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Spring in the Vineyard

Spring Pruning 2009

Spring pruning was slightly different than last year. We used a system of "Hedge Pruning" using a hedger and pruning all the shoots on the top wire fruiting area to about a 2 foot square box.

This was followed up with a little hand pruning. We had a crew of two youths working on this the month preceding our normal spring break pruning time. About half the vineyard was pruned with this system.

We finished most of the rest of the vineyard during April. A few rows of concord in the back were left for later to try to retard damage from any late springs frosts. This worked to our benefit as we did have a frost on May 18 and because more buds were left on with this pruning method the damage was limited.

The winter of 2008-2009 was very cold (2nd year in a row) (so much for the Global Warming Alarmists) and some vines were damaged over the winter such as Suffolk Red.

The above picture shows the first sections of the rows pruned and the rest left until later.

We used about 14 youths this year compared to over 30 last year.

Another local grape grower, Ray Giacobone, showed up this year to help with pruning.

Our daughter Mary with our Grandson Aaron also helped prune vines.

See all the rest of the pruning pictures....

New Bloom Pictures

This photo and the email below was submitted by Rick Vanderpool

The white blossoms are actually the anther (produces the pollen) and stamen (white support tube for the anther)… The grape “blossoms” include the petals that are actually a translucent green – see photo attached, and more on my www.flickr.com/photos/stateart1 site, the OOGGYWAWA set (OOGGYWAWA is Zulu for ‘cheers’)… At the top of the image frame (one attached) features a fertilized ovary… The heavy dew was cool, huh?

It seems that even most growers have never really seen grape blossoms, so I’m interested in all grape and wine-lovers getting a chance to see the tiny, short-lived, lovely little blooms that I have been fortunate enough to discover and capture photographically… Thank you for sharing – if you wish!

Best regards, Rick

See our Bloom page for more bloom info.....

The labels were so unique we had to buy some - but the wine was very disappointing.

I should have read the labels closer. They were both french wines, the red being a very flat Syrah & the white was an oxidized Chardonnay. We dumped the wine and kept the bottles.