Willsboro NY Cold Hardy Grape Variety Trial

[grapeman]

I thought I would start a separate topic on the Willsboro Farm Cold Hardy Variety Trial. This is at the Willsboro Farm as part of Cornell University's Research Farms. It is located on Lake Champlain in NYS.


Four years ago 12 each of 25 cold hardy varieties were planted to test the relative cold hardiness of new grape selections from Cornell, University of Minnesota and Elmer Swensens selections against some older varieties. They have been progressing well and are beginning their fourth growing season on the farm. I will try to document the progress of them as the season goes along. These are all trained the same way which may or may not be the best way for a particular variety, but are done that way to provide less variables in the equation. The vines are currently from early bud swell to one-inch shoots, depending on variety.


Just a few pictures for now.

Beginning of the growing season

The vines are pruned to 3 or 4 canes- about 40-60 buds total and trained to an Umbrella Kniffen system.

As the season progresses I will continue to post pictures of their development. I will be at the site twice a week caring for the vineyard so I can post pictures of different stages of development. I will give general information, but won't disclose too many specifics of data collection since this is a research plot. I know some of you will ask about the stones on the plastic. It helps hold the platic down from the wind, but in general they are just placed there for mowing purposes.


How's the view?Edited by: appleman

 

[NorthernWinos]

What a beautiful place....must be fun to go to work there and enjoy the view.

Is that black plastic or landscape fabric????
Both would collect the heat and prevent weeds.

I have thought of putting landscape fabric down under the rows of more cold hardy vines then top dressing with a few inches of crushed rock.....thought it might attract the heat and help with keeping the weeds down and conserve moisture.

How far apart are the vines spaced????

I bet it is windy right off the lake like that...probably helps dry the vines and prevent diseases like mildews.

Will be watching this thread...Thanks for sharing.

 

[grapeman]

It is just thin black plastic poly. It was originally laid down to prevent weeds the first year or two. This is the 4th year and it is still fairly good shape.


The site is very breezy and it dries quickly. It makes it hard for data collection with a notebook, etc. The pages are always flipping on me. That reminds me to get a clipboard out for tomorrow to bring with me.


The vines are 8 feet apart and the rows are 10 feet apart. All varieties are treated the same and there are four replications at random. That makes it a bit harder for vine identification. Thats why I nailed tags to the posts- each post separates a panel. Look at the south post and that is the variety for the panel.


Most varieties still have all the original vines. A couple died the year of planting and weren't replaced. I may see about replacing them with some I have started. The Petite Amie were started from tissue culture and were slow to start. A few are still cut back to two buds this year. Other than that, they are all doing better than many expected for this far north.

 

[grapeman]

About two weeks has gone by since the last pictures. I thought I would post a few to show some progress. The vines are starting to put out shoots at a good speed and will really get going when it warms up again.


Here is a shot of the vineyard as you go in the gate of the deer fence.

One shot to the east showing I believe Marquette.

And then one to the west- some of the Adirondacks in the background near town- little hills. I think this was a LaCrescent vine.

Edited by: appleman

 

[NorthernWinos]

Are these all very young vines...or....are they renewal shoots????

Do you do renewal shoots on your one vines???

How often would you replace the main trunk...if ever????

 

[grapeman]

These vines are going into their fourth year. There are two main trunks on most of the vines and we try to leave just two canes each , which are changed every year for the current years grapes. As I'm doing work with buds, you try to leave some in the "renewal zone", just a bit lower than the region that bears the grapes. These develop shoots this year turning into canes next which are then selected at pruning to become the current year's bearing canes. We started counting shoots today as the vines get active enough to do accurately. We count the total nodes left after pruning, the live primary buds forming shoots, the dead buds and the base buds. This gives us an idea of mortality during the winter of primary buds. Most varieties are most fruitful from the primary buds, but will often have some fruit on the secondaries.


You probably thin there isn't enough vine hear to bear a good sized crop, but on most of the vines there is between 60 and 80 shoots developing, not counting secondary and tertiary buds. One vine can only ripen so much fruit, so the number needs limiting- and I'm sure we will need to thin most of the clusters after a while.


The main trunk is replaced if for some reason it dies or becomes diseased or injured- like developing crown gall.

 

[AlFulchino]

just found this very interesting topic....any updates coming?

 

[grapeman]

I suppose I should get some more pictures here. It just takes a while to post them all. I got a few more last week. We also trained, and thinned last Friday. We used volunteer help for some help and things looked a bit rough today. I will thin a bit more when things straighten out a bit. I haven't posted pictures in a while - they surely have made a lot of progress since then. Al this is where the many varieties I have made wine from last year came. We have 25 varieties planted with 12 vines each- 4 panels of three vines planted at random.


This is a joint effort sponsored by many parties to give the local folks an idea of what varieties to plant in the northeast. You aren't that much farther away than a lot of participants. Maybe you could come over this fall and help harvest. Volunteers get to split up the grapes that aren't slated for research batches of wine. PM me if you are interested in details.


I am the person hired to tend to the vineyard and collect data during the growing season. Very fullfilling and rewarding job. I get the benefit of working with personnel from Cornell's grape program and Extension personnel from time to time.

 

[AlFulchino]

pm on the way!

 

[grapeman]

Time
for just a bit of an update. The growing season is well under way in Northern NY and it has been a wet one. We have had twice the normal rainfall each month for June, July and now have exceeded the monthly average for August in the first week! Keeping disease at bay has been a challenge without excessive amounts of spray material. So far the grapes look pretty good- mostly clean, and with a large yield.


I noted veraison yesterday in four of the red varieties, with the Mn 1200 being the fartherst along, followed by Marquette(Mn 1211). I did manage to get a few pictures between rainstorms yesterday. I finished shoot thinning so the nets can be applied soon. I am not sure if the turkeys can fly over the deer fence, but if the flocks get in there, they could have a field day! One flock alone Tuesday had 5 hens in it with their broods of little chicken size turkeys-between 40 and 50.




Here is a view of the vineyard

Here is a Marquette vine- hard to see the grapes, but it loaded.

A sister seedling to Marquette- Mn 1200

Need to include a white grape here- NY 76.844.24 (unnamed variety from Cornell)

Edited by: appleman

 

[AlFulchino]

wow fantastic...i have a similar verasion experience going on w Marquette ( started last week) and saw some frontenac and others changing color this week as well..i am assuming all your vines are what 3 years? are you hedging these? the vines look very close to the trellis...and if you are is it increasing the laterals ....alos how often do you run thru your vineyard to prune?


my clusters vary in size because as this is my second year i removed a lot of shoots w nice clusters...so what remained were in some cases still great and in some cases smaller than normal size


Your vineyard looks very clean ..nice job..do you have any phomopsis at all? I do but am happy with everything else...ie PM/DM/rot etc


my biggest issue right now is some yellowing of leaves because my ground is saturated..got *another* inch yesterday and supposed to me showering again today

 

[NorthernWinos]

How nice to see them with some color....

 

[grapeman]

Al these are the vines at Willsboro. They are trained to umbrella kniffen, see previous pictures showing that.They aren't hedged, but they have been skirted to keep them off the ground. All vines are four years old now there(except a couple replacements). They have been shoot thinned and skirted for the last time since nets will soon be going on. It is hard to see from the pictures, but most clusters are exposed to at least points of light part of the day.


Yep we got the inch of rain also yesterday and it is threatening again right now with thunder getting fairly close........... I think I may need to shut down. and have an early lunch.

 

[AlFulchino]

thanks for the info....the reason i asked if they were hedged is because they seem to be less thick than most of mine..si i wondered if i am doing something wrong....all summer its all i have been able to do to keep light into the grapes..as an example i have had to prune 3-4 times this year to keep growth out of the tractor row and from making too much shade...cordons left to grow into the next vine can reach as much as 12 feet or so from their own trunk.......now as leaves fall off i get help naturally thru the excess rain i am getting more sunlight into the vine....i am hopeful for a dry week next week....

 

[grapeman]

Yes the vines in at least the one picture look thinner. It didn't come that way naturally with most vines. As they get heavier crops being a bit older, they get into abetter balance. More grapes = less vigorous shoot growth. Too many grapes gives a stunted vine, so it is a constant battle. I have shoot thinned and skirted three times this year. That is also part of the reason for being a bit thinner. I want the vines going into the nets with most of the clusters getting a bit of light. As far as some vines reaching twelve feet- Is that all? I removed a few yesterday growing on top that went almost to the panel past the neighboring panel. Some were close to 20 feet long. I don't keep those- too bullish.

 

[AlFulchino]

thanks for the feedback


as far as the twelve feet....well i am running six cordons that wll be reduced to 4 later on....also i did let some clusters hang...i really appreciate the info that the vine will get in better balance once i increase cluster amountsEdited by: Al Fulchino

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

As usual, wonderful photos Rich.
Is it just my eyes, or are those vines actually showing NO Japanese Beetle damage?!?! What is the spray program again?

 

[grapeman]

There are a few Japanese Beetles again Bill. I will likely spray tomorrow so I can have the adequate time to covering for the volunteers- assuming I can get a few hours with no rain. Another inch and a half today at home- almost 6 inches in the first 8 days of August. It will include Sevin. I have only appled Sevin 3 times all season- once for Grape Flea Beetles, once for rose chafers and once for Japanese Beetles. The research farm as a whole grows a lot of organics, so I observe IPM very strictly. How are things in Maine?

 

[NorthernWinos]

I better get trimming to get more sunshine into some of those vines.....

Anxious to see some color start out there on those clusters.....Other than white mold and Baking Soda spray.

I never keep track of when things ripen....Seems just take care of fruits and veggies when they are ready each year.....

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Well, things in Maine are like things in upstate NY and in NH, safe to say. We had about all the same episodes of rain that you did. Yesterday morning we woke to five and a half inches in the rain gauge after two days of rain, along with local stream flooding and road washouts from a relentless all-night downpour. The vineyard is lush, but the clusters are progressing very slowly with no heat and little sun for weeks. There is not sign of veraison on anything here, even my older table grapes high up on an arbor.

Five years ago a winemaker who had a small vineyard here in southern Maine told me that it would be foolish to put in a vineyard, that you just can't make winemaking work here. He had had several years of frustrating, non-productive experience, although he had been growing Cab Franc and several other varieties typically grown in slightly warmer regions. I really wanted to prove him wrong, and until last summer I thought I was succeeding, but this summer went the wrong way for me early on and I'll be surprised to see much of a harvest this year. I'll try to keep you all posted.
Bill