Missoula Vinyard

[grapeman]

Appleman, I think you need to change your screen name to Weatherman!

My emotions are as confused as my identity - appleman, grapeman, weatherman!

That weather stinks!

 

[OilnH2O]

and Lumberjack!

 

[OilnH2O]

Deer Wars... (continued)

My little backyard vineyard fared so-so this winter. A late (May) spring cold snap of two nights of 22* hit buds, especially on Pinot Noir. L. Millot and M. Foch did okay, but one of my two Edelweiss got knocked back. Increased height of my deer fence was successful until first, deer pushed through a tear between posts, and second, when that tear was repaired, they jumped over a low spot - so I raised the fence a few feet higher. If I wasn't in city limits I would have more options!

Here is a Leon Millot that was missed by the deer showing growth so far this season.

This is a L.M. that was hit by the deer - lots of little grape clusters coming, but no shade until the new leaves get established.

This is a Pinot that got buds nipped by frost -- new growth up from the roots is already up to the first catch wire.

And last is proof deer like Pinot too -- several of the PN's that had new growth were also browsed -- oh, to be out of city limits!

 

[ASAI]

RE: Deer Wars
Have you considered a accidental dischargewhile cleaning a weapon you thought was cleared?

 

[grapeman]

Cross-bow?


Your poor vines sure have a tough time of it. I hope you can get them under control eventually so the poor grapes have a chance to provide food for the birds too! And then maybe some day you can make a bottle or two of wine.

 

[OilnH2O]

RE: Deer Wars
Have you considered a accidental dischargewhile cleaning a weapon you thought was cleared?

Oh, believe me -- there are many options for something like that! Model 70, son's Model 7, even my old Daisy BB gun! After all, this IS Montana. But within city limits even an occasional fire-cracker is illegal. I'm crossing my fingers that the current "passive defense" set-up might work.

 

[OilnH2O]

Update on the Poor Vines Vinyard!

Okay -- my Missoula backyard vinyard -- but the talk of versaison, rain, deer and deer-defense got me to take some pictures and give an update.

First rule of Sun Szu, Clauswitz, et.al.= Know your enemy!

(These seem small - but I can't seem to "resize" to anything bigger without it being over 150kb -- sorry)

The bottom, lighter green, is new growth after "pruning" by the mates to those guys above....

Here are some of the few grape clusters remaining. Note the Irish Spring sliver nearby, hanging from above!

BTW, the deer did not graze the grape clusters, but after they grazed, no new clusters developed. The grapes are just barely starting to turn a tinge of purple (these are L. Millot).

On the left is second year growth of Pinot Noir vines that bare-root planted last year. While they survived the winter, there was about 10% winter kill, and at least half came up from the roots -- the stems died. On the right are the high growth of Edelweiss and L. Millot that were above the "graze line" with new growth below. Interestingly, the Edelweiss have great growth (3rd year) but not one grape cluster... hmmm!

The hanging plastic grocery bags are part of the deer-defense... although, I must say that after this year, there will be new (additional) posts/wire to at least 8 feet tall. Having a fence down low and deer netting above doesn't really keep out the deer. The best "defense" will have to be a new fence!

 

[grapeman]

I wish I could say the pictures looked great- but I can barely see them. They are like an inch high! Did you try Microsoft Picture Resizer tool? You can get most 800x600 pictures to download and all 640x480. Some 1024x768 are even small enough.


Here's to hoping you win the war with the deer. This evening I drove down to the farm and up in the fields. I was turning around at the pumpkin field my brother kayacked across last week after the 3 inch rain. There was a big fat doe standing their chewing her cud like a cow watching me. She even stopped and scratched an itch from a bug biting. She stomped a few times, but didn't really care if I was there or not. I will need to take a picture of my second nursery location. The grapes look like stubby stick clusters. They have been grazed so many times that they have about a dozen bare shoots with no leaves! Hint: it is right in front of my one deer stand which used to be an old hay barn. One of these autum days I will be sitting in there, but I won't let the deer know which day!

 

[OilnH2O]

Rich, I have to use a resizer for Mac -- and for some reason, anything larger than 400x300 (the size above) is over the 150 kb limit -- and that's at 72 dpi... I'll try something different...

 

[OilnH2O]

Brix at 24.8 -- Beautiful "fall" days in Montana -

Monday high supposed to be about 81*, low 42; Tuesday high 64, low 37! Wednesday high 42*!!! Low 30, chance of rain/snow!!!

Time to pick??!! (That's Marachal Foch in the background)

 

[grapeman]

At least you are getting a 80 degree day. We haven't seen one of those in weeks now, and only 2 - 90 degree days all year and one of them was in April!

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Wow Dave, don't you have birds or bees (wasps) out there? Those clusters sure are pretty, and your Brix is looking good. I think we don't want to let it get too high for Foch, something about increasing the off flavors that lie hidden. Also, don't let the must sit on the skins for very long. Last year I let it go for 32 hours and last week sampled what I had. There was a definite "bacon" quality at the back of the nose, but it almost disappeared by the second day after the bottle was opened. This year I will let it cold soak for 24 hours as the next step in experimenting. Good luck with yours!
Bill

 

[OilnH2O]

Birds and wasps, both, Bill. But I try to keep the wasps away with other attractants. BUT the deer were the worst, and actually most of the vines do not look like this one -- but, as in baseball, there's always NEXT year!
(Thanks for the tip about the skins...) They were picked this morning, btw...

 

[AlFulchino]

looking great!

 

[OilnH2O]

looking great!

Thanks, Al -- now, really, YOURS are looking great! But, I appreciate it - but wait until NEXT year!

Here's a question for feedback. After picking the grapes, I found a lot of earwigs in the bin with them. Then, with my M1-A1 destemmer (right thumb and index finger!) as I separated the grapes from the stems, almost every cluster had one to five earwigs.

I guess I am surprised - while I've helped harvest and seen clusters go into the destemmer, I'd not thought about bugs like this -- at least, not several in every cluster! Or, do you think this is either a Montana thing... or because of this.... in several clusters I found what I thought was some sort of fungus or mold... sorry for the lack of clarity, but I think you can see the white on the end...

Then, after several instances, and seeing several small spiders drop out of the clusters, I think that in actuality what these are, are spider nests -- I didn't pull them apart, and while some of them looked like they were on the grapes themselves, if you pulled the grape away, it did leave the material behind. Like this...

As you can see, the material stayed behind when the grapes were pulled away. Does that sound like it's spiders, not mold or fungus? I thought maybe the earwigs were after the spiders, but after a little internet research, find they feed on lots of things...including grapes!

By the way, the Foch brix was 25 to 26.2; the Millot I can't recall, and the Pinot Noir (which was only a handful of clusters -- 2nd year vines) was 19 to 21.8.

So, that's the end of MY year! - Oh, wait -- no it's not! I've got the holes to dig for the new 10-foot fence posts that will be going in this fall so they can settle all winter and be ready for the new deer fence next spring!

Dave

 

[grapeman]

Yumm-earwig wine! Just think that if you used a normal destemmer, those babies would be going into the wine with the grapes.


Hopefully you can get ahead of the deer next year and get a nice crop.

 

[AlFulchino]

also a little mold on the grapes will be natural...by the time you get an average brix level amongst all the grapes of one variety that you are happy with a lot of things occur w the grapes that are a bit ahead of the average clusters....bees can get in and puncture the grape skin to get at the juice and that leaves the inside vulnerable to mold spores...you cant avoid all of it..it just is

and the little green berries are unpollinated or in some cases just an under-ripe little thing

great brix on that foch! i will be making some wine w my foch this year as well but this may be the last year i keep it depending on how it survives the winter...had a lot of winter damage on it last yr

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Earwigs don't seem to be a Montana thing, since I have them here also - first year I've noticed them actually, silly buggers. I haven't been finding fruit that's insect damaged - yet. In a way it is good to have such a small crop that you can afford to hand pick every grape off the clusters, eh?

 

[OilnH2O]

In a way it is good to have such a small crop that you can afford to hand pick every grape off the clusters, eh?

Amen, Bill -- that's REALLY looking at the bright side!

 

[OilnH2O]

There's Always Hope!

Out of the blue, yesterday afternoon, a low-overcast day in the 40's of spitting showers and snow showers up high, Andy Sponseller, the owner of Ten Spoons http://www.tenspoon.com/index.html calls and asks if I'd "be interested" in some grapes he had not picked. Now, what would YOU say???

So, my daughter, home from college on fall break, and I went out "to play..."

It was fun!

AND... fruitful !!!

About 90+ pounds of mostly Marachal Foch -- with maybe 10 percent Millot.

Ten Spoons is an "organic" vinyard -- and this area had been "oversprayed" by a neighbor trying to control weeds. It is now in it's third year since that incident; hence, why Andy didn't/couldn't use them. Now, to get to work on those guys! (Takeaway? Visit your local vinyard and make friends!

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