Vineyard observations May 2015

I was tying down the chardonnays tonight (in my own vineyard) and noticed that some of the canes seemed brittle, but only the chardonnay clone 548. The other Chardonnay clone 95 tied down very nicely and easily. Both clones are on 3309 and S04 rootstocks so the rootstock had nothing to do with it. My guess is that the canes were not fully prepared for the winter and didn’t harden off sufficiently before the cold weather started?

The other possibility is that the temperatures were just too cold for an extended period of time and it caused the damage to the canes? I’m not really sure what the direct cause of the injury was whether; winter came too quickly or it was too cold for too long (I’m leaning towards too cold for too long) I will have to see if I can find out.

This past winter we had a lot of snow, far more than we have been used to getting over the last 20 years.

We also had a cold stretch where the temperature reached between -17C to -19C for an extended period of time about 2 weeks perhaps a little more. At least the majority of the vines were buried in snow and protected from the cold stretch.   

There is also another element to add to this puzzle: At the end of May 2014 there was a cold snap that lasted 3 days and the temperature dipped to -3C. Over 80% of the primary buds were outright killed and the secondary buds took over. My question is do the secondary buds harden off just as efficiently as the primary buds do? Or is this grasping at straws and seeing little green men where there are none?

     

While working in the other vineyard today (my main job) I noticed that the chardonnays were brittle as well, they are Chardonnay clone 96. The canes were difficult to tie down and some of the canes even split before I could tie them to the wire, thankfully not very many split or broke and in the end all the canes were tied successfully to the wire and the Chardonnay in the lower vineyard are now ready for the season.  

The 2 vineyards are 1 Km apart.

I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that 1 clone (95)was more successful in these last 2 cold winters than the other 2 clones (548, 96) That is an important point to remember whatever the cause of the injury Chardonnay clone 95 fared better these past 2 winters than Chardonnay clone 548 and Chardonnay clone 96.   

I will post a few pics of the vineyard soon, showing the canes tied down and 1 extra cane left just in case we get more cold weather; this is Nova Scotia after all and we're growing vinifera.