2016 Season

4/15  Sprayed grapes and blueberries with dormant sulphur spray.  Almost too late with this early spring.  Temps in the 70's have really pushed things along.
Wine notes:  The cherry from last year is really looking good both in appearance and taste!  I hope we get a good crop again this year.  The tree is just starting to bloom.  On the downside, the blueberry melomel is simply terrible and will have to be dumped out.

4/24  Sulfur and captan.  Also sprayed blueberries and rasberries,  Add Nova to the mix next.

5/5  Sprayed with captan, mancozeb and nova.  Need to do some pruning.

5/15  Same as above.

5/26 captan, mancozeb, quintec.  Last mancozeb application.  Deer have been getting more fresh shoots than I care for.  electric fence next year. Tried a bottle of the 2013 Red the other night, last bottle I think, and it was surprisingly good.  I think I really need to let the reds age a bit.  Nice 2014 White Blend as well.  Still have a few of those. :)

6/7  captan and quintec.

6/19  captan and nova.  Grapes are looking great, with many, many clusters.  Very aggressive plant growth.  Japanese beetles are out in full force, threatening to be a huge problem this season.

7/2  Captan and nova.  Many grapes, heavy clusters.  Did get hit with mummy berries pretty badly, a number split open.  still looking for a very good harvest.

Outdoor Oven

Well, this isn't directly related to the vineyard, but good bread and pizza do go well with wine.  So, I'll document here our process building an outdoor wood-fired pizza/bread oven.  Why I decided to take on such a project given my recent bout with sciatica is totally beyond me.  Fortunately, that hasn't really slowed me down much on this project, but I've had tremendous help from a good friend, Steve Rennekamp.  Without his tools, help and expertise we would never have gotten this far already.
I'm following the basic plans I got from the BrickWoodOvens site.  Very good directions, and we have followed them so far with little change.  I definitely plan to buy some tools from them, since their plans have been a huge help.
Not only did we decide to build the oven, but we also decided to replace the patio where the oven will stand.  That will be tackled as the oven part is being built, since that will be done in a number of stages with some waiting time involved between each phase.

Here is the area before the work.  The flag marks the location of our gas line feed, which should be well below the area we will be digging in.  I never encountered it when we first put in the old patio.

 Here is the form for the base.  It was poured 5 1/2 inches thick, with reinforcement.

 "Grambo" made sure no animals would go traipsing over our fresh concrete.

 This is the old but very reliable mixer Steve brought to the site.  Definitely save a lot of work.

After the pour, putting tennis balls on the re-rod that will connect the base to the concrete block part of the base.

Here is the concrete block base.  The basic plans called for a base up to 5 blocks high, but we felt this was way too high.

Building the top part of the base.  This is the 5 1/2 inch hardened concrete section that has an insulated center, with a 5 parts perlite to 1 part Portland Cement mix.   This part will sit right under the oven itself.  Here, thanks to Steve's suggestion, we departed from the plans which called for building this section in 3 parts.  I agreed that even 1/3 of this section would be very heavy, so we built it with supports instead.  The pour went well.

 This is the finished upper section of the base.  The two boards across the structure hold the center cavity section, which will later have the perlite mixture installed.

 While waiting for the top base section to dry, I built this frame form that I will build the oven around.  If I can't tear it out after the oven is built, I'll just have to burn it out!

Here is the mostly finished base.  Note the dark area in the top, which is that perlite insulation area.  At the base, we'll have brick coming up part-way, with an earth-tone stucco finish the rest of the bottom of the base.  On top of the base, firebrick will be placed in a herringbone pattern which will be the cooking surface of the oven.  It is in a herringbone pattern because that will make it easier to pull things out of the oven without catching on brick edges.

Kathy has been working repurposing the tiles that made up ourold patio, using them to create a border along the flower beds adjacent to the house.  Nice work!

Almost finished laying out the firebrick base.  This was a tedious process, workingt to keep the firebricks level and tight against one another.  It took all of a day to finish this, with a lot of cutting along the edges.

 It took a long day to put up all the firebrick on the form.  Fortunately it was a mild day and the rain held off.  I still have the back to put up yet.

The refractory mortar is a mix of Portland Cement, Dehydrated Lime, 200 mesh fireclay, and fine silica sand, in a 1:1:1:3 ratio.  I mixed 2 qts. of each (6 sand) in the wheelbarrow.  The mortar was really getting stiff by the time I was finished with one batch.  It does stick well.  We'll see how it holds up.

 Here is the oven with the firebrick installed, except for an arch in front.  After that is installed we'll spend about a week to two weeks drying it out.

Below is the oven all wrapped with two inches of ceramic fiber blanket, aluminum foil and chicken wire, ready for the stucco.

One of six "curing" burns.  We needed to build fires, increasingly hot, over a period of days to dry out the firebricks and mortar, to help prevent cracking.  Small cracks did appear in the mortar, but this is normal due to expansion and will not be a problem for the oven.

 Steve is working on finishing touches with the first stucco coat.  It took almost two bags of stucco base, about 160 more pounds.

Here it is with one stucco coat, drying.

Added the door.  I want to add some design to it, but that can wait.  The door has 1/16th inch sheet metal behind it.

The area for the patio is now roughly dug out and almost ready for gravel.  That was a fair amount of dirt to remove, to get 7 inches below grade for 4 inches of packed gravel, an inch of sand and two inches of paver.

Now we have 3 inches of washed 3/8 inch gravel with 2 inches of crushed limestone they call limestone screenings.  The object with the blue tarp is the compacter, which really packs this down so it's almost like concrete.  We will do a little leveling and it will be ready for sand and pavers!

July 9

Pavers installed!  What a job, and again special thanks to Steve for helping with the equipment and muscle!

We'll put the locking paver sand in later today and will then need (sometime in the near future) to fill in around the pavers and do some grading and seeding.  For now, we're concentrating on getting ready for a Colorado trip and a fly-in Canadian fishing trip plus much neglected yard/housework.  The final exterior finish on the oven, which is totally functional right now, will come later in the summer or early fall.

Bricks are cut and ready to be installed.

Whew.  The oven is basically done!  I need to finish the base, but the hard part is done.  

Here is the before and after.

2015

I have only lost one vine, aurore, to winter.  The plant is drawing water up but the buds seem to be dead.  It has always suffered from a lot of disease anyway, so I will replace it next year.  I did buy a new reliant seedless but planted it in the back.

Very nice spring, plenty of rain.  I don't think we've seen things bloom this well in a long time.  Fruit and flowering trees were just fantastic.

May 2
Sprayed at half-inch shoots.  Mancozeb, Captan and Quintec.

May 10
5 to 7 inch shoots.  Some vines still slowly budding out.  Mancozeb, Nova, Captan

May 13
Just noticed two buds on the aurore I thought was dead.

May 22
Sprayed with Mancozeb, Quintec and Captan.  Cut out some dead wood prior to spraying.

June 2
Sprayed with Mancozeb, Nova and Captan.  This will be the last Mancozeb spray since it needs 66 days pre-harvest interval.  Vines are really growing, with a good amount of clusters.  This has been a fantastic spring, with everything blossoming.  Unfortunately, it looks like a couple of our Johnny Appleseed trees are in distress.

June 23
Trimmed under grapes, long overdue.  Also sprayed--long overdue--Quintec, Captan and a small dose of copper.  Will have to monitor to see how the copper affects things.  Grapes are looking great, in spite of lots of rain and high humidity.  A spray last week would have been better but it didn't happen.  Saw a few split grapes on concords, but no anthracnose spots yet on anything.  Japanese beetles are here and chewing on the upper leaves.
Picked about 9 lbs. of sour cherries today, will make a couple gallons starting tomorrow.

2014

May 17  First Spray

Mancozeb, nova, captan, sulphur
Vines are very mixed, with the Frontenac Gris well ahead of all others.  They came through this long, tough winter in great shape and already have many little grape clusters on them.  We had a light frost last night, but hopeful there was no damage.
Bought three new Frontenac Gris, and two look good but one hasn't put out any good buds yet.  All the Cayuga whites have now died.  One de Chaunac looks bad, but a lot of new growth at the base.    I need to cut out the Cayuga and put one of the Frontenac in its place.
I did do a lime sulfur dormant spray in April

May 26

Mancozeb, nova, captan, copper

One Frontenac gris continues to look lifeless, though when the tip is clipped it appears green and supple.  Still give it some time.  The 4 year Frontenac gris plants look fantastic, and we will get a good harvest from them this year.

June 3
Quintec, captan, sulphur

Need to protect the basal shoots on several plants, particularly the De Chaunac that has gotten so weak.  May need to use one to replace the trunk.  No signs yet of disease.  Lighter than normal outlook for the Niagaras, but some vines have good, vigorous growth and grape set.


June 12
Quintec, captan, sulphur
The nortons appear to have some sulfur burn.  Examine them after this application to see if this seems to be the case.  At any rate, stop using the sulfur.
The Frontenac gris have an insect problem, most likely grape phylloxera.  I cut off some of the worst leaves and applied an insecticide dust.  The problem does not seem to affect any of the other vines.

June 20
Nova, captan
Grapes looking good.  First sighting of a pair of Japanese  beetles.  Crap.  Definitely some sulphur damage on norton grapes.  Have to watch that.   All three Frontenac Gris are alive.  Should have a good harvest on the three mature vines.

August 8
Quintec, captan

Grapes are well into verasion.  Seedless varieties are early ripening and some can be picked.  The frontenac gris are coming along nicely, with the niagaras still a bit behind.

Wine time

We started 5 gallons of Niagara last week.  It's still in the primary fermenter but about ready to transfer.  Today Kathy started picking some Concords for juice.  They look very healthy and are ripening fast.  I never put bird netting on this year and had only a little damage.  The honey bees are all over the bird-pecked fruit.

2013 Harvest

Last week, I took the St. Croix, Frontenac and some of the De Chaunac and blended them.  They are in the primary now, looking and smelling good.  I love this stage of the wine.  This week I will harvest the rest of the Niagaras, which are looking pretty good though the birds are starting to get on them.  I did not put up bird nets this year--just too busy, too hot, (too lazy?)  I have enough already for 2 gallons and will get enough for two more gallons, the rest going into juice.  Concords, from which we'll make juice, are still pretty slow, though the red seedless Concord bore heavy, very clean bunches that we are still enjoying.

Moore's Diamond

I picked this one today.  It had suddenly started to have many more bad grapes, and the honey bees and especially bumble bees were all over it.  I still got a surprisingly good harvest from it, getting a solid 8 quarts.  I'll make two gallons of wine and have 3 qts. of juice.  It's amazing how quickly the grapes can change from day to day.  This variety is always a bit earlier than the Niagara, though they are so similar.  I was planning to do the Niagara on Thursday but I might wait.  I'm slowly learning I have to let the grapes let me know when to pick, not the calendar.

Very Cool, Then Very Hot August

I picked the Reliance seedless, a few aurore, and the frontenac gris I let grow this year.  I blended them with a few of the white Concords, which have never done well before but have a great, fruity taste this year and have been very free of disease.  So I made a gallon from that and had enough to make another gallon, plus a quart of juice, from the white Concords.  It will be interesting to see how the flavor  compares with the Niagaras, which I plan to pick this Thursday, the 29th.  I got readings with the refractometer anywhere from 15 to 18.  I'd let them go a bit longer if I had the time and if the birds would stay off them, but the birds are starting to work on them.  There were honey bees on the damaged grapes, the first time I've seen this.  It has to be due to the extreme dryness we've had.  I'll harvest the grapes, steam them and save the juice until I can turn it into wine.
So far, I have one gallon of blueberry, a gallon of white blended, which may have a bit of a rose color when finished, and a gallon of concord white.  Another two to three gallons of Niagara would be great.
As for reds, the frontenac and St. Croix are about ready and I may be able to do something with them early next week.  Nortons are pretty much a wash this year.  I may or may not do some De Chaunac. I haven't ever been very happy with the wine from that grape unfortunately.

Spraying June 7

Captan and Quintec. 
Noted some brown areas on some leaves, particularly Nortons.
Grape harvest will be really low this year.  Wonder if that is a widespread situation across the state.

Spray, Wed. May 29

Captan, mancozeb, quintec.
It's been raining almost daily, with flooding likely.  The grapes continue to vary greatly in their development.  They look good at this point as far as disease goes, but it will be a small harvest.  Still impressed with the virility of the Frontenac Gris.  It is growing like crazy.  I left a few grapes just to see how they will do and respond to disease/treatment.

Spraying May 21, 2013

Captan, Mancozeb, Nova

Shoots are very varied on the plants.  Some buds are just now breaking out on branches I had thought were dead while others have shoots now 4-6 inches.  Have definitely lost two Cayuga whites, with the third showing growth only at the base.  I'll let it grow and trim off the dead but will not replant this variety since it really seemed to grow very slowly and a harsh winter did them in.  Compared to the Frontenac gris, which are 2 years old and very vigorous.  If the grapes, of which I'll let a few develop this year, show promise I may replant with two more of those.

Spray May 14, 2013

Mancozeb, Nova and Captan.
Still looks like 2 Cayuga whites are gone.  One has a little bud down near the base of the plant.  Several have apparently dead large arms that will need to be trimmed off later.
Love this time of the year, though, with the grapes trimmed and new shoots emerging.  The vineyard is clean and pretty.

May 7, 2013

Real mix on bud break.  Frontenac gris looking good, half inch shoots.  Many still just at bud break or not even quite to that point.  What a contrast with last year at this time.
Sprayed today:  mix of captan, copper, mancozeb.  Will plan to repeat in 7 days.
Looks like I have maybe lost 4 vines:  2 cayuga whites, one aurore and one de chaunac.  One of the older nigaras looks really bad, very few buds.  Tough winter.  Will try to replace mostly with niagaras.

2012 activity

March 21. Applied lime sulfur spray. Some bud break but still applied in near dormant strength. Have seen no evidence of damage.

April 1 (approx). Applied roundup. Moderately effective.

April 6. Applied nova, mancozeb and Captan. Some shoots, as on de Chaunac, about one and a half inches

April 24  Similar application.  Frost damage on most vines, esp. de Chaunac which suffered better than 50% loss of early grapes.  All vines show some shoots, though buds still breaking on most plants.

May 3  Quintec, Captan and Mancozeb.  Probably the last application of mancozeb,  especially if there is an early harvest.  Niagaras are coming on nicely and the Cayuga Whites look good.  Need to thin out some clusters on those since they are just 3 year plants.  Some others need thinning as well.

May 14  Quintec and Captan.  Removed broken twigs (deer have really been after some of the top new shoots.  I've lost even more grapes now.)  We will have a harvest, but it will pale in comparison with last year's.
I added bentonite to the Niagara since it just has not cleared up very well yet.  I'm dubious about this working well.

May 26  Nova, Captan and sulphur.  I used the minimal amount of sulfur.  We'll see if there is any damage to the plants.

June 4  Quintec and Copper.  Some possible burning of new leaves from the sulfur on the Nortons.  Otherwise, no apparent damage.  Trying the copper this time.  Again, 2 oz per gallon.  Plants are looking good, more grapes than I had thought.  Since there are some larger grapes as well as very small, 2nd bloomers, I'll need to decide which to thin and when.  Need to research that. 
Bad news:  first Japanese beetles of the season.  Way too early.

Norton Harvest

Just a quick note, somewhat delayed.  We harvested the Nortons Sept. 21.  We got 26 pounds of grapes de-stemmed and sorted.  It took about 5 hours to de-stem them--may have to consider some mechanical means in the future when we get more grapes???  The total reading from the scope was just over 20.  I would have liked to have seen a little higher reading, but still pretty happy with this. The birds have mostly left them alone, which is great.  In sorting them, there was a little more damage than appeared on the vine just because they are so tightly clustered.  There were some grapes particularly in the interior of clusters that mummified.  Overall, though, the grapes were sweet, with deep, dark juice.  It is now in the fourth day in the primary and working well.  I did use Montrachet yeast as indicated by this recipe.

• 12-16 lbs Summer Grapes
• 1/2 to 3/4 lb finely granulated sugar
• 1 tsp pectic enzyme
• 1 crushed Campden tablet
• 1/4 tsp acid blend
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• Montrachet wine yeast

Pick the grapes when fully ripe. Wash, destem and crush the grapes in primary fermentation vessel. Strain enough juice to float your hydrometer, measure specific gravity and return juice to primary. Add sugar to bring S.G. to 1.088 and stir with wooden paddle. Add crushed Campden tablet, stir, cover primary, and wait 12 hours. Add pectic enzyme, acid blend and yeast nutrient, stir, recover, and wait additional 12 hours. Add yeast and recover primary. Punch down the cap twice daily for 7-10 days (until S.G. is 1.010). Strain and press grapes and pour juice into secondary. Top up and ferment under airlock 30 days, rack into sterilized secondary, top up and refit airlock. Rack again every two months for six months. Stabilize, sweeten if desired, wait 10 days for dead yeast to fall, then rack into bottles. This wine can be consumed immediately but will improve with age. 

I did get the sugar a little high, being unused to this amount of natural sugar in my grapes, so I started just about 1.090.  It should be have plenty of kick!

Niagara harvest

Seeing that the birds were going to have their way, we decided to go ahead with the harvest.  The reading on the refractometer was only 12 for the whole combined juice, which is way lower than I would like to see but it was harvest or lose them.  Still, it was the best harvest we have had, in spite of losing all of one vine to the birds. 

The grapes were gorgeous--large, heavy clusters.  By taste, I would have thought they were much sweeter than the instrument indicated.  I think they will make a good wine.  The low incidence of diseased grapes really made a difference.  I just wish the bird netting, which wasn't cheap, worked better.  I need to research a way to make it work more effectively.

We use this juice steamer to extract the juice on our green grapes and when we make juice from the concords.  It is a great instrument.  It delivers a clear, pure juice and really does a great job getting as much juice as possible from the grapes.  Although it adds some moisture to the end product, it still makes a very rich-bodied juice.

It holds enough grapes to produce about 3 quarts or better, depending on the quality of the grapes.  From the Niagaras, I will take 8 quarts to make 3 gallons and we will still have a couple gallons to make a white grape juice.

Norton--Cynthiana--Summer Grape

Call it what you will, it can make a very good wine, probably the best native American wine grape.  We're at the upper end of the area in which Nortons apparently can be grown, so when we ordered 5 vines 4 years ago from the St. Francois vineyards in Missouri, I was uncertain as to whether or not we would have success.  This grape requires a long growing season.

Well, they're growing just beautifully.  They have been slow to develop as vines, and a couple are still on the smaller side but all have produced beautiful, tight clusters of virtually disease-free grapes.  So far, the birds are mostly staying off them but I'm going to monitor them closely.  I did a sampling from all vines this morning, beating out the predicted high of 97 or better here on the first day of September, and got a reading of 14.8, which I thought was pretty good.
We're going to be gone for about a week in about a week, so a bit of a dilemma as to whether or not chance that the grapes will still be there when we get back or if I'll have to pick right before we leave and freeze the must.  I'll do the latter if necessary, since I hate to lose this good first crop.

Harvest Update

8-24-2011  Picked most of the DeChaunac and about half of the Frontenac.  DeChaunac were getting eaten by something, birds probably, and the Frontenac was looking pretty ripe.  Picked 15 lb. 5 oz. of just grapes.  This made about 1 1/2 gallons.

8-27  Picked all of the Aurore, of which there was little, the small couple of bunches of Cayuga Whites, 8 grapes from Moore's Diamond (birds got the rest) and some of the Niagara, enough to make about 2 3/4 quarts of pure juice.

All vines are covered, but birds, apparently, are still getting in at night.  I do not see them in there during the day and the electric fence is keeping raccoons out, so I can only guess that it is birds roosting and feeding there at night.
Nortons are ripening nicely, and the concords are getting good color though they still have a ways to go.

Getting close!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frontenac

Grapes are getting close.  I tested several varieties that are soon to be harvested.  I used my economy refractometer.  Here are the results:
Niagaras:  11.6, 10.8, 12.6

DeChaunac:  13

Aurore: 13

Frontenac:  16

Aurore I won't be harvesting.  Niagaras and the reds I'll monitor closely.  I have netting on them and the electric fence up, but will still watch for scavengers.  It looks like Frontenac will be ready a bit before the DeChaunac, and I want to combine them.  I may have to crush the frontenacs and get the juice from them and save it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DeChaunac

 

As you can see above, there is still some greater variation in the DeChaunac grapes.  Still, perhaps the end of next week I can pick the Frontenac and early next week perhaps the other reds.
The Niagaras are just beginning to get that soft, luminous glow that means they are ripening.  It will be a couple weeks before they are ready, though, as long as disease and animals don't start in on them.
The Nortons are just starting to show some color.  They're looking good and I should get a gallon off them this year--excited about that!

Nortons

 

 

I still need to put netting on the concords and the short row of Nortons.  I'll do that early next week.atten
We  attended the Wine Experience at the Iowa State Fair on Tuesday, as volunteers.  It was a lot of work but a great deal of fun as well.  We were glad to be able to help out.  There were quite a number of people who came through Grandfather's Barn and participated in the grape stomp.   I think we are quite likely to do it again.

Lots of stuff

What I Did:
     Canopy cleanup, put netting on one row, Sevin spray, prepared electric fence

Comments:
     It was a hot morning, but lots of work had to be done.  As you can see below, some critter has been attacking the seedless Concord grapes, which are beginning to ripen.

As you can see, this is an early ripening variety.  Note also the clear signs of anthracnose. This is the only plant I have seen the disease on this year, thankfully.  Maybe I'm beginning to get it under control.  In the photo below, you can see many grapes which had been ripped off the vine.  I suspect raccoon, though perhaps oppossum or, less likely, deer.  My money is on raccoons.  I also saw one of our other seedless varieties has been attacked, though it shows no signs yet of any color change.  They don't seem to have bothered anything else.  So, I decided to put netting on this row, since the birds have also been at some of the top grapes, and then string up the electric fence to discourage the mammals.

It will make canopy management a bit harder, but the grapes are too good this year to lose them to the raccoons.  I might even set up the live trap as well.

     I also took off quite a few low leaves and leaves on the back sides of the vines to allow better airflow and spray penetration.  As you can see in the photo above, though, the Japanese beetles do their own share of work allowing air through the leaves.  We think now the beetle onslaught was just delayed, as they are out in huge numbers right now.  So, I did a spray of Sevin.

I likely killed as many as 5000 beetles today.  They were really destroying some vines, and I couldn't let that go on.