Picking day is here!
The Blanc Dubois and the Lomanto are as close to ready as they are going to get. We’ve had a ton of rain over the last couple of weeks. It rains every other day and extended forecast shows two solid weeks of rain coming. Brix and ph isn’t where I hoped it would be. The rain is keeping the brix down and forcing the ph up. It’s not going to get any better soon.
My helpers did an awesome job today. Got 250lbs of Blanc Dubois. Not bad for young vines. Next year I should be able to get a much bigger harvest. Had to stop picking 3/4 of way through due to monsoon that dumped about 2” of rain in 30min on us. Sun came back out, and picked the rest after some time to dry out.
Grapes are getting closer to picking time!
Blanc Dubois above is getting close to picking time. Turning yellow and starting to taste sweet.
brix=16, ph=3.01. I’m hoping brix gets to 21 and ph needs to get to 3.4
Lomanto above will be ready first most likely. Ph is on the rise.
brix=15, ph=3.24. Need the ph and brix to both rise.
Black Spanish above is still good ways off. Some berries are still green and I think I over loaded the vines taking longer to ripen this year.
brix=13, ph=2.9. Need to ph and brix to both rise a lot here.
Two formulas to help determine if the grapes are ready:
Brix x ph x ph = (220-260 is the idea range)
Brix/TA( in g/100mL) = 30 – 32
Taste is the real way. As the ph raises, the Tartaric Acid drops and the grapes will taste sweeter. Each week I taste lots of grapes learning when to know they are ready to pick.
Black Spanish grapes
Black Spanish grapes video showing how the vines are loaded with grapes.
Putting the bird netting up
The Blanc Dubois is going through veraison as well, but because they are white grapes, its hard to tell. They will turn golden yellow soon. Brix is 14 on the ripest berries.
Bird netting is up!
I learned last year to close the bottom of the nets tightly. Between the birds and the raccoons they will get in the smallest gaps.
Veraison in the vineyard
All the grapes are starting to ripen and time to put the bird netting up! The Black Spanish grapes below are by far the largest clusters with small berries. Brix is 13 on the ripest berries.
These Lomanto grapes have much larger berries and ripen the earliest in the vineyard. These pics show the grapes last to change on this vine. Brix is 15 on the ripest berries.
Blanc Dubois looking great
First year to get a small crop on these vines. Next year will be better.
Electric Fence is ready to go
Got the electric fence up today with the help of brother in law and my nephew. Don’t think I will take it down again. Too much work to put up.
Attack of the Japanese Beetles
In one week these little monsters took over the vineyard. Sprayed good and they were falling to the ground pretty good. I hope this keeps them off.
Big mistake on the cluster thinning
Back in April I made the decision to leave two clusters on each of the Black Spanish laterals. Well, that was a mistake and paid for it this weekend. Decided to thin down to one cluster per shoot. So much easier before the canopy was full! We had so many clusters the vines looked like one big mass of grape clumps in some areas. I thought I got some before pics, but evidently I forgot. Here’s some after I started thinning.
I also started working the canopy management. On high cordon system like I use, you need to reposition the shoots so they don’t just all mat up on top of the canopy/wire. Mid June to July after the shoots near the cordon have started to turn brown and are stronger you can start to pull them down from the top. I also cut them so they can’t touch the ground.
Thats a lot of fruit I cut off, but the vines will be better for it.
End of May update
Vineyard starting to look like a jungle. Need to pluck the suckers and spray some roundup. Learned the hard way to make sure you don’t have any suckers. Round up against the vine wood isn’t an issue, but a green sucker shoot hit with some roundup will kill your vine.
The clusters are really starting to grow now. This is a Black Spanish vine. I’ve been spraying every other week since the shoots were 2-4inches long. Lomanto and Black Spanish have shown no signs of fungus yet. Blanc Dubois does show signs on the tips of the laterals. Working to get it under control. Just got to spray every 7-10 days.
Before and After
Lasterday Wines 
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