"I am Groot" - Bulk Grape Vine Propagation

We propagate about 50-75 vines each year and depending on the variety we get up to 90% propagation rate to as low as 30%. This year we have a challenge. We are expanding our vineyard and we ordered hundreds of vines from a commercial vine supplier in Ontario only to find out that they went bankrupt, or were sold the other large commercial vine supplier, or we don't really know because their phones don't work, no email response, no one to tell us if we will get our deposit back for the order we placed (we highly doubt it).

So what can we do - well, if you've seen the Marvel movie "Guardians of the Galaxy" then you know about re-growing a plant. You are probably also familiar with the line "I am Groot" delivered by the tree-like character named Groot. (seen at left with co-star Rocket the Racoon). In this movie Groot gets smashed to a hundred pieces of wood after the space ship they were in crashed, but they re-grow Groot from a stick fragment. From the perspective of someone who grows grapes, I was most curious about the propagation of what was left of Groot after they crashed in the space ship.

Seemingly, all that was required to re-grow Groot was to take a stick fragment of the former Groot and stick it into a pot with soil and before

long the stick will grow (photo at right). Particularly interesting as that is the same way one can propagate grape vines - you take a healthy cutting of one of the canes from the grape vine, stick it in a pot of soil and watch it grow. Of course you need to keep it watered and give it sunlight but that will pretty much do it.

So we are growing our own vines this year, about 1500 of them, and enough for nearly 2 acres. Looks like an entire army of Groots. So far so good, the cuttings are budding out nicely, but they almost always bud out nicely at the start. Its the next stage of forming the roots that the vines can fail. We try to help that along by dipping the soil end of the cutting in rooting hormone to help stimulate the growth.

We have lots of buds starting to push out on our "Groot" vines (Marechal Foch seen at left) and they should be leafing out soon.

We've blogged about how to grow grape vines from cuttings before so here is the link. Growing Grape Vines Form Cuttings

Row Cover Clover

So since 2008 we've plowed between the rows to eliminate weeds and provide more soil moisture for the vines. The soil is both sandy and low in nutrients so it holds little moisture and provides little nutrients to the vines. Yet the vines grow, albiet slower than what one may expect and takes 6-7 years to reach full maturity.

Now that the vines are fully established we are seeding clover in ever second row. We started this last year and this spring it is coming up great and so now we are continuing with planting the clover in the rest of the vineyard. The clover will help to build the soil over the years yet it will consume alot of soil moisture. However now that the vines are mature with full and deep root systems they are less prone to soil water deficiency. In fact, over the past few years the vast majority of or vineyard has really not received any irrigation. 

There are a few things at play here here that help us eliminate the need to irrigate. 

• Once the vines are mature, about 6 years old, they've developed a significant and deep root system that supplies their needs. 
• Second, while we usually dont get any rain from early July to the end of August, our season is short, about 150 days/5 months long, so we dont have extremely long and extended periods without rain. In relation to this the snow usually doesn't finish melting until early April and its only 3-4 weeks later the vines are budding out. In contrast, varieties that take 180 days/6 months to ripen would suffer if in that extra month of drough was not replenished with irrigation or rainfall.
• Third, we leave extra spacing between the rows, while limiting production, so this give a larger area for each vine to draw water from.
• It is not uncommon to get cool summer evenings that result in precipitation of significant dew on the leaves and even the soil that help replenish some moisture. We blogged about that previously see link Moisture From Air
• We usually get sporadic rains in May and June and the soil is still flush with moisture until mid July and then it starts to deplete. There is usually enough weter in the soil and from rain to fill out the grapes and then by the end of August, early September its pretty dry but in time for reducing soil moisture content heading into harvest.

The clover will consume some of that valuable moisture but now that the vines are mature they can handle these conditions without irrigation and the clover will serve well to build the soil over time and provides a great habitat for bees.

Buds Starting To Push

Temperature changed quickly in March and April has been warm but still snow pack in the mountains and cold nights brings the fog and mist into the trees around the vineyard.

We had a -24c event overnight in early February. Its the second coldest temperature we've recorded since we started recording temperatures in 2008. Coldest wever ever had is -25c in 2008.

For alot of clasic grape types like cabernet, -23c is a dangerous temperature as the buds will die at that temperature. Our vines are hybrids and can withstand temperatures much cooler. 

Leon Millot is probably the least cold toletant but still withstands -27c easily or colder. Petite Milo, Castel and Evangeline are similar but Marechal Foch and L'Acadie Blanc tolerate cold in the -30c neighborhood.

So this time of year starts to give indication if there was any cold damage. Its exciting as its the first look at what the year might be and so far so good buds look healthy and all varieties are pushing out. 

Spring 2021

 Just a weeks ago we were 1 foot deep in hard pack snow and then the sun pokes holes in a few places and a week later the snow is gone. Still lots of snow in the mountains but the valleys are greening up.

It happens so fast and we are doing some pruning still and how remarkably quick the soil heats up and the pruning tips start bleeding sap.

Generally it was a warm winter but we did get a low of -24.5 c in February. That makes this winter low the second coldest weve recorded in 13 years.

Nice to see the canes look good for the most part, healthy green and centres. Remarkably the pinot noir looks really good and on par with the likes of leon millot.

Cutting into some buds they look pretty good too. The real test comes in about a month when the buds start to push and then we'll see if there is any damage.

 

Clearing the Land - Continued

So there are little and big things that impact business. This year we were clearing land for new vines and we needed re-stack and burn up the remnants of bush piles that we clearing in spring 2019 (see link) and first burned in January 2020. By mid-April, the piles had no more snow on them but there was still snow on the ground and in among the trees. This was a perfect time to burn the remaining trees and bush that did not completely burn in January...but this was going to have to wait.

Unfortunately and despite the snow on the ground, as of mid-April there was a ban on burning certain sizes of burn piles and this included what we needed to burn up. So this halted our ability to completely clear the land at that time. This is very unusual and we have not seen a ban this early in our time. Interestingly, and what was a remarkable decision given the forest fire danger, the ban was reversed in Mid-June to allow for large open fires when there was apparent significant fire danger/hazard. 

Given the potential for forest fire which is a common summer time event in our area, we chose not to burn in June and left the piles over the summer and we have just burned them up in November.  Its a messy job to pile and re-pile logs that are partially burnt up but eventually the bulk of the piles is gone leaving only the largest stumps and trunks.

We'll likely dig a pit in the spring and bury the stumps and trunks and we'll be ready for planting this area in summer 2021.

A Challenging Year

We finished our harvest on October 10 in cool wet weather and we got a -2c frost overnight Oct14/15. So we harvested as late as we could. Thematically, that was the summer,...well it was cool at least. From May on through to August each month was at or below our normal temperatures and everything was late going into harvest and the numbers were lower all around. Even the above normal heat in September wasn't enough to correct the time lost to cool weather at the beginning of the season. Seems to be on par for a year like 2020.

We dropped about 20-25% of the fruit in early September to help get the Foch to ripen on time and even with that we managed 18brix where we usually have 20brix. Even at harvest we culled more fruit that was still on the vine.

The cool weather in the first 2 weeks of July including the fruit set period was not helpful either and there were far more shot grapes in both Foch and Castel that a normal year.

Here is the numbers.

 

Grape Harvest 2020

Harvest was a week later than normal and a good thing. The grapes we late so the extra week gave them time to ripen some more. Even at that they we lower in sugars than most years and that was with dropping about 20-25% of the crop on early September to focus and force ripening on less grapes.

This was a transition year in the move to hanging curtain trellis from VSP. It seemed tobeork good for Foch, Millot and Petite Milo and next year that will be completed.

Here is some of the Foch at 18 brix in hanging curtain with nice size clusters of 100-150grms.

Fruit Orchards in B.C. c1909

 A friend of mine gave me a book titled "Fruit Ranching in British Columbia" by J. Bealby and published in 1909. 

Very interesting book about orchard fruit growing primarily in the west Kootenays. Its filled with orchard photos from areas around Creston through Nelson and even Fauquier (photo above).

Particularly interesting was even at that time the assessment that the fruit growing land of the west Kootenays was undervalued compared to the same land in the Okanagan.

The tree fruits grown at that time was pears, plums, apples and cherries..no mention of grapes, and the harvests were sold across Canada and internationally.

110 years later and not much has changed in the fruit growing industry in the west Kootenays except perhaps less prolific than in 1909 but the potential remains and the area remains one of the finest fruit growing regions in Canada.

Evangeline Are Harvested

This grape has been hard to grow in terms of figuring out crop load, pruning and trellis but we are getting there and had a good year this year.

Evangeline is a cross of Seigerrebe (Gwertztraminer x Madeline Angevine) and St. Pepin (Seyval x minnisota). It is very early ripening has good fungal resistance and hardy to about -27 to -30c range. Clusters average about 150-175grms to sugars of 18-22 brix. It can ripen in approximately 130 frost free days and 900 ddg(celsius) of heat. 

Best part is the flavour. Pear. Pineapple and tropical fruit...a true cross of seigerrebe and St. Pepin flavours.

Harvest Just Around the Corner

Everything is late this year. It started with a cooler June then again a cool July with a return to normal in August and above normal for the first 10 days of September. So heading to harvest we are about 1 week behind normal. There was also no rain since mid July and this was in the critical development period and as such the bunch sizes are a bit smaller than usual. But that often translates into other positives like intensifying flavours in the wine making, but still there is 3-4 weeks before harvest and what appears to be more nice weather on the way.

As of September 13, the grapes have the following brix;
Castel 15
Foch 14
Leon Millot 15
Colmar Precoce Noir 16
Marquette 15
Marechal Joffre 16
L'Acadie Blanc 13
Evangeline 16
Petite Milo 14
Seyval Blanc 16
Soveriegn Ruby 14
Vandal Cliche 14
Siegerrebe 15

Leon Millot below;

Marechal Foch

Petite Milot

Evangeline