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!