An important task in the vineyards in early June is to tuck all of the canes on our vines on vertical shoot positioning (VSP) trellises between the cage wires. While the canes are short and very pliable, this is time-consuming but easy. If we wait too long, the canes snap-off easily and we can quickly reduce the production of that grape. Only our Marquette and La Crescent are on a VSP trellis and this week we worked on the La Crescent. Then, we shifted to tying up Foch and Steuben which are on a high wire trellis.
We got about 0.25 inches of rain on Wednesday so we may not need to water new vines but we will fertilize them. The rain will require us to mow like crazy for a week or so.
Our newly planted LaCrosse vines at Maple Woods are each in a Grow tube that acts like a miniature hot house to give the vines a good start. The Grow tube also protects the vine from rabbits and other predators. We will remove the Grow tubes in August to give the vines a chance to harden off before winter. By that time, they should have climbed most of the way up the pencil rod to the top wire. We will save and reuse the grow tubes on new vines we plant next season.
