Champlain Valley - Grapemans' vineyard - Planting to small winery

[grapeman]

Spring is trying to win with warming temperatures slowly. Today was a late April Fool day - it got into the 60's today. Tonight and tomorrow we are expecting more snow! I'm sick of it already. It has been about 3 weeks since the last pictures and the snow is disappearing. The first picture here was taken at 10:00 this AM and the second one at about 3 after pruning those rows. Notice how the bare patches under the vines grew. The snow went from about 8 inches to about 3 in that amount of time.

 

[grapeman]

We finished pruning the vineyards today right about the same time as budbreak. What a great feeling to finally be done with that project. Five thousand vines later I can breathe a bit easier. Maybe now my knee will heal. I slipped a month and a half ago on the ice and tore one of the ligaments on the inside of my knee. The doc said it was alright, but it still hasn't healed enough for the pain to lessen. The vineyards are about a week earlier than last year.

 

[ibglowin]

Looking good Rich! Glad you were able to getR done!

 

[mgmarty]

What a difference just a few weeks make!

 

[grapeman]

Things have been growing right along in the vineyard. To give you an idea I am posting a couple pictures to show how quickly things move along in a vineyard. First off is a picture from March 10 and then another shot from the same area a bit over a week ago in mid-May.

 

[ibglowin]

Looking good there Rich! What vines are we looking at their? Almost looks like you have 2 fruiting zones (an upper and a lower) on each vine in the pic!

 

[GreginND]

Wow - I'm jealous. I am just seeing bud break on most of my vines right now. Many still don't have any shoots coming out.

Looks like a Scott Henry trellis? Or are you transitioning your vines?

 

[grapeman]

Those vines are 9 year old Frontenac. We originally had them all VSP but we used them for trialing VSP versus 4 Arm Kniffen. The 4AK was such a clear winner with Frontenac that I converted them all to it. Yes there is 2 fruiting zones. The sugar levels get higher overall, the acids lower and half again as much yield compared to VSP. We average 25 pounds per vine with them compared to about 15 pounds for the VSP.
What you see is about 2 weeks growth on them, maybe just a bit more.

 

[GreginND]

Curious about your 4AK - do you grow the lower shoots upwards or down? I presume the top shoots grow down. Do you need to do more leaf pulling to avoid shading and do you need to top your canes to avoid problems?

THanks.

Greg

 

[grapeman]

Both the top and bottom trail down. I crop them heavily so the shoots only grow 3-4 feet so they don't shade badly. We will pull some leaves but not a lot.

 

[grapeman]

Early bloom has begun for the year. This one is Frontenac. An early spray for Black Rot, phomopsis and downy mildew is critical at this stage. It was applied 4 days ago to avoid direct spray during bloom. This was strictly fungicides so as not to endanger any stray bees flying in for the tiny pollen. Bees aren't necessary for grape pollination, but I still don't want to endager any bees or hives with insecticides. Also a few pictures of the home vineyard. Look under my other post of the vineyard from the beginning for updates there.

 

[ibglowin]

Everybody is looking happy and healthy!

 

[mgmarty]

Looks real good!

 

[grapeman]

Had another busy day today and I actually spent most of it in the vineyards, not just the winery or being at the markets. I began today with the last planned cover spray for the season at the home vineyard. After showering I went to my oncologist for a two month followup after my last maintenance chemo for the lymphoma. It was two hours to see him, but that was a bit of time to rest so I didn't mind. Everything looks good at this point!

After making a few phone calls and a bit of groveling for some help, I went to the new vineyard of almost four acres and put on 2 miles of bird netting or another way of looking at that is 170,000 square feet of net (17 feet by over 10,000 feet)! That covers the reds in that vineyard and the early LaCrescent. My brother hjad tested me Saturday saying there was about a thousand birds in the grapes. I went down that evening and put out an owl to try and keep a few out until I could begin netting today.

The grapes are really ripening quickly so far this year and before you know it harvest will begin for yet another year!

 

[chrisvt]

Glad to read that things are looking good on the health front!

2 miles!? We did 1,000 feet of bird netting on Saturday and I was glad we didn't have to do more.

 

[farmer]

What are you using for your cover spray ? I sprayed three weeks ago with Captain &Rally and was wondering if I needed to spray again?
Good to hear things are going well !

 

[grapeman]

To give a bit of botrytis protection, I add Inspire to the mix along with Captan (fungicide) and Carbaryl (for grape berry moth).

 

[GreginND]

Is Captan recommended for controlling black rot? It showed up in July in my vineyard this year and I know I have to be aggressive about controlling it next year.

 

[grapeman]

It is listed for it, but is less effective than mancozeb products such as Manzate. I use Manzate until about two months before anticipated harvest since it has a 66 day PHI (pre-harvest interval).

 

[grapeman]

After a very good growing season we had a period of very warm to hot temps during mid to late September with daily temps in the upper 80's to mid 90's for several weeks. This brought the grapes into ripeness too quickly for my meager picking crew to handle in a timely manner. As a result we lost at least a third of the crop and probably closer to one half of it. The grapes just got too ripe too quickly. Many of the ones lost were ones in the new Bordeau vineyard because it is fully open and ripens earlier and quicker. While it makes me sick to see all the bad grapes all I need to do to feel better is look inside the overflowing winery building to be reminded that it was a great harvest anyways. I will need to expand the winery soon to accomodate future rises in harvest yields. Here are a couple pictures of some Leon Millot left behind. We had to take the nets off because the leaves are dropping now. I have a few tons of St Pepin still hanging that we may be able to try an ice wine on soon.