The warm temperatures we’ve been experiencing have promoted flowering of our vines. Forget right now about picking a bouquet of grapevine flowers. These flowers are REALLY small and not pretty. Only a grape vine loves them! Anyhow, each flower is almost 1/8 of an inch high and about the same across. The stamen contains the pollen which with the aid of a little wind, drops on the female part of the flower and pollinates the flower. For each pollinated flower, we will get one grape. For most grape varieties, we are not dependent on transferring pollen from one vine to another (the exception is St. Pepin). So, while a little wind is helpful, we don’t need help from bees or insects.
But, we really don’t want rain at this time. So, will the expected torrential rain from Tropical Storm Cristobel due today, interfere with the pollination? Stay tuned. We will see!
We will be spraying fungicide and herbicide this week. We will also finish removing suckers and tying up vines at Maple Woods and then will repeat the process at Tassel Ridge. We will also be cutting off the main trunk in four rows of A Bloc Edelweiss at Tassel Ridge. We want to replace the old trunk and grow new ones from the suckers that come up. We won’t get a harvest from these four rows this year but they should be productive next year. Over time, we will renew all of the 9,200 Edelweiss trunks!
