Thursday, April 4, 2019

Annual Cycle of Grape Vine Growth

At this time of the year, I always like to review Ed Hellman's Grapevine Structure and Function, an online publication that walks you through the parts of the grape vine, grape vine phenology, major developmental processes of the vine,
In this publication, Ed Hellman advocates keeping a log of the annual cycle of grape vine growth and we have been doing this since 2015.
A chart like the one above helps us to plan for the various milestones in the vineyard. At the moment, we are pruning our vines. We began with our Auxerrois then moved on to the Chardonnay and now we are on the Chenin Blanc. We noticed that 2 weeks ago some of the Chardonnay sap was already beginning to flow. Now that we are pruning the Chenin Blanc, we are noticing that the sap is also flowing on these vines.
Last year, budbreak seemed to be later that "normal". March 2018 was very cold with a heavy snowfall at least once a week. Spring was unusually cold and delayed budbreak in our vineyard. This spring appears to be warmer and we are hoping for cooler weather so that budbreak can be delayed until we finish pruning.

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