College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences
By: Maria Smith, HCS-OSU
The new USDA plant hardiness zone maps have been updated for 2023 and were released this week. These updates occur approximately every 10 years, with the last maps released in 2012. The following press release from the USDA provides explanation for how the new zones are calculated and the 30-year timespan of winter minimum temperatures used to calculate the new zones.
By: Maria Smith, HCS-OSU
In Wooster and throughout much of Ohio, we’re here: veraison (Fig. 1), the onset of the ripening period. During veraison, the berries will begin to change color, soften in texture, and expand in size. This is also the time when grower efforts earlier in the season will pay off in yield and quality outcomes of the mature grapes. Today in Wooster also marks our first harvest of the season with very early ripening Brianna (Fig. 1).
By: Maria Smith, HCS-OSU
By: Imed Dami and Maria Smith, HCS-OSU
Freeze advisories were issued the week of May 15 and temperature dropped below freezing on May 18. The lowest temperatures ranged between 28 oF and 31 oF. These freeze events were thankfully not widespread and occurred mainly in northeast Ohio (see map below). Note that this was the latest freeze since 26 May 2013 for Wooster and the second latest freeze on record since 1997.
By: Maria Smith, HCS-OSU
With the frost risks largely in the rear-view of April, we are starting to see new shoot growth bolt ahead under warming temperatures of the past week (Figure 1). Keep in mind, if you did have damage from those late-April freeze events, you may just be starting to see the emergence of secondary and tertiary shoots (Figure 2).
By: Imed Dami and Maria Smith, HCS-OSU
By: Maria Smith, HCS-OSU
It sure does feel like March Madness, especially with the recent arrival of Ohio’s infamous “second winter”. Thankfully, the cooldown from February’s warm, spring-inspired weather will help us keep the vines asleep a little bit longer. This cooldown should help us complete this most important dormant-season activity: pruning. As a follow up to last week's pruning workshop, let’s go down the reminders of when, what, and whys of pruning.
Why prune?
By: Imed Dami, HCS-OSU
By: Imed Dami and Diane Kinney, HCS-OSU
This article summarizes the 2022 dormant and growing seasons and the impact of weather on grape varieties grown on the research vineyard at the OSU-OARDC in Wooster, Ohio.
Weather: Temperature
By: Doug Jackson-Smith, SENR OSU
