The Foothills Theatre is putting on a production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast on July 21, 22 & 23 and July 28 & 29. It’s an expensive production and they need all the help they can get to pay the orchestra and furnish the elaborate costumes required for such an elaborate production.

I know a lot of Yadkin Valley people read this blog and I am asking that you donate whatever you can to help out this very worthy organization.

We’d like to raise $5000.00. I’ve worked with the Foothills Theatre to set up an online donation center. Just click on the link and donate using your favorite debit or credit card, it’s that easy.

Due to the repeated rains and warm temperatures, weather conditions acrossmuch of Virginia (and region) are optimal for downy mildew and black rot infection. In addition to the foliage, clusters are still in a highly susceptible stage of development for both diseases in many vineyards. More than 4 inches of rain have fallen here in Winchester since Saturday, 24 June and rain has occurred daily since, with another heavy rain passing through within the hour. Vineyards that had been sprayed with non-systemic materials only prior to the rain have likely been vulnerable to downy mildew and black rot infection during or at some point after that much rain.

Growers are encouraged to use a post-infection material (“eradicant”) if you believe that your vineyard was “unprotected” during the prolonged rainy weather. Options are: phosphorous acid (e.g., Prophyt, Phostrol) or Ridomil Gold MZ for downy mildew, and Nova or Elite for black rot. For downy, the phosphorous acid products have good to excellent protective activity when applied 3 to 8 days before an infection period and excellent post-infection activity 3 to 4 days after infection. Ridomil Gold MZ is an excellent product for downy mildew and has good curative activity if applied within 4 days of infection. If you believe that you had sufficient residue of protective fungicides (Pristine, Abound, mancozeb, captan) present at the start of rains and are planning to go with a downy mildew protectant in your next spray, consider adding phosphorous acid for extra insurance – just in case some infections slipped through the protective net.

With the previous rain and potential for isolated thunderstorms the
remainder of the week, caution is definitely in order, especially on
vinifera cultivars. While we are concerned about potential problems with downy mildew and black rot, growers are also reminded that other diseases, such as botrytis and powdery mildew, often “erupt” at this time of year. Take some time to review notes from vineyard field meetings and newsletters issued earlier this spring.

It’s been raining pretty steady here in State Road for the past three days. I think we pulled in about 1/2″ yesterday and another 3/4″ so far today and another 3/4″ inch on the first day. I bet we almost have gotten 2″ of rain in total…that’s some much needed rain. My first year plants needed a good soaking.

I put down a nice spray before the rains came, so that was some nice timing. The beetles have been much lighter so far this year. I’d like to think my bird efforts paid off, but I think everybody is experiencing a slower year for the beetles. Next year, I’ll put out more feeders, and spend some extra time trying to get the flowers in place.

I aggressively did some trunk suckering on my 3rd year vines, they are coming along well…the canopy isn’t as even as I’d like due to some poor choices with pruning and also quite a bit of residual deer damage. That’s ok though, it’s not bad and next year should be much better. I’m learning. I also did some leaf pulling around the fruit.

I’ve erected 1/2 of the tposts and fruiting wires in the last week for my second year vines. Several weeks ago my hired help put down the bamboo stakes and did a nice job of choosing the proper shoot to establish a trunk. My first year plants I went with a dual trunk system…for the second years, I going to go with the more traditional one trunk system. I think it’s a lot less work and will result in a more aesthetic, balanced vineyard. The climate is only getting hotter, so I don’t see any real threats from the cold that might require a dual trunk system.

I am going to put down just a touch of 10-10-10 this week. It’s late, but I don’t think too late, to perhaps inspire a bit of growth in the 2nd year plants that are struggling. What I want to avoid is having the plants not shut down quick enough in the fall and then suffering some cordon damage over winter.

I used to think that some of the 2nd year plants suffered from residual herbicide damage, but now I simply think it’s just poor soil preparation on my part. As the season progresses, and as the fall lime application gets down to those roots, the plants seem to be perking up quite a bit. Last week I really cut these plants back, I literally choose one shoot to run up the bamboo and pruned off the rest. Any thoughts on this?

My thought was that it really opened up the plant and air can flow freely through the canopy. It makes spraying a ton easier and now the plan can focus it’s efforts on one shoot as oppsed to 5-10 shoots growing everywhere. yesterday I noticed some nice batches of new, healthy growth on plants that seemed to be suffering previously. I’m hoping a small shot of 10-10-10 with some dolmitic lime mixed in, spread 16″ in diameter around the plant will give it a little kicker to get plants back on track.

Mark Chien always talks about how plants that start badly are nearly always lagging for the rest of their life. He just pulls them out an replants. I guess I have to see it to believe it. I don’t see any reason why a plant can’t be turned around..not too mention, I am not going for the robust vigor so many vineyard owners seem to seek with perfect soils. I’d rather have the plan start well, with moderate vigor, and then begin to slow way down at verasion..leaves should start to yellow, tendrils and internodal length shorten, with all efforts of the plant going into fruit ripening and little vegetative growth.

I sent off my soil and petiole samples to A&L today, I should hear back from them next week. That will be interesting.

Other than that, I got a funny email from a local vineyard owner living in some world that exists only in his own head. Why don’t people remain open to constructive criticism? They forget that perception is reality in marketing. If I was marketing myself, then I’d have to sell dolls that feature a scowling, cynical man, because these growers and winery owners perceive me as being “all knowing” and critical. Which for the most part I am ok with…as my message is pretty clear. If you run a crappy business, and sell crappy wine and put forth ridiculous marketing materials and a website that looks like it was done with a crayon, than yes, you can bet my comments will be cynical.

I understand that is probably their baby, their labor of love. But man you gotta step back and somehow get a dose of reality outside of the tasting room and your friends and family. Because the perception is that your wines aren’t very good!

Oh well. Message lost. That’s why I stopped doing reviews. It didn’t really help anybody see the light. Maybe it helped a few people avoid some of the junk wineries, but the owners certainly didn’t learn anything. Hell, most of them don’t even use the Internet…so they rely on the hearsay of their patrons or comrades.
It’s a problem. Most will say “my vines are too young” that’s bullshit. Great wine can be made form young vines…maybe not consistently…but the arrogance of the local growers is that they can also be great winemakers, and many of these winemakers are just lost. Not all, I have had a few nice wines lately, but they are usually from the same winemakers… who in most instances aren’t the grower!!

My approach is perhaps too highly correlated with business. If you want to be successful in business, you solcit as many opinions as possible and you collaborate and outsource. It almost always produces a better product quicker and less expensively. But in the wine world I see a lot people who solicit no opinions on the true

This is off topic. However, in response to the burgeoning For Sale By Owner market, I have started a new site that will feature homes for sale by owner. Check it out at www.cyberalerts.com.

I think I am doing myself a disservice by continuing to fundamentally ignore my soil.  True I put down about 3000 lbs of dolomitic lime last fall, but there’s more to be done that I am sure.

Sampling soil,  to get accurate results is a pain in the rear end without the proper tools.   That’s why I haven’t done it more or more accurately.    This year I decided to correct that problem by ordering a tool that will aid in my efforts.

Lo and behold it’s not so easy to find an inexpensive tool, but after about 30 minutes of searching I found one and ordered it, check it out!

Friction-resistant design allows samples to be removed easily from the tube.

Sample tube has 13/16″ inside tube diameter.

Attached or slide-through handle.

Replaceable cutting tip with 3/4″ opening (#S2).

I have been so busy the last few months, that posting has hjust not been an option. Jen and I just returned from three weeks at our resort in Holland. Every day was full of an immense amount of work, but in the end I think it all came together very well. Please check out the photo album for the latest pics!

Now it’s vineyard time! In May I hired an individual to help me with the vineyard and boy did I get lucky! This guy is a work horse. It was such a great feeling to return to a vineyard and garden that was in better shape now than when I left!

Today was spent suckering the vines. I wrote another post on this last June. It’s common practive to trunck sunker and later crown sucker to remove unnecessary shoots, allowing more of the plants energy to be spent on the fruitful shoots. It’s sort of a fun job, at least I like it. When it’s done the plants and rows look so much better!

There are a few Japanese Beetles here and there starting to appear. I don’t want to, but since I have only sprayed ONCE this year so far, I will probably throw in some Sevin in the next spray. I am also going to throw in a bunch of eggs…my theory being that with how sticky eggs are they might serve to extend the efficacy of Sevin even after a rain, while also serving a dual purpose of keeping the deer out.

Deer damage is MUCH MUCH improved. My second year plants are virtually untouched at this point. They’ve broken through the fence about six times. The deer have figured out how to go around my fence though, so now my efforts will turn to plugging that last remaining hole. In the interim, the rotten eggs and the sprays tend to keep them away.

Overall, my first year plants are looking very well. There is some concern though as there is some discoloration at the edges of the older leaves…which is either a form of water stress or a nutrient deficiency. Liming last year has helped immensely. All the plants across the board are looking better with the exception of maybe 10 plants that I don’t what’s wrong with them.

The rows are weed free, mowed and the bamboo poles are all up. In the next few days all of the row posts will go up. My farmer friend stopped by today and said he has some spare time now with haying being over. He’s going to drive his travtor with loader up each roll and press the posts into each row.

That seems like far less work that using that air compressor and air hammer I used last year. And far far less work than me hauling a ladder and hand post driver up the rows, that would take forever!!

actually, it might not have made it in, as I missed the deadline!

I’m writing this column from the porch of one of my rental properties in beautiful Holland, Michigan. My wife and I usually return to the shores of Lake Michigan in late May and spend 2-3 weeks working with the staff to assure that property is in great shape for the upcoming rental season. The West Michigan shoreline offers incredible beaches, sunny days and a pluther of quaint lakefront towns showcasing art festivals, B&Bs and many fine shops. The fishing is great too!! Visit my website at www.rosewoodpointe.com and take your family north for a week!

Like North Carolina, Michigan has several American Viticultural Areas (AVAs), four to be exact, one of which is just to the south of Holland running along the shores of Lake Michigan. The waters of Lake Michigan create a unique macroclimate that shelters the grapes from the extreme cold in the winter. I am relating all of this wonderful information to you because a) more North Carolinians should visit West Michigan and b) I have decided that our first bottling of wine from will bear the label of our resort, Rosewood Pointe. Grapes will be grown in North Carolina, made to wine in North Carolina and marketed in Michigan!!

This fall, fingers crossed, I may have enough grapes to make a small amount of wine. While I’m still not sure where the wine will be produced, if it’s any good, it will be given away at my resort in Michigan. At some point, one of the rental units may be converted into a tasting room overlooking the lake. My wife and I plan to feature North Carolina wine and probably a couple wines (whites) from the local Michigan vineyards as well. Regional cooperation is a win/win for everyone!

The grape growers reading the column are probably wondering how I can spend three weeks away from my little vineyard during growing season. The answer is, I don’t have a choice. In the weeks leading up to my departure, I made sure that the vineyard was in good shape to be successful during my absence. An individual was hired to stay on top of the daily chores and I gave all the vines a good spray of Sulfur and a one-time shot of Dithane before I left. Mesh deer netting was erected on both sides of the vineyard (7.5’ feet high) and motion detectors that trigger a radio and lights were mounted on the open ends. Gallons of a rotting egg solution were sprayed on the perimeters to further disincentivize the deer from entering the property. Deer hate rotting eggs and the smell is imperceptible to humans when mixed twelve eggs to every five gallons of water. A study out of the University of Alabama proved it was by far the most effective in controlling deer damage. Try it!!

The Japanese Beetle season is rapidly approaching!! It usually starts in early to late June. I’ve got a ton of birds at my place now…especially Blue Jays and Purple Martins. They’ve been busily eating the grubs for most of May, so I’m hoping that this year I won’t have to spray any Sevin. We’ll see how that all unfolds. In any event, I do have some alternate remedies that will be utilized before spraying Sevin.

The new Pinotage plantings continue to do very well. They are flourishing in the low pH soil and seem to be digging their location. It’s still early in the year, but confidence is high that they will get up to the wire by fall. The second year plants, when I left, were recovering quite nicely from the massive amount of deer damage which occurred before the fence was erected. The liming of the soil last fall appears to have helped the plants with their nutrient uptake and many of the plants that struggled last year are doing great this year. However, there still are about 20-30 plants that are suffering from some sort of residual herbicide damage or perhaps some sort of disease that may have come out of the nursery? I don’t know, the petioles need to be sent in for analysis and diagnosis.

My next column in August will tell much more about how well the vineyard is faring through the rigors of summer and the annual summer ravaging by the beetles. I am still committed to keeping sprays to an absolute minimum and avoiding the use of herbicides and pesticides unless absolutely necessary! Have a great summer and visit www.greatncwines.com for regular updates!