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.
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.
Time to add some Calcium Nitrate
Added first round of Calcium Nitrate.
Shoots are 8-10inches. Will pinch the extra clusters off soon. 
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 Lomanto and Black Spanish grape vines
The Lomanto and Black Spanish are going into their 3rd year. I will let each lateral from last year retain two buds this year for two new laterals. Factor in some basil buds forming laterals and we should have plenty of grapes. Haven’t decided on how many clusters to keep on each lateral. So much debate on how many to keep. Usually only one per lateral, but some studies have shown some vines can handle two clusters and still ripen on time and not over produce. Pictures below show the before and after of the pruning.
After
Check out the pile of vines behind Dakota from all the vines we pruned this year. I did save 200 for propagation of new vines and made a couple of wreaths. I’ll post more on propagation later.
Aerial view of vineyard taken with quadcopter
Blanc Du Bios far left. Lomanto and Black Spanish second from left. Nobel, Black Beauty, Darlene and Ison’s Muscadine next three rows. Had some muscadine die off this year. All but two are growing back.
Took a walk to clear my head then google some help!
I’m sure some of the grapes may have been taken by birds, but after looking around on the ground I see evidence of who took the majority of the grapes. Raccoons! All I did by putting on the netting, was give them a great way to climb up the vines (nets) and reach through to grab the grapes. Now that all the grapes are gone, the only thing left to protect are the muscadines. They are just beginning veraison. Looks like I need to come up with a way to protect against them. Quick searches show electric fences are a good deterrent. Here are some pics of the Muscadine that I plan to protect!
These are Black Beauty muscadine.
Nobel muscadine below.
Preventing the birds from getting these grapes
The birds got all the Lomanto grapes, so I’m going to put the bird nets on the Black Spanish.
The nets are on! They still might be able to get to some of them, but hopefully I can protect the majority. Tucked and pined nice and neatly on the bottom so they can’t get in that way.
The Birds the Birds…
I was so looking forward to testing the sugar levels in the Lomanto grapes today, but the birds beat me to it. I only let a few bunches grow this year, but all were stripped clean. Here is what was left…
Before and After
Lasterday Wines 
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