Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Vines are Maturing

So four years ago we planted a block of Marechal Foch. Its in a new area that we cleared next to the original test vineyard. When we cleared the land it was noticeable that the new land was significantly more fertile than the sand we were growing in on the test vineyard.

So now going into season 4, many of the Foch vines are producing well. Of particular interest is the fruitfulness of the canes in the new area vs the original test vineyard. In the original test vineyard the Foch produces reliably with canes having usually 2 clusters per shoot and occasionally some shoots have 3 clusters per shoot.

In the new area approx. 50% of the canes have 4 clusters per shoot and the rest have 3. The rare exception is 2 clusters per shoot. This differs strongly against the Foch in the test vineyard. Foch with 4 flower clusters below;

It tells us a few things...that we could add more ammendments to the test vineyard to try to bring that production up and that we anticipate a bigger crop (Lbs/Trellis Foot) in the new area than what we have been use to.

Flowering is about 1-2 weeks away and we hope for sunny weather in this period. We will see what the fruit set is like by early July and that will help us confirm crop level.