Flowering time in the Vineyard

By guest blogger John - One Sunday a month, my husband writes a blog post about what is happening in the vineyard.

We had some nice warm weather on and off for the last 3 weeks and suddenly all the plants in the garden and the vines are growing quickly and there are flowers everywhere. The vines are just coming into flower right now and I've enclosed some photos as most of us have no idea what they look like. This isn't surprising as the grape vines have very small insignificant flowers. Before flowering, the buds looks a bit like asparagus as you can see in this first photo.

The grape flower doesn't have conspicuous petals, but instead the petals are fused into a green structure called the cap. The cap encloses a single pistil which includes the stigma (female) and five stamens with anthers (male). Flowering occurs when the cap opens or falls off. The photo below shows the grapevine in flower:

 

Here is a labelled photo showing each part: 

From http://www.extension.org/pages/31097/parts-of-the-grape-vine:-flowers-and-fruit

Grapes don't need colorful or fragrant flowers as they don't rely on bees or insects to pollenate unlike these lilies and columbines and roses in the photograph from our garden. Instead grapes are wind pollinated.

We also reviewed the Godello grafts and unfortunately many of the grafts we did last May didn't take, probably due to poor quality budwood we purchased from the sole supplier in CA. We have now re-grafted the ones that failed using buds from the vines that we pruned in March, and to be even more certain of success grafted them to the rootstock rather than to the old Merlot stems.

These will probably not give us many grapes this year but with luck the survivors from last year will produce enough to make some wine. There is a photo of the Godello which shows just how much growth there has been since the pictures from the last months blog.

Spring is here in the Vineyard

By guest blogger John

Happy Easter!

It's mid April and spring has, with a doubt -  sprung. 

The willow tree has new leaves and the pond is being enjoyed by a mallard duck who is sitting on the aerator/fountain just before it starts so I hope he doesn't get startled when it does, although he has done this many times before.


The vineyard is also showing signs of life with fresh young leaves appearing on the vines.

Following on from my report last month I can now show you the difference between cane pruning for the  Godello vines where on each vine 3 canes grow up and are secured to the wires, and cordon pruning, for the Merlot vines where there are shoots coming up off one long branch of the vine.

Godello cane pruning

Merlot cordon pruning

The Godello is a little ahead of the Merlot which is normal for white varieties which tend to be harvested several weeks before most reds. One exception is Pinot Noir which is harvested fairly early but as you know that makes a much lighter wine than Merlot.

Now is the start of work in the vineyard and already we have mowed between the vines to allow for better air circulation in case of late season frosts which can damage the tender young shoots.
Soon it will be dusting with sulfur to prevent mildew and then there is general monitoring of the vineyard.

We had lots of rain in March and early April so the ground will be wet enough to avoid any irrigation for some time.

Until next month.....