From Our Vineyard

Our vineyard crew has been removing suckers and weeds from beneath the vines. Work started in Meadowcreek East and moved to Meadowcreek West where both the La Crescent and Marquette are now done. We also cleaned up the nine rows in the northwest corner of Tassel Ridge

The high school students, some of whom worked for us last year, will work until they return to school in August. The first tasks to be completed included weed-eating and removal of suckers on vines in the Meadowcreek East Block and La Crescent Block, also in Meadowcreek.

We are making slow progress mowing and fertilizing in our vineyards. Weather has prevented some outdoor work but equipment failures has been another problem. And, we just don’t have enough labor to get all the work done. The good news is that on June 1, we have

Our vines have budded out and leaves are beginning to turn what was a gray-brown scene into one with spots of green. Because the young buds are freeze-intolerant, we are watching the weather carefully. And, we have had to stop using our mechanical pruner because it will

Bud break is an important threshold each spring as the vines wake up from their winter slumber. Because the buds are very tender, freezing temperatures, even for 4–5 hours, will kill the buds and set the vines back for weeks. Buds have started to swell on most

We were really moving right along with mechanical pruning when the PTO Drive shaft on our V-Mech Mechanical pruner broke on Monday, April 6. We immediately ordered a new one but the supplier shipped the wrong part and we had to try again. It is supposed to

Last week, we pruned the Marquette and La Crescent at Meadowcreek Vineyards. That totaled about ten acres. We then moved the equipment to Tassel Ridge and pruned vines in the northwest corner of the vineyard including Brianna, Petite Pearl, and mostly Edelweiss. We are now working in

We enjoyed good weather and were focused on mechanical pruning this week. As of Wednesday mid-day, the vineyard team had mechanically pruned the Marquette and the La Crescent vineyards which total about ten acres. Each day, we finish pruning by early afternoon and we then return to

Last week, we got tractors fixed and ready for vineyard work. We will be ordering fertilizer, fungicide, and other chemicals. And, as soon as it dries out, we will start mechanical pruning. Every day, after mechanical pruning, we will spray the vines we pruned with Spurshield®, a polymeric material

The warming weather and the long-range forecast for warmer than usual weather for the next six weeks means that we will begin machine pruning very soon. We need at least two people and preferably three people to machine prune. We will prune one day and spray Spur