From Our Vineyard

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

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

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

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

Although we have not had any overnight freezes yet in Mahaska County, our vines are showing signs that they think it is time to go dormant for the Winter. This is most evident with Steuben which is a labrusca vine native to New England. Leaves on these

We are continuing to tie up vines that have come loose from their trellis. The varieties include Petite Pearl, Itasca, Foch, Steuben, and Crimson Pearl. We are finishing spraying of fungicide at Tassel Ridge Vineyard and then we will clean up and put away the Hagie sprayer.

The last grape variety of the 2023 harvest was Steuben, which is usually late to ripen. The work for the vineyard staff now switches to putting harvest and crush equipment away, getting the vineyards ready for winter and for next season. We grew some grapes that we

We planned to pick Petite Pearl on Tuesday however 0.75 inches of rain on Monday forced a delay. First, the wet vineyard floor won’t support the harvester and related equipment. And second, we were worried that the rain might have diluted the juice in the grapes. We

Harvest is everything right now. The week began with the Marquette harvest. This is a nine acre vineyard block so we allowed most of two days. The good news is that it only took one long day. The bad news is that because of the very dry

Everything is ready! The machines are all clean and lubricated. The crush pad is clean and ready for action. We are just waiting for the grapes to get fully ripe. Actually, last week we did harvest about 700 pounds of Itasca, a white grape that was developed