Post Harvest???

 Although many of you are not done with harvest just yet...you might want to click on the link below and check out an update/reminder on some vineyard management options after harvest... from Texas A&M Extension:

Post-harvest vineyard management

When you open the document several topics will be presented. One mentions potassium fertilization...Just in case you are wondering if your vines are deficient in potassium, take a look at the photos below.

Before you decide to apply potassium fertilizer...be careful, as potassium levels in the soil can impact the pH of the grape juice that is produced. Dr. Michela Centinari of Penn State University has an excellent and very readable article on managing potassium in the vineyard:

https://extension.psu.edu/assessing-and-managing-potassium-concentration-in-the-vineyard

Dr. Centinari suggests that you monitor the pH and potassium level of the grape juice at harvest, take petiole samples earlier in the season and do not to rely on soil tests alone to determine whether to apply potassium fertilizer. 

Check out this slide presentation on potassium and grapevines...

https://aces.nmsu.edu/ces/viticulture/documents/potassium_vineyardwinery_nov11_2017ada.pdf

The slide presentation references a related article in Wines and Vines published in 2016 by Rob Walker and Peter Clingeleffer

Grapevine Potassium versus pH

These are Malbec leaves on vines located at Fabian Garcia ASC in Las Cruces. The leaves are on vines that were harvested last week. This symptom of potassium deficiency is not uncommon late in the growing season, especially on vines that were overcropped. I would add K fertilizer per your petiole or soil test recommendation. and remember to check the pH and potassium level of the grape juice at harvest. 

Winter Hardiness: 2020 Chambourcin versus Vitis vinifera

Chambourcin survives and produces at Los Lunas ...and vinifera? well, it died

Looking south in row at Los Lunas, ASC, experimental vineyard. Notice the empty 'panel' (the vine row between two line posts) in the foreground? This panel was planted with Vitis vinifera vines at the same time (spring 2018) as the Chambourcin vines in the background. The V. vinifera all died over the winter of 2019-20. The Chambourcin produced its first harvest this year, 2020. Photo taken August 24, 2020.

Crown gall, caused by the bacteria, Agrobacterium vitis, is likely responsible for the gall formation and growth evident in this photograph of this remnant vine, located in the panel depicted in the photo above. The bacteria is endemic to nearly all vines but only expresses itself after the vine suffers an insult, such as cold injury, water-logging, or in some cases, tractor or cultivator 'blight', that is, physical injury due to impact with a tractor or cultivation implement. Photo taken August 24, 2020. 

August 21, 2020: Brix readings of cultivars at Farmington

 

August 21, 2020, Farmington, NM
Cultivar	oBrix
Refosco (wine)	17.6
Gewurztraminer (wine)	18.0
Neptune (table)	19.4
Superior Seedless (table)	23.7
Swenson Red (table or wine)	23.6
Marquis (table)	19.9
Centennial (table)	21.2
Interlaken (table)	20.8
Saturn (table)	18.3
Glenora (table)	23.9

Time for 'terroir"?

 A good exploration, discussion and definition (?) of 'terroir' 

What the heck is "terroir"?

Have you see Neptune and Saturn lately?

 Table Grapes
at Farmington Agriculture Science Center 

Farmington Agriculture Science Center has a sizable planting of table grapes. The Four-Corners region of northwest New Mexico is a challenging environment with winter cold and frequent spring frosts. This year, 2020, there was late spring frost...many varieties were damaged and thus had no crop. Two exceptions are shown here...Neptune (white seedless table grape) and Saturn a red seedless table grape. 

Neptune, essentially seedless table grape, approaching ripeness at  NMSU Farmington Agriculture Science Center, August 21, 2020

Saturn, table grape, approaching ripeness at Farmington Agriculture Science Center, August 21, 2020

What are these small brown dots or structures on these grapes? These are 'lenticels'...similar to stomates early in the season, as the grapes mature, the lenticels are filled with the epicuticular wax that occurs on the surface of the grape berry. The wax oxidizes and turns brown. Nothing to worry about...not a disease or insect...just a sign that the grapes are getting ripe. This is not very noticeable on most varieties...

GOT YAN ?

 YAN and a healthy fermentation

    Many winegrowers/winemakers either do not know what YAN is, or they seldom measure it. Many state: "Well I have measured it last year or the year before and it was fine". This lack of measurement is a bit puzzling to me. It seems is a bit like going to the doctor and telling him or her that "Heck Doc, you measured my blood pressure last year, why do it again?". Or a little closer to home, growers ask what to fertilize with, and when I ask them if they have taken a petiole sample lately ...the conversation tapers off abruptly. How can you know what to add if you do not know what is needed?

Here are a few publications and information pieces that explain YAN, its measurement and its implication and impact on your wine.   

Penn State: Why Measure YAN?

Monitoring Nitrogen Levels in Wine

Harvest 2020 at Santa Ana

Harvest at Santa Ana 

Getting the harvester "dialed in" (top) at the foot of the Sandia Mountains... and beginning the run to harvest 2020. The machine begins harvest at dusk in the variety, Pinot Meunier, destined for New Mexico sparkling wine (bottom). 

WANTED: Pierce's Disease?

New Technology to Prevent and Suppress Pierce's Disease...being researched in New Mexico

    Some of you may have seen the news article ..and some of you may not have. But last September, Wine Business Monthly https://www.winebusiness.com/wbm/ ran an article by Mr. Ted Rieger, 

that reported a new technology being researched and applied to suppress and possibly cure, Pierce's Disease in grapes. This work was conducted by a biotechnology start-up located in Santa Fe, NM. The work garnered grant support ($448,000) from the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Pierces's Disease and Glassy-winged Sharpshooter Board and trials have been conducted in Sonoma County, CA. The work is centered around the application of peptides that apparently can defeat the causal organism of Pierce's Disease, the bacterium, Xylella fastidiosa, via topical applications of the peptide to infected vines in the field.  

Grape leaves with Pierce's Disease 'like', symptoms. These leaves display leaf margin necrosis and some chlorosis with a red colored "eye-liner" like margin toward the interior of the leaf. This DOES NOT indicate the vines in question have Pierce's Disease...BUT it is one symptom that points toward a possible infection.

 

Harvest begins at Engle, NM

 ~17 miles east of Truth or Consequences

Jasper, Richard and crew prepare the Pellenc and crew to commence Chenin Blanc harvest at the "Engle Vineyard"