Spring Budding Reds

A couple of days ago I posted about the white varieties and their spring progress, from buds to shoots.

This post will look at the reds.  Reds are for the most part a bit behind the whites, but as many of them are selected for a short growing season it may not make a difference.  Again we noticed that the north end seems further along then the southern end.  Will this be an ongoing concern or trend?  Only time will tell, but something for us to keep watch for.

April 24, 2014

Typical bud swell

Early Bud Swell: 48.05.83 

Bud Swell: Labelle, Zwiegelt, Regent, Pinot Noir Cl 115, Cab Libre

Advanced Bud Swell: Baltica, Marquette, Baco Noir, Leon Millet

May 1, 2014

Bud Swell: 48.05.83, Zwiegelt, Regent, Pinot Noir Cl 115, Cab Libre

Advanced Bud Swell: Labelle, Marquette, Baco Noir, Leon Millet

Bud Break: Baltica 

      

Baltica, May 1

May 11, 2014

Bud Swell:  Cab Libra (about 10% at advanced bud swell or bud burst), Baco Noir (about 15% at advanced bud well or bud burst)

Advanced Bud Swell: Pinot Noir Cl 115 (about 30% at bud burst), Regent (about 30% at bud burst), Labelle (about 40% at bud burst)

Marquette, May 16

Bud Burst: Baltica (100%), Marquette (80%), Zweigelt (75%) Leon Millet (50%), 48.05-83 (50%) 


May 16, 2014

Bud Swell:  Cab Libra (about 25% at advanced bud swell or bud burst)

Bud Burst: Baltica (100%), Leon Millet (100%) Marquette (95%), Zweigelt (95%),  Baco Noir (95%),  Pinot Noir Cl 115 (95%), Regent (80%), Labelle (80%), 48-05-83 (80%)


With the exception of Cab Libra, all the reds are moving along quite well.  The Cab Libra seems to be struggling with many of the shoots showing very little activity.  This variety may need some additional attention if nothing happens soon.

With rain in the forecast for the weekend, then some hot sun following, we should start to see some heavy growth n the next couple of weeks, which of course will mean shoot tying and suckering chores!  Volunteers?

Spring Budding, Whites

The exciting part of spring with our new vineyard is documenting the stages from bud to bud burst. This is very crucial information for our research as it can determine which varieties will perform well.  If they bud too early they could be susceptible to a late frost and potentially wipe out a whole growing season (or seriously stunt it).  If they bud to late, it could lead to fruit that does not fully ripen.  So what is too earl or too late for our region and our varieties?  I guess over the next few years our research and data collection will dictate what those parameter are.

If we look at just our White varieties in this blog we can break the data down by date and variety with at least a few vines showing these stages.


April 24, 2014

Typical bud swell

Early Bud Swell: Epicure, 48.05.49, Siegerrebe

Bud Swell: Chardonnay Cl 76, Auxerrois, Ortega,

Advanced Bud Swell: Madeleine Sylvaner, Madeleine Angevine, L’acadia Blanc, Osceola Muscat, Petit Milo






May 1, 2014

Bud Swell: Epicure, 48.05.49, Siegerrebe, 
Auxerrois,

Early bud burst on Chardonnay Cl 76

Advanced Bud Swell: Madeleine Sylvaner, Madeleine Angevine, L’acadia Blanc, Ortega,

Bud Break: Osceola Muscat, Petit Milo, Chardonnay Cl 76, 

Osceolo Muscat

May 11, 2014

Bud Swell:  Siegerrebe (about 10% at advanced bud swell or bud burst),

Advanced Bud Swell: 48.05.49 (about 30% at bud burst)

Bud Burst: L’acadia Blanc (90%), Ortega (90%), Auxerrois (90%), Osceola Muscat (80%), Epicure (80%), Madeleine Sylvaner (75%), Madeleine Angevine (75%), Petit Milo (65%), Chardonnay Cl 76 (50%)




So by May 11, 2014 every white variety had sustained some bud burst activity.  There are definitely some slow movers, but overall things are about where we would expect and we should be beyond the frost factor.  

One odd thing that seemed to be noticeable - most of the advanced stages were observed at the northern end of the plot.  It is unclear at the moment why this is and deserves some further attention.

Information on the Reds to follow.

Vine hardiness

Well it was a long winter, but finally towards the end of March we were able to get out, prune and assess any winter damage to the vines. In general the vines performed quite well over the winter with only a couple of losses. Using an arbitrary ranking system of 1 to 5, where 1 is the most "winter hardy" and sustained the least damage, a brief outline of our assessment is below.  For the most part the vines were pruned back to 2 buds which should provide better growth this year.

Reds:
48-05-83: low summer growth, sustained some winter damage and was pruned back to 2-buds.  Hardiness rank: 3

Labelle:  good summer growth, mainly pruned to 2 buds, but some canes were laid down for first cordon.  Hardiness rank: 2

Cab Libra: sustained winter damage to canes and was pruned back to 2-buds.  Hardiness rank: 4.5

Baco Noir: Very vigorous summer growth.  No real winter damage and some canes were laid down for first cordon.  Hardiness rank: 2

Zweigelt: Low summer growth. No real winter damage, pruned back to 2-buds.  Hardiness rank: 2

Leon Millet: good summer growth.  No real winter damage and some canes were laid down for first cordon.  Hardiness rank: 2.5

Pinot Noir (Cl. 115): Low summer growth. Some winter damage and pruned back to 2 buds.  Hardiness rank 2.5

Regent: Moderate summer growth, small amount of winter damage, mainly pruned back to 2 buds.  Hardiness rank: 2

Baltica: Very low summer growth.  No winter damage, pruned back to 2 buds.  Hardiness rank: 1

Marquette: Very low summer growth.  No winter damage, pruned back to 2 buds.  Hardiness rank: 1

Whites

Siegerrebbe: Good summer growth.  Some winter damage in middle cane area, pruned back to 2 buds.  Hardiness rank: 3

L'Acadia Blanc: Good summer growth.  Little or no winter damage, some canes laid down for first cordon.  Hardiness rank: 1

Ortega: Good summer growth.  Some winter damage in middle cane area, pruned back to 2 buds.  Hardiness rank: 3

Chardonnay (Cl 76): Good summer growth.  Winter damage on canes, some quite high up.  Pruned back to 2 buds.  Hardiness rank: 2

Oseolo Muscat: Good summer growth.  Very little winter damage.  Some canes laid down for first cordon.  Hardiness rank: 1

Auxerrois: Low summer growth. No real winter damage, but all vines pruned back to 2 buds.  Hardiness rank: 2

Mad Sylvaner: Good summer growth.  Some winter damage, all vines pruned to 2 buds.  Hardiness rank: 3

Mad Angevine: Good summer growth.  Some winter damage, all vines pruned to 2 buds.  Hardiness rank: 3

Petit Milo: Low summer growth. Some winter damage, all vines pruned to 2 buds. Hardiness rank: 2

Epicure: Good summer growth. Quite a bit of winter damage.  Hardiness rank: 4.5

48-05-49: Good summer growth. Quite a bit of winter damage.  Hardiness rank: 4.5

Two things we noted:

1) Winter damage seemed to be heavier in the low spots we have in the white rows.  The low spot provided a bit of a sink hole where the cool air accumulated and the evidence suggests it was enough to affect the vines in this area.

2) We also got hit with some powdery mildew so a heavy spray of lime sulfur was applied to kill any existing spores.

The next blog will outline some data on the stages of budding on each variety.