Vine updates

In early May I posted the status of our spring growth for data collected in April.  Looking at last years data we are maybe a few days earlier for most varieties, but very much on track. A walkthrough on May 3 showed the following progress.

Whites:

Osceolo Muscat, Ortega, L'Acadia Blanc, Siegerrebbe: All had achieved 100%  bud burst 

Petit Milo, Chardonnay, Auxerrois, Madelaine Sylvaner; Madelain Angevine, 48-05-49: These were ranging from advanced bud swell to bud burst.

Epicure: still in the bud swell to advanced bud swell range.

Labelle

Reds:

Pinot Noir, Cab Libra, Zweigelt, Marquette and Baltica:  most vines in the advanced bud swell to bud burst stage.  although it should be noted that the Zweigelt is far ore advanced in the south end of the row compared to the north end.

Leon Millot and Regent: mainly in the advanced bud swell stage, with a few <10% at bud burst.

Baco Noir and Labelle: achieved bud burst stage

48-05-83: predominately still at the bud stage.


I was away working for most of the early part of May, so I missed the next stage.  When I did check the vines again (around May 10) all varieties were showing sign of bud burst.  For some varieties this is about 6 days earlier that 2014.  Looking like a great year!

Spring 2015

Welcome to another growing season!.  We had a great start to 2015 and were able to get out and prune in February - quite early this year.  Aside from snow damage to the irrigation system all the vines looked very well with little winter damage.

I am a little late in this posting, but I did gather some data on April 18 regarding pruning and budding.

Reds:

Marquette and Baltica: some of the more aggressive vines were cane pruned and others were 2-budded as the canes were quite delicate looking.  As of April 18, about 80% had early bud swell.

Early bud swell in Leon Millot

Leon Millot, Zweigelt and Baco Noir: Leon Millot we decided to top trellis and allow the fruit to hang down.  we inserted 6 foot bamboo rods and pruned to the top trellis wire.  The Baco Noir and Zweigelt were cane pruned.  These were about 70% early bud swell on April 18.

Cab Libra: After a poor 2014 start, Cab Libra bounced back a bit and most vines were sturdy enough to cane prune.  As of April 18, about 50% were at early bud swell.

Early bud swell on Osceolo Muscat

LaBelle, 48-05-83, Pinot Noir, Regent: Labelle is set to be spur pruned with the rest in this group cane pruned.  we had started to train the LaBell last year so we decided to continue in this manor.  This vines were all slow to start for 2015, with <20% at early bud swell as of April 18.

Whites:

Osceolo Muscat, Madeleine Angevine, Madeleine Sylvaner: Osceolo Muscat was top trellised much like Leon Millot, while both Mad Angie and Mad Sylvaner were cane pruned.  As of April 18, early bud swell was present on 70 to 80%.

Petit Milo, Chardonnay, Ortega, Siegerrebbe: Where possible most of these were cane pruned; however a few were delicate and were pruned all the way back to 2-buds.  As of April 18, 40-50% of these were at early bud swell.

L'Acadia Blanc, Auxerrois, Epicure, 48-05-49: Where possible most of these were cane pruned; however a few were delicate and were pruned all the way back to 2-buds.  As of April 18, 20-25% of these were at early bud swell.

Research Plot Weather Data

As promised in my last post, below is the results of the 2014 weather station data collected at the research plot site.  This station collects not only the temperature but also: leaf wetness, solar radiation, wind speed (and gusts) and relative humidity.  I showed the 2013 data as well for comparison.  The temperature data was included in the previous blog and not shown here.

2013 Data

Location: 107 Burton Main Road	Min	Max	Average
Relative Humidity (%)	17.1	100	77.4
Solar Radiation (Watts/m2)	0.6	1147	157
Wind Speed (m/s)	0.0	4.03	1.2
Wind Gust (m/s)	0.0	14.9	4.5
Leaf Wetness (%)	0.0	100	31

2014 Data

Location: 107 Burton Main Road	Min	Max	Average
Relative Humidity (%)	20.3	100	83
Solar Radiation (Watts/m2)	23	1171	514
Wind Speed (m/s)	0.0	2.27	0.9
Wind Gusts (m/s)	0.0	12.09	4.0
Leaf Wetness (%)	0.0	100	35

So overall the numbers are pretty similar to 2013, which I think is expected in these variables.  we appear to be slightly moister in 2014, which coupled with lower average wind may have contributed to the mildew issues we experienced this year.



There will likely not be a new post until the New Year so everybody have a safe and happy holiday season - but still make sure you drink some wine!

Climate Results 2014

So another growing season has come and gone and for the first time we have managed to go out and collect all our data before snow! 

This year we decided to replace all the batteries in the units as well. The batteries have a 5 year life span, but after 4 years we decided it we better to replace them then now, then worry that they would not last the year. 

Growing Degree Days (GDD) is a measure of heat accumulation used to predict plant development rates such as the date that a crop will reach maturity. GDD is calculated by taking the average of the daily maximum and minimum temperatures minus a base temperature, (in our case 10 °C).  The yearly GDD is cumulative throughout the growing season (April 1 to October 31).

Growing Degree Days (GDD)

Region	2012	2013	2014
Nakusp	935	1074	1033
Arrow Park	933	1059	997
Burton	1029	1139	1077
Needles/Fauquier	1058	1144	1060

We expected that our 2014 was a warmer year, but in looking at the data, our GDD was slightly less than 2013.  A comparison with Summerland: 2012 was 1333 GDD; 2013 was 1415 GDD and 2104 is 1389 GDD. 

Looking at our frost free days, we do see quite difference this year. In many locations, there had not been a fall frost occurrence up to the point of download (early November). For our purposes we used “slight” frost as our parameter, using 0°C for our last spring frost and -2°C for our first fall frost.  

Frost Free Days (FFD)

Region	2012	2013	2014
Nakusp	148	170	191
Arrow Park	134	165	175
Burton	160	175	177
Needles/Fauquier	123	162	171

I will post some data on our weather station in an upcoming blog.  As always, comments are welcome and appreciated,

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!

Insights to the Research Plot

This post will focus on some two interesting facts observed this week in the vineyard.

1) Site drainage
2) Powdery Mildew

Site Drainage
I have posted in the past how it seemed very odd that vines in the same row show very mixed growth patterns as well some varieties in general that seem to lag way behind - like Baltica which budded early than any other variety.  Well there might be a very plausible reason.  The weather has been very hot and dry since early July and while the vines look very healthy above ground there may be a water issue below ground.

Dried ground indicating lack of water in certain areas
corresponding with slower vine growth

I mowed the vineyard earlier on in the week and noticed that in some areas the weeds/grass was quite thick and green, but in other areas (on the same row) it was very sparse and even dry brown.  On further inspection, where many of the dry brown areas occurred in the vineyard, it corresponded quite closely with the poor vine growth - a narrow band down the middle starting at the top (whites) and getting more widespread near the bottom (reds).

Dried areas through the row between rows 19-20.  Vines here
show less vigor then in other areas.

It appears that within the vineyard itself our soil profile is quite a bit more diversified then initially thought.

Our initial tests showed and good layer of sandy loam in the 4 test pits we dug with a more coarse sand layer occurring around the 65 to 70cm mark in all locations. It seems with the middle of the plot there may be a much shallower sand layer and these areas  could be suffering from lack of water, stunting the vine growth.  At the bottom area, around the lower 4 or 5 rows, it is essentially the whole row that is showing dried brown grass, indicating a lack of water.

This will need some more observation as the vines themselves do not look too stressed from lack of water so it is too soon to say this is the only reason for some slow growth, but it definitely could be a contributing factor.



Powdery Mildew

Powdery mildew (PM), also known as oidium, is caused by the fungus Uncinula necator. This fungus has a narrow host range attacking mainly grape plants and a few related species.  I will not go into all the details of what PM is and the damage it can cause as Google can do it better then I can, but for vineyards it is a very common occurrence particularly in wetter climates like ours.  Kumulus spray (organic sulfur) is the spray of choice and we have been able to spray our vineyard 4 times this years - not enough it seems as we have some vines that are affected. We currently use a backpack sprayer, which is fairly inefficient and does not have the pressure to penetrate all the foliage that well.

I think our infection is early and not many leaves were identified with PM, mainly there was evidence of discoloration and splotches on the canes.  

Early signs of powdery mildew on Ortega canes

We tried to select as many varieties as we could that were more resistant to PM but our weather has been ideal for PM so it hard to combat.  This is less of a concern for us this year as we are not allowing our vines to fruit, but in coming years, controlling PM is essentially as it will rot the fruit rendering it unsuitable to wine.






Affected varieties included some that are reported to be less susceptible to PM like Auxerrois and the Blatnners so very few were missed.

Whites: Siegerebbe, Ortega, Auxerrois, Mad Angie and Mad Sylvaner, Petit Milo, Epicure, 48-05-49

Reds: LaBelle, Zweigelt, Baltica

Another spray in 7 to 10 days should aid in control and prevent PM from spreading to unaffected vines.  Our hope is to secure a more efficient means of spraying for next year, so our sprays will be easier and more efficient and prevent further outbreaks.

As always, I welcome any comments of questions,