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.