunk disease and have better frost protection

 

[BRK]

I switched from top wire cordon to vertical shoot positioning because the canes were too vigorous and wanted to go upwards. I had a hard time combing and tieing them down. VSP is much better. On the contrary, my Concords did just the opposite trellised to VSP and wanted to lie on the ground. Next year they will be TWC.

 

[wood1954]

It would be too much work for me to switch to VSP now. I think if I choose the downward growing canes they’ll be easy to keep growing down.

 

[BRK]

You may have better luck than me.

 

[montanarick]

I had changed all my hybrid vines from TWC to VSP. much easier to manage for me

 

[VinesnBines]

Several months ago, I touted VSP for my hybrids. Now, as I'm trying to harvest and I have fruit nearly on the ground, I'm rethinking. I can move to mid wire or TWC easily, more easily than the reverse. At any rate, my fruiting wire is way too low so I'll likely be adjusting next spring.

 

[wood1954]

with my fruiting wire at about 5 feet it was really easy harvesting this year. a lot of vines make to the grass but i cut them off or wrap them on the bottom wire.