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.

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,