Wine-Grower-News #130 June 11, 2010

Midwest Grape & Wine Industry Institute: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Wine

Information in this issue includes:

How Wet – Dry is it? Baker’s Dozen Excellent Weather Sites Worth Bookmarking Vigor, Vigor, Vigor – What to do? ICCVE Summer Tailgates Scheduled for June Show n Tell (check out my visit to Wyldewood Cellars in KS) 10 Elderberry Wine Recipe’s Notable Quotables Articles of Interest Neeto-Keeno WWW Stuff Calendar of Events

How Wet – Dry is it?

(Above) 6-11-10 year to date U.S. national weather service % of normal

rainfall map: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/rfcshare/precip_analysis_new.php

1 Baker’s Dozen of Excellent Weather Sites Worth Bookmarking

1. ISU Extension Weather: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/weather/ 2. U.S Weather Service – good national and local forecasts, maps, climate, etc.: http://www.weather.gov/ 3. USGS Water Watch – good national/state info & maps of flood and drought conditions: http://waterwatch.usgs.gov/ 4. National Climatic Data Center: http://www7.ncdc.noaa.gov/CDO/cdo 5. Climate Watch, Univ. of IL: http://mrcc.sws.uiuc.edu/cliwatch/watch.htm 6. U.S. Weather Central: http://www.weathercentral.com/weather/us/ 7. U.S. Weather Underground: http://www.wunderground.com/US/ 8. USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/ 9. MSN Weather: http://weather.msn.com/ 10. Yahoo Weather: http://weather.yahoo.com/ 11. The Weather Channel: http://www.weather.com/ 12. AccuWeather: http://www.accuweather.com/ 13. Famers Almanac Weather: http://www.almanac.com/weather

Vigor, Vigor, Vigor – What to do?

The soils of the Midwest are known around the world for their ability to grow vigorous bumper crops. Unfortunately, highly fertile soils produce highly vigorous vines. Vigor management is a common topic of discussion as growers contact me every day. The phrase “Big Bush” comes up often. Unfortunately, what we know now would have been very handy 10 years ago when we started planting all these vineyards. Many of our vineyards could have easily used a 9’-10’ spacing between their vines instead of the commonly used 6’ – 8’ plant spacing used in other regions of the U.S.

Like the old saying goes; Location – Location – Location means everything for a vineyard.

Here are some options you can consider to slow down some of that VIGOR in your vineyard:

1. The act of combing high wire canopies downward provides a small amount of devigoration as the terminal tips are pointed downward. 2. Increasing the crop load. Monitoring several vines with several different crop loads will give you a better idea of the approximate crop load they could be carrying. Leaving a heavy crop load and then cluster thinning at veraison can be used on “monster” vines 3. Reduce or completely eliminate nitrogen applications. 4. Apply herbicides in the fall after the first frost to eliminate Dutch White Clover from the vineyard floor. Research has show that a 30% or greater stand of clover (a nitrogen producing legume) in a grass pasture can provide approximately 75-100 lbs of slow release nitrogen to the grass, eliminating the use of nitrogen applications in grass pastures. This concept also works with lawns. 5. Reduce or completely eliminate supplemental irrigation. 6. Narrow up the weed/grass free area under the wire. I have seen several mature vineyards allow the grass to grow right up the trunk without detriment to the vines. Note, these were all “mature” vineyards growing on “vigorous” sites. 7. Planting a cover crop like oats, spring wheat, spring rye, or spring barley at veraison will provide

2 competition to reduce late season vigor and promote the winter hardening process. These grain crops will not produce seed and will die in the winter providing soil cooling shade (delaying bud break) and soil erosion protecting mat the following spring. 7. Growing out vigor diversion canes (aka- “kicker canes”) from the base of the plant each season and training them along a low training wire can be used to both reduce some of the vigor and produce additional clusters if so desired. 8. Dividing the single canopy into a double canopy system by either switching over a Single High Wire to a Geneva Double Curtain or turning a Vertical Shoot Positioned (VSP) system into a Lyre system. 9. Increasing the crop load by turning a VSP system into a divided vertical canopy by converting to a Smart–Dyson or a Scott Henry system. 10. Grafting low to moderate vigorous vines onto the present vigorous rootstocks. 11. Root pruning by running a knife or rolling coulter approximately 15-20” deep and approximately 15” – 20” along one or both sides of the row has shown some promise in reducing shoot growth. This practice has not proven very predictable.

As you can see, we have many tools we can use to help control vigor in the vineyard. Dr. Nelson Shaulis at Cornell University came up the with Geneva Double Curtain (GDC) in the 1960’s as a way to increase yields, control vigor and increase fruit quality of juice grapes. Maybe we need to come up with the Ames Triple Curtain (ATC) to do the same thing here at ISU!

Missouri ICCVE Summer Tailgates Scheduled for June

What: ICCVE Vineyard Tailgate Meetings Sponsored by: The Institute for Continental Climate Viticulture & Enology Guest Speaker: Turner Sutton, Ph.D., Plant Pathologist with North Carolina State University. Meeting locations, dates and times:

· Monday, June 14, Crown Valley Winery, Ste. Genevieve, MO, 1 - 4 p.m. · Tuesday, June 15, Lynn Gay Farm, Hindsville, AR, 1 - 4 p.m. · Wednesday, June 16, Pirtle Vineyards, City, MO, 1 - 4 p.m. · Thursday, June 17, Les Bourgeois Winery, Rocheport, MO, 1 - 4 p.m. · Friday, June 18, Stone Hill Winery Rauch Farm, Hermann, MO, 10 - 1 p.m.

Schedule and Directions: http://iccve.missouri.edu/events/vineyard-schedule2010.doc Further info: 573-882-6656 or [email protected]

Show n Tell

(Right) Concord “pea sized” grape berries. Heavy rains and cool weather during pollination significantly reduced berry set here in Central . 6-11-10

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(Above) Tendrils of Wild Grape, Vitis (Above) Shoot scar of the Grape Cane riparia. The tendrils are touch sensitive so Gallmaker, Ampeloglypter sesostris that they grow more slowly on the side that (LeConte). The adult female weevil is in contact with an object. 6-11-10 deposits one egg in a hole she produces just above a node and then fills it with frass. This damage is seldom of economic importance. 6-11-10

(Above) Grape Phylloxera is starting (Above) Red Banded Leafhopper, to show up in Central Iowa. 6-11- Graphocephala coccinea on Wild 10 Grape, Vitis riparia. This is a common none economic insect often found on garden and ornamental plants. 6-11-10

Wyldewood Cellars

On the way back from our Kansas/Texas trip last week, Paul Klodd (maker of the Netter Getter & Nuke-a-Weed) and I stopped by Wyldewood Cellars Winery located on the west side of I-35 at Mulvane, KS. This is the home office of Wyldewood Cellars. They also have wineries located at Paxico – KS, West Wichita – KS, Kansas City (Legends Mall) and the newest one in St. Joseph – Mo. The staff at the winery were very customer oriented and were very pleasant to talk with. It was 4 worth the stop. I would highly recommend stopping by the winery if you are traveling south on I-35 through Kansas. It is located on the southwest corner of the #33 exit.

Wyldewood Cellars was first established in 1994 inside an old storefront in downtown Mulvane, KS by the brother and sister team of Dr. John and Mary Brewer. After a fire in 1999, the main location was moved out to I-35. Today the winery is famous for their elderberry juices and wines. John and Mary’s mother, Margaret Millican is the largest producer of Elderberry plants in the U.S. and is a recognized expert in propagating and crossbreeding elderberries. You can purchase plants from Margaret and her husband Jack by contacting them at 918-473-0797 or [email protected].

Wyldewood Cellars is the most recognized elderberry winery in the U.S. with a list of over 400 International awards. They currently sell over 40 different fruit and grape wines. They also have several elderberry growers they purchase from and have a elderberry patch growing next to their Mulvane winery. They also grow Marquis, Norton, Traminette and Chambourcin in their vineyard.

(Above) Road entrance to Wyldewood (Above) Elderberry patch growing on Cellars Winery west side of winery.

(Above) Outside event area with wedding (Above) Signs under the tasting room gazebo that looks out over the vineyard to counter. the south.

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Above (Left & Right) are two tasting room counters with separate cash registers in the winery that enable the staff to serve large groups during busy times.

(Above) Wyldewood Cellars has both a (Above) Looking out over the vineyard world and U.S. map on the wall that visitors from the gazebo. can place pins to locate where they are from and sign a guest book. The huge number of pins was impressive.

(Above) This is an interesting marketing concept that I don’t remember seeing before in a winery. Customers can belly-up to this table and make their own gift box or basket.

6 10 Elderberry Wine Recipe’s

1. http://www.easy-wine.net/making-elderberry-wine.htm 2. http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/elderber.asp 3. http://www.grapestompers.com/recipes.htm#elderberry 4. http://www.homebrewit.com/recelderberry.php 5. http://scorpius.spaceports.com/~goodwine/elderberrywine.htm 6. http://www.defalcos.com/wine-recipes/elderberry_wine.htm 7. http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?t=21777 8. http://www.wine-making-guides.com/elderberry_wine.html 9. http://www.winemakersdepot.com/Elderberry-Wine-Recipe-W76C117.aspx 10. Elderberry Winemaking 4 part video series: Part 1: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3030038846035108890# Part 2: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3030038846035108890#docid=-4260737866999097685 Part 3: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3030038846035108890#docid=-8988560871875500167 Part 4: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3030038846035108890#docid=-120263465147979830

Notable Quotables

“When it comes to matching wines with food, there are no hard and fast rules.”

--- From: Food and wine, forget the old rules, 6-8-10 - Sydney Herald News

“ Biodynamics Is A Hoax...Amen?”

--- Check out Tom Wark’s Fermentation Blog and the comments that are being generated on this comment: http://fermentation.typepad.com/fermentation/2010/06/biodynamics-is-a-hoaxamen.html

Videos of Interest

1. Babydoll Sheep grazing at Jowler Creek Winery & Vineyard, Platte City, MO, 11-4-08, 2:56 min.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SLbdJnIiRE

Articles of Interest

1. Thieving Baboons Seen at Vineyards in South Africa, 3-23-10: 21 sec video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzBysSZzhkI&NR=1

2. Wine growers cash in on other crops, 5-25-10 – Wines & Vines Magazine

Neeto-Keeno WWW Stuff

1. Iowa Brewers Guild: http://iowabeer.org/

7 2. Cold Hardiness Screening of Grape Seedlings for the Prairies by Tyler Kaban, 28 page grape breeding report providing excellent background information about the Wild Grape, Vitis riparia and breeding and production techniques that can theoretically produce new generation grape crosses every 9-12 months.: http://www.albertafarmfresh.com/grapes-report.pdf (Tyler Kaban is the University of Saskatchewan researcher in Saskatoon, who developed the rapid- breeding project for table grapes and is now consulting with North Dakota State University’s new grape breeding program).

3. Vineyard Nitrogen Fertilizer application chart for 30 or 50 lbs of nitrogen/acre, NDGGA: http://www.ndgga.org/userfiles/file/PDF%20files/GRAPE%20FERTILIZER%20CHART.pdf

Calendar of Events:

June 12, 9 a.m. NWGGA Eastern Field Day at Deer Springs Winery, http://agronomy.unl.edu/viticulture/

June 12, 9 a.m. Ed Swanson Grape Grafting Workshop at Middle River Vineyard, 2957 183rd Avenue, Carlisle, Iowa 50047 Contact Randall Vos at [email protected] or 515-965-7310

June 12, 9 a.m. NWGGA Western Nebraska Field Day at Ellen & Ellen & Bruce Brudick’s vineyard, 17 Ranch Winery, 304 Main St., Lewellen, NE, http://agronomy.unl.edu/viticulture/

June 12, 9 a.m. MVGGA - Advanced Canopy Mgt Workshop, Peterson Vineyard and DeJa Vine Winery-2161 Linn Grove Rd. Martelle, IA. Contact: Ian Bonnette [email protected] or 563-588-1854.

June 14, 4 p.m. NWGGA Grafting & Tail Gate Field Day, Schillingbridge Winery and Microbrewery, Pawnee City, NE: http://agronomy.unl.edu/viticulture/

June 15, 7 p.m. Northwest Iowa Grape Growers Association Location to be announced.

June 19, 10 a.m. Kansas Grape Growers & Winemakers Association , Crooked Post Vineyard, 10251 130th St., Valley Falls, Contact Lori Henderson at 785-224-7959 or

June 20-25 American Society of Enology and Viticulture National Conference, Seattle, WA: http://asev.org/annual-meeting-2010/

July 13-15 American Society of Enology and Viticulture Eastern Section 2010 Conference, Geneva, NY: http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/fst/asev/2010-information.php

July 19, Multi-state Viticulture Field Day, ISU Armstrong Research Farm, Lewis, IA: Details later. Contact Paul Domoto at [email protected] or 515-961-0035

July 24, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Seventh Farm Vineyard Field Day, Richard Black Vineyard, 3228 Zenia Ave, Farnhamville, IA

8 July 24, 2010 (Tentative) – 2010 Minnesota Grape Growers Assn. Annual Picnic, Janesville, MN. Look for futher details here: http://www.mngrapes.org/events/

July 29 ISU All Horticulture Field Day, ISU Horticulture Research Farm, Gilbert, IA http://www.hort.iastate.edu/news/

August 1-5 10th International Grapevine Breeding and Genetics Conference, Geneva, NY http://www.grapebreeding2010.com

August 21 5th Annual North Dakota Grape Growers Association Grape Harvest Festival, Red Trail Vineyard at Buffalo, ND. Contact Liane Stout, event coordinator at 701-633-5000.

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http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Wine/Resources/winegrowernews.htm

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Michael L. White, ISU Extension Viticulture Specialist 909 East 2nd St. Suite E, Indianola, IA 50125-2892 ph: 515-961-6237, fax: 6017 or [email protected]

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