Netting The Grapes

 

The grapes are colouring up nice and accumulating the sugars. Nows the time the birds will be looking to get into the grapes.

The Castel and Leon Millot are just turning and we estimate we are 7-10 days behind normal. Grapes are looking good.

Castel

Leon Millot

Evangeline..from the 3 yr old vines.

We put out drape bird netting on most varieties but use side insect netting on the Evangeline as its both birds and wasps that like to snack on these ones.

Last year we also had skunks enjoying the Evangeline so the bottom wires have all been replaced with electric fencing wire and charged to disuade any critters from wanting to get under the vines.

Weve got a nice crop of L'Acadie comming along this year as the first large planting of those vines are starting to mature. We usually pick these just after the Evangeline and about1 weeks earlier than the reds but we are are going to let them hang this year and pick them just before the reds.

Hot and Dry

Each year is different and you see that some years start out very similar to other years gone by but things can change very quickly. This year was cool in May and June resulting in delayed flowering into the 2nd week of July for some varieties. And since then its been 4-5 weeks since weve had any measurable rain and on top of that its been the second hottest July we've recorded with several days in the 40c area.

The heat has been tough on the new vines as they do not have a big enough root structure to draw moisture and keep the leaves hydrated but they are doing ok and showing remarkable resiliancy. We've made several passes to remove weak, late, and 3 and 4th clusters to improve the overall ripeness of the crop we want to keep. Above you can seea 3rd cluster further along the cane that has now been removed.

The vines have caught up some what and despite the lack of rain the mature vines are doing well and the grape development is pretty good. As of the beginning of August we were already seeing some clusters approaching bunch closure (Aug 5 photo) and we are probably 7-10 days away from veraison and that means we'll be netting soon.

Grapes Are Looking Good

 Mid summer and the end of July finds us in a good but bad situation.

The good news is the grapes have pretty much never looked better. Big full clusters, no sign of fungi, very healthy vines and tremendous growth in the heat weve had the past 3 weeks.

On the other hand we were 7-10 days late in flowering and the grape development is about 1 week behind. 

Question is do we have enough heat and long enough season to get the grapes to an acceptable ripeness?

Of course we can predict that outcome but if we have a bit of an extended fall..even for a few days and the heat continues we can make up for some of the early season delay.