The Saga of my Sprayer

 I haven't listed all of the 2022 wines. I should have planted 7 rows of Itasca. It makes a beautiful wine that smells like honey, honeysuckle, fothergilla blossoms. The 2022 version actually required the addition of acid. The Foch is sacrificial and is dying anyway. I didn't get the netting on the Frontenac in time to prevent complete critter loss. Traminette is not our favorite, I didn't bother harvesting. Jury is out on Frontenac gris - I made the wine but it is very unremarkable. La Crescent is a slight improvement on the Frontenac. 

The grape with the greatest potential (in terms of yield and taste) is still the Vidal. Unfortunately we just couldn't get the Vidal to the finish line. It ripens unevenly. And it sustained significant leave discoloration and leave drop before the grapes ripened. Last year spraying the grapes took an hour or more, and I still never got good coverage.  I was convinced the Vidal was diseased. Sure, it could have been nutrient stress or water stress, but for this post, let's focus on the possibility that disease slowed the ripening, and the sprayer trouble is the root cause.

I went out today for the first spray of the year, and I had no mist at all. It was time to dig into this problem and fix it once and for all. This sprayer has been trouble from the beginning. Bolts and nuts falling off, hoses coming loose, shoulder straps wearing out. The troubleshooting of the most recent problem started proximally and worked distally. The tank looked fine. The hose was clear. The nozzle was the problem. When I got it off I found the issue.

No air flowed through that nozzle. I picked at it and pulled out this:

This is silicone caulk from the tank. The caulk in the tank is a mess, and bits have gradually come loose and found their way down into the nozzle. The good news is that this easy to find and remove. 

I left a 1-star review on Amazon. Hoping now that we get the Vidal ripe in 2023.

Silicone caulk in the tank.

2023 Spray Schedule

4/23/2023    Mancozeb

5/6/2023    Mancozeb + Quintec

5/13/2023    Abound

5/24/2023    Mancozeb + Endura

6/8/2023        Mancozeb + Quintec

6/22/2023    Abound + Sevin

6/29/2023    Captan + Endura + Sevin

7/12/2023    Captan + Quintec + Sevin

7/22/2023    Abound + Sevin

8/6/2023    Immunox + Prophyt

Greenhouse Disaster

I can describe this only after seeing signs of recovery on most of the victims. We had a relay fail in the greenhouse. The exhaust fan is powered through a relay, and the relay operates with a signal from the climate controller. The controller was sending a signal but the relay failed to close and the exhaust fan didn't come on for a couple of days. This happened to correspond to a day on which I didn't water because clouds and rain were expected but which turned out sunny. Basically everything in the greenhouse got put under the broiler. It took me 10 minutes to fix it but the damage was done. 

I moved everything possible out of the greenhouse and under some shade. The garcinias, now about 10 years old and grown from see from PR, died back variable degrees - one back all the way to the lowest lateral branch. I took the opportunity to repot some of them and I'm happy to say that the cherimoyas, sapodillas, sugar apples, and lychees look no worse for the wear. There is new vertical growth on the garcinias. I'll post some new pictures when everything goes back inside this fall. 

Harvest Begins

 

We've started harvesting grapes. The back row of Frontenac and Foch was a complete critter loss. I still have a little Chambourcin so there is still hope of making some red wine this year, but there won't be much.

Like last year, our approach has been "let them hang." We got the first three grapes to the point where no sugar will be needed. Itasca came out first on 8/9, on the right above. We'll get two gallons, so double last year. La Crescent came out 8/13, left above, closer to 6 gallons. And Frontenac Gris came out 8/21, around 3 gallons.  Vidal is buttoned up tight, and we probably won't pick it until we get back from the Chalet after Labor day. 

Dancing Man v2.0

 Last year we were caught off-guard. Itasca ripens very early and the critters got most of the crop last year before we got any netting up. It was picked at 1.104, pH 2.8, no adjustments, but fermented cool. My best wine yet. This year, birds have just now started to get some grapes, so on 7/17 Lisa and I started putting the netting up. We netted and closed up the La Crescent and Itasca. 

We also netted the back two rows: Foch, Frontenac, Traminette, and Frontenac Gris. These rows are a mess to be honest. I thought I had pruned them hard, but evidently they need more pruning and shoot pruning in particular. They are extremely vigorous and I'm not sure we'll be able to seal them up like we did with the Itasca and La Crescent. We had a really hard time getting the netting over the vines and it only comes about half-way down. Note to self - prune and shoot prune the Foch, Traminette, and Frontenac very hard. 

Woodland Surprise

 This fellow showed up a couple of years ago. In past years the deer ate it before we got any blooms. 

PictureThis plant identifier tells us that it is broad-leaved helleborine, Epipactis helleborine. It is a common woodland orchid whose range extends into Missouri. It is also known as Bastard helleborine and Poor man's lady slipper, both of which I prefer to the common name found in Wikipedia, "weed orchid." This year it bloomed.

Greenhouse Rebuild

 Several pieces of the raised beds in the greenhouse rotted over the last few years. The would used was treated, but 18 years of water and humidity take their toll.

So with my friend Shawn here for the Memorial Day weekend and willing to tackle a project, we finally took care of this longstanding issue. Many of the screws could not be backed out so we just broke them off. We had to move some dirt around as well. But the project probably went as well as could be expected. I still have 10 bags of topsoil with which to top up the beds.