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.

Welcome to the September 2007 edition of our newsletter!

Fall In The Vineyard

What a great time of year it is - especially in the vineyard. The fruit is ripe…or ripening. The weather is starting to cool and thoughts turn to winemaking. Whether you are making wine from fresh grapes, other fruits or kits, its all fun and exciting. This is also the time of year I scramble looking for my favorite winemaking books. Below are two of my favorites - especially useful over the past few years as I have embarked on my grape-growing and winemaking adventures. These books might not be for the more technically inclined winemakers out there, but I think you’ll find that even seasoned vets will be able to glean a nugget or two of useful information from them.

	Cox’s guide to growing grapes and making wine is a great introductory resource on both topics. Click to check it out on Amazon.
	This book is chock full of recipes and insights taken from years of winemaking experience. Whether you are looking to make a classic red varietal or are wondering what to do with all of those apples in your backyard, this is a great resource. Click here to check it out in Amazon.

Fall Tasks

This fall I have a number of things I need to do to prepare the vineyard for winter. Chief among them are making sure that young vines have enough insulation to keep their roots from freezing:

• clean up weed and debris around base of vines
• hill up dirt around vines
• spread rodent deterrent powder (gophers seem to be pretty active in the fall)
• remove dead vines - one Valiant and possibly some others
• determine how many new vines are needed for next spring - 6 or more total

Fermenting

I have a small amount of my own grapes to ferment. I likely will just place whatever amounts of all varieties I grow into one batch of wine. On top of that, last winter I stashed away a Winexpert white wine kit. I am also planning on finally getting that one going.

On a related note, a friend of mine has been bugging me for a few years to try making a batch of hard cider out of apples that grow in his yard. I think we finally will get this done this year. I’ve pressed samples of juice from the apples and it has a good balance of sweetness and tartness. I’ll try to provide an update in a future newsletter.

Yet another fermented beverage that always comes to mind this time of year (or any time for that matter) is…BEER! Last fall I rounded up a group of guys for an evening of ‘brewing’ at a brew-on-premises place in St. Paul - called Vine Park. It was a good time. The beer making is very closely controlled. As a matter-of-fact, customers really only add the pre-measured ingredients to the kettles and then come back two weeks later to bottle the final product. With the size of the group we had, we reserved six kettles and made a batch of cider on the side. So each person went home with 36 22oz bottles of beer and/or cider. It was a really good time. This fall I’m thinking it would be even more fun to just host a home-brew event at my house.

Weather

After such a dry and hot summer, our weather has begun to cool off a bit. On top of that, we have received a great deal of rain in the past month. Its been quite amazing - our pond was completely dry six weeks ago but now it is larger than it has been all year!

Despite the recent rains, a summer like this past one has pretty well convinced me that I need to install some sort of manageable watering system in the vineyard. I do not know that it will be fully automatic, but at a minimum something that I can attach a garden hose to that will water the entire vineyard at one - or at least one row at a time. A system like that will make my life much easier.

Whats Coming Up?

What else do I have planned? Well, there’s always something. Besides vineyard maintenance and wine or beer making, I also spend a fair amount of time working on this website. I have a few things up my sleeve. Soon I plan to offer a new discussion forum open to anyone that has an interest in growing grapes and making wine. On top of that, I am working on some tools to assist grape growers and winemakers. Stay tuned as I begin to roll out some of these new features.

Thanks and have a great fall 2007!

Don