berrycrush
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How old is your Marquette? My Marquette is in the third year but still has no fruiting cane size yet.
Chateau Michaelena Vineyard
- Thread starter ibglowin
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Couple more snaps from this morning. Things are moving along and I haven't even hit them with any fertilizer yet. Marquette 1st pic. Looks like the clusters on the Noiret and Corot Noir (2nd pic) are gonna be huge this year!
Wow! Mine are doing the same. This, I hope, is going to be a good year!
Yea, things are looking totally awesome. But hail could wipe out everything in about 10 minutes so I don't get excited really until about August!
More pics of the explosion from the last few weeks! 
Coming along very nice Mike.
How many vines total do you have mike, they look great!
About thirty all together. 3 varieties of cold hardy grapes. Marquette, Corot Noir and Noiret. I just do a field blend each year so far.
If the grape gestapo made a visit and said you could only keep one of the varieties, which one would it be and why? I have all three of those on my "big list" and I am trying to pair them down. I know your climate is much, much different than mine. I think my location is much more forgiving in Southern PA. I know a few places around here that grow Chardonnay and Cab Sauvingon, but I'd never chance those (we usually hit 0* to -5*F in the average winter, but only for a few mornings).
Marquette makes one of the best wines hands down but it doesn't work for me in my location as I live in a cold air drainage area and late spring freezes happen more often than not. Marquette breaks bud 10 days earlier so it gets hammered quite often in my location. Noiret is the next best grape and breaks bud 10 days after Marquette so when my Marquette gets blistered by the late frost the Noiret is laughing its ask off at the Marquette for breaking bud so soon. Noiret makes a fantastic wine as well and taste much like a Syrah. My terroir is definitely more suited to Syrah with all of the volcanic rock under the surface. I will not be adding any more Marquette for sure and may be replacing the Marquette with Noiret. Of course Global Warming may make all of this a mute point....... YMMV as they say.
ColemanM
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I will be making my first wine with petite pearl this year. Probably only a gallon but I would put this on your short list too with the 24 brix 6-7TA estimates. Then again, if I win the powerball I will be planting corn, barley and rye and forgetting about the trial and tribulations of growing these damn needy grapes.
Can they survive a light frost without damage if you can cover them (the Marquette)? We can get frosts as late as May 15th (I think it was the 18th about 5 or 6 yrs ago) but they are rare and it is only for a few hours in the wee hours of the morning.
Someone has some grapes (about 15 or so plants) on my way to work and I was wondering if they got damage this year because we had a later than normal frost. From what I'm seeing at 35 mph driving past them, there is no apparent leaf damage, but he does tend to them very well and might have pulled the leaves. Guess I should think stop when I see him out and see if he'll answer a few questions. Maybe a bottle of wine might tempt him to hear me out.
That is a very interesting grape and on my list too! Will be interested in what you think about it if you do get a gallon or so worth this year. I know it will get better the older the vine gets, but I'd think you'll be able to tell with a first vintage if you are on the right track.
We got a hard freeze (22F) on in mid May 2 years ago and I covered them up with blankets, towels you name it. Its pretty easy to cover them with a top wire system and only 30 vines. It did not work. I suspect a light freeze (30-32) you could save them. with the use of lights etc. If you go back on this thread you will see what I did to save them.
I'm still struggling to get my marquette to grow. They were finally budding out on the high wire (this is year 4) but our 28° freeze on May 13 basically killed the vine all the way to the ground. The primary buds and secondary buds are gone. Cordons look lifeless. Only growth from the bottom. They have died to the ground every year since I've planted them. *sigh*
BlueStimulator
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How are the vines looking now?
With the heat we have been having things are moving along nicely!
Wow, that is a real shame. I can't believe even the cordons were killed. My Marquettes are in their 3rd year now and they have put out a ton of growth already and at least 20-25 clusters per vine, but I snipped off most all the clusters, I'm leaving a few just to see how the grapes do this year, maybe I'll get enough to make just one bottle of wine ...LOL
Considering they are cold hardy to -20F it must be that yours had gone from dormant to full growth phase only to be hit by a late frost. I have ben hit with late frost several years in a row in the past and they did not die back to the ground. Only the primary buds were toast and secondary pushed and produced some fruit. That seems crazy!
