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I was able to get out in the vineyard this weekend and take care of a few ’spring-cleaning’ items.

For the first time, I decided to use round-up (glyphosphate) to control weeds in the vine rows. I had enough to spray around the base of each vine in a circle about 3 feet wide and then I went back around and spray between the vines. Ultimately, I’d like to have bare ground underneath the vine rows.

I also moved one Valiant vine from a nursery spot to a spot in the Valiant row where another vine had died. Once that was done, I gave each vine about 1 cup of 12-6-10 fertilizer. I plan to follow that up in early June with another dose of granular fertilizer and then will use foliar fertilizer (like Miracle-Gro) the rest of the season. Since I had enough fertilizer, I gave the raspberries a shot as well.

The last thing I did was to hit the base of each vine and a few gopher holes in the vineyard with rodent repellent. It’s a product I’m trying out that’s loaded with capcacin. Time will tell if it keeps the critters at bay.

I’m WAY overdue for a newsletter and plan to send one out in the near future. Thanks for your patience!

Well, just in after pruning the vineyard and thought I should post an update while it’s fresh in my mind. Things were pretty much where I left them last fall, although I am a little concerned about winterkill of a couple vines - but it’s nothing too bad. We had a pretty good (cold, somewhat snowy) winter. Here’s what I got done today:

• Pruned all vines
• Saved a few cuttings for propogation
• Raked up cuttings and dead plant matter and removed from vineyard
• Took notes by variety on what each variety will need this season
• Took notes on what needs to be done to all vines in the vineyard this season

I’m trying to come up with a theme for the season - not sure yet what that will be.

I’ve entered my notes below…nothing too interesting as it’s more for helping my memory.

Valiants

• Remove vines R1-VT3, R1-VT4, R1-VT6
• Replace R1-VT6 with nursery vine growing at end of row

Prairie Stars

• Grow 4 cuttings
• If cuttings take root in time, plant them in their permanent locations, otherwise set them up in the nursery
• Might be a little bit of winterkill, only time will tell

Frontenac

• Keep an eye on R3-FT1 - is it dead? If so, it can be replaced with nursery vine from end of row.
• Grow a few cuttings - could be planted in first four spots of R1

Marquette

• These vines just need care - weeding, fertilizing and watering
• Need to get them well-established

Marechal Foch

• Cleanup
• Watch for dead/dying vines

Sabrevois

• Cleanup
• Watch for dead/dying vines

There are a few things that apply to all vines:

• Keep weeds at bay
• Fertilize
• Water weekly (as needed)
• Foliar fertilizing (think Miracle-Gro)

Well, that should keep me busy for a while. I haven’t seen a comment in quite some time, please feel free to add one to this post. I’d love to hear what others have to say.

Slowly but surely, spring is getting nearer. Lately we have gone from snow to no snow, to snow and now again to no snow on the ground. The highs this week have been in the 40’s (F). I plan to get out tomorrow morning and take care of a couple of spring maintenance issues in the vineyard:

• pruning - a sure sign of spring!
• general cleanup - while the weeds are dead, I plan to rake them up and clear as much area under the vines as I can. This should help the ground to warm up and dry a little.

It’s been a few years since we have experienced a true Minnesota winter. The last few years we have felt lucky to have a white Christmas. But not this year. Since December first we have received about 9″ of snow. And for about 2 weeks prior to the snow arriving, the temps had dropped off. So the ground was cold enough to keep the snow around for awhile.

Our overnight temperatures are supposed to drop off to about -8F. I’m glad to have the snow cover to insulate young vines and other landscape plants from the bitter cold.  In the last few years without snow our coldest winter lows have been moderated a bit. But once we have some snow on the ground and a cold front blows in from Canada, all bets are off. If the snow stays, I fully expect low temperatures to -30F or lower this season. It will be a good test of the hardiness of our vines.