We've got bud break

Pretty damn green for the 1st of April, not complaining though!

Side shot of backyard vineyard

Nice little shoots

Upcoming changes...

This is the first year in the last four that I will not be purchasing any new vines to put into the ground, I suppose that is a good thing. I believe I've maximized what I can get out of the space that I am willing to put to the grape vines, now I'm ready to keep babying the vines that I have and enjoy a couple harvests. I have decided to uproot the climbing wire for the beans, remove the raised beds, and just use it as a tillable area. I can't find any advantage with the beds and therefore have chosen to remove them. The Black raspberry bush is also soon to be history, while it is a prolific grower, it doesn't put off nearly any berries, and the ones that it does produce, aren't really worth a shit anyway. The space that I've reclaimed from the massive blackberry bush will be used as additional blackberry growing area. The blackberries are doing quite nicely and have earned some expansion space in the garden. The blackberries produced are delicious.

Is anyone else buying any new vines out there?

2012 Cold Hardiness Map Available

I just found this, and as predicted, everything has heated up a bit.

My growing zone has moved from a 4 to a 6 within the last decade.

Full map located here.

Vintage 2011 has started

Some pics of the wife smashing grapes before fermentation begins.

Garden Pictures Galore

Ohio Dornfelder Experiment

The Dornfelder experiment is a result of a close friend liking this varietal, he was drinking a semi sweet, very dark red wine. After some research, the growing zone was a 6, so I pulled the trigger considering our new found growing zone data works into my favor (thanks global warming). The grapes are very dark, my assumption is that they will be useful as a blending juice if not suitable for a stand alone wine. Only a single vine will be planted for the first year of this experiment. It is rolling the dice, but it is a pretty fun experiment and I will document the process along the way. My hope is to try single vine experiments of different varietals each season as vineyard space permits.

 

How to plant vines

After emailing Ed Kwiek @ Woodswine.com for any tips on planting of the upcoming shipment of Corot Noir, he sent me this link to his website. I thought was an excellent visual example:


http://www.woodswine7.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-plant-vines.html

Vineyard Police

Here are the vineyard guardians taking a rare but much needed rest from the daily patrols. It's not uncommon to see these ferocious beasts working night-and-day protecting the harvest. Having an unfenced backyard has not been a problem with this team of soldiers monitoring the area for signs of intruders.

(From the top down) Pepper the cattle dog, Cat the cat, and Purdy the fox terrier.

Photos: Current Status of the backyard vineyard and garden

Spring is in the air

While the nights are still dipping into the upper 30's and 40's, we are in pretty good shape so far. Everything is blooming in the peach and pear trees, the grapes haven't changed much in the Columbus vineyard and I am hoping it remains that way for a while longer and not risk a frost. No damage yet!

Visiting the northern vineyard this weekend, I don't expect any bud growth yet.

Vineyards Update: 4/1/2011

This weekend, I visited the northern vineyard and got to examine the progress of the vines and if any signs of bud break were on the immediate horizon. At this point, no visible signs were there. The Columbus vineyard has fuzzy bud sprouts showing. I will be making a trip back north in 2 weeks to examine the progress of the Lake Erie vineyard.

I've got worms

I recently decided to get another pound of worms to start a new worm bin with, the last batch froze to death in a tragic story I shall not dare repeat. I use the worm castings to make worm/compost tea, which I spray on the foliage regularly. I then take the remaining amount of the mixture and use it on my vegetables. You will notice and immediate difference in your plants if you use this fertilizer method. Some will be more vigorous than others but it will certainly be noticeable. Up until now, this is the only type of spray or fertilizer used on my backyard vineyard. I do believe that with the upcoming year being my first harvest, I will spray pesticides to further solidify my harvest chances.

I bought my worms from a local guy @ www.rootnaturally.com, good transaction and product.

Ohio Weather last week

The Ohio weather strikes again and hits us with a snow dusting with wind and sleet. The vines will hopefully benefit from this late weather front and stay dormant longer.

Chaptalization - Adding sugar to your juice

If you are like me and have made "country" wine with frozen berries, you have most likely had add to sugar to your juice to increase the alcohol to a desirable level of 10-12%, but I've always thought that this was not necessary or legal for wine made from grapes. While this is true in America, wine makers in Europe commonly due this to make up for the lack of sugar in the grapes from lower amounts of sunshine and colder climates. Even grapes from the prestigious areas of France are doctored up using this method. I have a new respect for California Grapes right now, this is a more natural finished product in my opinion. The sunshine of the climate produces all of the sugar you need for the finished wine, and too my knowledge is not even legal if you are to use the California wine association on your labels.

 Cheers!

Vineyard Expansion: Catawba

         After much thought, I decided to fill in the empty row with 4 Catawba vines. I had gone back and forth with trying some Petite Pearl or Corot Noir, but ended up choosing the Catawba because is complimentary to what I have already planted (sweet wine) and could be used in a blend of all of my vines quite nicely. The wife and I  have also decided that we will moving to a better school district in the next year and I wanted to get something easy to grow and less experimental, I probably wouldn't even had planted the row if I hadn't already set the posts in 2 feet of concrete. I really hope I can find a home buyer that is interested in growing grapes to care for them.

Here is a link to some information on this breed of grape:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catawba_%28grape%29

2011 Backyard Fruit Projections

I thought it would be interesting to estimate how much fruit I could potentially yield in the 2011 growing season and then translate that into potential wine.


Blackberry Crowns
 - Blackberry crowns yield potential is difficult to project. Crop estimates from 6 to 46 pounds per plant have been reported for triple crown blackberries. I find it difficult to believe any more than 5 pounds each could come off of my canes, so I will estimate at 4 pounds per planted blackberry bush - 20 total pounds

Blueberry Bushes
- My bushes are too young to produce fruit -- or anything worth accounting for if it does.

Black Raspberry Bush
- My single bush should yield between 1-2 pounds(will be blended with blackberry)

Grapes
- Of my 20 backyard grapevines, I will have only 12 being 4th year vines. From each of these vines, I will estimate half of optimal harvest, due to growth status thus far, which would be roughly 8 pounds. I would get 96 pounds of fruit by these projections.


Total - 4th year projections

Grapes - 96 lbs / 15 lbs per gallon =  6.4 gallons = 30-35 bottles
 Berries(all combined) = 22-25 lbs total / 4 = 5(ish) gallons = 20-25 bottles

Bottles of finished wine goal for 2011: 50-60 bottles