Pulled to many leaves

[keverman]

My Marquette (Ohio) is at 19 brix and looking really good, uniformly purple, no disease or pest problems. I went to shoot comb and leaf pull a final time before bird netting today. My helper got a little ahead of me, and misunderstood our mission a bit. The end result was one of my two rows was pruned so that everything past the clusters on many canes was pruned off. So probably half the canes on that row have just 2 clusters of beautiful grapes and then a stub. What will be the result of this? Ripening slower, ripening faster, stalling out? I usually get to 25-26 brix for harvest by the beginning of September, so we are 3 1/2 weeks away. Thanks!

 

[keverman]

My Marquette (Ohio) is at 19 brix and looking really good, uniformly purple, no disease or pest problems. I went to shoot comb and leaf pull a final time before bird netting today. My helper got a little ahead of me, and misunderstood our mission a bit. The end result was one of my two rows was pruned so that everything past the clusters on many canes was pruned off. So probably half the canes on that row have just 2 clusters of beautiful grapes and then a stub. What will be the result of this? Ripening slower, ripening faster, stalling out? I usually get to 25-26 brix for harvest by the beginning of September, so we are 3 1/2 weeks away. Thanks!

Sad face emoji. Not good. How bad?

 

[VinesnBines]

I think they may stall out and start to break down. The skins are thinner now. I would monitor that row closely and if you see softening or splitting or anything funky, think about harvesting that row and chapelizing. Maybe ferment that row separately.

 

[keverman]

I think they may stall out and start to break down. The skins are thinner now. I would monitor that row closely and if you see softening or splitting or anything funky, think about harvesting that row and chapelizing. Maybe ferment that row separately.

Thank you for the help! I will keep an eye on them.

 

[VinesnBines]

You should do some research and check with some experts about long term stress on the vines. Just a guess but you may need to baby them next year and drop most or all of the fruit to let them recover. That sounds like a really radical cut back. Keep us posted.

 

[Snafflebit]

@keverman take one or two of the canes and use it to shade the clusters

Edit: ouch! I see that the CANE was pruned off!

 

[keverman]

@keverman take one or two of the canes and use it to shade the clusters

Edit: ouch! I see that the CANE was pruned off!

Not all the canes, just maybe half, the vines do NOT look naked, just thinner in foliage than the other row. I will try that!

 

[keverman]

You should do some research and check with some experts about long term stress on the vines. Just a guess but you may need to baby them next year and drop most or all of the fruit to let them recover. That sounds like a really radical cut back. Keep us posted.

You should do some research and check with some experts about long term stress on the vines. Just a guess but you may need to baby them next year and drop most or all of the fruit to let them recover. That sounds like a really radical cut back. Keep us posted.

Good though, I'll check in with the OSU extension grapevine gal. She's fabulous.

 

[VinesnBines]

I’m sure you are not the first person with this problem so OSU should give you good guidance.

 

[wood1954]

How are your vines doing now?

 

[keverman]

Thanks for checking in! OSU extension gal suggested I could try dropping half the clusters on the over-pruned row to help the remainders to finish. That row was already at 20 Brix and about 2 1/2 weeks from harvest so I decided to chance it rather than losing grapes. In the end that row finished at 23.5 brix and the other row reached 25. Not terrible. I would have like to let hang one more week, but we had a 5 day heat wave in the 90's with storms coming. She did say I may lose many of the those canes over the winter due to not enough reserves, so we will see!

 

[wood1954]

So not too bad, you should be able to make some wine. Thanks for the update, we can all learn from mistakes.

 

[BigH]

so I decided to chance it rather than losing grapes. In the end that row finished at 23.5 brix and the other row reached 25.

It will be interesting how those vines do next year. They may act like they were overcropped: poor hardening of shoots, more winter damage, and weird emergence next spring. But who knows.

H

 

[keverman]

It will be interesting how those vines do next year. They may act like they were overcropped: poor hardening of shoots, more winter damage, and weird emergence next spring. But who knows.

H

Yep, the OSU gal said same. I doubled the # of vines 2 years ago, and next year I should see 1/2 a harvest from those, so I decided to chance giving up grapes next year instead of this year, so we will see indeed! Next year may just be growing in new structure for those vines....