The winter of 2004/2005 certainly had it’s moments here in Prince Edward County. With far less snow than usual and extremely mild temperatures leading up to Christmas, we thought that we might get through without the same kind of damage that the bitterly cold winter of 03/04 brought to area vineyards. We suffered one very cold snap for just a couple of days in mid-December, then temperatures climbed to a record 17 degrees C in early January. This kept the nearby waters of Lake Ontario open throughout the winter and this undoubtedly helped moderate the coldest temperatures through the rest of January and February.

Grapevines produce their fruiting buds in the late summer and autumn of each year. These buds must last through the winter to produce fruit in the upcoming season. In other words, the fruit always comes on 2nd year wood from buds that were originally formed the year before. As a result, in marginal climate areas there is always a risk of loosing these buds to the cold. Snow acts as an effective insulator, but in years like 2004/05 when there is too little snow for any real impact, these dangers can loom large.

Many growers have taken to burying canes to protect the all important fruiting buds from winter injury. Although this is a labour intensive practice, it is one of the ways to assure production of fruit following bitterly cold and damaging winters.

It remains to be seen how the vines in Prince Edward County have faired this year, especially in areas close to Lake Ontario where the warmth of the lake will most certainly have mitigated winter losses.

Spring is trying hard to push winter out of it’s way. The sun has begun to shine for days on end and the temperatures have begun to warm, slowly, as well. Dormant pruning of the vines is mostly complete (as much as 80% of the vine’s established growth will be pruned away before the sap starts to flow in the spring) and buried canes have been uncovered and tied to trellis wires in expectation of the budding and growth that is to be expected over the next 2 months. By the middle to the end of June, the fruitful buds will produce flowers and from these will set the bunches of grapes that slowly grow and ripen through the summer and early fall and eventually provide the ripened fruit from which our wines are made.

Between now and flowering there will be a number of jobs to complete. Once the pruning is finished, all of the cuttings will be gathered and removed from the vineyard. They may be burned or composted. Once this is done, the canes which are left to produce fruit this year must be trained and tied up on the trellis wires. This helps spread the growth out which not only exposes as much leaf area to sun, as possible but also encourages an open canopy which will allow better air movement. This, in turn, is an effective preventative measure discouraging the growth of mildew and other fungi and diseases. The best way to avoid the need for an abundance of spray in vineyards is to provide the vines with a clean, disease free environment in which to grow.

Cleaning the row middles, between the vines, removes weeds that compete with the vines for water and nutrient as well as eliminating the habitat for fungi and other pests that can ultimately damage the grape crop for the year.

So, this time of year is not very glamorous, but success now will lead to a great harvest in the fall!