Espalier maintenance

Back in 1970, when I was quite young, I went on a student tour to Europe.   I got to spend several weeks in England, and one of the places we were taken to was Hampton Court Palace.   I recall that I was pretty much bored by all the rooms and history, but the gardens really enthralled me, the Great Vine and the Great Wisteria really caught my imagination. In the walled kitchen gardens, there were fruit trees espaliered against the garden walls, and I seem to recall the guide telling us that some of them were hundreds of years old. Don’t quote me on this, actually, because it WAS almost 40 years ago that I had this experience.

Anyway, I do remember the beautifully managed and sculptured trees, trained so flat against the protective stone walls. Over the years I have seen other espaliers in other places, and that method of fruit production always interested me.

When Jim and I decided we wanted to plant some apple and pear trees, we were looking around the place for a site, and I mentioned that I had always wanted to try espalier.  Jim agreed that this method of training fruit trees had interested him as well, and we had the perfect place along the long driveway back to the barn to try our hands at it.

So, we went off to the internet to get some information on how one goes about establishing espalier fruit trees.  We found an article by Ron Wade of the Royal Horticultural Society, “The Gentle Art of Espalier” from Kitchen Gardener Magazine. I would love to include a link to this article, because it was extremely complete and informative, but apparently it is no longer available on the web.  At least I can’t find it.  I apologize that it isn’t available.

We ordered 5 apples and 2 pears, all dwarfs as was recommended in the article, from J.E. Miller nurseries, and planted them. That was back in 2001, and now our little trees are fairly well established. This is a view of our row of espaliered trees taken a couple of days ago.

As you can see, it is all quite bushy and all the trees have numerous sun sprouts covering them.   This is actually not ideal, as part of the deal with espalier is that you are supposed to keep the trees trained and in control.   Every year, I tell myself that I am going to get out there every week and keep the sprouts from getting out of control, but so far that promise has not been kept very well. 

Last year I didn’t prune them back at all, and wound up trimming them this spring while they were blooming because I wasn’t sure where the fruit buds were going to occur and I didn’t want to risk cutting them (and the entire crop) off.  

Anyway, I got down to work and did some remedial pruning on them yesterday afternoon.   This is how the little pear tree looked before I began working on it.

There is a lot of overgrowth on this tree.   It seems to have no lack of energy for growing, and I have to keep after this one assiduously to keep it from getting this badly overgrown.   I began at the right side, and started cutting off all the extra sprouts.   The espalier instructions we are following tell you to cut sprouts like this back to one or two leaves.   So that is what I did.  I also kept a lookout for unnecessary branches, ones that the tree sends straight up from the branches that are called sun sprouts.

Bear in mind that this tree was pruned back to the small branches back in April, and had absolutely no vertical growth on it at that time.   In three months, it has put on all this growth.

Here are a couple of pictures that I took of one area of this tree where you can sort of follow my decision making process regarding pruning.  On the left is the before picture, and on the right is the after picture of the same area.

When you look closely at the “before” picture, you can see that there is a definite color change in the bark on the sprouts where they “took off” to grow tall this summer.   You can also see that there were some sprouts that I chose to eliminate completely.  

When I was done, and had tied the branches to the support wire, the whole tree looked like this:

One of the beauties of espalier is that when the trees are properly managed, there is plenty of air circulation around and through the tree.   This helps control mildew.   It also makes it extremely easy to look for insect pests, since the tree is right down at your level.   Unfortunately, it also makes it easy for the damn squirrels to get at the fruit, and this pear tree, which used to have a crop of several dozen pears, now only has two pears on it, thanks to the pesky little tree rats.

You may be wondering about the gap between this pear and the apple behind it.   This gap is there because the pear that was planted there (a Bartlett) was not particularly resistant to disease.  It got infected with fire blight, which I tried to control by pruning off the diseased sections.   Ultimately, the infection was not deterred by this, and in short order it got transferred to the next apple along the line.   We could envision losing our entire espalier orchard to fire blight, so we did the only thing possible.  We removed the pear tree and burned it.

The infected apple we tried to save by pruning it all the way back to where there was only one side branch (cordon) and the trunk leading up to it.   That appeared to work; at least we have not noticed another recurrence of fire blight.  Last year, it put up a new leader and a new lower cordon branch, which I trained.   Eventually, the leader put out a side branch as well, and I trained the left side of the upper cordon.   All that growth happened last year, and this spring I was hoping hard for a branch to form for the right cordon.   When I pruned it in the spring, I saw a tiny sprout in an appropriate place, and so I talked nicely to the tree, and pruned back a lot of the extraneous growth in hopes that that shoot would grow.

I also removed most of the apples it set so the tree could put all its energy into growing branches.   When I addressed the espalier row yesterday, this is how the little tree had responded to my earlier work.

Look at that nice long, tall branch at the center right!   I cut back all the sun sprouts to the suggested level, and trained the new branch to the wire.   When I was done, the little tree looked like this:

It won’t take it long for all those leaves to turn themselves toward the sun.   I imagine the tree will start making some side branches along that cordon as well.

For comparison, this is the Granny Smith apple (before pruning)  that is a couple of places up the line from this tree.  She never had the fire blight bacteria, and so she never had to go through the kind of whack job that the apple above ( a Lodi) went through.   She does have a pretty bad infection of cedar apple rust, although it doesn’t seem to be affecting production particularly.  I have no hopes of controlling the rust, since the whole region is well supplied with cedars.   (the books say that you must remove all cedars within a quarter of a mile of your apples to completely control cedar apple rust.  I don’t think my neighbors would appreciate me cutting down all their cedars!)  Hopefully, we will be able to have some of these apples if the squirrel doesn’t mind.

It took a couple of hours, but after I was done the row of trees looked like this.

Now, if i can just manage to get out there and pinch back the sprouts before they get more than two to six leaves on them the way the man says I ought to!

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It’s all garden, mostly

First, the News of the Day, orange version:

Now, I could do a version that was pink and purple, but I think I’ll save that for another day.

The weatherman promised us an 80% chance of rain today, with accumulations from 1/2 to 1 1/2 inches.   It did indeed sprinkle off and on all day, but we didn’t get more than about a couple of tenths of an inch.   It was enough to make the humidity right around 100%, while the cloud cover kept it from getting horrendously hot.  

There were several massages to do today, all of which went very well.   In addition to that, I spent some productive time in the garden.

I cleaned out the broccoli the other day, and today I cleaned out the area of the lettuce patch that had gone to seed.   The little beets I had planted in there didn’t make it, I guess they got overwhelmed by the lettuce.  I have some kale started next to where the broccoli was, and it is doing nicely.   I was checking it over for cabbage looper worms, since there are some holes in it.   I did not find a lot of the caterpillars, and was musing on why that might be when I turned over a kale leaf and disturbed a little yellow wasp that was eating a cabbage looper caterpillar.   Guess that accounts for the small population of worms.   Go wasps!!

Anyway, I got out my wonderful broad fork and loosened up the soil where the broccoli had been, then planted a row of lettuces and a row of mesclun there.   Jim helped me put some shade cloth over the  area after I got the rows planted.  We are hoping the shade cloth will make it so that the greens actually germinate and thrive.   Last year I tried to start greens this time of the year and it was so hot they didn’t bother to do anything until this spring, when the patch suddenly sprouted just in time for me to transplant them into the new lettuce patch.  

I also planted a couple of hills of zucchini.   The experiment in stabbing the squash vine borers to death seemed to kill them fairly effectively, but not before the plants were so impacted by the damage that they were badly set back.   While they are starting to recover, they have not produced very many squash.   The book we like to use about companion planting, “Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening” by Lousie Riotte, tells us that frequently a late summer crop of squash avoids the fly that lays the squash borer eggs.   We shall see if this works.   It if doesn’t I may be reduced to buying zucchini to roast for our winter supply.

I also canned the first tomato puree of the season, got 5 very pretty pints.   Blanched and froze a batch of eggplant for future reference.   Got the plums I froze yesterday packaged up, and put the green beans Jim blanched yesterday (and froze, of course) into a package also.  We now have two gallons of green beans frozen, and the plants have just really gotten going.  Soon I will need to pull the carrots.  

We’ve been eating cucumbers on a daily basis, and I picked enough tiny Parisian Pickling cucumbers to start a batch of sweet gherkins.   I will be starting some dill pickles as soon as I accumulate a few more larger cucumbers.   The accumulation of larger cukes has been slowed down considerably by the fact that we were picking the cukes when they were 1-2 inches long for the gherkin project.  

Smokey is on another “Let’s play with the dog’s head” kick.   He’ll walk over and stare her in the face, and then give her a friendly head bump, which makes her extremely nervous because Smokey is wont to smack her with all claws out for no particular reason.  

Our house has a circular traffic pattern built in.   You can access the family/dining room from the hall or the kitchen.   The hall runs down to the “formal” living room past the front door.   You can access the kitchen from the living room as well as the family room.

This afternoon I was headed out to the garden, Ruby was in the family room and Smokey was in the kitchen.   I know that Ruby likes to go with me when I go out to the garden because there are rabbits that need to be chased, so I called her from the back door.   I heard her get up and start towards the kitchen, and then there was a deadly silence.   I peeked around the corner, and there was Smokey standing in the family room doorway, giving Ruby the Evil Eye.

“Just where do you think you are going?”  he seemed to be saying.  

“My girl has called me, I must go to her,” the dog was communicating apologetically.

“Not if you are going to trespass on my Personal Space, you aren’t.”

Ruby thought about it for a while, and then turned around, went to the hall, down the hall and through the living room.   By the time she got to the door from the living room to the kitchen, Smokey had moved over there and was standing there with the same attitude, blocking her passage once again.   Ruby stopped, stymied.

“SMOKEY!   Be nice to Ruby!” I said, rather sharply.   All I got was an irritated tail twitch as he continued to stare down the poor dog.

I finally had to come into the kitchen to give Ruby safe passage past the horrible huge mean cat.

Honestly.  Sometimes I wonder.  Can there be peace in our time?

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I Seem to Have Caught a Meme

I found this meme over on Anthromama’s site, followed her link back to Helen’s place,  and it intrigued me.   Since I have not actually gotten around to taming my espaliered trees, so I can’t do that post as I promised, I thought I would do this one and maybe I’ll get around to the trees mañana.  So, here goes.

1.  My uncle once: took us for a ride out to Point Reyes Station in his antique classic 1930s vintage Cadillac.

2.  Never in my life: have I been so drunk I did not remember what I did during the evening.   too bad, there are some things I did while under the influence that I wish I could not remember!

3.  When I was five:  I learned to bake bread.

4.  I will never forget:  how I felt the second I saw Jim for the very first time as he was climbing up the stairs of my apartment.  (Oh those dungarees!)  Rafting on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.  Standing on top of Long’s Peak after climbing to the summit.  Cruising through the Bering Straits in a howling gale of 35 knot winds and 30 foot seas aboard the NOAA ship Discoverer.

5.  High School was: hell on earth.

6.  I once met: Artur Rubinstein. 

7.  There’s this girl I know who: works for the Barack Obama campaign.

8.  Once, at a bar: I lost my gold nugget wedding ring in the sawdust and had 4 people crawling around under the table looking for it.  We found it!

9.  By noon, I’m usually: ready for lunch. 

10.  Last night: I actually fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. 

11.  If I only had: bought the IPO of Microsoft stock when I had the opportunity. 

12.  Next time I go to church: The door frames will probably burst into flames. 

13.  What worries me most: is global warming and the alarming way the vast majority of people in the world are ignoring it. 

14.  When I turn my head left, I see: a photo montage of my husband as an infant. 

15.  When I turn my head right, I see: the green leather couch, the plant shelves in the dining room, and the kitchen.  And my handsome husband.

16.  You know I’m lying when: Hell freezes over.  I don’t lie. 

17.  What I miss most about the eighties: is living in San Francisco, going to Ocean Beach at two o’clock in the morning and walking in the fog, driving out to Point Reyes on Bay-to-Breakers Sunday, walking up through the Golden Gate Park to Just Desserts for a banana split.

18.  If I was a character in Shakespeare, I’d be: Puck. 

19.  By this time next year: my son will be home from Iraq.  Hopefully he won’t also be suffering from PTS.

20.  A better name for me would be: The dragon rider.  

21.  I have a hard time understanding: people who are racists.  And also people who litter. 

22.  If I ever go back to school, I’ll: study watercolor and writing. 

23.  You know I like you if: I invite you to go floating with me. 

24.  If I ever won an award, the first person I’d thank would be: my darling husband who made it all possible by being my main support, back-up team and encourager. 

25.  Take my advice, never: spend money you don’t have. 

26.  My ideal breakfast is: a fruit and yogurt smoothie.   Or belgian waffles with blueberry compote. 

27.  A song I love, but do not have is: I can’t think of any. 

28.  If you visit my hometown, I suggest: you bring a good book.   

29.  Why won’t people: stop seeing each other’s color and join the One Human Race instead. 

30.  If you spend the night at my house:  you will be plied with wine while be taken on a tour of my gardens. 

31.  I’d stop my wedding for: nothing. 

32.  The world could do without: streetlights.

33.  I’d rather lick the belly of a cockroach than: shake John McCain’s hand.  Or George Bush’s for that matter.

34.  My favorite blonde is: Bette Midler.   She is blonde, isn’t she?

35.  Paper clips are more useful than: high heels.

36.  If I do anything well, it’s: give a great massage. 

37.  And by the way: I wonder what the other three things were in this meme?

 

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Your Honor, My Plea Is Temporary Insanity

Well, I sort of stepped over the line of rationality this weekend.  See, what happened was I went off on a little trip to Branson with my friend Jeri, who is definitely a Black Belt in shopping.   (I am merely Grasshopper, having little talent for this particular martial art.   But she believes she can overcome my aversion, and we have fun anyway.) 

This trip was serving a dual purpose, as we have a friend who is the general manager of a restaurant/pub at Branson Landing (an upscale shopping center), and he was wanting us to come sample the wares of the place.   Since he has a “certain position” and that position has perks associated with it, he was proposing to comp our dinners and a portion of our drinks, plus he has an apartment down in Branson so we would have a place to stay the night.  And there was shopping available.  With inducements like that, how could we not go? 

The other purpose of the trip was to get some use out of the season passes to Silver Dollar City that Jeri won at her office Christmas party last December.  (The two of us feeling a need to visit an “attraction” was evidence of incipient madness anyway, don’t you know.)

The shopping was, well, shopping.  I did learn an important principle of the black belt shopper:  Always go straight to the back of the store, that is where the sale items are.   Not that I necessarily want them, but that is where the best bargains are. 

The pub was great.   There was live music, about 20 different imported and micro-brewery beers on tap, and some truly excellent food.   Jeri had chicken pot pie and I had an Irish seafood bake, which was like a shepherd’s pie made with seafood rather than beef.   Both were made on the premises (not frozen microwaved concoctions) and quite excellent.  We sampled some of the beers while enjoying the rather good Irish balladeer who was singing, and then headed off to the hotel room that our host had procured for us.

He was not actually with us, since in between our making these plans and the execution of them he came down with a bad case of pneumonia and was home with a fever while we were out gallivanting around.

And gallivant we did.   He gave us directions to the hotel, but in the dark and rain we missed the place, which was about half a block off the main drag, with its sign partially obscured by wind blown trees and, well, rain.   After we had driven all the way through Branson, out the other side, and nearly gotten to Silver Dollar City (which is several miles outside of Branson, by the way), we decided that perhaps we should try to acquire directions from someone who was not suffering from a high fever.  (Well, we also did not want to interrupt our host’s rest, he definitely needed it.  Pneumonia is no joke.)  So we stopped at a convenience store and asked for directions, much to the amusement of the clerk.   She knew exactly where our hotel was, and gave us great directions on how to get there from the hinterlands where we were.   I’m sure that as we drove off I could hear her muttering “Bloody tourists,” or words to that effect.  

After a good night’s sleep, we arose and set out for our day at Silver Dollar City.   We got there in good shape, and proceeded to walk around a bit.  We enjoyed watching the potter at work in the pottery shop as well as the glass blowers who were producing beautiful vases right before our very eyes.   There was an interesting basket shop with an old gentleman out front making oak split baskets  (well, maple split really, but the concept remains).   I managed to resist the urge to purchase another basket, knowing that this would be considered by my loving spouse to be an unreasonable addition to the already extensive collection of baskets extant in our our abode.

We enjoyed a couple of shows.  ”Gossamer Magic” was fun.  The magician specialized in truly awful jokes and illusions where his assistant was cut in half or divided into eight parts or squeezed down into an amazingly small space.  To the life of me I cannot understand how they do that stuff.   It was fun.   We also went to see the “Circus on Ice”, which should have been entitled ”The Most Amazing Juggler You Ever Saw”.   The juggler was the “Ring Master” of a troupe of quite good professional ice skaters dressed up in animal and other circus character costumes.  He awed us mightily with his prowess at juggling before the actual show, and then proceeded to do it while on ice skates.  The most intriguing and awe inspiring thing he did was solve a Rubik’s Cube while  he was juggling it and  two other balls.  Since I can do neither of these things, I was quite impressed that he could do them at the same time, without dropping any of the things he was juggling, plus he solved the cube in less than three minutes.   He was pretty funny too.  One joke I particularly remember involved him stating before he began the Rubik’s cube trick, “When I decided to learn to do this trick and I realized how much practice it was going to take, I went to my psychiatrist and asked him to give me Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.”

Now, if you don’t already think I may have lost my mind by agreeing to travel to Branson on a Saturday in July, which is a notoriously bad traffic day for that city, and also by agreeing to go shopping, which is an activity I normally avoid like the plague, this next activity is what is causing me to plead temporary insanity.

I realize that there are many people in the world who actively seek out roller coasters, the more adrenaline producing the better.   Jeri and I had enjoyed the “Lost River of the Ozarks” ride, which is a tame “rafting” experience, and the big water slide that totally soaks you as go down it in rubber rafts.   It was a pretty hot Sunday afternoon, so being wet was a good thing, actually.   (At least it was until I developed a rash from whatever chemicals it is they put in the water to keep it from turning green and harboring disease organisms.)(It is all better now, thanks for asking.)

Anyway, while we were enjoying riding around the park on the Silver Dollar City Railroad (which, incidentally, involves a very silly skit involving would be train robbers and our Conductor), our attention was directed towards the Wildfire  roller coaster.  We decided that this ride looked intriguing from the train, and thought we would check it out.   After we actually arrived on the observation platform and looked at the ride in operation, Jeri opined that she thought that since she was actually on a cardiac medicine, perhaps it would not be a good idea for her to partake of this particular ride.  

Now honestly, I am not a roller coaster sort of person ordinarily, but perhaps the chlorine from the water slide or the bad jokes at the shows had affected my brain function.   After some sort of vague thought-like process went on that involved rationalizations like “Little children seem to be eager to get on this thing, how bad could it be?” and “People don’t usually die on roller coasters” and “Oh, what the hell, I should just do it” (and I don’t even wear Nikes!), I actually got in line for this ride. 

Please do not assume alcohol was in any way involved in this decision making process.   Silver Dollar City is a “family” theme park owned and operated by Good Christians.  No alcohol is available there and their minions will escort you summarily off the premises if they catch you consuming any that you happened to bring along with you as an antidote to all the “good clean christian family fun” you experience there.

Anyway, I gave my purse and other loose items (prohibited on the ride — a clue!) to Jeri, and proceeded to the boarding area.   There was no long line in which to wait and reconsider my decision, and within seconds I was on the “train.”  The ride attendants strap you in, and I do mean strap, too.  I’m sure  liability lawyers had something to do with the safety equipment.   But I digress.

The seat you sit in is molded in such a way that there is a protrusion between your thighs that is about four or five inches high so you can’t accidentally (or on purpose) slip forward out of the seat during the gyrations of the ride.   That should have been another clue, as should have been the fact that the seats were high enough your feet do not touch the floor of the ride.  I should probably have just walked right through the ride and out the exit, but I allowed the attendant to swing down the shoulder restraint and snap it closed with the seat belt arrangement that held it in place.   I don’t think I could have been better restrained if I had been an Indy car driver or a jet fighter pilot.

While the rest of the insane people  riders were being similarly restrained, I had about twenty seconds to ruminate over my decision to actually go on the ride.  Then it took off, and it was too late.  As the car climbed to the top of the first drop I kept asking myself, “How bad could it be, really?”

It was bad.

I swear to God the first drop goes absolutely straight down vertically, although Jim assures me it was probably not more than a 60° angle. And after that you fly up and over a hump that turns you actually sideways to the ground, and that is about when I decided that my best bet was to close my eyes tightly and assume as close to the fetal position as I could while strapped into my chair apparatus, and just wait for the whole terrifying process to be over. 

I did open my eyes a couple of times during the ride.  The first time just happened to be in the middle of one of the loop-the-loops and so I was looking straight DOWN at the ground which was about a thousand miles away and so I immediately slammed my eyelids shut again.   I opened them again a few seconds later (don’t ask me why, I certainly don’t know) and this time I was being swung out sideways.   “FUCK” I screamed, mightily offending the gentleman accompanied by two young boys who was sitting to my right, I’m sure.  “It will be over soon” I reassured my screaming inner child, and indeed it was, and not a moment too soon.

I thanked God, fumbled weakly at the restraint clip, and it mercifully released before the next group of riders began to board.  I did not actually kiss the ground, but I was muttering the mantra “Never again” as I tottered off to meet Jeri, who was laughing at me cruelly.   “They take videos, you know,” she informed me. 

“Oh, I’m sure that a picture of me curled up with my eyes squinched shut wouldn’t be very interesting,” was my response.   We walked over to the video sales desk anyway, and there before my very eyes was proof that somewhere during the ride I had my eyes wide open.   There in front of all the world to see was a video clip featuring yours truly, stopped at the moment when I had my teeth clenched together, my eyes bugging out of my head, and my mouth arranged in a nearly impossible grimace of terror.  I looked rather like this tiki god image.  Jim tells me I should have bought the photo, it would have made a great tag to the post.   Sorry, folks, you’ll just have to use your imagination on this one.  I don’t need that picture scaring children for all eternity.

All I can say is, I must have been crazy to do it.   But not nearly as crazy as the young things that were looking at their videos and saying “Oh, we have to go ride again.   That video didn’t turn out right!” as they were rushing off to the loading area for the next run around the track.

If you ever hear me opining that I might want to repeat such an experience in the future, please apply the nearest straight jacket and take me somewhere where there are alcoholic beverages and dose me with them.

Goodness knows I can’t use the excuse that I was drunk at the time, so I must have been suffering from temporary insanity.  It is the only explanation I have!

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The fungus among us

One of the things you learn very quickly when you grow grapes is how very attractive they are to all sorts of organisms.   Insects love to dine on the prolific leaves, birds and squirrels find the fruit delectable, and  rabbits, deer and other herbivores find them tasty.  In spite of all those competitors, by far the most difficult thing to combat for an organic gardener is another, more insidious parasite.

That would be the fungi that are ubiquitous on the earth.  Given that there are estimated to be something like 15 million varieties of fungus known in the world, and that the earth’s largest living organism seems to be a fungus colony in Oregon, you might start to think that the battle to keep your grapes simply grapes is lost before even begun.

Fortunately, when you look in the various references available regarding viticulture, you learn that fungi are not nearly the problem that viruses are.   The standard advice seems to be to plant varieties that are resistant to the fungus.

We planted four varieties of grape when we established our vineyard.   All of them were reputed to be fungus resistant, but “resistance” is (apparently) subject to interpretation.  The varieties we planted are all hardy in this zone.   Our rows are Chambourcin, Beta (a variety developed by the Univesity of Minnesota), Baco Noir, and Marechal Foch.   What we have really found success with are the Marechal Foch and the Baco Noir.   The Beta doesn’t seem to set fruit readily, and the Chambourcin is not the slightest bit resistant to funguses, at least not in our setting.

There are tomes written on fungus control.   What we can use here is powdered sulfur or the traditional Bordeaux mix.   We used sulfur the first year we had grapes, and so much of it stayed on the grapes that our wine ended up tasting and smelling like sulfur, and was barely drinkable.   We switched to Bordeaux mix, which is more challenging because it washes off the vines so readily.   Every time it rains, you must reapply it in order to get the anti-fungal benefit.  It is most effective if freshly mixed, and so that is what Jim does here.  He keeps stock solutions of copper sulfate and hydrated lime on hand so that he can put together a batch quickly.  

Our biggest problem in our vineyard is Black Rot.  It attacks the leaves and fruit depending on which item the spore lights on.   The best protection is for your grapes and grapevines to stay dry.   If they are dry, the spore cannot bloom and attack.  We have had so much rain this year, black rot has been a constant battle.   It was so bad in the Chambourcin row that we had to take out all the fruit to control the spread, so we will have no crop from that row this year.

Black rot looks like this on the leaves:

Notice the rusty red spots.  They start very small, and grow.  The tissue eventually falls out of the hole.  On the grape berries, it starts out by starting a color change in the grape that initially looks like it may be ripening early.   But you soon learn that is not the case, and if you leave it be, it looks like this:

In addition to using Bordeaux mix to control it, vineyard hygiene is extremely important in controlling the spread of this disease.   The little raisinlike berries fall to the ground and form what is referred to as mummies.  The following spring the mummies burst and spread spores through your vineyard, starting the cycle all over again. 

Jim spends quite some time each day during the rainy periods going through the vineyard and removing the infected grapes and leaves.  These go into our trash bin for disposal.  

We have also toyed with the idea of installing huge commercial greenhouses over the vineyard rows, making a roof that would keep the rain off the vines and thereby keeping them dry and less susceptible to fungal infections.   Now THAT would make for some expensive home-made wine!

This is far from an exhaustive list of what you can do to control fungus in the vineyard, but since we are organic gardeners and farmers, all the myriad chemical ways of dealing with this problem will not be covered here.

Meanwhile, the Marechal Foch are starting to ripen, and we have put the row cover over that row.   There are virtually no grapes on the Beta row, it did not set berries even though it flowered.  We never saw any pollinators out there, so evidently the bees do not like this grape as well as they like the other things (notably clover) that are available to them.   The Chambourcin we removed all the fruit from to prevent mummy formation.    Next week we will put the row cover on the Baco Noir row.

So there will be some wine produced at the Havens this year.   Not as much as we would like, but a significant amount.    And the discussions about removing the first two rows and replacing them with grapes that will produce and are fungus resistant continue.

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