Spring 2017 Update

I am a bit late in getting this post out, so it will be a summary of the data over the past few weeks.

We are well behind last year at this point. In 2016 all our vines had shoots by late April. this year, we still have vines in the bud swell stage as of May 22.  Hopefully our weather is on the upswing and we see some prolonged sunshine.

I have misplaced the May 16 data, but I think the data from the dates below gives us a clear picture on where things are at.


Whites (May 2, 2017):

Osceolo Muscat, Petite Milo, L'Acadia Blanc:  Bud swell 

Auxerrois, Madeleine Sylvaner; , 48-05-49, Chardonnay,  Siegerrebe, Madeleine Angevine, Epicure: were ranging from bud to early bud swell.

Whites (May 22, 2017):

Osceolo Muscat, Petite Milo, L'Acadia Blanc, Auxerrois, Madeleine Sylvaner; , 48-05-49, Chardonnay,  Siegerrebe, Madeleine Angevine, Epicure: All varieties had achieved bud burst and had shoots ranging from 1 cm to 4 cm. 




Reds (May 2, 2017):

Baco Noir, Leon Millot:  These were at the advanced bud swell stage and very close to shoots.

Regent, 48-05-83, Pinot Noir, Zweigelt, LaBelle, Regent:  these were all only at the early bud stage  



Reds (May 22, 2017)

Baco Noir, Leon Millot, Regent, LaBelle, Pinot Noir: All varieties had achieved bud burst and had shoots ranging from 1 cm to 3 cm. 

48-05-83,  Zweigelt:   These 2 are struggling and still at advanced bus stage. 48.05.83 has may 5% at burst. Last year Zweigelt was one of our earlier vines, so it obviously does not like these cool springs.

Climate Data 2016

This Blog post is a bit later than normal, but it took us a bit of time to get all the units collected and then took me more time to get them all downloaded and the information compiled. Better late then never!

2016 marks the end of our 5 year climate study and as in 2015 a few experienced some problems downloading.  Out of the 38 units we installed, 13 experienced some type of problem and we could not get any data from them. Unfortunately many of the damaged units came from the Fauquier/Needles region so no data for this region was available for 2016.

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	2014	2015	2016
Nakusp	191	192	195
Arrow Park	175	192	201
Burton	177	187	210
Needles/Fauquier	171	182	*Data from this area was corrupt and FFD were not available.

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	2014	2015	2016
Nakusp	1033	1011	1062
Arrow Park	997	1057	1020
Burton	1077	1116	1082
Needles/Fauquier	1060	1099	Data from this area was corrupt and GDD were not available.

September Brix Readings - Part 2

The Birds are coming! Pretty much every row we did not net became food for the Birds - they are very efficient pickers too. Luckily they did leave enough fruit to allow me to do more Brix readings. Brix were measured by testing 3 to 4 grapes at various locations on each row. So as of September 19:


WHITES

Siegerrebbe: 20.5 

Muscat harvested  Sept. 24 at 20.5 Brix

L'Acadia Blanc: 21.5

Osceolo Muscat: 19.5

Epicure: 19

Petit Milo: 21

48-05-49: 20.5

Leon Millot harvested Sept. 24 at 21.5 Brix

RED

48-05-83: 17.5

Labelle: 21

Baco Noir: 16

Zweigelt: 20

Leon Millot: 20.5

Pinot Noir:17.5

Regent: 18




Let the wine making begin! A few members selected varieties to make wine from and harvest on L'Acadia Blanc (46lbs), Petiti Milot (34lbs), Leon Millot (108 lbs, with a bit of Pinot Noir) and Osceolo Muscat (125 lbs) was done on Sept. 24. 

48-05-83 and Baco Noir are also slated for the carboy, but they need a bit more time on the vine to ripen up still.

Pretty low yield on the L'Acadia as the bunches were very loose and not very populated. This is likely from poor weather in late spring during bloom. Hopefully it will improve next year. The yield on the Petit Milo was very good, but as it was not netted, there was not much fruit left by the time it was harvested. The two types were mixed into one batch of wine and with final Brix of 23 it should make a very nice wine.

September Brix readings

As of September 4 most of the hanging fruit is looking nice.  Varieties that members are hoping to make wine from have al been covered with bird and insect netting. good job all! 

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 each row. 2015 measurements were gathered on September 7 and are shown in brackets. A few are progressing very nicely. but we will need a pretty good September to get the other numbers up. 

WHITES

Siegerrebbe at 19 Brix

Siegerrebbe: 19 (2015 17 brix)

L'Acadia Blanc: 18 (2015 15 brix)

Chardonnay: fruit removed due to powdery mildew

Osceolo Muscat: 18 (2015 19 brix)

Auxerrois: fruit removed due to powdery mildew

Madeliene fruit removed due to powdery mildew

Madeliene fruit removed due to powdery mildew

Netting on L'Acadia Blanc

Epicure: 15.5 (2015 19 brix)

Petit Milo: 19.5 (2015 21 brix)

48-05-49: 16 (2015 19 brix)

Leon Millot at 19 Brix

RED

48-05-83: 15.5 (2015 19 brix)

Drape netting on Leon Millot

Labelle: 16 (2015 18 brix)

Baco Noir: 15 (2015 20 brix)

Zweigelt: 16.5 (2015 20 brix)

Leon Millot: 19 (2015 20 brix)

Pinot Noir:17 (2015 17 brix)

Regent: 15 (2015 14 brix)

Summer Update - Reds

As mentioned in the previous blog, an update on the Red status is below. The data for this post is from August 14 2016 so I am a bit slow in posting. I will do an update soon with some Brix numbers now that we are into September.

Blattner

48-05-83: small-med berries in fairly loose bunches.  No signs of powdery mildew (PM) or other issues. Veraison is present on most vines (about 70%)

Labelle: Small berries in loose bunches.  About 80% of the fruit is showing veraison.  The vines look good, no signs of PM and not overly vigorous.

Cab Libra: This was an under performing vine that was removed in the Spring of 2016.

Remaining Varieties

Baco Noir: small-medium berries in loose bunches.   It still struggles a bit with low vigor. No PM visible and vines look healthy. About 80% of the fruit is showing veraison.

Zweigelt

Zweigelt: medium sized berries in tight(ish) bunches.  About 60% have achieved veraison.  Overall vines look healthy but low vigour. No PM visible, but many leaves have turned bright red. 

Leon Millot: Small berries and semi-tight bunches.  100% have achieved veraison.  Note this was achieved by August 7.

Leon Millot

Pinot Noir: Small berries in tight bunches.  No PM visible and vines look healthy. About 50% are showing veraison.

Regent: Small-medium berries in loose bunches. No PM visible and vines look healthy. About 50% are showing veraison.

Baltica: This was an under performing vine that was removed in the Spring of 2016.

Marquette: This was an under performing vine that was removed in the Spring of 2016.

Summer Updates - Whites

August is nearly half over now and the vines are quite happy with recent wave of sunshine and heat. Our spring was really great, but the early part of the summer was sadly quite wet and cooler than normal. as a result the vine growth has fallen back to about the same as last year.

Fruit Set: It appears that vines that had bloom quite early were better of this year as vines with later bloom did not have great fruit set. I suspect this is a result of cooler temperatures and heavy rains that may have  impacted the pollination process.

Powdery Mildew (PM): Despite a fairly aggressive and consistent spray program, PM still reared its ugly head.  We have trimmed all the fruit from Chardonnay, Auxerrois, Mad Angie and Mad Sylvaner. Siegerrebe is looking like it has some impact as well and may need some culling shortly

Some PM on the fruit

Blattner

Petit Milo

Petit Milo: small-med berries in fairly tight bunches.  No signs of powdery mildew (PM) or other issues. Very nice growth and canopy seems to manage itself. As of August 14, veraison has started on most fruit.

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.

Remaining Varieties

Siegerrebbe: Medium berries in semi-tight bunches.  Low vigor. PM present on maybe 5% of fruit. As of August 14, veraison was present on most fruit.

L'Acadia Blanc: small berries in loose bunches. .  Overall vines look healthy but low vigor. No PM visible. As of August 14, veraison was present on most fruit.

Chardonnay: All fruit was removed on July 30 as a result of PM. Canes show heavy signs of PM as well.

Osceolo Muscat: Small-medium berries in semi-tight bunches.  Lots of vigor no PM signs. As of August 14, veraison was present on most fruit.

Auxerrois: All fruit was removed on July 30 as a result of PM. Canes show heavy signs of PM as well. There was not a lot of fruit on the vines this year.

Siegerrebe

Madeliene Sylvanor: All fruit was removed on August 6 as a result of PM. Canes show heavy signs of PM as well.

Madeliene Angevine: All fruit was removed on August 6 as a result of PM. Canes show heavy signs of PM as well.

Vine Bloom and Fruit Set

June is nearly over and it has been a very wet and cool month.  This is not unusual for June, just a stark contrast to some of the early weather we have had.

Bloom on Chardonnay

The vineyard has continued to grow despite the weather and we are still a bit ahead of previous years. All varieties have completed bloom and moved into fruit set.

So what is bloom and fruit set?
The grape flower does not have conspicuous petals like other plants. Instead, the petals are fused into a green structure commonly referred to as the cap. The cap encloses the reproductive organs and other tissues within the flower. A flower consists of a single pistil (female organ) and five stamen, each tipped with an anther (male organ).  The cap separates from the base of the flower, becomes dislodged and usually falls off, exposing the pistil and anthers (bloom phase). The anthers may release their pollen either before or after cap fall. Pollen grains randomly land upon the the pistil, allowing pollination. The  subsequent growth of berries is called fruit set. 

Whites:
Siegerrebbe, Chardonnay, Madelein Sylvaner and Angevine:
A bit behind other whites.  Full bloom has occurred with partial fruit set beginning.

L'Acadia Blanc, Osceolo Muscat, Auxerrois, Petit Milo, Epicure and 48-05-49: 
Full bloom has come and gone and full fruit set is in place.

Fruit set on Petit Milo

At the tail end of bloom on 48-05-83

Reds:
Zweigelt, Pinot Noir, Regent, 48-0-83:
A bit behind other reds.  Full bloom has occurred with partial fruit set beginning.

Labelle, Baco Noir, Leon Millot:
Full bloom has come and gone and full fruit set is in place.

Fruit set on Leon Millot

As always, comments and feedback is encouraged.  Hopefully we get some sustained sunshine and heat and get our fruit on!