From Our Vineyard

Hot, humid weather is ideal for growing fungus but not for making quality wine. We must spray every 7–10 days and vary the fungicide each time in order to avoid allowing the fungus to become resistant to the sprays. Given the amount rain, we must mow the

We continue to tie up new plants and maintain trellises in all vineyards. We are starting preventative maintenance on all harvest equipment. And, spraying for fungus is never ending. Last week, we undertook our first harvest estimate of the season. We will update this estimate two more

We will continue removing suckers and will start retying vines in the Maple Woods Vineyard. We will be using our Collard leaf thinner to remove leaves on the east side of the rows in our Meadowcreek Vineyard. Weather permitting, we will be spraying herbicide and fungicide and

This week we will be spraying both fungicide and herbicide. Fungus of all types love hot, humid weather, so we have to spray fungicide about once every seven to ten days during the growing season. And, we mix it up and vary our use of specific fungicides

We planted a small number of Itasca and Verona vines last week. Both are new varieties with the Itasca being a white from the University of Minnesota and Verona being a red from Tom Plocher, a private hybridizer in Hugo, Minnesota. This week we are taking delivery

We are frequently asked how the vines like 95°F heat. Fortunately, on most hot days, the temperature starts out at about 75° and climbs to peak temperatures in the early afternoon. When the temperature surpasses about 85°F, photosynthesis stops until the temperature comes back down. So, the

The vineyard staff has about 26,000 of 38,000 vines pruned. All pruning now is final pruning. The chances of a hard freeze yet this spring are dropping every day. Nonetheless, we are keeping our eyes open to the possibility of a freeze. We have vines at Newport

We will short prune vines at Meadowcreek and Newport Lane. Spraying lime-sulfur on our dormant vines is a stinky (rotten eggs) job that we do annually and are starting this week. And we will be mulching up the Tassel Ridge vineyard. We now have all 38,000 of

The vineyard crew is making good progress cleaning out long canes and dead wood in the Edelweiss and Sabrevois at Tassel Ridge. They hope the weather will allow them to finish this week. They will mechanically prune the rest of the vineyards next. Most people I talk