The weather has been quite nice this month, it looks like spring has finally come. I was in the vineyard last week to check the progress of bud development and thankfully they were still hard and firm.This week I checked the vineyard and there has been some 'movement,' the buds are still firm but they are beginning to soften, I will still keep to my schedule of beginning pruning the last week of March in the hopes of slowing down bud break ( hope in vain I think, but such is farming, always hoping for a better year)

This past winter was mild so I think it won't take much to get the vines moving (whether that has any effect on the deacclimation process of vines waking up after a 'long winter' I don't know but it sure sounds reasonable) 

Hopefully the old adage rings true "Early to bed, early to rise"  because the vines stayed up late last fall, so i'm hoping they'll be a little slow out of the gate. We can (not always) get a late frost about the first week of May so i'll leave lots of spare parts just in case.   

This photo was taken about 3 weeks ago. The circular thermometer
isn't part of the Stevenson Screen

This is a Stevenson Screen (above) that is in my vineyard. The 3 gauges (that are hanging)are in Fahrenheit. One records the minimum temperature, one the maximum temperature, and one records the current temperature. Now everything is Celsius and digital, but, until I go digital, this will do nicely, the recordings are very accurate.
   

I haven't started pruning yet (this will be year 2 for the vines) I'll wait until the end of the month to prune both here in my vineyard and at the vineyard where I work. This has been an unusually mild winter just about everywhere and when you're growing viniferas, especially in Nova Scotia it is always best to wait until April to prune (or at least the last week of March) by that time the weather is getting a little more 'stable'. (sort of) While we're pruning we leave lots of spare parts like kicker canes (extra canes) and renewal spurs just in case we get a late frost, which seems to like to come in early to mid May, when it does (like it did on May 12/2010) it does a lot of damage.


Last year 2011 was wet and cool just like everywhere else from New York to California and from Nova Scotia to British Columbia. In spite of this we had a great crop of Chardonnay that hung on late (due to the cool weather).


The total rainfall here at the farm was 1000.75mm from April to December 2011 


I will add another pic from the vineyard here at the farm taken Nov29/11

Chardonnay 95 on SO4 on the right in row 1 
Chardonnay 548 on SO4 on the left in row 2

        

March 5 2012,

 .

A little snow has fallen here last night (about 5-7 cm) at Granville Beach, Annapolis County in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley. At 4 degrees Celsius above zero the snow was almost all gone by noon.


The "North Mountain" ( a local name, is actually a hill that rises about 400-600 feet above sea level) makes a nice back drop for this photo. 

The vineyard was established in the spring of 2011, on Mother's Day to be exact (May8). All the posts were previously installed, the holes were dug, all that was left was to plant the vines. My family generously agreed to come down (from Halifax, NS) and help plant the grape vines, and with 7 of us ( 3 sisters,1 brother 2 brother-in-laws and me) it didn't take long to plant 350 vines, 3 hours actually. (50 Pinot Noir 828's are coming this spring)

This initial planting is a 'test block' and is 1/2 - 2/3 an acre in size. There will be 3 different trellis systems(Scott Henry,Smart Dyson and VSP) and 5 different vine spacings (30",3',4',5',6')The idea is to control vine balance, and/or the expected excessive growth with too many leaves and not enough fruit which seems to be the biggest problem in Nova Scotia due to its cool/cold climate ( at least as far as I'm concerned it is). 

The best time to do this is when you first plant the vineyard by using an appropriate trellising system to suit your site,rootstock,plant spacing... (well… it sure works in theory and even on paper) rather than trying to figure out how to manage excessive growth after you've planted, which are usually 'band-aid' solutions.

The vines are Chardonnay clones 548 and 95 both on 3309 and SO4 rootstocks and
Because I like a challenge: 
  
Pinot Noir 115 on SO4
and coming this spring
Pinot 828 on 3309 and Riparia Glorie 


It will be interesting to see what happens. The vineyard where I work (just up the road) has been growing Chardonnay and Riesling successfully for 10 years now, here in this area, they grow very well and winter over nicely too. 


Here's a few pics of my vineyard.

same view as the 2 above pics looking north

photo taken summer 2011

same view as above taken March 5/12

6 rows of metal posts and 6 rows of wooden posts
rows are 10 feet apart

Chardonnay 548 on SO4 rootstock taken Nov 2011
plant is identified as 8D1 (row8,post D, plant #1)
this way I can track each plants progress

Pinot Noir 115 on SO4 rootstock plant 11B2
photo taken Nov2011

vines were mounded up with sifted compost late Nov 2011

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view overlooking the Annapolis River in the distance

view from the highway looking back at the house

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old apple orchard, site of a future expansion

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old orchard site about 4.5 acres plantable area