Year End Report - Whites

Powdery Mildew growth 

As mentioned in an earlier post here is the year end report on the white varieties, again building on the mid-term report.

48-05-49, Osceola Muscat: These varieties grew quite well; however it suffered from quite heavy weed infestation. The weeds likely contributed to the mildew issue as this one was hit really hard mildew issues. we will likely prune it back to the fruit wire and cane prune.

Epicure, Petit Milo, Mad Angeline: These varieties were also neglected in the weed area, but managed to be more resistant to mildew issues - but not fully immune.  They definitely had some, but closer to the low side than the heavy side.  Less aggressive in growth than 48-05-49, but still had very nice growth and fairly consistent in the rows.

Leaf damage from powdery mildew

Mad Slyvaner, Auxerrois: Both these were hit very hard with PM and it really slowed down their growth as well, with neither variety growing to aggressive. Auxerrois is listed as being resistant to PM, but it definitely is not.  These may be pruned right back to 2-buds and start again

Chardonnay, Ortega, L'Acadia Blanc, Siegerrebe: Siegerrebe may have been the hardest hit with PM of all vines in the plot, but it still seemed to grow consistent with the others in this group.  It will be a spring decision  on how to prune these with some back to 2 buds and some to the spur pruned method.

All in all the growth of our 2 year old vines is what we expected with only a few that under performed.  With better attention to a spray program and weed control we expect that next year will be a great measuring stick for growth in our region.

Year End Report - Reds

So another year has gone by in our research vineyard.  If we pick things up from our mid season report in July we can see that the hot and dry weather had both positive and negative effects.  From an earlier post you can see some concerns about irrigation and possible having a shallow sand bed in some areas, suggesting our water is leaving the vineyard rather quicker than we thought.  A bit more attention to irrigation will be required next year.  The big issue this summer was running out of volunteers to maintain our spraying program.  We missed a few sprays in critical times and powdery mildew really took off.   Plans are already in the works for a better system next year as it will be very critical if we are to get fruit.  Here is year end update on the Reds.

Marquette vines that never grew in 2014

Baltica/Marquette: neither of these varieties ever really took hold, with most vines stunted and never really reaching the fruiting wire.  This can be attributed  a little bit to lack of moisture as noted in an earlier post, so with that in mind we will prune back and start fresh again in 2015.  This vines were quite resistant to powdery mildew as well.

Nice growth in Zweigelt and Leon Millet

Regent/Zweigelt/Pinot Noir Cl 115/Leon Millet: Regent lagged a bit behind the other in this group, but all grew rather nicely and even production throughout the rows.  Pinot Noir was hit with powdery mildew and Zweigelt sustained a bit as well, but the rest of this group were pretty hardy and resistant. A number of these will be pruned to the fruiting wire in a cane pruning method

Baco Noir/Labelle/Cab Libra/48-05-83:  Cab Libra had a very good bounce back from the first portion of the year, but still struggled a bit at the north end of the row.  Labelle finished the year with the most vigorous growth of all reds.  Unfortunately all these varieties had very heavy powdery mildew issues - even the Blattner types which should be more resistant.  Cab Libra will be pruned back, but the other varieties will be pruned a combination of cane and spur (cordon).

A final report on the whites will follow soon!