Canes
produced in vineyards that were well
balanced with a below average crop in 2008
were well matured with high crop producing
potential. The best canes were
sizable, dark, and dense with small piths. Many
canes had well developed buds well beyond
20 nodes.
The
2008 – 2009 winter was relatively mild. The
crop potential was very high.
April
and early May were warm with a couple of
90 degree days – vines were off to a
good start (perhaps too good of a start). Since
I’ve been in the vineyard business, I
have not seen a bud push as good as we had
this spring (tender vinifera included).
A
decision was made early on to shoot thin,
especially in the vinifera and more
valuable hybrids as the potential for very
dense canopies with large crop potential
was real. Vines were intensively
suckered – retaining renewals only as
needed.
As
Mother Nature would have it - the bloom
period was noticeably cooler with
intermittent rains – as most of you
know, not the best conditions for set.
Precipitation has been ongoing –
sporadic at times and in places. We
have not seen persistent rains – somehow
dodging some of the heavy downpours, high
winds and hail that went north of us. Nonetheless,
almost all growers in the Finger Lakes
Wine Region of NY have spent a lot
of time on sprayers this year. On a
consulting basis I have seen some major
problems in some vineyards, but for the
most part growers have done a good job
suppressing grape diseases and insects.
The cool wet
weather in the spring caused some erratic
sets in some varieties that I guess
bloomed at less than ideal times. A
few varieties showed a very prolonged
uneven bloom that resulted in very uneven
berry size between and within clusters.
It
has been a cooler and wetter than normal
June and July. For the faint of heart
- all is not as bad as one might assume. As
of 28-July-09 we were only 6 days
behind the long-term average and we have a
week and (hopefully more) of 80-degree
weather this coming week. Where
vineyards were shoot thinned, suckered,
shoot positioned, cluster thinned where
needed and kept clean, the foliage is of
good color, very healthy, functional and
just waiting to do it’s thing when the
right conditions present themselves.
We
have tentatively postponed our normal
harvest dates by one week. I would
much rather have vines in this condition
with good weather coming than have vines
suffering from severe drought stress with
low to non-functioning leaves. An
above normal crop is present (all factors
considered). Well-managed vineyards
have the healthy canopies to ripen the
crop with the right weather and any
excessive crop can be reduced from now
through veraison to accelerate ripening.
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