We have plenty of equipment that requires annual servicing and with the vineyard now snow covered, we are using our equipment sheds to get everything ready for pruning and fertilizing in the spring.
Last week, we talked about the survivability of our cold-climate grapevines when it is cold outside. There is another very important characteristic about cold-climate vines and that is that they bud out fairly late and are ready for harvest fairly early. This is important because we have a short growing season in Southeast Iowa. In California, it is not unusual to have bud-break in late February and the start of harvest in late September. In Iowa, we start to get bud-break in late April and are usually harvesting in mid to late August.
