First Harvest

January 22, 2014

Pinot noir 828 faired quite well in its 2nd year.  The vines in both cases (rootstocks Rg and 3309) reached the top wire. This year they will have an half of a crop,as it will be their 3rd year. The Pinot noir clone 115 that did have a 50% crop this past year was of a very good quality despite the 221 mm or 8.85 inches of rain during bloom.

The canes of the Pinot noir are 5/16 diameter and have 4 inch internodes and are very healthy, the canes have hardened off very well and are reddish-brown all the way up to the end of the cane.

The Chardonnay's were in their 3rd year as well, they've hardened off nicely and had a half of a crop too.

The canes are a larger diameter than I'd like to see but, that isn't unusual as it was only their 3rd year.

On average the cane growth is even, the vines all look the same which is good(uniformity) ,some canes are 1/2 inch in diameter but that will work itself out next year when they are fully cropped.

There was a little bit of necrosis in the middle of the cane on some vines but not enough to be concerned about, at least at this point but I will keep an eye on that.

All in all it was a good crop in a very challenging year, it was a wet year with a dry spell in

August. Thankfully October was one of the nicest October's that we've ever had and the crop turned out to be very good. The internodes of the canes on the Chardonnay's are for the most part 4 inches which is ideal. Even the bull wood has internodes that are reasonably short, about 5 inches long this is notable due to the wet year as well as the fact that it is also the 3^rd year. 

This year(2014) will be an important year, as it will be the first year that some of the rows will have a full crop and we will get to see what the effects of an exceptionally well drained site will have on the vines and just how large a crop they will be able to carry.

I am guessing at about 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 tonnes per acre is what they will carry without being over cropped.

Irrigation is a definite possibility which is kind of funny when you consider we're in North Eastern North America. During the early 90's we had a period of 3 years where we had drought conditions, so we know that these conditions can and will appear again. The use of drip line irrigation would be the best choice, as overhead sprinklers would be more trouble than there worth because mildews are already a big problem here, overhead sprinklers may add to the mildews by keeping the leaves of the vines moist or wet. There is no need to encourage diseases like downy and powdery mildew, they can come along just fine without any assistance from us.