Last week, everyone was employed planting our new Foch and L’Acadie Blanc grapevines. That included installing pencil rods and grow tubes. Then we went to work removing suckers that come up from the vine roots each year and tying the vines up to the trellis where necessary.
This week, we gathered petioles (stems of grape leaves) from each of the 17 varieties we grow. We continued removing suckers and tying up vines that have come loose from the trellis. We had planned to start mowing again but the rain left the vineyards too soggy for heavy equipment. We did get some weed eating done instead.
This morning, the radio news was talking about flooding, particularly in Des Moines. Only one of our four vineyards is on or near a waterway and that is Maple Woods Vineyard. Spring Creek flows north just west of the edge of the vineyard. It has flooded just once and that was in 2010 just as we were pounding posts and installing that vineyard. In fact, the waters were so high that they topped State Highway 92 just to the south of the vineyard and they came well up into the vineyard. So far this year, we have not suffered in any of our vineyards from flooding and flooding seems unlikely even at Maple Woods Vineyard, but we are watching carefully.
