We finished short-pruning the Sabrevois at Maple Woods Vineyard and got that vineyard mowed. When we mow, we not only cut the grass between the rows of grapes, we also grind up the canes that we have cut off the vines during pruning. This will leave the
Read more →Have you ever wondered how vines that survive Iowa’s warmest winters fail to break bud in the spring when it warmed up? Or, after four days in mid-February with 60–70°F temperatures, these same vines haven’t started to break bud? Of course, since Wednesday had freezing temperatures and
Read more →We are getting ready to take advantage of nice weather and start machine pruning with our V-Mech System. With three people (one in the tractor and two in the V-Mech – it is officially the chariot!) we can machine prune a lot of vineyard quickly. Then, we
Read more →Our vineyard manager continues to finish-prune on nice days. Fortunately, we have had several nice days recently. He is also using a new berm sweeper to remove pruning debris and dead weeds from under the Marquette vines at Meadowcreek. This will allow the herbicide that we will
Read more →We are taking advantage of the warming trend to get back out into our Sabrevois blocks at Maple Woods Vineyards to do finish pruning. We rough pruned these vines in December. Both trucks and tractors are being fixed and we have been working on equipment in the
Read more →The temperature as I write this article has not gotten above 0°F all day and it is a good reminder of why we grow Cold Climate Grape Varieties in Iowa. Vitis vinifera vines (which includes grape varieties like Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon) will freeze off at the
Read more →We took advantage of the improving weather to start rough pruning of our Marquette vines on Monday. We used our V-mech system in which two operators ride in the “chariot” behind a tractor. The tractor driver is comfortable with both heat and air conditioning. The two operators
Read more →We are continuing to work at Newport Lane Vineyard to remove the vines, posts, and trellis wires. We hope to have the two north vineyards removed by early December. We no longer need the grapes we have grown at Newport Lane and the farmer who owns the
Read more →We are removing an old vineyard at Newport Lane. We no longer need the varieties grown at this location (Frontenac, St. Pepin, and St. Croix) because we are growing them in one of our other three vineyards. The vines are old and are hard to maintain. This
Read more →The recent rain storms have softened up the ground so we can use our Weed Badger to get rows cleaned up so we can plant LaCrosse in the spring. The vines have gone dormant and the ground is now cool enough that we can apply pre-emergent herbicide
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