Rain

I realize I've been slacking with posts for a while. Sadly, there isn't a lot to talk about from this past month.

Today, it's raining again. FML.

At the point, the rain has become almost comical. New York City reported that of the 30 days in the month of June, 26 of them had measurable rainfall. That's way too much rain. Not only does it prevent a lot of work outside, but it's an easy way to get mold, mildew, rot and disease throughout your fields.

I've been slowly pecking away at shoot thinning when the sun peaks out (or just when the rain stops), but it's slow-going and I'm less than halfway done. I took some helpers with me one afternoon and taught them quickly what I'm trying to do and we made OK time, but usually when I need help, all the help on the farm is catching up doing other things that need to be done.

On a positive note, there's been a lot of great vine growth. The land they're on is proving its great drainage capabilities and the vines seem to be doing great. Even a lot of the Interlaken that I presumed dead have sprouted again and are making a comeback.

About this time last year is when the Japanese Beetle invasion started. I hadn't seen one until two days ago when I saw just one on a leaf. Last week I put on a much-needed fungicide spray to protect against mildew and rot, but I added some insecticide to try to keep ahead of the beetles. When you're not planning on harvesting a crop, you're usually not under too much pressure to spray. However, with all the wet weather, I'll probably have to put on at least one more fungicide spray just to keep the vines healthy. I'm sure that'll tie in with another hit of insecticide when the Japanese Beetles are in full swing.


This is a picture of the shoot thinning I'm doing in the Noiret. The training system I'm using is Scott Henry- notice the two-wire system. Ideally, the top-wire vine will always go left and grow shoots upwards and the bottom will go right and grow shoots downwards, so vines are basically stacked on top of eachother...kinda like the "z" blocks in Tetris. (I just thought of that Tetris reference right now and I'm kind of impressed with it)















^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Also notice how much I'm removing from each vine.

Same shot, up close.
















High-wire thinning. A thinned vine on the left, unthinned on the right.
















I've got my work cut out for me...















The first Japanese Beetle of the season.

Frost

The forecast for Monday for the area was a low of 38 with a freeze warning in effect. I spent a few hours of my evening helping get wind machines ready in the coldest parts of the orchard to help with the possibility of frost. Turns out temperatures dropped to as low as 26 in some places and frost was extensive. My grapes, indeed, took a hit.

I took a ride there today to assess the damage. Turns out it wasn't as bad as I was bracing for. The hybrids seem to have escaped virtually unscathed. The north end of the vineyard (the seedless and vinifera) did show significant burn on the top and outer-most leaves, but there's plenty of green tissue that was unharmed to keep the vines alive.

So, while it could have been much better, it also could have been much worse. I'm going to be tying the vines to the wires today, so I'll bring my camera to bring back some pictures.

Shameless Plug

Nothing really to do with wines or vines, but the Dressel Farms Ice Cream Stand is open for business for the season! Stop in and get a cone!

Check out www.dresselfarms.com for more information.

May Pictures

It's a nice day out and I needed to do some scouting, so I took my camera along with me. Here's a little bit of what I got (in case you didn't already know, these are all clickable if you want to see them blown up):


Looking north in the vinifera. The herbicide strip and fresh mowing make it look presentable.
















Looking south at the Noiret.
















A close-up of the new shoots on a Noiret vine.
















This is a Cabernet Franc vine. Notice the lack of shoot growth due to winter kill. This is why I covered the bases of the vines over the winter- so those few green shoots could grow from the bottom and replace the dead vine.





















One of my newly-planted Noiret.





















It's a little hard to tell, but what I tried to capture with this picture is the completely healthy, vigorous vine right next to two totally dead ones. This is in my Interlaken row, which seems to have suffered about 50% vine death over the winter- the most of any variety from what I can tell.