Midwest Micro Vineyard

[Masbustelo]

Here are the pictures.

 

[grapeman]

I am not seeing a picture????????

 

[Masbustelo]

I see them in message #21? Others no?

 

[sour_grapes]

I see 'em in both 21 and 23.

 

[Boatboy24]

I see 'em in both 21 and 23.

Same here.

 

[cmason1957]

I sometimes have that problem in the mobile app. For some reason a picture(s) just doesn't show and I have to pull up hte web page to see it. I don't have any idea why.

 

[Masbustelo]

I just won the 2017 Japanese Beetle war. I was gone for several weeks and when I came back I had a heavy infestation. I spent several days picking them off, but hordes kept reappearing. I used Ferti-lome Triple action which contains neem oil and Pyrithrins. I only saw three insects this morning. It says to re-spray every 7-14 days. I have a little 1/2 gallon sprayer and intend to use it to spot spray if they start showing up again. I did a little research and what I found was that Pyrithrins seem to be more effective than Sevin.

 

[KevinL]

I got pretty good results on my first years planting with just hand cleaning. 10 minutes in the morning, and 10 in the evening on 55 vines. Now that I'm up to 145 ( Planted 75 petite pearl and 15 Itasca this season) I gave in and went down the pesticide aisle. I must say I was pleased with the wholesale slaughter brought upon the thousands of little buggers when the Sevin dropped out of the sky on them.

Most of what I read online said that Pyrithrin is the way to go, but I couldn't find any in my local hardware store that was based on it so I went with the Sevin. Pretty pleased overall. Curse those little buggers.

 

[Masbustelo]

I was gone for three weeks and they really tore up my leaves before I got back. We had some rain this week that probably washed off the Pyrithrin/Neem oil that I used. They were back fairly heavy this pm. I sprayed with a Potassium Bicarbonate (GreenCure) and they disappeared. I wonder if they don't like the taste or alkalinity?

 

[Masbustelo]

I finally got tired of picking off and drowning the Japanese Beetles. The Pyrithrin and neem oil helped some, but I sprayed with Sevin several weeks ago. They dropped "like flies" and haven't been back. At first appearance next year I'll hit them with Sevin.

 

[KevinL]

I had to reapply the Sevin once so far when they started reappearing a bit. 2 applications during the season wouldn't be bad at all. In the future I'll probably end up with 3 applications total spaced out during the feeding season of the beetles.

I've considered sowing in some milky spore. I'm not sure it'll be all that effective unless everyone close to me does it as well, but I feel like I should do my part.

 

[Masbustelo]

Kevin I'm thinking if you wipe out the breeding population with the Sevin treatments that there might not be a need for the Milky Spore treatments after a few years. Some studies show that it might not really be very effective. It's nice to know we can win the battle next year.

 

[bumblebeetuna]

1 beetle lays 5000 eggs anything to help the cause is better in my book. I put down milky spore 2 years ago and have seen a decrease in damage

 

[KevinL]

Yeah I think it will still help, while the ones that are getting at my vines are dying, there are still several elsewhere in the field that are munching on something I haven't treated. I hadn't heard how many eggs a beetle lays, but considering how many of them there are out there I guess that's not surprising.

I'll probably throw down the milky spore. It sounds harmless other than to the beetles so I'm not worried about any adverse side effects.

 

[Masbustelo]

I don't think there are any adverse effects.

 

[Masbustelo]

Here is a picture of my six Petite pearl plants. They were planted about 16 months ago. April 2016. Looks like they are hitting senescence for the year.

 

[FrontenacMan]

I've been using Sevin on my Frontenac and Frontenac Gris for three years now. Works good but I have to apply about every two weeks or so throughout mid July to mid August. I applied Milky Spore last fall to my lawn. Didn't stop the JB's. They were back in full force this year. They can travel several miles so I'm convinced they're coming from somewhere else. I also have a fairly mature Birch tree in the front yard which they apparently love as well. I read somewhere that they give off some signal when they find good feeding grounds to attract their friends (which is why those yellow traps don't work). I also read that that same signal works in reverse when they are killed (repels other beetles) which is why Sevin works well. Don't know if it is true but there seems to be something to it. My biggest problem this year was rain. I'm in Wisconsin and I lost a lot of my grapes to the excess moisture (I'm thinking mildew damage). Started happening in the middle of the rainy season here in June. We got up to 5 inches in one day at times. Oh well.

 

[Masbustelo]

Frontenac man. We'll be ready next year! I read that the traps actually attract the beetles to your local. If you have a large acreage they might be beneficial. We had the rain here too I'm 80 miles South of the Badger State. I have pretty much sprayed every week this summer. Since July I have been using organic sprays. I'm rotating Green Cure Potassium Bi-carb, Serenade and Companion. Everything looks good here.

 

[KevinL]

The beetles leave and the other pests come in. Chipmunks and birds have consumed 75% of my Frontenac grapes. Learning how to handle netting has cost me a bit. I'm anxious to pull the grapes so I just checked the numbers today:

The #:
22.5 Brix
2.92 pH
15.75 g/l TA

Not sure if my TA numbers are right, but from what I understand Frontenac comes in with very, very high acidity. My plan is to pull them now to mitigate any more losses and save the headache of battling them (chipmunks)

I'm going to bet on your name Frontenac man: should I wait and risk the vermin or is hoping for lower TA not worth the wait?

 

[FrontenacMan]

Hey Kevin, I will share my story. Last year I had a possum (yes a possum!) invade my crop. I was on vacation the last week in August and that left enough non activity (our dog was with us) for him to invade for a week. He got a good share. I got nervous just like you and picked the crop on Labor Day. At the time Brix was around 19 and pH was about 3. I de-stemmed and crushed and ended up with about 5 gallons of must. I added a can of Alexanders Pinot Noir to bring the Brix up to 23 (SG of 1.096) and must to 6 gallons. I fermented with Pasteur Red and then did a Malolactic fermentation which brought the ML acid level down to almost zero (great). The wine tasted awful. What I surmised was that the seeds were still green and thus gave the wine a very off taste. I'm letting the 30 bottles sit hoping the green taste might age out but I'm not betting on it. The lesson learned is one that Grapeman shared - When you think they are ready let them hang some more. This year I'm not going to pick until mid September regardless of vermin thieves.
I've got bird netting on but something is still getting a few of the lower berries (I'm guessing chipmunks as well).