Northern Wine Grapes Summer Progress

I pruned and tied up my northern wine grape vines a couple days ago.  We went on a ten day vacation, and in spite of having weeded and pruned before leaving, they grew 2-3 feet in places.  With the sun rising around 5AM and setting around 9:30 PM, that’s lots of solar energy to give them their much needed boost.

Here’s a picture of what they look like after pruning this morning.

If you’ll recall from prior posts, I lost all the grapes in spring with a late frost.  But I want to keep these vines trained, and hopefully strong enough to hold over next winter, for once.

I compared notes earlier this year with a fellow backyard grower, and his vine trunks are already an inch and a half in diameter, but several years younger than mine.  Every two or three years mine have had either deep frost or rodent damage, and I’ve had to cut them back to the ground.  But he’s in USDA Zone 4, while I’m in Zone 3.  Those deep freezes and late frosts every few years make all the difference.  His vineyard was hit by this year’s late frost too.

The La Crescent grapes in the foreground are very strong and growing vigorously.  The Marquettes never seem to grow as big, and tend to make lots of thin, weak shoots at the base, more of a bushy growth habit. I’m trying this year to get them to focus on two main trunks.  They were hit by some fungus during a very damp and cold late spring.  I’ve trimmed these parts off as well, since there’s some healthy second growth coming.  I’ll give the tops and roots one last shot of worm compost tea tomorrow then let them go without more feeding the rest of the summer.

In the front row there are some table grapes on the right side, transplanted earlier this year, and some young Marquette vines on the left.  On the far third row there are some Leon Millot on the left, then Frontenac in the middle and right.  None of these are growing very strong yet either, so they’ll all get compost tea encouragement tomorrow too.