New Vineyard Prep

Do you know how they work in a sandy loam soil. I was considering the grapple style too but was afraid it wouldn't have enough holding power

Their holding poer in sandy soil is a lot better than the auger type. When Tropical Storm Irene turned my sany soil into quicksand, the stony points held while all the auger type pulled at least partially out.

I see you have T-posts along the edge. I use T-post as an anchor. Much easier to jackhammer a Tpost than hand-turn an auger!

It looks like those T-posts are not for the trellis but holding an electric wire tape to keep the critters out.

The journey continues. Attached are pictures of the 2nd year foch and 1st year frontenac gris vines. We are committing to the addition of 1400 more vines next year (700 lacrescent and 700 marquette).

On another note, does any have any experience with contracts for grape growing? If so, I would like to chat and get some pointers if possible.

Looking good! Wish I had that much land.

Overall the vines weathered the winter quiet well. I finished up the one year old pruning a today. Nice sitting in sunny and 45 degree weather but we are expecting 6-10" of snow this week. More joy

Now that you are warmed up pruning, come on over and you can do some more. Looks great what you have done.

Thanks. It's definitely a learn as I go and keep learning process. I pruned 10 of the 12 rows of Foch today. Question for anyone out there, what are your recommendations for buds left for third leaf. I know everything is site specific, but in general (if there is such a thing).

What I tried to do on most vines is go approximately three feet each way in the cordon and leave one or two buds coming of the spurs (sorry if the language is wrong as its my first go around with the third leaf)

Below are a few of the 3rd leaf Foch

With that vigorous site I think what you did is fine. If you see too many clusters later you can either do shoot thinning or some cluster thinning. By leaving that many buds it will help keep their growth in check some. If you left fewer buds you might get a lot of overgrown shoots. In that case you would get them 15 to 20 feet in length. If the number is good they will be 5 to six feet long maybe a touch more.

Got to love spring in Wisconsin. Pruned most of the vineyard in 50 degree weather. Finished up in this

The weather isn't much better over here. The wind blew 40 mph for days with temps in the 20's. This morning was down to 12 and a high around freezing, but at least the wind didn't blow more than 5-10 mph so it seemed warmer. I didn't prune much over the weekend and did some today but not a lot. I'm hoping better weather gets here soon.

Was 72 here today, should be headed your way soon!

havlikn said:

Got to love spring in Wisconsin. Pruned most of the vineyard in 50 degree weather. Finished up in this

Click to expand...

I don't know where in WI havlikn is, but we had:
Sat AM: heavy snow.
Sat PM: 40's, with alternating periods of sunny/clear and brief, blinding blizzards
Sun AM: clear but cold
Sun PM: sunny with a high of 69 !!!
Mon: high 20's and flurries.

The fun is just beginning. I am really happy with my upgraded mower which cut my mow time in half. The buds are starting to swell and I expect bud break within a week or two. We have a cool down planned the next 10 days but fortunately no freezing temps forecasted.

That looks real good! Is it just grass your mowing? Or did you plant a cover crop?

Grass. It was alfalfa but I continually mowed it down.

I took these last week before going out to Wisconsin, I've already got bunches on my Chard and Cab. Syrah should be next.

Season is starting up.
Foch

Frontenac

Marquette

We were very fortunate to avoid the statewide frost damage. Stories around the state have it that many vineyards lost quite a bit to the frost. Can't mess with mother nature. Some of our second year vines show a little damage close to the ground but not all that concerning.

Here are Foch from today.