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.