We finished pruning our Foch vines on Monday and then moved to Maple Woods to prune St. Pepin and LaCrosse. While we prune the vines, we remove the suckers and tie up the vines to the trellis. Our Steuben vines will come next…maybe early next week and then, if we have time, we will go back to pruning the remaining two blocks of Edelweiss.
We are frequently asked about how the vines are doing after a cold and sometimes “weather aware” winter. Here are some photos taken at Maple Woods Vineyard on Sunday, May 5, at about 2:00 p.m.
This is Sabrevois. These mature vines have been pruned and are leafing out.
Here is one-year-old LaCrosse that is not only leafing out but is also producing flower pods. They may look like little grapes but they are only flowers. In about one month, the shell around the flower will fall off and the self-pollinating flower will set fruit.
This is a very mature St. Pepin vine that has not yet been pruned. If you look carefully, you can see the proto flower pods. But, the St. Pepin is pistolate which means that it does not self-pollinate. It needs a pollinator in the next row. For Tassel Ridge, that pollinator is either LaCrosse or Briana. Both are siblings of St. Pepin.
