Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Mid Winter Grape Vine Health

In mid winter we get out to check on the vines and see how they look. There has not been much snow this year so the vines are very exposed. This is a big contrast to the winter we had last year which was about 50% more snow than normal.

In fact we had so much snow last year (2017-2018) that it caused tremendous damage to the vines and trellises. The snow was so deep and heavy that the weight snapped a few of the end posts and broke vine cordons off the trunks and off of trellis wires.

As of early January 2019 it has not been colder than -9 celsius, so we are not expecting any cold damage. We took samples from some vines and they are looking green and healthy inside.

In about 8-10 weeks the snow will be mostly gone and we will be on to pruning then spring.