Some hot weather and more rain & vinifera survival rates

This past weekend brought more rain and some hot weather to the vineyard. Saturday night June 27, we got a pretty big storm which added 2.5 inches in one shot. Added to the about 4 inches earlier in the month means plenty of moisture in May. Saturday, Sunday and Monday also had highs in the upper 80s and low 90s. Things are really sprouting now.

While the saint pepin did not get hit too hard by the frost in early May, it did get nailed by the grape flea beetle pretty hard. Things will be okay, but a lot of mishapened early leaves. I may try to spray with sevin next spring in mid to late April, and early May to limit the damage next year.

Nearly all of the freshly planted LaCrescent have already got leaves, maybe 2 or 3 of the 48 don't have leaves yet. In the past, some plantings didn't get leaves until late June, so I may still have 100% survival yet. I sprayed Round up between the vines to suppress weeds until I can get stone down. I still haven't planted the extra vines sent. I may plant them on a gravelly hill side in the back 40. I noticed that they are sprouting pretty intensely now.

I haven't done my first fungicide spraying yet. I plan to do it the weekend of June 10. Probably a little late, but you do what you can. I plan on spraying the kaligreen this time, and fixed copper, and kaligreen the weekend of the 24th. I may spray some sevin also especially on the concord and LaCrescent vines which are more susceptible to the rose chafer damage. The rose chafer isn't due until about the June 15, but since everything is about 1 -2 weeks early, they may be there by the end of the first week in June.

I also scouted the vinifera vineyard.... I lost several vines to rodents. Of the 75 vines I have 44 left. Most of the vines lost were the chardonnay.

Here are the vine types with there row positions and survival from west to east
S F M F C
8 9 13 10 4

S=Cabernet Sauvignon
F=Cabernet Franc
M=Merlot
C=Chardonnay


Finally, I pruned off many of the suckers from the bases of the foch. Several vines in the lower south east corner, are going to have to be retrained from the bases. They were pruned back or sometimes the tops were lost either due to frost or freeze problems.

We did get bit by the frost on Sunday night and Monday night May 21-22. But mostly just the lower buds and lower shoots, especially in the lower south east corner, but not nearly as damaging as the May 6 freeze. (many of the dead shoots and buds from that freeze are still visible.)