We’ve been experiencing an early cold snap here in east-central Minnesota. There have been several days in a row with highs only reaching the upper 30s to low 40s F. And the lows have been in the low to mid 20s. We also saw our first snowfall of the season. Thankfully the ground is still too warm for any of it to stick. With this cold, the growing season is over. This weekend is expected to be a little bit warmer and I plan to take advantage of it to do a little winterizing and mulching in the vineyard, especially with the young Marquette grapevines. If you’re looking for a good book about how to grow grapes in a cold climate, check out Northern Wine Works. It’s available on Amazon.com:

 

As the fall weather continues to cool things off, my thoughts are starting to turn to next season and what I need to do in the vineyard. One thought that keeps coming back is to do something with the Valiant vines. They have suffered both from disease and from having their roots chomped on by gophers. I am considering removing the remaining vines and replacing them with some Marquette and possibly some Prairie Star vines.

I spent a few hours this weekend in the vineyard doing the typical fall duties of cleaning up skeletonized grape clusters, tying up vines and just doing some up-close visual inspections of the vines. In all, the vines had a good summer. This, despite the fact that I was physically unable to tend to them for the latter half of the summer. Due to a back injury I ended up *donating* my crop to the local birds. Oh well, there’s always next year.

I’m pondering what to do with the Valiant vines. 4 of the 6 vines are either dead or near death. I am thinking about planting Prairie Star cuttings in three of the spots next spring and the following year filling in the remainder of the row with Marquette vines. Or I could just plant the entire row in Marquette.