Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Vineyard in Glass
Here are some pictures of my vineyard and surroundings after the recent ice storm that hit the Northeast US. The ice sure put a beautiful twist on things. Enjoy...
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5 comments:
I used to live in Ottawa and grew cab franc there. I buried them in winter, using the J method.
I've been growing grapes and making wine going on 10 years now.
I like your site.
I live in the Toronto area now. Two and a half years ago I planted 25 Foch in my back yard. I haven't buried them. This summer will be the first harvest. Our winter temperatures here don't usually go much lower than -10F over night, once or twice in a winter. So, Foch is a safe bet here. However, tomorrow night (January 14 and 15 2009) temperatures are forecast to reach -16F two nights in a row. I understand that Foch are cold hardy to about -20F (from what I've read). Even so, what kind of cold damage can I expect?
Regards
Jeff
Hey Jeff,
Thanks a lot for visiting my site. Good choice in planting Foch. -16F won't even touch Foch. I have had
-13F with no bud damage with no winter protection. I never do anything to protect my Foch. It is actually pretty well hardy to -25F I don't think you have anything to worry about until your lows reach near -20F. Sleep well Foch is tough! Expect a full crop. Let me know how you make out.
-Dave
Cool,
Thanks. I will sleep well now. Two years ago I tried franc, open, hoping winter would be merciful here, since it's so close to Niagara grape growing country. But we had two nights of -10F and that was that. All the buds died. Even though the canes and trunk were still green.
I decided to rip them out and stop mamby-pambying around and plant Foch.
I have two other foch growing near the house on a pergola. They've been giving me grapes for two years now. I net them for the birds. The birds are nuts for Foch. But it's the wasps and hornets that I can't control. They hollow out the berry and leave the skin like a crusty shell.
Have you had that problem? If so, what do you do?
Jeff
Jeff,
Yeah, I net everything. The birds love foch because the berries are so small. Yellow jackets are a big problem for me too, this year was especially bad. I have tried traps, beer and all of the friendly methods. The only thing I find that helps, sadly is to find the nests and kill them. Also I have to spray the grapes every two weeks. I'm very leery of chemicals so I don't like to use anything strong. I have used a product called Bug Stop. It claims it's safe for use up till the day of harvest, but I stop all sprays a month before, just to be safe. If you keep up throughout the season it's not too bad. There are much stronger more effective sprays to use but I try to avoid that route. This year I neglected the sprays and the bees went wild.
I saw the pictures and felt that this storm would have dragged you into a big damage to your vineyard.
It is really a big loss for you!
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