New Vineyard Prep

[GreginND]

Looks great! I'm a little worried about our early warmup as well. We will have temps in the 50's and even mid 60's over the next week. I know we could easily get a hard freeze still. I don't want my grapes to wake up yet.

 

[RedSun]

havlikn, where are you located?

 

[grapeman]

I am not worried about my vines waking up yet. It will hit 45 tomorrow but cooling back down to the 20's and 30's. I have just started pruning and it is tiring slogging around in snow up to my knees if I avoid drifts.

 

[RedSun]

Why do you prune so early?

 

[GreginND]

It is best to prune while still dormant. I will prune my vines next week.

 

[codeman]

Pruned my vines a month ago. The buds are fuzzy with a noticeable green and red color.

 

[grapeman]

Why do you prune so early?

If you are asking me, I begin to prune around now so I can finish before budbreak. I am not young anymore and do a lot of it myself. It takes a while to prune 5000 vines alone. Hopefully we are beyond the coldest weather so other than putting up with snow and some cold/cool weather while pruning, there is no reason not to.

 

[RedSun]

We still have several inches of snow on the ground. So it seems you should have more snow than we do. I think it is going to quite some time before buds break....

 

[grapeman]

Yes we have snow on the ground also. It is not quite up to my knees right now and it slows me down, but the job needs doing so I have started.

 

[RedSun]

Yes we have snow on the ground also. It is not quite up to my knees right now and it slows me down, but the job needs doing so I have started.

I have some vines I planted last fall. I still do not see them. Have to dig up the snow to get them...

 

[ColemanM]

Hey grapeman, since you prune all 5000, are there differences in timing for bud break since the first got pruned early, and the last quite a bit later. Or are they all still dormant and you see no difference?

 

[grapeman]

I don't want to hijack this thread so won't get into it a lot here, but everything is completely dormant and will be for a while. I just need to begin early to get done before budbreak. The different varieties do break bud slightly differently but all are within a week to 10 days of each other.

 

[GreginND]

I'm very worried about bud break coming too early. Here's what we are looking at. And I know it's going to get back down below freezing before spring comes.

 

[havlikn]

Greg ours doesn't look that bad down here. Those numbers are scary. We are trending downward from our 55 degree day today towards mid to up 30's as highs in the next couple of weeks.


I don't plan to prune until the first week in April. Given I only have 354 first year plants I should be able to complete in a day.

 

[bhoenisch]

Scary here in MT too. 60s forecast thought the weekend and there has been very little snow cover since late January.

 

[havlikn]

Spring pruning has been completed. I was able to get double trunks out of some of the vines, others weren't willing to commit to that this year. I hope to place all vines in double trunk given the recent winters we have had here in Wisconsin.

Next up is laying out the vine rows for the spring.

 

[mgmarty]

It's a great feeling to have the pruning done!

 

[grapeman]

Good for you. I bet it feels great to be done pruning and thinking ahead to planting more.

I am almost done with the second vineyard now and hope to finish today after the latest three inches of snow we got last evening melts. It is stuck to everything right now.

 

[havlikn]

Well the yearly planting starts this weekend. I hope to get 546 Frontenac and Frontenac Gris vines in leaving 750 for next week/weekend.

Mother Nature has turned an ugly head with temps tonight forecasted down to 37. We will see how the Foch survive. Unfortunately it's farming. Gotta trust the sight and have faith good things happen.

If the vines survive the frost, the next challenge will be the deer!! Joys

 

[grapeman]

You are expecting frost with a low of 37? If it does get colder it should be very light. Keep the faith!