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2007

Updated December, 2007

• Winter Damage: The winter of '06-'07 was more normal,that is to say, colder than the relatively mild winters of the recent past. The minimum temperature recorded at Sugar River Vineyard was -31.5C or -25F. Though this was pushing the tolerance of the vines, it came during a steady and lengthy cold period which gives the vines a chance to acclaimate. However, Traminette, Himrod, Landot 244, and young Seyval were severly affected and most of their growth has come from the base of the vines. There was significant primary bud loss on Norton and Aurore. Norton secondary buds are not very fruitful and the vines will have few if any grapes, but Aurore secondary buds are fruitful and produced a significant set of clusters. (See the comments re. the extended cold spell in the 2007 Summary below)
• Weather: There was no late spring frost so the primary buds of the vines survived for the first time in two years. Through July the weather was relatively benign, though fairly dry. Then came August rains! The month of August was the wettest month on record in Winnebago County. The continued and heavy rains caused significant damage to the fruit, especially thin skinned varieties such as Aurore. Damage largely resulted from splitting or cracking of the skins due to vascular pressure, followed by insects feeding on the exposed pulp. The rots and insects reduced the yields ranging from 100% in some varieties to10-20% in thick skinned varieties. GR-7 was the variety that was least affected by the wet month and had a near normal crop.
• Disease Pressure: Up to August, fungus diseases had not seriously impacted the vines. However, despite a schedule of sprayings as a preventative for what is always lurking in the environment like black rot, phomopsis, downey and powdery mildew, the month of August proved that growing quality grapes in the Midwest is a tough job.
• Summer Insect Foliage Damage: The major insect pests during midsummer are Japanese Beetles. They are voracious feeders and were present in huge numbers. Typical damage is shown in the following picture. Notice that the leaf veins are not eaten, only the soft green tissue. A completely eaten leaf is just a lacey pattern of brown veins. The beetles do not attack the fruit but severe defoliation will affect fruit quality. We sprayed Sevin several times trying to knock down the Japanese beetle numbers but couldn't do it. Another pest of the vines is leaf phylloxera whose presence is noted as match head sized green galls on the underside of young leaves. Severe infestation of individual leaves will deform them and they will drop prematurely and again that will impact fruit quality.

• Fall Insect Fruit Damage: The rains of August set up a severe problem with insects attacking the ripening fruit. Once the berries began to split, perfect conditions for insect predation occured. However, I would have to acknowlege the benefits of insects in cleaning up the tremendous number of rain damaged berries. Yellow Jacket hornets and wasps were attracted to the damaged berries in significant numbers. In the picture on the left, a bald faced hornet is feeding on a damaged berry in the upper center of the cluster (white spots). A honey bee can also be seen hovering at the left center of the cluster along with a house fly sitting at the upper right. As a result of insect feeding, harvested clusters consisted of empty berry hulls and sound berries, very little damaged fruit was left on the clusters at harvest time. Unfortunately, often 80-90% of what was on a cluster were hulls. Consequently, yields were only a fraction of what was expected in our late July assessments.

• Midsummer Veraison

Veraison is a french word referring to the grapes changing from the pea green of immaturity to the final color they will develop when they are fully ripe. Depending on the variety, veraison begins in mid July and lasts several weeks. At this time the grapes have reached their full size, and maximum acidity. From this point on, sugar builds, acidity falls and the characteristic grape flavor slowly begins to assert itself.

The variety on the left is DeChaunac on July 23, 2007. Both Foch and DeChaunac began to show color by July 16.

Frontenac (not shown) has developed about 50% of its color by late July.

Baco Noir had not begun to show color by July 23 but was fully colored by August18.

Summary

August was hard on the crop with heavy and continuous rains. This had a negative impact on the Aurore grapes which were closest to harvest, and which are prone to splitting. Once berries in a cluster split, they attract wasps, hornets, fruit flies, bumble beetles, mold, rots, etc. and the entire cluster is at risk. As a consequence of the rain we had to harvest Aurore about 1 week earlier than ideal and approximately 25% of the crop was lost.

Foch also did not stand up well to the late season rains and this years harvest was less than expected.

Delaware, Steuben, and Concord were in prime condition when harvested for juice/table use, but King of the North (a Concord like grape) was also negatively impacted by the wet conditions.

Summary of other Problems

• Insects-- Bumble beetles were able to feed on damaged fruit in larger numbers than usual. Arial Phylloxera was a not a significant problem this year. Japanese beetles were more of a problem this year than in past years due to the large number of them and the rather long time for their collective presence in the vines. The beetles do not bother the fruit directly, but they "graze" on the newest growth which stunts the canes and delays ripening of the fruit. Their numbers were high enough to require several applications of Sevin during July and even then, they were difficult to control. The picture to the left shows the lace work pattern of damaged leaves and the light green shoots exemplified in the upper right is new growth pushing in late August. Its winter survival is problematic. Asian Lady Beetles were much less of a problem than in past years. Part of the reason for this might be due to the earlier harvest of most of the varieties and the beetles had not left the soybean fields.
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• Weather--At the beginning of this year, the weather had been fairly cooperative. After a normal winter, we had adequate rainfall, in contrast to 2005. The period during July and early August was very warm, with temperatures above 90 F for days in a row. However, the rains in August resulted in a reduced harvest for most varieties of wine grapes though the grapes that did survive had adequate sugar at picking.
• Disease Pressure--Due to the late season rains, brown rot became a significant problem, especially for the Aurore, Foch, and King of the North resulting in crop losses of up to 40%.
• 2-4-D Damage--Herbicide damage was non-existant in the growing 2007 growing season.
• Extended Cold Spell--From the last week of Januarary 2007 through the first two weeks of February, northern Illinois was affected by an extended cold spell. The mimimum temperatures ranged in the negative mid teens for several nights and below zero temperatures were experienced every morning from February 2 through February 10 with daytime highs rarely reaching double digits. Traiminette, Vignoles, Reliance, GW-5, young Seyval, Himrod, and Landot 244 either lost all but base buds or lost all primary fruiting buds, resulting in severly reduce or no crop this year. It remains to be seen how the new growth hardens off for the coming winter.

(updated 12/28/07)

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