If you do one thing late...

It is thus with farming: if you do one thing late, you will be late in all your work.

-Cato the Elder

We went to Florida for a medical conference. I'd seen a couple of Japanese beetles before I left so the last spray included a small dose of Sevin. We returned to devastation.

About 25% of vines were completely defoliated, including several vines loaded with grapes. All of the vines had some damage. I resprayed immediately and they are now under control but I had to drop the clusters on half a dozen vines, a mix of Foch and Traminette. We'll see whether there are enough grapes for even a one-gallon batch now. It depends what other calamities befall us.

On the plus side, those clusters that remain look decent. The Frontenac and Chardonel are in the best shape. Vidal recovery continues, we'll have about 13-14 vines this year and the plan right now is to replant.

The serviceberry and haskap harvests continue to grow. The haskaps are getting an occasional dose of antifungal after spraying the grapes. I don't know yet whether they will need to be sprayed with the same regularity as the grapes but we will know by August.

High temperature of 99F today, so we'll have an early start to pool time.

2018 Wines - Chapter 1 - Elderflower

I thought making some elderflower wine would put a dent in the final berry total, but not so much. I'm keeping expectations very low for this wine to improve the odds of a pleasant surprise.

• 3 pints elderflowers, cleaned with the Luc Volder method 
• 4 quarts sorbate free white grape juice
• 3 lemons, juice and zest
• 2360g sugar
• 1/2t tannin
• 2g water

Starting pH 3.06, SG 1.087. Used K1-V1116, step fed Fermaid K, and held it at 66F to about 1.046 when I bumped it to 70F to help it finish. At 1.030 it went to carboy to finish up. It was a slower ferment, going from 1.087 to 1.030 in 10 days, then several more days to finish up.

Today I racked and dosed with KMS. I didn't measure the SG but by taste it is dry. Honestly, as with my first batch of elderflower, I don't get that much elderflower aroma. 

Vidal Revival

Survival of the Vidal Blanc vines was poor compared to all other varieties, but they are making a bit of a comeback. We were down to just 4 of 36 vines, and yesterday I spotted growth on eleven. We got 1/2" of rain yesterday and I'm hopeful that we'll see more shoots emerge. A couple of the vines are approaching the top wire already. If a few more return I may replant the Vidal after all.

The rainfall yesterday morning was badly needed in the greenhouse. I just installed the summer rain barrels and water was running low. Unfortunately, one valve was shut off and one gutter was clogged, so almost all of the rainwater missed the barrels.

We have this swimming pool however, and it was covered. So I attached the long hose reel to the cover pump and pumped all of the water on the pool cover back into the barrels. They are now completely full and should last until the next bit of rain.

Trying an elderflower wine, but not particularly optimistic. Full post to follow.