ARS Grape Trial Meeting Minutes

West Madison ARS, Feb. 15, 2011

Present: Brent McCown, Phil Holman, Dick Weidman, Dean Volenberg, Judy Reith-Rozelle, Rebecca
Harbut

Spooner 2010 Report

- May frost and late snow - Vines died back to about 1.5’ above the ground
- Lots of GDD units, good growth this season, no downy mildew or mold until week before last
frost
- No sprays needed
- Expect that 1 in 5 years you would get significant winter injury
- Marquette most vigorous
o Hedged laterals on the marquettes
o Some hedging on lacross and Brianna
- Overall good growth this season, expect good yields next year if winter is good
- Petite pearl planted in 2010
- August- sucker control
- Hedged the laterals Marquette,

Peninsular 2010 Report

- Removed in 2010
- nori- to be removed in 2011
o NY76 – hardiness issues
- Petit pearl- planted 2010
- Marquette- most vigorous
- Massive bird damage in 2010, third week of sept. started to see bird pressure
o Coordinate the purchase and type of netting being purchased for each station
- Brianna- great yield potential
- St.Pepin- pollination issues, LaCrosse is too early to provide optimal pollen content (not a
problem when you have massive plantings of LaCrosse)
o LaCrosse- double prune to get delayed flower?
- In Season Canopy Management
o Top wire 7.5’ – hedged twice
o No shoot thinning 2010
o Leaf pulling on everything- start on east side - left one layer, limited on west

West Madison 2010 Report

- Pulled Noire and Seval Blac

- Vignoles- some harvest, got hit hardest by frost
 - 1/3 of clusters removed on all varieties
- Rep 4- severe wind damage in June (45-50mi/hr) that blew vines off trellis
o Do we need to put up a wind break?
- No bud loss on anything other than Vignoles
- Soil analysis and petiole analysis in 2011
- LeCrescent and LaCrosse- powdery came in early
o downy mildew came in early- sprayed every 14days
- Brianna- sour rot- harvested too late
- NY76- clusters shattered- harvested too late
o Sparse canopy
- harvest 8/24-9/2
o Should have harvested earlier
- Brix- did not get up to recommended values
o rainfall may have reduced concentration at harvest, cloudy days
o cannot harvest according to brix reliably.
- Brianna- did very well
- Pruned down to cordon- left basal buds 2010
- Will spur prune this year
- Hedged at top wire- 3 times a year
- 1220- one cluster allowed to fruit, white, terrible taste, long cluster
- Thinking of adding top wire
- Removed secondary shoots- July

Standard Management Practices for 2011

- Rebecca will generate data collection sheets and protocols for data
- Files will be stored in google docs so that data can be entered directly into the excel files
- Winter Pruning- use balanced pruning formula to standardize
o Send protocol and data sheets
- Canopy management
o Lateral shoots
 At bloom remove all but one lateral
 Must determine number of shots/length of cordon
 At fruit set- remove all secondary laterals
o Cordon renewal- how many do we leave?
- Hedging
o Record Date, variety, average length
- Leaf pulling
o Ensure all clusters have some leaf exposure
- Petiole and soil analyses
 o Protocol for petiole analysis at veraison, send it to UW
o Soil samples- establish protocol and what nutrients to be tested for
- Cluster counts, before you thin
- Cluster thinning- conference call after cluster counts are collected

Ripening Profile

- Calibrate refractometers
o This will be done at meeting on March 2 nd
- pH, TA, brix- every week from veraison
- anthocyanin/phenolics- at harvest
- secondary metabolites- at harvest

Harvest Data

- cluster size
- berry size
- cluster number

Management Data

- records on all sprays applied

Future Considerations

- DATCP SCBG is going to be submitted to continue the grape quality project into 2012 season
- SARE

Additional Varieties

- St.Pepin?- talk to industry

- Discuss with industry about which varieties are of greatest interest

Field Days- Dean will summarize field days planned for 2011 season

- PARS
o April 9- pruning day
o Fruit Quality Field Day- first week in September
- West madison
o August 24-grape field day
 Grape quality
- Spooner
o July- training and establishment
o Phil will discuss with Kevin