Author: F. L. Write

Tubes are off and it’s time to prune. Ideally, we would have vigorous growth and strong shoots to train into trucks, but the growth here has been inconsistent. We will again prune the vines down to two buds from which two shoots will emerge. The best shoot will be kept and trained into a trunk.…

Baby vines and blue grow tubes. Blue X grow tubes are designed to protect young vines and speed-up early growth while also promoting upright growth. It’s not only the shape, but something about nature’s beneficial blue light and the temperature inside the tube. Maybe it’s hooey, who knows? For our first vineyard block we used…

Gamay and Chardonnay, May 2021. In early May, we planted our second vineyard block of V. vinifera: 600 Gamay and 600 Chardonnay vines. This time, we chose dormant bare-root vines—again sourced from our friends of leisure at Guillaume Grapevine Nursery in CA. They were not only easier to plant than the potted vines we used in…

It’s springtime in the vineyard! Although we planted our ground cover late, it developed well and now we have rows to mow and weeding to do. Weeding here is purely mechanical, no herbicides, and it is a lot of work. Hands down, it is the most miserable job in the vineyard. I’m going to look…

It is late winter here and time to prune our new vines for the first time. We planted late and let the shoots grow out the first season. For now it is all about developing a strong root system. Grapevines are pruned in the winter when they are dormant. Our first season’s growth was not…

I pulled a few grow tubes today and examined the baby vines. Here is a Viognier vine six days after planting. The trip from CA was hard on them but so far, so good.

The weather finally cooperated, and our first vineyard block is planted. The Viognier and Chardonnay babies are nestled inside their grow tubes, settling into their new environment. Bred in France, born in CA, and raised in PA—hope this works. For now, we are using steel pencil stakes and milk carton-type grow tubes. Sure looks nice…

Like Don Quixote we charged ahead and had our vines shipped. They arrived from CA today. Three pallets with 96 boxes of potted vines weighing approximately 1 ton. 419 Viognier 642 on SO4 rootstock; 800 Chardonnay 96 on 16-16C. They left on July 27th for what would be a long, hot journey by truck from…

After weeks of preparation, our first vineyard block is ready for planting. The delivery of our posts was delayed due to COVID, and now the weather isn’t cooperating. We’re stuck in a wet spell that just won’t quit Everything is ready. The line posts and vine stakes are set. There’s no rush for end posts…

Our farm has two large fields. When we moved here they were hayfields —not the kind that produce hay for livestock feed, but rather mulch hay. I wasn’t sure what mulch hay was, so I did some investigating. Mulch hay is not of a high enough quality for feeding livestock. It’s made from overgrown, weedy, or…