OARDC-Wooster July 2020 Vineyard Update
Friday, July 31st, 2020
By Diane Kinney and Imed Dami, HCS-OSU
Our on-site restrictions remain in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We have resumed limited field and greenhouse work upon approval from the Dean of our college but common practices continue to have some delays.
Grape Phenology:
In Wooster, we are just beginning to see veraison in our early ripening varieties (Marquette, La Crescent, and some table grapes). For the most part, clusters have marble-sized berries and we are seeing the beginning of berry touch. We are about 1 week behind 2019 at this time.
Photo: Frontenac blanc in mid-July 2020
Weather Conditions:
July has been a very hot and dry month. We are more than 2 inches behind in rainfall for the month, which is still 1.5” above the long-term cumulative rainfall average. This is greatly different than the past several years. Fortunately, the grapes seem to be doing well with the 1.38” we have recorded and are very clean.
As of the 28th, we have tracked 8 days over 90 oF. Even so, our average daily temperatures are only slightly higher than normal at 75.5 oF. Even with the high temperatures during the day, we are nearly 100 GDD behind the long term with 1705 GDD.
Cultural Practices:
The dry weather has provided us with more opportunities to continue working in the vineyard. We have been able to stay on schedule with leaf removal, crop estimation and cluster thinning. Training of newer vines has progressed well. Timely sprays protected us against severe damage from Japanese beetles earlier in the month. We expect to move forward with vine hedging next week and netting to follow up soon after as veraison progresses. We will begin berry sampling in mid-August to monitor fruit maturity for harvest determination.
`
Research Assistant Lorena Brown conducting cluster thinning after assessing crop estimation.
Add new comment