Newsletter Volume II, Issue 1 (February 2004)

September 9, 2006 @ 3:56 pm · Filed under Grape Growing, Winemaking

Greetings
Wow! The last week of January and the first days of February have brought with them alot of snow to our corner of the world! In the last week of January along we received about 18″ of the white stuff. Check out the 2004 pictures page for some new winter pictures.  

Recently, we received a batch of cuttings from three experimental varieties developed by Elmer Swenson. We’ll begin rooting these soon for planting in our vineyards this spring. Read more below…

Newsletter Contents
In this issue of the newsletter we discuss the following topics:

  • Winter Vine Death
  • New! Online Grower Tools!
  • Experimental Varieties
  • Question of the Month
  • Vineyard Status

    • Tell your friends about our newsletter!
     

    Winter Vine Death
    Last winter (2002/03) proved to us that we had alot to learn about growing grapes in this climate. The main thing we learned is that you can have the hardiest grapevines on the planet, but if they don’t enter winter in the proper state, they could end up getting killed. With a combination of immature plants, little snow and bitterly cold temperatures our vines did not stand a chance. Fortunately most of them pushed up shoots and began to re-grow. But there were a few that were killed outright. The only vines that thrived were our Valiants. 

    Last winter (2002/03) proved to us that we had alot to learn about growing grapes in this climate. The main thing we learned is that you can have the hardiest grapevines on the planet, but if they don’t enter winter in the proper state, they could end up getting killed. With a combination of immature plants, little snow and bitterly cold temperatures our vines did not stand a chance. Fortunately most of them pushed up shoots and began to re-grow. But there were a few that were killed outright. The only vines that thrived were our Valiants. As we have discussed in previous editions of the newsletter, we have taken a number of steps to help some of our weaker vines make it through this winter. The key to most of the work we did and the help we have gotten from Mother Nature is all geared toward protecting the lower portions of the vine trunk and the root systems. In a worst-case scenario, if these can survive our plants will recover. Ideally we will not have to take some of these measures in the future once the plants are mature enough and their root systems are down deep - beyond the point where frost can hurt them. Read more about the state of our vineyard on our Vineyard page.
    New! Online Grower Tools
    Over the course of the winter we have taken part in a few online discussions regarding how cold it gets in various places around the world. With those conversations come questions about how to convert between Fahrenheit and Celsius. So we decided to build a couple of tools we thought growers might find useful. The first one is a Fahrenheit to Celsius converter. You can convert to and from either scale. Just enter the temperature, select what you are converting from and to and click submit. The result will be displayed in a field below the submit button. Check it out and let us know what you think.  

    The second tool is a replacement for the typical grids that folks use to determine how many vines can be planted per acre depending on plant and row spacing. This tool allows you to select the spacings and then displays the result in a field below. You can try this one out on our Tools page.

    		   Question of the Month
    What is your preferred method of getting cuttings to root? We are interested in hearing all about the methods and equipment you use and the kind of success rates you are seeing. Especially if you have noticed differences between varieties.
    Experimental Swenson Varieties
    Recently, we read an article on www.northernwinework.com about the efforts underway to preserve Elmer Swenson’s vineyard and have obtained some of the experimental varieties that the MGGA is looking to study over time. So this spring, we will be planting nine vines - 3 each of two table grape varieties and 6 plants of a promising red wine variety. The details are as follows: 

    ES 4-7-67 - a seedling of St. Croix and improved in every way. It is a red wine grape. Wine made from this grape has been dark and intense, very promising.

    ES 5-4-16 - a freak…huge (1 pound) clusters and big berry for juice and eating (and showing off to friends who have never seen grapes this big around here).

    ES 9-2-74 - a seedling from Monitor X Carman (TV Munson–West Texas - 1900). Carman is from a cross of vinifera X Vitis lincecoumi, a spicy flavored grape from West Texas. ES 9-2-74 is a great grape for juice that has some of the spiciness and intensity of V. lincecoumi. It can also be a great fruity port ingredient. It is super hardy, a survivor of the winter of 1996-97 at Elmer Swenson vineyard. Temperatures in the early days of February 1997 in that area were in the -40F to -46F range!

    Vineyard Status
    The vineyard is coming through this winter in good shape. We did have some cold early (-18F) before we had snow and again in late January (-26F) followed by 18″ of snow. So we are hoping everything is ok. We did take a number of measures to protect the vines and their root systems from extreme cold. So we will have to see how things look when we prune in late March.

    Once the ground is ready for planting, we will have a few changes to make in the vineyard. For one, we will be removing a number of vines - St. Pepin (3), Bluebell (3), King of the North (3). We may keep a couple of these around somewhere else in the yard, but we have not decided yet. These will be replaced by 3 experimental table grape vines and 9 Marechal Foch vines. The remaining experimental vines will be planted in our Hudson, WI vineyard. Look for updates in future issues of our newsletter.

    Read more about the current situation in our vineyard.

    Thanks!
    Thanks for taking the time to read our newsletter! We don’t pretend to be experts at growing grapes in cold climates, but rather we hope you find the newsletter an informative and entertaining source of information. If you do, feel free to forward the e-mail to others that may be interested. If you have suggestions for future topics or general comments/suggestions, feel free to send us a note using our Contact Us page.

    Look for the Falconer Vineyard and Winery (Red Wing, MN) to open in May of this year. Their website is located at http://www.falconervineyards.com.

    Our next newsletter should arrive in your inbox sometime next month. In the meantime, thanks for reading and take care! Don’t forget to tell your friends about our newsletter!

    1 Comment

    1. Grapelog » Newsletter Archive Said,

      September 16, 2006 @ 1:03 am

      […] 2006 Issues Volume IV, Issue 2 - May 2006 Volume IV, Issue 1 - April 2006 2005 Issues Volume III, Issue 3 - September 2005 Volume III, Issue 2 - June 2005 Volume III, Issue 1 - February 2005 2004 Issues Volume II, Issue 6- December 2004 Volume II, Issue 5 - October 2004 Volume II, Issue 4 - July 2004 Volume II, Issue 3 - June 2004 Volume II, Issue 2 - April 2004 Volume II, Issue 1 - February 2004 2003 Issues Volume I, Issue 6 - December 2003 Volume I, Issue 5 - November 2003 Volume I, Issue 4 - Summer 2003 Volume I, Issue 2 - June 2003 Volume I, Issue 1 - May 2003     […]

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