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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
The Wooster weather through the month of November has been nearly identical as 2021 with the averages being within 2 degrees each month. Once again, our winter low was within the tolerance level for all of our grape varieties, which had achieved maximum cold hardiness despite the fact we had a mild December when our lowest recorded temperature of -4.4 o F occurred on January 22nd. Although our average temperatures for March and April were on track, we had a wide swing hitting 70+ oF a couple of days in early March, as well as lows of 11 oF later in the month. These low temperatures held off bud break due to low GDD’s. The last week of April the temperatures finally warmed and induced bud break. Although many areas of the state were hit hard by a spring frost, in Wooster, damaging temperatures were avoided due to limited or no bud break of most varieties. The early ripening period during August and September remained largely on pace with not only 2021 but our 30 year-long term average while temperature dropped in October averaging 51 oF in comparison to 60 oF in 2021. Our first hard freeze occurred on November 17th resulting in a growing season length of 201 frost-free-days.
Weather: GDD
We were very slow to gain GDD’s this year only hitting 100 in the later part of April but May roared ahead gaining over 300 GDD’s during the month putting us ahead of both 2021 and the long-term average. We then settled down into normal gains until October were things just abruptly stopped, including fruit ripening. Cumulatively, that averages out overtime, but we were well below our 2021 number of 3283 vs 3104 (thru November) in 2022.
Weather: Precipitation
2021 ended the year with a total cumulative rainfall of only 30.99”. We exceeded that amount in August of 2022. By the end of November, we have recorded 39.62” which is 10” over the long-term average. This is a change over the past 4 years where rainfall declined each year over the long term. 2022 has been very wet keeping us above the long-term averages every month up until October.
Vineyard Notes:
2022 Spring freeze injury: In Wooster we were fortunate to avoid a spring freeze event which wreaked havoc on a majority of the state the end of April. We would have likely faired a bit better as our buds were in early developmental stages at this point versus southern regions of the state.
Diseases and insects: Regular cover sprays were a must as we had consistent rains which resulted in sour rot. Other diseases such as botrytis, downy mildew were seen in smaller amounts which caused minimal damage in our vineyard. Our typical bird and other wildlife pressure was low while yellow jackets caused a fair amount of damage thereby helping encourage the spread of sour rot.
Fruit quality: Sour rot caused a real challenge in fruit quality. Our first harvest occurred on August 17th for Brianna and our final harvest occurred on October 25th for Chambourcin. Overall, fruit maturity was not as ideal as in 2021. In 2022, we recorded lower pH and higher TA as compared to 2021.
Table: 2022 Harvest fruit composition of selected grape varieties at the Wooster research vineyard:
Variety |
Harvest Date |
100 Berry wt (g) |
SS (%) |
pH |
T.A. (g/L) |
FMI |
Brianna |
17-Aug |
268 |
17.1 |
3.00 |
8.9 |
19 |
Cabernet franc |
11-Oct |
141 |
20.9 |
3.13 |
8.1 |
26 |
Chambourcin |
25-Oct |
232 |
22.0 |
3.20 |
11.4 |
19 |
Chardonnay |
27-Sep |
186 |
21.2 |
3.14 |
8.5 |
25 |
Crimson Pearl |
21-Sep |
206 |
20.7 |
3.35 |
8.4 |
25 |
Einset |
31-Aug |
252 |
19.3 |
3.12 |
5.4 |
36 |
Frontenac |
21-Sep |
120 |
22.0 |
3.24 |
16.3 |
14 |
Frontenac blanc |
21-Sep |
125 |
23.7 |
3.11 |
14.7 |
16 |
Itasca |
7-Sep |
152 |
22.9 |
3.50 |
8.6 |
27 |
La Crescent |
22-Sep |
138 |
20.9 |
3.02 |
15.1 |
14 |
Marquette |
14-Sep |
142 |
21.6 |
2.87 |
13.3 |
17 |
Marquis |
9-Sep |
502 |
13.9 |
2.88 |
5.1 |
27 |
Regent |
15-Sep |
251 |
19.8 |
3.07 |
7.2 |
28 |
Sauvignon blanc 27 |
29-Sep |
203 |
20.5 |
3.09 |
9.0 |
23 |
Vanessa |
1-Sep |
274 |
18.0 |
3.21 |
4.8 |
37 |