Meanwhile, the Vineyard

Spent three days this week doing final pruning.

As happens, one day you're walking through the vineyard and suddenly you're seeing buds beginning to burst.

I did a rough prune six weeks ago, just taking out the canes I knew I wouldn't be using. Then I waited until bud swell/burst to do the final prune. When you do that, the cane sends a hormonal message to all the un-burst buds, telling them to hold off for a week or two. Thus, "double-pruning" is a way you can buy some time against the possibility of a late frost. It's more labor intensive, but I think necessary in this micro-climate.

Next week, beginning the spray program for powdery mildew (sulfer, mostly).

The vines and buds all look great, by the way. The Cab Franc plants on the slope are in particularly good shape. Twas a perfect winter; no drastic cold snaps, but stayed cool all the way til March. Now if we can avoid that late frost, we'll be off to the races.

View of Vineyard from 2nd Floor

I've never seen the vineyard from above eye level. Not as big as it seems when you're down there pruning!

Vineyard Consultants

My friend Mike and his son Jonathan came up from Walla Walla to inspect the vineyard and give some pointers. Mike has an Enology & Viticulture degree and owns an 8-acre vineyard in Walla Walla. We spent a very valuable hour looking at my vines and talking about nutrients, disease prevention, irrigation, pruning, trellis systems, weed control, etc.

It was most informative and will be a big help in taking the vineyard to the next level. Thanks guys, I am forever in your debt.

Just starting to turn

Cab Franc

They'll be turning color - known as "veraison" - shortly.

Jaz in the Vines

My neice Jazmin (that's her on the right) stopped by and took some nice photos on her way back from summer camp at Chewelah.

Pablo Wields the Weed-Eater

Spring tasks include getting the irrigation system going, weeding, and planting some replacements for vines that did not survive the last two winters.

I planted a few Riesling vines this year just as an experiment. Want to see how they do compared to the Chardonnay and Cab Franc.

We haven't done any spraying in the vineyard this year, and I don't think we will. It's not that I'm big on all the "organic" stuff but I think the vines might do better without chemicals around. So we hand-weeded the plant wells, we'll keep the rows clean with hand and hoe, and weed-eater the aisles as usual.

Spring Start-up

It's spring and everything is popping in the vineyard.

Temperature got down to -15 just before Thanksgiving. Did a lot of damage all over the state, and not just in grapes. Like many others, I waited until bud swell before pruning. Didn't want to inadvertently cut away any buds that did survive the winter. Now (late April) I can see where the dieback ends and the live buds begin, and I can prune with more confidence.

The Cab Franc on the southwest slope did best. There are plenty of live buds well up the canes.

The Chardonnay on the west end of the vineyard did poorly. 90% of those had to be cut back nearly to the ground. However, they have good root systems and will send up new shoots this summer that should be trainable onto the wire.

In general, although there was extensive bud damage, I am pleased at how healthy the canes are.

Bottom line is we have to use all available cold-weather defenses: late (double) pruning, multiple trunks, laying canes down in the winter. Can't take any shortcuts. It's labor intensive, but there's no getting around it if we want to have a successful vineyard.

Grapes

The vines won't be mature for a couple more years, so I snip the fruit clusters in early summer so they don't divert energy from the vine. But I left a few to ripen, so I could taste 'em!

Vines in Full Glory

Last day of August. No more watering from now on. We'll drain the system and let the vines beging the process of lignification and hardening for winter.

Farmer's Daughter

Quinci helped me out with some late pruning, and I gave her driving lessons around the property. Surreal to see her driving off in my pickup.

We had a great day.

Spring in the Vineyard

Spring Cleaning in the Vineyard

Esteban, Gilbert & I (mostly them) have spent the past several weeks cleaning up the rows, getting the rocks out of the isles, smoothing rough spots, burning tumbleweeds, weeding the rows, and digging holes for 400 additional plants (target planting date April 9.) The site looks great.

I'm going to do a late pruning to better assess winter die-back, and to make sure we get through the last of frost season first.

Asleep for the Winter

The vines are now dormant. In the last weeks of September growth came to a halt and the canes began to lignify (become woody). I dehydrated the vines to promote this lignification, then after the first frost I gave the ground one final shot of water to help protect the roots over the winter. I then drained the irrigation system, and just in time, too, because the nighttime temperature dropped rapidly and for a short period was in the mid-teens at night.

So now we will see how well the vines survive the winter cold. Winter temperatures in Moses Lake normally differ little from other Eastern Washington locations, including wine-growing regions of Walla Walla, the Yakima Valley and Quincy (30 miles west). However, in those years when the temperature gets freaky cold, a nearby unfrozen body of water can help moderate the extreme lows, and that is why many vineyards are clustered around the Columbia and Yakima Rivers (and Lake Chelan, for that matter). But the biggest single factor for minimizing winter damage is having a site with good "air drainage," where cold low-lying air moves downhill away from your vineyard to pool in lower areas below. And of course, it's important to have planted grape varieties which are relatively winter hardy and cold tolerant. We're in good shape on both counts, and I believe most if not all of the plants will do just fine. I'm already looking forward to spring!

Drip Hose on the Wire

Oh my aching back.
Also, when you're on a 15-degree slope, what's the trick to keeping the water from traveling down the outside of the hose rather than dropping straight down out of the emitter?

Nearly Done

We're close to being done for the year. All the plants are trimmed and tied to the wires. The grow tubes are off. The only real job left is to get the drip hose off the ground by attaching it to its wire.
I don't think I'll water any more this year. I'll let the vines dehydrate as they head toward dormancy, which should help them deal with winter cold.

beaucoup cailloux

"Cayuse" comes from the French word cailloux meaning "stones." Grapes love 'em. I don't.
Rocky ground is good for grapes for several reasons. First, when the soil is lean, the vine's survival mechanisms tend to direct the limited nutrients to the berry rather than the foliage. The grapes are smaller and the flavors more concentrated and powerful.
Second, the root systems can be deeper and stronger in rocky soil as they dig deep in search of water & nutrients. This makes for a hardier vine.
Rocky soil also ensures good drainage, which is critical for growing good grapes.
Finally, certain types of rock absorb heat from daytime sunshine and then radiate that heat after dark. This warms the ground and can promote the ripening process and help prevent winterkill.
I plan on gathering the rocks in the rows and around the plants as a sort of rock mulch.

Vines on the Wire

Cab franc, sans "underpants" (as Gilbert calls the plant protectors), tied to the wires after some late-summer pruning. Pruning is ordinarily not done in the fall, but was appropriate this year because I've just gotten the trellis wires up.
I emailed Jeff Cox, author of From Vines to Wines, and asked him about when & how to form the cordons, which will be the permanent horizontal trunks of the vine. He kindly responded and advised tying the main cane up now, trimming all lateral shoots, and then forming the cordon out of two new shoots next spring.
I mostly took Jeff's advice, but I have left a few laterals and some foliage on each plant on the theory that there are still several weeks of growing season til the first good frost and I might as well take advantage of all the photosynthesis I can get (for roots and cane) short of diverting excessive plant energy to useless parts of the vine. In other words, I can't bring myself to totally strip the plant naked yet. On several plants I actually did take a couple of likely-looking laterals and began to form the cordon, just for the fun of it.

First Fruits

OK, they won't be ripe for a month and won't be useable for 2 more seasons but... we have grapes.