Cooler April Ends

It looks like the warm March was fortunately followed by a moderately cool April.   Just cool enough to slow the buds,  but warm enough to escape significant cold damage.   In fact, this past Thursday we tied our lowest temperature (25.9F) since the beginning of March.    It will be a week or two before the full extent of the damage is known.   It looks like Foch was the most damaged.   It buds early, and is planted in the lowest part of the vineyard.  Marquette and lacrescent may have also had slight damage because they also are early budding cultivars. The most significant damage on those three cultivars may actually be due to grape flea beetles.   Again,  it will be a week or two before the full extent of the beetle damage can be seen.
 We should see a significant warm up in the next week.   I would expect Marquette to break bud by the end of this week.   Foch and lacrescent should be breaking early the following week.