Saturday, September 24, 2011

Grape Picking Today!

We are picking grapes today.

We survived a 3 week late bud break, a late frost, a very rainy June, record heat, black rot, and an early frost.

If good wine needs the grapes to suffer, this should be a good year.

On to the picking!

2 comments:

daddylonglegs said...

I'm near La Crosse, WI and am wondering how your Rose Chafer Beetles were this year? I've fought them for years and I finally ordered some traps this spring. I caught probably 1000+ in just 2 traps, but they were still all over my fruit trees. I also picked 20 or so Japanese Beetles in July, something I haven't seen many of yet in this area.

Jerrold said...

The Rose Chafers were here again, but showed up a couple of weeks late. They were less of an issue this year only because the vines are more mature, and can stand some defoliation. However they do like the grape blossoms, so they still impact crop load. Since my vines are more mature now, I didn't fight them as aggressively this year as I had in the past. I plan on trapping next year again. So far I have note seen Japanese beetles in the vineyard. I have seen them at our house in Madison. I am not looking forward to the day they show up in the vineyard.