Maine vineyard

[bilbo-in-maine]

just waiting........sigh

another foot of snow tomorrow

 

[grapeman]

Dang, that's nasty. We are only looking at 2-5 again. There was about 8-10 inches in Lake George when I was there a couple days ago. It was sloppy heavy and wet. I got home and we had only gotten an inch and it was mostly gone. Come on Spring!

 

[NorthernWinos]

Waiting here too....ho-hum!!!

Our snow pack did decrease a couple weeks ago when we had rain, now it remains a solid frozen ice pack. Seems like it just can't warm up enough to take away the ice.

Jim brought the fish spear house home today...with one day left in the season. They had moved once..over to the 'dead sea'. We went to Cabela's and bought an underwater camera on Thursday...they moved again yesterday to a spot that looked good on camera....no fish to speak of...Moved home today and hung up the spears.

Now we have a really neat camera, perhaps for in the spare bedroom....

 

[OilnH2O]

I'm between feeling guilty (because the yard is 90% grass, with only little snow left) and worried (because it's 45* and sunny, yet I know there's more cold to come!). But I think I'll try to assuage my guilt by counting my blessings!

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Way to hang tough Dave...

 

[grapeman]

I am holding out hope with this one here Bill. We are right on the very edge of the 2-5 inches and over a foot prediction. I'm hoping for 2 inches!

Hope you miss out also, but it doesn't look good!

 

[NorthernWinos]

No fresh snow here....
We have plenty of old snow that just doesn't want to leave...

NO END IN SIGHT.

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Just had the worst storm of the season, very heavy and wet, and deep. There are a lot of branches down, over 100,000 homes without power right now. My snow storage areas have gotten so high that my old snow blower can't push the wet stuff high enough. Piles are over my head height. Everything is plastered with new sticky snow this morning, absolutely everything, because it was a windy storm also. I need a major melt...

NW, your old snow won't leave while our new stuff keeps coming. You are right - no end in sight. Gotta keep the faith.

 

[grapeman]

Hang in there Bilbo. Only two more months of this stuff! Sounds like you got the brunt of the storm. You must still have poere because you are online.


We indeed were on the edge of the system and YEAH- were lucky enough to only get 2 inches total!

 

[NorthernWinos]

Bilbo, sounds like a nasty one.....Hope you stay with power and are able to get out if need be.

 

[Waldo]

Bilbo, sounds like a nasty one.....Hope you stay with power and are able to get out if need be.

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

I wonder if anyone else has seen this occur with their vines, under the category of varmint damage (same damage done to some of my wife's perennials and first year fruit trees next to the vineyard.) As the snow settled down to only a few inches left on the ground, trunk damage from chewing became apparent. It may be mice, voles or shrews. The areas are usually about eight to twelve inches above the ground and large areas of bark are gone down to wood. Several vines are girdled, and because yesterday was so dang nice here, the sap was flowing from the ragged bottom edges of the damaged areas. I doubt the damaged vines will thrive so I will have to train some new ground growth to replace maybe eight-ten trunks. If its not one thing its another in this game! I should have put on the wire trunk cages I used for newly planted vines several years ago, but I just didn't anticipate hungry chewers tunneling through the snow. Boy, the snow mold was bad this year too. We have a lot of grass killed.
I did the main job of pruning in early March, standing on at least two feet of crusty snow and breaking through from time to time. I left spurs long so I will have to go back through at bud swell to see what else should be nipped. With only 48 vines, it isn't that big a job and I'll be standing on soil again. Anyhow, with yesterday's warmth, all the pruning cuts were oozing. From now on I'll nervously be looking for a repeat of last year's pink fungus at the cuts. Hope no one else had critter damage out there.

 

[grapeman]

It does sound like mice damage.They can be nasty with their damage.So far I have been lucky with the vines. About 15 years ago I lost 500 apple trees to mice damage in my tree nursery. When they are worse it seems is after a bit of a thaw or ice storm and there is a layer of ice for them to travel on. When it gets covered with a couple inches of snow it is even better because then they have cover to travel under. Get a couple feral cats in the vineyard and it will keep their numbers in check.


Hope the pink goo stays away for everyone. Good luck with everything.

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Alright, no pink goo this year!

On the other hand, it looks like the -22 degree night in February took its toll on the Landot Noir. None of the new trunks I trained from the ground last summer made it. New growth is pushing again from ground level, but I am seriously considering replacing with more Marquette or St. Croix. Each of these varieties is going great guns now. The St. Pepin should be too, but I have a number of barren nodes on established cordons, maybe 50 percent. They are going into their fourth summer, so they certainly aren't old. I'd like to know why they have shut down to this extent.

Having only applied composted manure and never any commercial fertilizer to any of my vines, I have to wonder if some N would be helpful to the three year olds. Last year's soil test indicated I was ok, but maybe the hybrids want something more. My plan this year is to amend with ammonium sulfate at berry set. Soil pH is a little high, so this fertilizer may help drop it back toward 6.5. Anyone feel free to chime in here.

I got in the first Stylet Oil spray of the season on Sunday, a little late but better than never. I have some new Marquette shoots approaching a foot already, and most everything else is at least 2 inches. Last year's young vines are pushing good growth, including flowers, something I always hate to clip off but manage to do anyway. Must get the growth established....

 

[grapeman]

One thing that may be affecting the St. Pepin is your soil. Mine are on SANDY soil and go gangbusters. They do so well here for me, I have about 500 in the ground now. There are very few barren nodes and most have two clusters on all the shoots. At Willsboro it is a heavier loamy soil and the St. Pepin do well with a bit bigger clusters but last year yielded about 12-15 pounds per vine where mine averaged 25 pounds or more in their third year. There are more barren nodes at Willsboro even though it was warmer there.


If you want to lower the pH of the soil, there isn't anything much better than a commercial blend! I think the hype there was in the past about them being man made are overblown. They are made from byproducts of various processes, but are chemically the same as many naturally occuring substances.

 

[smikes]

Last year my wife and I stayed at Pemaquid point.We had hoped to find some wineries but were told that the few within driving distance would have only fruit wines as grapes don't do so well in that area.

This was before my first attempts at fruit wines were drinkable. Now I wished I tried some fruit wines to compare mine to!




Best of luck on your vineyard! I will be looking for it on the map if we get up that way again!

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

The Japanese Beetles were bad but not awful like a year ago. Fungal diseases were almost non-existent this summer, in spite of the rain in June-July. Vine growth was vigorous because of the rain, although berry development was set back at least 3 weeks on vines that managed to keep flowers through the two wet months. Of my six varieties, three produced crops worthy of anticipating harvesting. The best of the three has been Marquette, of which I have eight vines. It has been showing good Brix numbers and I thought I would give it another week of good weather to finish up.
This morning I was out early to look things over and found almost all Marquette clusters stripped clean. I put up bird netting and wasp traps two weeks ago but hadn't anticipated RACCOONS! They were very efficient. Now the Have-a-Heart trap is set and I'm thinking about electric fence next year. It is an expense we've put off for several years, even though we get nailed by groundhogs in the vegetable garden every year, but this is stimulus enough to make the decision. Kill two birds with one stone - keep groundhogs and raccoons away. Oddly enough, I've never had a deer problem! Hope that doesn't change too.
So, does anyone have a favorite method of deterring raccoons?

 

[guitarfreeks14]

I used to live in New Hampshire years ago, so I know the risk of trying to plant anything let alone vineyards that early in the spring! Good luck!

 

[grapeman]

How about a scattergun? You sure have had problems this year again! Are you at least going to double last year's production and maybe fill a 187 ml carboy????

 

[farmer]

I put up an electic fence every year to keep the coon out of the sweet corn. The last couple years i have been using a single wire about six inches off the ground, it keeps them out.
I have been watching my vines for signs of coon, they have not bothered them. Cross my fingers I get to them before the raccoons