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.
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