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.
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.
Blanc Dubois looking great
First year to get a small crop on these vines. Next year will be better.
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.
Cluster thinning time
Most shoots (laterals) now have 2-4 clusters. Usually only three, but sometimes up to 4 clusters. The standard thinning method is to leave only one cluster closest to the cordon, so you don’t over produce and near the top wire so the sun can get to it easier. Too much fruit on the vine will affect veraison (ripening/coloring). I recently read on the more vigorous vines, you can leave two clusters and still get the same quality of fruit. I’m going to try this on the Black Spanish vines and see how it goes.
Sad pinching off all the clusters, but it has to be done.
Grapevines are showing signs of life
The shoots are starting to emerge on the grapes vines. The muscadines are still sleeping, but the buds are starting to swell a bit.
This year I decided to try and propagate some new vines from the clippings. About 125 vines to try Lomanto, Black Spanish, and Blanc Dubois. We’ll see how it goes.
Pruning Blanc Du Bois grape vines
Pruned the Blanc Du Bois. Planted them last year. They grew very well last year as you can see from the vines. 
Here’s the after picture from one vine. Still have another 30 to go.
Before and After
Lasterday Wines 
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