VERAISOŃ TO HARVEST Statewide Vineyard Crop Development Update #4 September 29, 2017 Edited by Tim Martinson and Chris Gerling Around New York... Statewide (Tim Martinson) This week’s samples, taken on Monday Sept 25, reflect warmer weather since the last sampling period a week earlier. The warm weather really started around September 15, with highs in the 80s and lows in the 60s. But from Saturday through Wednesday, daytime temperatures spiked into the 90s – and lows, typically in the 50s in the Finger Lakes at this time of the year, were about 10 degrees warmer than average. Loose Clustered Vignoles Clone. We harvested clusters from the clonal Vignoles planting at the station yesterday. The standard ('tight clus- tered' vignoles) clone is compared with 15 other selections that have looser clusters. Downy mildew is still active in the canopy. Photo by Tim Martinson Figure 1. Daily temperatures at Geneva in September. Dotted lines indi- cate dates when our Veraison to Harvest samples were taken. Figure by Tim Martinson When its extremely warm and sunny, we expect this to reduce acidity more rapidly (higher temperatures = higher rate of respiration and more use of acids to support metabolism), but not necessarily change the rate of sugar Figure 2. Changes in titratable acidity (TA, left) and soluble solids (right) from 9/18 to 9/25. accumulation (from photosynthesis). And hot weather Figure by Tim Martinson increases transpiration for evaporative cooling of leaves. Downy Mildew in grape canopies (see photo) still seems We didn’t see any radical shift in the rate of sugar like the most noticeable issue that some growers are facing. accumulation or acid reduction this week (see fruit Now as we pass into October, we are hitting the peak composition table pp. 6-10). In fact averaged over all harvesting season over the next few weeks. varieties, the change in soluble solids averaged 1.2 °Brix This week, new Area Extension specialist Jim Meyers has (similar to last week’s gain of 1.19 °Brix), but the acids written an article about the use of drones for evaluating dropped less this week (-1.65 g/l) .than last week’s -2.65 g/l your vineyard (See article, p3-5). drop. Mid- to Late-season grapes (see figures) saw their numbers change the most, while numbers leveled off for Long Island (Alice Wise) those closer to harvest. The Cornell viticulture class made its annual trek to Long Page 1 Island last Monday. Kudos to instructors Justine Van- den Heuvel and Kathy Arnink for making sure their students are exposed to all the state’s growing regions. Much of the east coast was spared the wrath of Hur- ricane Maria as it made an abrupt turn into the Atlan- tic this week thanks to an advancing high pressure system. Rough surf continues on the ocean beaches, otherwise it has seemed more like July than Septem- ber. There have been 11 days of summer-like 80’s this month, even >90F in some spots. Along with a hefty dose of humidity, this has made for sweltering condi- tions for grape picking. Cornell Students in Justine Vanden Heuvel's viticulture class The warm, dry weather (<3” in September) has given visited Long Island last week. Alice Wise, Suffolk CCE grape spe- a large and rather sudden push to ripening. At the cialist is at right. research vineyard, all the white varieties other than Photo by Justine Vanden Heuvel Chardonnay were picked. Fruit integrity was good fections that were starting up before the sun and heat with spots of Botrytis and sour rot, largely thanks to set in. The dry conditions will also help in limiting the swarming yellow jackets. Minor field sorting was amount of rot getting a hold in the tight-clustered wine enough to deal with this. varieties. Reports of Brown Marmorated Stink bugs One variety, Semillon, suffered from some desiccation are showing an increase from other years but they ap- of the rachis. This is unusual, never seen in these vines, pear to be more of a concern in residential areas than and reflects some combination of weather/drought in vineyards at this time. stress. Finger Lakes (Hans Walter-Peterson) Harvest continued in the industry with blocks of Char- One of the things that I’ve learned during my time in donnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Gewürztraminer being the Finger Lakes is that the story of the growing season picked. Though harvest of white varieties is a week or is never really written until September is behind us. We so behind normal, the progress of Bordeaux reds seems have had seasons before when it seemed like the rain right on schedule. This may lead to a fairly compressed wouldn’t stop and the sun didn’t come out very often, harvest season raising concerns about the quality of that year’s grape Lake Erie (Tim Weigle) crop. But as happened in 2013 and 2014, September has come through for us with sun, heat, and less rain. Sunny skies and warm temperatures dominated this past week with record setting high temperatures 3 In a year where every month has been wetter than days in a row as areas of the Lake Erie region hit, or normal, September will be the first one this year to be flirted with, 90 degrees. drier than average, and probably by quite a bit. While the lack of rain has been helpful, even more beneficial Harvest is in full swing and you can see the juice trails has probably been the heat that the region was bathed on the pavement where the trucks have made turns in for almost 2 weeks, and especially that last several on their way to the processing plants. While high days until yesterday. Temperatures in the mid to up- temperatures were in the mid-80’s on Wednesday of per 80s, along with well-watered vines, helped to push this week, the area will be lucky to hit a high of 65 F ripening (i.e., brix accumulation and acid degradation) on Thursday. All is not lost for those vineyards still a bit faster than they normally would. This has been searching to gain sugar, or hit the right balance of at- a good thing, because many vineyards are looking at tributes for the winemakers. pretty large crops that are taking a bit longer than nor- Temperatures will not be as warm, but sunny to partly mal to ripen. sunny skies are forecasted for the next two weeks with Much of the Pinot noir in the region was picked during rain forecasted for only Friday of this week. If there is the past week, and Chardonnay and Gewürztraminer such a thing as a “normal” harvest, 2017 is not shaping is starting to arrive at crush pads as well. We will be up to be one. picking Grüner Veltliner at the Teaching Vineyard to- While members of harvest crews typically have cool day, but we might be the first ones to be doing that as weather and rainfall to deal with, they have traded rain far as I can tell. Concords started to roll in at Constel- suits for T-shirts and are hoping the air conditioning in lation this week also. The recent “drought” seems to the tractors holds up. These dry conditions will help have slowed Concord berry growth, but berry size in to slow the spread of powdery and downy mildew in- our two samples here are still well above a normal 3.0 Page 2 gram berry. In the realm of hybrids, most of the re- gion’s Cayuga White has been picked, but not all of it, Dr. Strangelove II or: and a couple of growers have been harvesting Vignoles How I Learned to Stop Worrying this week as well. and Love the Drone We are just getting into the heart of harvest now, and Jim Meyers with a lot of this year’s grape crop still hanging out in vineyards right now, October is shaping up to be a Eastern NY Commercial Horticulture Program busy month for growers and winemakers in the Finger Lakes.. Hudson Valley and Champlain (Jim Meyers) "There's only two songs in me, and I just wrote the third." -- They Might Be Giants As a frustrated songwriter, I have come to accept that composing two good songs during the useful remain- der of my life is probably a lofty goal. That might sound a little sad, but what if one of the two was so good that it was still being played and reinterpreted 100 years from now? Of course I would be too dead to appreciate the success, but it could still be fun in a time-is-not-linear sort of way. There is a joke that your hammer will always find nails to hit. I find The French grape breeder, François Baco, purportedly that perfectly acceptable. -- Benoit Mandelbrot produced over 5000 French-American crosses during the five decades he spent trying to improve on culti- I recently acquired a new hammer, in the form of an vars used for Armagnac brandy. He is remembered aerial drone, and have been out hovering over vine- for just two of these cultivars: Baco Noir most promi- yards looking for nails. I have found many and will nently, and Baco Blanc. There is strong evidence that describe some here after first deconstructing the collo- both were created very early in his career and that Baco quial use of the term ’drone’ to clarify the key concepts Noir, released in 1910 and his most successful, was involved and to compare strengths and weakness of also one of his first.