Pre-harvest assessment

So I've seen a much reduced crop in this first year compared to what I was expecting, with something like 30-40% of the vines producing grapes, with some of them only being a single bunch. Added to this the birds have started eating some of the grapes - as I thought they might but decided to chance it and not spend the £200 or so on a bird net to cover the whole thing - so the harvest's gonna be reduced even further. I recon it'll be something like a handful of bottles.

On the plus side I now own or have on order all the equipment I need to make wine. It seems a lot of English vineyards have started the harvest already (www.englishwineproducers.com/news.htm) so as soon as I get everything I need and as long as I get at least one dry day before, I'm gonna harvest the grapes.

I was going to test for acidity at the same time as taking the sugar levels, but the amount of juice required for each test would reduce the harvest by a not insignificant amount, so I plan to chance it and adjust acidity at the post-crush stage.

This year's gonna be a bit of an experiment so I'm going to try and write everything down so I can get an idea of what's going on for next time - pH, acidity, sulphite additions, times etc. - then hopefully next year it won't be so much of a last-minute, hope-for-the-best sort of thing.

Refractometer readings 07/10/09

19.8
18.0
21 :)
14.4
16.6
16.3

Average: 17.7

Refractometer readings 01/10/09

17.2
19.2
17.6
13.5
15.9
16.2
19.9
18.3
16.5
18.5

Average: 17.3

Refractometer readings 25/09/09

Brix, from various grapes

14.7
12.3
16.1
15.7
16.9

Average: 15.1

Hoping to reach 20-22 ideally

Frost recovery pruning finished

On Monday I finally finished going round all the vines and pruning off all but the best new shoots (after going round the first time and doing this once already since the frost). I wasn't sure where to cut on some of them as some new shoots are coming out of last year's wood, some from the cut base of this years pruned back shoot (i.e. a shoot lateral), and some from the scion itself.

Anyway, I've left the biggest/straighest one in each case and noted the details of three of them. Let's say on the 11th of June (about when I took these measurements) these three vines were as follows (after pruning):

Row 3, Vine 12 - 3" lateral
Row 3, Vine 14 - 1" from scion
Row 4, Vine 3 - 7" from scion

I'll update this later with a couple of ones that are from last year's wood.

Stay tuned for the next thrilling installment.

Frost recovery, cutting back etc.

So I've just finished going round all the vines cutting back (in fact completely off in most cases) the growing shoots. A lot of them look like they did in late winter after I'd pruned of last year's cane now. It's been a massive setback this frost damage but in most cases there are small buds ready to take over this year's growing already showing on the scion (the bit where the rootstock meets the grafted vine).

Apparently spraying with water that night can avoid frost damage in the morning, something I'll look in to further if another one is forecast - this one struck after a dry spell so the vines had fresh, tender growth that was quite dry, which seems to be a perfect condition to get the damage in.

Already the ants have started building their nests up the tubes, one had reached about 6" by this morning - it has been duly marked for ant powdering. It'll be nice to get the grow tubes off eventually, they're a pain to take off and on with the little wire I've got to secure them in place, but necessary of course.

Disaster..?

Checked vines yesterday afternoon and to my horror a lot of them had withered, darkened and in some cases almost completely dried up:
This was a real shock - it was only the week before last when they were all fresh, healthy looking young vines.

I had to wait until this morning to go down and try and rescue them as I was having a barbeque with my uncle, cousin and dad at the time.

Anyway, I've now gone through the whole plot with my mower including a bit of ground above it and watered each one well with a hose (the mowing is in preparation for a spray of Roundup soon to hold the bindweed back - it's supposed to work best on young leaves and cut stems)
(foreground grass not mown above)

The sun came out afterwards:
And I had a bit of a rest:
(note flask and mug detail, important components to allotment breaks)

Funny how a nicely mown plot and the sun coming out can take your mind of the fact that most of your vines look like they've died...

So anyway, hopefully they'll make some sort of recovery. If growing tips have died out I'm hoping a shoot lateral might take over - or even maybe a new bud - that's slightly less likely as I recently went round and nipped off all the buds/shoots except for the best one, but you never know.

Going to keep an eye on those sunny spells from now on.


UPDATE: Pat H. on the Winepress forum has just informed me that it looks like frost damage... the course of action is still the same though - hope for the best - although I'm not too concerned about dry weather now. Thanks Pat.