Grape Vines Love Poor Soil - Not Really?

So one of the first things we did years ago when we started the experimental vineyard was to test the soil.  So we took several soil samples from various locations in the vineyard and from various depths surface, 6" and 18".  Generally speaking the soil came back as being devoid of virtually any organic matter or nutrients but the ph was ok in the 6.5 range and most trace elements existed in sufficient quantities.

Well I've read in so many books that grapes like poor soil but I think thats a guideline (like the pirates code) because what is poor soil? What makes a soil good or not good - it  is a pretty general assertion. So with the numbers we got back from the soil test we new we did not have "good soil" in fact if there was an arbitrary spectrum of soil between good and poor soil we would be the poster child of poor soil fore sure. The only thing that would have made it worse was a lower ph.  But our ph was between 6.5 and 7....so right in line with what one needs to grow grapes. Anyways as we had read in virtually every publication that grapes love poor soil we didnt bother to do any amendments (didnt add fertilizer, manure etc.) to the soil for the first 5 years or so.

Well we didnt get much growth or production from most of the varieties.  What is remarkable though is that the Leon Millot and the Ravat 34 (in particular) actually did amazingly well in those conditions AND without irrigation I must add.  Other varieties like Seigerrebe and Pinot Noir hardly grew at all and didnt put out a grape until just recently - they looked like some stunted sub-arctic tree. So as I mentioned before its a pretty general assertion to say grapes like poor soils - its like a bad practical joke someone decided to play on anyone who hasn't grown grapes before.

To the contrary, Id say for the most part grapes don't like poor soils, the ones we grow anyways.  Like most crops they do need water and they do need nutients so make sure your vines get both. I grew our vines in quite poor soil for a few years thinking that this was what they would do well with but only a few liked those conditions.  We added water and that helped a bit but not that much. As soon as we added a bit of water and nutrients virtually all varieties improved dramatically.  With 5-6 year old vines we went from producing approximately 0.33-0.5 lb grapes per linear trellis foot to producing 1-1.5 lbs per trellis foot (up to 2lb/foot for some varieties).

Perhaps the best (LOL) part about all of this is that we started the test vineyard on the piece of land that was easiest to break up.  It had no trees but a few small poplars and pines.  The rest of the area around this part was heavily treed and would take tremendous effort to clear and prepare for planting so this area being mostly cleared was chosen.  Looking back I have to wonder why there was nothing growing there and now I know it was because the top soil there had been stripped away due to the logging operation that went on decades earlier - poor soil at its best. If there was no trees growing there I should have known that the grapes wouldn't do any better - live and learn and pass the message on. Make sure your grapes get some nutrients and water right from the start

Good news is now that we've cleared the rest of the land we see that the soil elsewhere is quite good, with lots of nutrients and organic matter.  The new grapes planted in these areas are thriving. 

Rain Messes with Fruit Set

You certainly can't count your chickens before they hatch - especially so as it relates to predicting crop yeild and quality at the begining of the season.  You can get an idea of what the crop may return given optimal conditions but there are so many variables that can affect the outcome.

Leon Millot

You may get good bud survival and you can get a sense of what the year may deliver, but the canes that come out may have poor or small flowers, so you adjust your expectations.  Or great flowers but heavy rain disrupts the flowering stage and you get poor fuirt set.  Or maybe fruit set is great but you get powdery mildew attacking the vines or hail, or insects, cold weather or drought etc etc etc.

Every stage through the growing season has its own potential pitfalls.  This year we already have rain and fungal pressure as a cause for concern.  Don't get me wrong we love the rain, just not when the flowers are blooming - and that is when we got a pile of it this year.  So some of the vines experienced poor fruit set, notably L'Acadie Blanc and Ravat 34. Both of these were the last to bloom and were blooming just when we got alot of rain over several days.

On the other hand, some of the other varieties such as Leon Millot were blooming a week earlier and we have good fruit set on them.  The picture here of the Leon Millot is from July 1st.

June Showers Brings Powdery Mildew

So following the warmest April ever and one of the warmest monthes of May we have returned to normal heat towards the end of June but even cooler now than normal going into July and for the forseeable future (next 2 weeks anyway).  While the temperature was fairly normal for June, the days were mostly cloudy and overcast - not alot of sunlight.

Environment Canada long range forecast still says we can expect above normal temperatures for July and August but if the next two weeks of cooler weather holds true than this will be one of the coolest July's since we started tracking temperature in 2008.

 I was talking to vendors today and some of the more popular fungal sprays are going off the shelves pretty fast this season (like Serenade).  Apparently fungal pressure is pretty wide spread issue this year.

Also interesting is how the rain and cooler weather put the brakes on vine growth.  This year as of beginning of June the vines were at least a week ahead of where they were  in 2015 but by first week of July they are now about a week behind 2015 growth. Check out the link here to last year July 6 and look at the Evangeline photo compared to the Evangeline pictured this year here which have just finished flowering.

New Leon Millot and Foch Vines

So this spring we planted just over 2100 row feet of Leon Millot and Marechal Foch vines.  The vines come as dormant rooted vines and before planting them you need to soak the roots for about 24 hours. This gets alot of water into the roots right away and climatizes the vines also.

In preparing the land we drilled a 10 inch hole 3 feet down into the grownd.  This provides a great conduit for a tap root to grow so that the young vine gets roots deep into the ground where there is plenty of water.  Drilling the hole also mixes the soil profile to at least 3 feet down.  When we planted the vines in the hole we actually sank them quite deep into the ground so just a few inches of the trunk as well as the top buds on the vine were sticking out.

Leon Millot

Marechal Foch

We are told that this is a preferred method of planting as the vines being deeper have lots of moisture in the soil and also will take a bit longer to bud out which could afford some protection from a late spring frost in the first few years while the vine gets established.  After a few years the vines root system will gradually fill in to a less shallow depth and also will send deep roots.

Its true while the other older established Foch and Millot vines in the vineyard were already leafed out, the new vines were just starting to show green leaf.  So the vines have been slow to get going but they are starting to take off now. 

Sovereign Ruby Grape "It's Alive"

 

So we have a short row of sovereign ruby vines to see how they grow and to see just what kind of grape and juice they produce.  Have to say we've got a bit of a soft spot for those grapes created in Canada and now we have one created in each of the key wine regions in Canada. L'Acadie Blanc was created in Ontario, Evangeline created in Nova Scotia, Vandal Cliche created in Quebec, and Sovereign Ruby created in British Columbia. And you've got to love the regal name "Sovereign Ruby",  It reminds one of the "Black Prince Ruby" in the Royal Crown (which in essence is a sovereign ruby).

To be specific, Sovereign Ruby (the vine) was created at the Summerland research station in British Columbia as a cross between Bath and Pearl of Csaba and was known as Summerland 82 before being named Sovereign Ruby.  Not much is known about the grape and juice except that it was similar to its sister vine Sovereign Rose (Summerland 80) which is of the same crossing.  There is some other data that says it is a pink grape, with small clusters, that has a nice muscat aroma and good juice chemistry for wine making. Given that one parent is Pearl of Csaba these qualities fit. Not exactly a vinifera but then again the "Black Prince Ruby" is not exactly the gemstone of its' namesake (Psst - its not a ruby). Hopefully desease resistance and cold hardiness was imparted by the other parent - Bath.  Its also supposed to be quite vigorous and given the growth so far in our "sand" I would agree that it is.

It was created as part of the same Summerland Research Station breeding program from the 1970's and 1980's that produced hundreds of new varieites and created Sovereign Coronation (Patricia x Himrod) the popular seedless blue (fresh eating) grape. It also produced Sovereign Opal (Marechal Foch x Golden Muscat) the awesome white grape that is grown and vinified into outstanding white wine at Calona Vinaeyard in BC.  Really - if you have not tried Calona Vineyard's Sovereign Opal you need to keep your eye out for this one - especially for summer patio season. Unfortunately most of these grapes that were created in this program were pulled out, never got recognition and have been lost - but we're glad we found this one alive and we will see how it does.

Our vines are just into year two and they all wintered well, are growing well in our "sand"  and have produced several flower clusters on each vine. We've pinched all flowers off except 1 cluster on each vine.  Probably should just pinch them all off but I'm really curious as to the flavour and ripening time.  Although a second year vine won't really give the best example of ripened fruit, we will get a rough idea of timing and flavour.

No pictures yet but we'll cover the vines with netting and update the harvest chart with the data in the fall.

Keeping Rows Weed Free - Solarization and Cultivation

So we have been growing the vines at Arrow Lakes Vineyard with the very least amount of water we can.  We tried zero irrigation and wanted to rely on rain fall alone and while that seemed like not a bad idea given our very short growing season, we could not make it through the super hot summers without severe vine stress especially when some days are seeing the temperatures getting above 35c. 

The alternative was to have very low crop loads to the level that would not be economical.  So we widened the space between rows a bit from 6-7 feet to 8 feet and installed drip irrigation that is active only during the hottest periods when the vines could get damaged by water stress. The wider rows gives the vines a bit more area from which to draw water from the soil and we turn the minimal  irrigation on for a short period generally between July 1st and August 31st - so just to get the vines through the hot periods.

The most important factor we have found to limiting the irrigation we need to apply is through eliminating the weeds and growth between rows.  The fact is the monashee area actually gets some decent rain fall throughout the summer months - significantly more than the Okanagan gets.  However, the rain that does fall has little chance of being utilized by the vines if it is intercepted by weeds or grass between the rows.

So to eliminate weeds we have relied mostly on solarization and cultivation between the rows.  We do solarization between the rows by applying clear plastic (same type used for vapour barrier on houses) between the rows. The roll is 12' x 175' so we cut it to 6 foot wide and we can do two rows at a time. You lay the palstic down and shovel dirt along the edges on both sides and a bit in the middle so it doesnt blow away.  Then the sun bakes the weeds underneath and after about 3 weeks there are no more weeds.  Then we move the plastic to a new row.  Its a bit labour intensive but the effects are so good that the rows will remain weed free for years.

To compliment this we do regular cultivation in the spring, early June and early July then thats it, no more required.  After that point its too hot and dry for weeds to really get going. Some weed eater work under the vines keeps the bigger weeds and grass in check also.

So with the weeds in check the rain that does fall doesn't require much in the way of suppliment from the irrigation.

Earliest Grape Bloom Ever in 2016

So we were way ahead at the beginning of May with bud break 2-3 weeks early and that trend has carried on through to grape flowering bloom.  Our grapes usually bloom sometime between the last week of June to the first week of July with two years exceptions being as early as the 20th of June and then as late as July 11th.

This year we are blooming between June 7th and 15th.  As of the 11th all varieites except Ravat 34, Seyval Blanc, Evangeline and L'Acadie Blanc are at least 75% in bloom.  These last four (all white grapes) are just starting to bloom.

Here are some of the varieties;
Leon Millot - dependable, could crop this one a little higher

Marechal Foch - dependable

Castel - finally taking off with the right combination of nutrients, water, and crop load

L'Acadie Blanc - 2 x 125grm avg) clusters per shoot

Evangeline - huge producer, 2 x150grm avg) clusters per shoot

Green Pruning

So I wrote in a previous blog that I leave extra buds when we do the first pruning just in case the winter was harsh and killed off many of the dormant buds or in case we were to get a late spring frost. Leaving the extra buds provides some degree of insurance against these possibilities as there are more buds that could possibly survive and produce some grapes or even secondary buds producing a smaller crop.  However, if all the buds including the extra ones that I leave produce a good cane with proper flower clusters I would need prune off many of the canes to bring the extra canes back to a "normal" cane count in order to produce quality fruit that will ripen on time. (If I were to leave all the extra canes the vine would be over-cropped and be slow to ripen and may actually not winter well as the vine does not get enough time to shut down into dormancy before the cold winter hits).

So what is normal bud/cane count? I use quotations around "normal" because I'm not so sure there is a normal bud/cane count.  You'll often read documents that provide recommended bud counts to leave for various grape varieites.  For instance a document may say that for St. Croix to leave 30 buds for the first pount of prunings then and extra 10 buds for each pound of prunings after that to a maximum of 50 buds etc etc. Often these measures dont tell you all you need to know to make a proper determination like what if your vine has 8-10 feet of trellis length. While 10 feet is unusual, at 10 feet of trellis length the bud count I mentioned above would probably leave 5 buds per foot when the vine could probably grow best at about 6-7 buds per row foot. Variables that affect growth include soil type, the fertilizer, length of season, vine type, irrigation, training method etc., as all of these will impact what the optimum balance is between bud/cane count and quality fruit production. So while the bud retention counts per pound of pruning is a good method its really just an approximation - a place to start - then you'll have to tinker with it to determine what is optimal.

So getting back to green pruning - when I did the first dormant pruning in March I may have left 10-12 buds per trellis foot on some vines but in the end I only want to retain 6 buds per trellis foot.  So now it is late May and risk of frost is gone, bud break has occured, and the canes are all about in the 3-5 leaf stage. I can see what canes are healthy and what ones are not. Some canes may be stunted or have poor flowers or no flowers at all and others may be fine.  In doing the green pruning I want to keep the good healthy canes and prune away the canes that are stunted or with poor or no flowers. I'll prune away until I achieve the desired 6 canes per trellis foot. See the pictues below;
Good cane with 3 nice flowers

Poor (or No) flowers on a cane

Stunted cane with 1 flower cluster

Sometimes nearly all the buds will produce nice canes and flowers and the temptation is there to leave them and produce this great big crop, but as I mentioned before if you do this it will delay the ripening and may also cause the flowers to produce straggly poorly filled clusters.  The vine simply doesnt have enough nutirents or energy to get all the flower cluster to full production.  Also, if you are trying to use a long cane pruning style for your vines you will find that if you leave too many canes that they simply wont grow long enough for this style and they are not as winter hardy so they have a tendancy for greater die back in the winter.  This makes it really hard to employ a long can pruning styles.
These canes shown here are going to be thinned out a bit even though they are all excellent with great flowers. So while all these canes are great its not a choice of which ones are better than the others - in this case I'll prune ones away so that there is greater space between the remaining canes that will allow better sunlight exposure and air flow.

Bud Break 2016 2-3 Weeks Early

Since weve been growing grapes at Arrow Lakes Vineyard the bud break usually happens 14-21 days into May.  So what happens is the earliest varieties are at full leaf stage (about 75% of the buds) and the later varieties are a few days if now nearly a week behind.  For instance Petite Milo is always the first to bud out and get to full leaf stage, Castel, Foch and Marquette are next followed by Vandal Cliche, Leon Millot, Ravat 34, Acadie Blanc, Evangeline and Triompe D'Alsace - in pretty much that order.

This year as of April 30th, several of the vines are at full leaf stage including Petite Milo, Foch and Marquette.  Castel is mostly there and Leon Millot not far behind,  The Ravat 34 are not yet with full leaf open and the same goes for Acadie Blanc.  The Evangeline and Triompe are the latest to get going and ironically both about the earliest to ripen - both these varieties are great for short seasons with the potential of late frosts.

The other good news is the vines are super healthy, best every for bud and cane survival.  For the main red varieites we have bud survival is probablt 95 % on Foch, Marquette and St. Croix and 85-90% for Castel and Leon Millot.  Bud survival on Ravat, Acadie, Petite Milot and Evangeline are all 85-90%.  Foresure the mild winter is a key here but so is the fertilizer that we've been providing the vines the past few years and in particular the irrigation supplied last year in conjunction to these things.

Acadie Blanc

Evangeline

Castel

Warm Spring - Understatement of the Century

I mentioned in a previous post that this spring has been really warm.  We saw that the vines were already starting to push with scale crack stage in mid-March.  In early April we have seen the vines at the stage just before bud break and for Arrow Lakes Vineyard this is what we usually experience at the end of April.

So I wanted to see just how this April compares to other "Warm" April temperatures and looked through the data that Environment Canada has for the Kelowna station.  I went back to 1899 and found that there is data for each year but that the station location has moved a bit, but not to far from present day Kelowna Airport location.  This has some importance because when comparing year over year you want the same location to mimic the same conditions etc.  (A low spot can attract cold air, closer to the lake has a moderating effect etc etc.)  The differences that noticed from location to location dont appear to be that magnificent.

 So here is what I found.  The normal average for Kelowna Airport is approximately 8.4 celcius for the month of April.  The warmest April on record that I could find since 1899 is in 1934 with an average of 11.4 celcius.  I've put the five warmest Aprils since 1899 in the table.

So has April 2016 been warm?....are you ready for this.....we are on target for an average of 13.0 for April "WOW".  Forget "warm"  this is smokin' hot and consider that the normal May average for Kelowna is approximately 12.9 explains why we are 2-3 weeks ahead. See the table below.

I googled "earliest bud break ever 2016" and it would appear that from California to Kelowna bud break is way ahead and the earliest ever recorded in many locations.