Last week, we pruned the Marquette and La Crescent at Meadowcreek Vineyards. That totaled about ten acres. We then moved the equipment to Tassel Ridge and pruned vines in the northwest corner of the vineyard including Brianna, Petite Pearl, and mostly Edelweiss. We are now working in the Northeast corner of that vineyard on Edelweiss and St. Croix.
Each day after pruning, we spray Spurshield® on the vines. Spurshield is like a Band-Aid® on the wounds caused by pruning, and it will prevent grapevine trunk diseases from getting into the vine through the wounds.
We have mechanically pruned about 25% of our total of 64.5 acres of vineyards so pruning is going well.
After we finish pruning, we will spray the trunks of all our vines with a lime-sulfur mix that will kill any fungus that has over-wintered in the trunks. Then, as the buds swell, we will apply nutrients including nitrogen, sulfur, iron, and calcium to the ground right around the vines. These were the nutritional deficiencies identified in our petiole analysis last July.
As of March 31, we were not seeing any bud swell so it is clear that the vines are still dormant. Continued hot weather will start to change that soon.
