All of the vines in our vineyards are leafing out. Freeze alerts on Friday and Monday nights have our vineyard crew at attention because the tender leaves are subject to severe damage if the temperatures drop to 28°F. As of Monday, May 11, it is clear that our Foch took a hit on Friday night. Fortunately, it had not been pruned so some of what was frozen will just be pruned off. But, there was sufficient damage that we expect to harvest only about 1/3 of what we’d normally get. We also have seen spotty frost damage elsewhere but the Foch showed the worst damage. Foch is not particularly hardy anyhow, so this is not totally surprising.
We have just a little more pruning to complete. This includes the Edelweiss, Sabrevois, Brianna, and St. Croix at Tassel Ridge, Foch at Newport Lane, and short pruning on the Marquette at Meadowcreek. We are mowing everything as fast as we can. The first mowing passes will also cut up the canes we’ve pruned. And, we’ll be getting our big Hagie sprayer out to get started with fungicide sprays as soon as the weather permits.
