Rescued vineyard, following 3 vines, pruned differently.

[NorCal]

The first signs of veraison in the vineyard. Im seeing mildew pressure on the cab, but not the Syrah or Zin.

 

[Snafflebit]

Wow, veraison already. I am guessing that is a picture of the Zinfandel

 

[NorCal]

Wow, veraison already. I am guessing that is a picture of the Zinfandel

You are a vineyard dude! Nicely done, Zin. There are some football sized clusters in there.
The real question will be, how many I can get in the bin. We share this property with a lot of wildlife. When we moved here last year the vineyard was a mess with mildew everywhere and I have a feeling that even the local foxes, skunks, opossums, squirrel, birds passed on the fruit. There are a lot of deer (and a bear sighting down the street), but we’ve never seen one on our fenced property.
I‘m hoping I’m on the glide slope to harvest, but ya never know.

 

[VinesnBines]

Are you trying any netting or fencing? Nothing will stop the bear but you might stop the rest.

 

[NorCal]

Are you trying any netting or fencing? Nothing will stop the bear but you might stop the rest.

The property is fenced, 4 foot with no-climb, but nothing that would stop any of the animals. I’ll have to wait and see how much the other residents consume to see if I need to better secure the fruit. I’m getting a fruit zone going and I know it will also make it easier for the critters to get it too.

 

[VinesnBines]

I was cleaned out overnight so I wouldn’t wait long.

 

[Neb Farmer]

Got critters? This will work

 

[NorCal]

Some better pics of the fruit.

Good

Bad

Ugly

 

[Snafflebit]

The new cordons look very fruitful and you have good fruit set. Do you irrigate and/or fertilize?

 

[NorCal]

I’ve started to irrigate. We’ve had a few hot streaks and this week it’s going to be a 97-103 week. So far the canopy is holding up. I think there will be leaf loss due to mildew as well as leaf hoppers. I’m done spraying for mildew. I think I’ll fasten the seatbelt and see what the vineyard delivers. I’m still learning. If the canopy collapses on a variety, I may decide on making it a rose this year.
Overall, the Zin is huge, Syrah doing good and the cab sauv is struggling.

Tonights sunset.

 

[wood1954]

I can relate to carrying a heavy backpack sprayer, I’m going to make a small motorized cart to move mine. My neighbors son is going to college studying engineering and he said he’d help design it. I wish I would have bought a small wheeled unit.

 

[NorCal]

I can relate to carrying a heavy backpack sprayer, I’m going to make a small motorized cart to move mine. My neighbors son is going to college studying engineering and he said he’d help design it. I wish I would have bought a small wheeled unit.

Oh do share! I saw the benefit of the high speed fan, blowing the leaves aside, while it was getting misted with the water/sulfur. I was thinking of how I could make something to accomplish this task without spending $400.

I'd like to see if I could attach something to the jeep and I have a sprayer and a battery operated leaf blower. I do not have turn-arounds at the end of the rows, so pulling a trailer is out. May be a winter project.

 

[Snafflebit]

You can also dry blow sulfur dust on the vines, which has better coverage and is lighter. But of course you have dust to deal with.

 

[ChuckD]

I'd like to see if I could attach something to the jeep and I have a sprayer and a battery operated leaf blower.

I will be making one of these for next year. 15 or 20 gallon tank sprayer with 30’ hose married to a DeWalt 60 volt max, axial fan leaf blower.

 

[Joe B.]

It really looks good I would be putting in an order for bird netting so you can get the vines covered before the ripening fruit attracts all the critters. The commercial guys can weather bird losses but they devastate us hobby growers. FYI, smaller netting holes size will slow down raccoons but not stop them as they will find a seam and get into the canopy instead of just picking the fruit through the netting..

 

[ChuckD]

I can relate to carrying a heavy backpack sprayer, I’m going to make a small motorized cart to move mine. My neighbors son is going to college studying engineering and he said he’d help design it. I wish I would have bought a small wheeled unit.

Do you have one of the backpack blowers or just a sprayer? For the sprayer, something like a golf bag cart could work. @Vern was talking about mounting his backpack blower tight behind his tractor seat so he could ride and spray. Apparently you need it tight behind you… almost as if you are wearing it.

 

[NorCal]

Harvest day!

Weighed out the three vines:
Good 6.0 lbs
Bad 5.2 lbs
Ugly .2 lbs

I would say the good had reasonably good grapes, the “ bad “ had better looking grapes, the ugly had a single decent cluster.

 

[wood1954]

Harvest day!

Weighed out the three vines:
Good 6.0 lbs
Bad 5.2 lbs
Ugly .2 lbs

I would say the good had reasonably good grapes, the “ bad “ had better looking grapes, the ugly had a single decent cluster.
View attachment 91958

Doesn’t sound too bad, cluster looks great

 

[Snafflebit]

Nice looking cluster. What Brix did you target?

 

[NorCal]

For most reds, my target is 25.0 by 3.5….that’s my bullseye.

Zin 25.3/3.8, adjusted to 23.5/3.45 (rose)
Syrah 24.6/3.7, adjusted to 24.6/3.6
Cab 23.3/3.6 (no adjustment, 10 gallon blender)

I was going to wait to pick on the Cab, but logistics took precedence. I knew there wasn’t a lot of fruit, so I didn’t want to have to fire up the operation for 150 pounds of Cab. Cab is not a good variety for my area. I may look to graft cab Franc on to those vines, which does well here. This 10 gallons of cab will be blended with some high brix cab franc I’m getting this season.