Research Plot Weather Station Data

As promised in my last post, below is the results of the 2015 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 2014 data as well for comparison.  The temperature data was included in the previous blog and not shown here.

2015 Data

Location: 107 Burton Main Road	Min	Max	Average
Relative Humidity (%)	16.9	100	82
Solar Radiation (Watts/m2)	0.6	1119	284
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	54

As a comparison, 2014 data is below

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 what do we take from this?  We had a pretty hot and dry year and our Leaf Wetness (dew point essentially) increased because of this.  Why? Our RH is about the same as 2014, so that means the dew point is pretty close the actual temperature (at 100% RH the dew point and temperature are the same and looking at individual data points we had many many days at 100% RH).  In a nutshell, even in hot dry weather our vines are getting wet - leading to all the wonderful mildew problems.
The real take-away is how important it is too keep our vines tied up, our canopy nicely pruned and the excess leaves pulled to allow the breeze to aid in keeping things dry.  As we learnt last year, even a diligent spray program fails if the vine management is not kept up.

Solar Radiation?  I would have expected it to increase.  I thought I was starting to understand just a little bit about what solar radiation is, but not really sure why our overall average would be less, when our season was really quite warm on a day to day basis. Any smart climate folks out there able to explain??  I blame the darn wasps!

Looking forward to a new growing season.  Pruning work bee coming up Sunday March 6 at 9AM.  Stay tuned!

Climate Data 2015

We have been slowly visiting all the dataloggers and downloading for the 2015 season.  This year we seemed to run into a few problems with our HOBO units.  We had multiple failures in each region.  Some were attributed to animal damage, some just seemed to stop working and other were logging, but the data is corrupt.  I suspect we have neared the end of life for our units.  Out of the 38 we have, 12 experienced some type of problem. Hopefully a reboot of the units will correct the problem for next year.

I will post the data from our climate station located in the test plot in an upcoming post.

Looking at our frost free days, we do see an increase again this year. In many locations, there had not been a fall frost occurrence until well into 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	2013	2014	2015
Nakusp	170	191	192
Arrow Park	165	175	192
Burton	175	177	187
Needles/Fauquier	162	171	182

We expected that our 2015 was a warmer year, and for the most part it was.  We had more FFD and most areas showed an increase in GDD. 

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	2013	2014	2015
Nakusp	1074	1033	1011
Arrow Park	1059	997	1057
Burton	1139	1077	1116
Needles/Fauquier	1144	1060	1099

Things are Ripening!

As of September 7 most of the hanging fruit is looking nice.  Our netting has arrived, but with work load and schedules it was not put up, so the birds, bees and wasps are enjoying the fruit immensely.

A quick walk through with the refractometer provided the following sugar content numbers.  Brix were measured by testing 3 to 4 grapes at various locations on the row. This year it is unlikely we will pick any fruit for wine making, but it does give some idea of what may ripen early and late.

WHITES

Siegerrebbe at 17 Brix

Siegerrebbe: 17 brix

L'Acadia Blanc: 15 brix

Ortega: 14 brix

Chardonnay: 16 brix

Osceolo Muscat: 21 brix (a little less at the north end, 19 brix)

Auxerrois: No fruit

Madeliene Sylvanor: 20 brix

Madeliene Angevine: 19 brix

Epicure: 19 brix

Petit Milo: 21 brix

48-05-49: 19 brix

RED

48-05-83: 19 brix

Wasps enjoying Leon Millot at 20 Brix

Labelle: 18 brix

Cab Libra: 18 brix

Baco Noir: 20 brix

Zweigelt: 20 brix

Leon Millot: 20 brix

Pinot Nori: 17 brix

Regent: 14 brix

Baltica - no fruit

Marquette: 23 brix

Mid Season Report - Whites

As August rolls in it is time to provide an update on where the white vines are.  To date our summer has been very hot and dry and everything appears to be further along then last year.  We have increased our irrigation over last year based on less water retention in the lower (west side) of the vineyard (see blog dated August 11, 2014). It seems to have made a difference in some of the rows, but in others a portion of the vines still struggle.

Our spraying program is much better this year.  We have been using Serenade Max and Kumulus DF with better success than last year; however some vines are still showing signs of powdery mildew, particularly Ortega.

Overall everything planted on the southern end perform much better.   All observations below based on data collected August 3, 2015, unless noted.

Blattner

Petit Milo

Petit Milo: small-med berries in fairly tight bunches.  No signs of powdery mildew (PM) or other issues. Very nice growth on south portion.

Epicure: Small berries in loose bunches.   The vines look good, no signs of PM and not overly vigorous.

48-05-49: Medium size berries in loose bunches. low vigor, but consistent growth in row.

Remaining Varieties

Siegerrebbe: Medium berries in semi-tight bunches.  Low vigor. No PM visible and vines look healthy. UPDATE: as of August 9, veraison was present on some vines.

Powdery Mildew on Ortega grapes

L'Acadia Blanc: small berries in loose bunches. .  Overall vines look healthy but low vigor. No PM visible. UPDATE: as of August 9, veraison was present on some vines.

Ortega: Medium berries and semi-tight bunches.  Noticed PM on some stocks and fruit so cut off ~2 gallons of fruit. UPDATE: as of August 9, more PM present so all fruit is getting cut off.

Chardonnay: Medium berries in tight bunches.  PM visible on some vines and fruit. UPDATE: as of August 9, about 15% vines shows signs of PM.

Osceolo Muscat: Small-medium berries in loose bunches. shows signs of berries drying out.  Lots of vigor no PM signs.

Auxerrois: Medium berries in loose bunches. This variety struggled last year so we did not allow much fruit to hang. No PM visible and vines look healthy, although quite a few are still struggling, more so at the northern end.

Siegerrebbe

Madeliene Sylvanor: Medium berries in loose bunches.  Significantly better at southern end. No PM visible and vines look healthy. UPDATE: as of August 9, about 15% vines shows slight signs of PM.

Madeliene Angevine: Medium berries in loose bunches, not a lot of fruit present.  Significantly better at southern end. No PM visible with low vigor.

.

Mid Season Report - Reds

As August rolls in it is time to provide an update on where the vines are.  To date our summer has been very hot and dry and everything appears to be further along then last year.  We have increased our irrigation over last year based on less water retention in the lower (west side) of the vineyard (see blog dated August 11, 2014). It seems to have made a difference in some of the rows, but in others a portion of the vines still struggle.  Overall everything planted on the southern end perform much better.   All observations below based on data collected August 3, 2015. UPDATE: as of August 9, all reds showed some sign of veraison.

Blattner

48-05-83: small-med berries in fairly loose bunches.  No signs of powdery mildew (PM) or other issues. Not overly vigorous.

Cab Libra, very loose bunch

Labelle: Small berries in loose bunches.  about 30% of the fruit is showing veraison.  The vines look good, no signs of PM and not overly vigorous.

Cab Libra: Medium size berries in loose bunches.  we did not allow much fruit to set this year as this vines has struggled.  A decent bounce back, and while vines look healthy they do not seem to bet performing to expectations.  What fruit is hanging has achieved veraison.

Remaining Varieties

Baco Noir: small-medium berries in loose bunches.  This variety has struggled so we did not allow much fruit to hang.  It still struggles a bit with low vigor. No PM visible and vines look healthy.

Zweigelt

Zweigelt: medium sized berries in tight(ish) bunches.  About 20% have achieved veraison.  Overall vines look healthy but low vigor. No PM visible, but many leaves have turned bright red.

Leon Millot: Small berries and semi-tight bunches.  About 20% have achieved veraison.  As mentioned in an earlier post, this is quite vigorous and we high trellised it.

Leon Millot

Pinot Noir: Small berries in tight bunches.  This variety has struggled so we did not allow much fruit to hang.  No PM visible and vines look healthy.

Regent: Small-medium berries in loose bunches. This variety has struggled so we did not allow much fruit to hang. No PM visible and vines look healthy.

Baltica: Small berries in loose bunches. This variety struggled last year so we did not allow much fruit to hang. No PM visible and vines look healthy, although quite a few are still struggling, more so at the northern end.  What fruit is present has achieved some veraison.

Marquette: Small-medium berries in tight bunches.  This variety struggled last year so we did not allow much fruit to hang. No PM visible and vines look healthy, although quite a few are still struggling, more so at the northern end.  What fruit is present has achieved some veraison.

Summer Musings in the Vineyard

Petit Milo

So between a busy summer with work and vacationing, I am a bit late in posting.  From my last post a lot has happened.  Fruit set is well on the way with some very nice looking bunches on many of the varieties that we let fruit.

Unfortunately with all the other life things going on, I was away during most of the bloom and fruit set dates, but somewhere around mid June is when it all started.  Will have to remember for next year so we can record this vital information.  For now we are waiting to see when varaison starts.

Vinegar, soap and epson salt herbicide

Our organic herbicide project is well underway.  In last post we started it without any weeding, and while it did work somewhat, it was far more effective when the rows had been weeded.  Which was better?  Well they both seemed to work about the same.  The Vinegar solution worked and showed results quicker.  The Avenger took a little bit longer to start, but maybe lasted a bit longer.  In both cases multiple applications seem to be required.  For what it is worth, the Vinegar is far cheaper so that is the route we are taking. I suspect 3 or 4 applications are needed, then a nice cover of mulch.

Gwen and Michael

Our WWOOFERS did arrive and worked extremely well.  Michael and Gwen worked on the vineyard July 13 to July 20 and accomplished many tasks for us - including a finding an angry underground wasp nest! Luckily they escaped relatively unscathed.

Michael and Gwen are molecular biologists from Switzerland and while they did not have much vineyard experience, they picked up the tasks very quickly and proved to be a great asset.  We wish them well in their future travels.

As for the wasps, in the end I removed about 12 above ground and 3 underground nests using a solution of hot water, dish soap and cayenne pepper (and a whole lot of extra clothing!)

June Work Bee

What a difference a day makes! Already experiencing mid summer temperatures, the vineyard is relishing the hot dry weather.  The foliage was getting a bit out of control, with shoots not following the trellis wires like they are supposed too.  A small group of dedicated volunteers got together on Saturday June 27 and started to prune, weed, sucker and welt under the heat.  By noon we had to call it quits, but those few hours transformed the vineyard from a mangle mass of vines and weeds into something resembling a vineyard.

Nicely weeded and pruned

Avenger spray, day 2

As mentioned in an earlier blog, we were looking at experimenting on organic herbicides.  We sprayed one row with a mix of vinegar, Epsom salts and dish soap and a second row with Avenger. For these 2 rows we did not weed, leaving the weeds in place to see if the solutions are effective on tall weeds.  If effective, we hope to quickly mulch these areas to minimizing the grow back.

Vinegar mixture, day 2

On the good news front, we have potentially two WWOOFERS from Switzerland interested in coming to work for 7-10 days, giving volunteers a much needed break.  Hoping to have them confirmed later this week to arrive mid-July.