Ranunculus starts that are waiting to get planted outside!

 

There’s still plenty of snow on the vineyard terraces, but the days are getting noticeably warmer! The sun is bright and we’re back on 100% solar power. Seeds are sprouting and grape cuttings are leafing out indoors. It won’t be long before we can start hardening them off outside during the “heat” of the day.

We are excited to see what this summer will bring. With 40 grapevines planted out on the terraces where the ground is much warmer, will they finally look like real grapevines? We hope to plant at least another 40 vines this year of different varieties. While we have a good idea that only a couple of varieties will actually work (read produce edible fruit), we are trialing quite a few varieties to see how they do. Those that don’t produce fruit can still be used for foliage in floral arrangements or installations.

 

Speaking of floral arrangements, we are taking a deep dive into flower farming this year. After selling a few hundred flowers last summer to a couple of local businesses, we decided to ramp up our offerings for this year. We will be focusing on bupleurum, stock, sunflowers and ranunculus. The ranunculus were started in late February and already look really good! We plan on using raised beds for them, but they need some sort of cover, so something will have to be devised to protect them from winds (had 30+mph winds just this afternoon) and rain. And then there are the voles that will need to be kept away. About 200 ranunculus corms will be going in once the raised beds are thawed.

 

We were a bit stressed last summer by the limited growing space that was available. Here the ground is too cold during the summer for most plants to grow very well. The solution is to grow in raised beds, but being on a hillside, the beds would just wash away unless they are contained by permanent structures. Years ago, we made 15 raised beds using birch logs that we harvested from the hundreds of trees on the lot. They have actually survived quite a long time (13 or 14 years now), considering that birch is prone to rotting. Admittedly, the most used beds are showing signs of deterioration and we will need to replace the birch logs with more appropriate treated lumber. You would think that 15 raised beds would offer quite a bit of room. We total it at about 115 linear feet by about 3 feet wide. BUT, most of the beds have been filled with peonies for almost 10 years – tubers we bought and didn’t have time or room to plant out. Now that we have a peony plot down toward the bottom of the lot, we plan on moving all of those peonies (a few hundred still) down with the other peonies and free up the bulk of the raised beds late this summer. While that won’t help us this summer, it should free up even more room for ranunculus next summer.

 

Then we got to thinking about the vineyard terraces…hmmm. If the soil gets warm enough for finicky grapevines, surely other plants will grow, besides the native weeds, willow, alders, and trees. So, we will be interplanting some flowers between the grapevines this summer. That adds about another 350 linear feet (by about 2 feet wide) of growing space. Fencing may have to go up to protect from rabbits, porcupines, and hungry moose. One thing about this plan is that by amending the soil on the terraces for flowers, we will also be making it better for the grapevines. Bring on the compost!

 

Back to the grapes, though. We took a cutting off our only Baltica vine – after digging down through 3 feet of snow. We weren’t sure just how well it had hardened off last fall. Turns out it did really well and there is the possibility that we can get 5 more Baltica vines growing this year. They will be small, but should be ready to plant out next summer. Our goal is to have several thousand Baltica vines planted over the terraces and make some nice rosé wine from them.

We received 9 new-to-us grape varieties and wild selections earlier this year and they have started to leaf out. In less than four weeks, we expect to see roots growing and then it will be time to get them potted up. The vines on the vineyard terraces should start to show life around May 15^th and then it is “go time” for training and installing a few levels of wire for the trellises. We think this summer will be very exciting, so stay tuned!

 

Speaking of fruit, remember those aronia cuttings that we rooted? Well, they finally went dormant in the house and now they are starting to leaf out. Looks like 100% success! Now to figure out where they will be planted…somewhere warm and sunny.

 

Someone told me in 2008, “Good luck, they’ve been trying to grow grapes here for 75 years.” Well, make that 90 years! Check back frequently in the coming months to follow along on our farm & vineyard journey. 

A look at tonight's propagation wood

 

As the growing season approaches, it is time to start multiplying the number of vines we have. This is one way to do it.

We're out looking for propagation wood!

 

We were out uncovering our Beichun and Baltica vines, hoping to get cuttings for propagation (yardstick for scale). Baltica is a bit thin and Beichun is a bit short, but hopefully we'll get a few new plants anyway. We refilled the holes to protect the roots. No more deep cold in the forecast, but you never know. -20F on April 10th anyone? Not I!

2023 Grape Unboxing and Rooting Prep

 Preparations for the upcoming growing season have started. See what we're up to! 

Expanding the berry patch - plans for summer 2023

Ripening serviceberries (top); rooted aronia cuttings (bottom)

For the last 10 years, our intent has been to increase fruit production for fresh product and wine. It has taken most of that time to find what grows well and produces fruit that is in demand. We continue to work with currants, raspberries/blackberries, serviceberries, and honeyberries. Now that the most desirable varieties have been identified, emphasis has shifted to propagation. Some things, like currants, are very easy to propagate. Just stick a dormant cutting into the ground in early spring and keep watered. Others require a more complex approach and even then, they are hard to propagate. However, we have been experimenting with the use of peroxide and water to encourage root formation on cuttings that appears to have some promise. We successfully rooted aronia cuttings last summer using this method and look forward to trying it with honeyberries and serviceberries this coming summer.

We already have enough serviceberry bushes for a decent harvest, however they are not in the best location. Next summer should be an opportune time to move about 12 Northline serviceberries to the food forest and also propagate more. This variety remains relatively small and compact, making it easier to harvest the full crop while standing on the ground. Not to mention its size will make it easier to drape bird netting over to protect the crop from hungry critters. Another variety on the farm is Smoky. This variety can get quite tall and can form a living fence to trap snow before it forms drifts on our road. We are looking forward to its dual purpose!

Our blackberry patch has been neglected for several years while our attention has been focused on developing a vineyard. We desperately need to reinvigorate the blackberry patch! We are somewhat concerned because it was cold for a few weeks with very little snow cover in late October and early November of last year. This could have damaged the crowns on our Wild Treasure, even though they were covered by frost blankets. While it is unlikely that our largest Wild Treasure will be killed outright by the cold, there could be enough crown damage to delay new growth in the spring by several weeks.

Wild Treasure is one variety that we really need to propagate to get a decent amount of production. Winter cold results in quite a bit of damage, and greatly reduces production. We continue to experiment with different overwintering techniques in hopes of finding one that offers more winter protection. While we were out covering them this fall, we pulled one cane out of the ground that had tip-rooted. It is not uncommon for the canes on Wild Treasure to force themselves into the ground and begin forming a crown. These never survive the winter, as they do not form mature crowns by the end of summer. Out of curiosity, we cut that tip off (with about 12 inches of cane) and potted it up inside. It still has green leaves, so we are hopeful that it will successfully root and form a crown. We have tried rooting green cuttings in the past, but they usually just rot and never form roots. Instead, if we let the plants naturally tip-root, we can let the plant do the difficult work of producing roots on a green cane. Then we can cut off the starts, pot them up, and bring them inside to over winter. This method could yield a large number of new plants in a short period of time.

Several years ago, we received a couple of wild-seedling aronia bushes in the mail. Since that time, one has really stood out as a strong grower and producer – even with our cold soils. This year the berries were quite plump and much sweeter than our named cultivars. Aronia really need to stay on the bush until the first frost to make sure they are ripe. Unfortunately, the birds really like these (just what berries do they not like on the farm?) once they start ripening up. We picked about a cup of aronia berries off this bush and have been snacking on them for a couple of months. Aronia bushes also put on quite a fall display with orange and red leaves that add visual interest around the farm. We experimented, quite successfully, with rooting aronia cuttings in peroxide and water last summer. So, we will repeat the process on more cuttings next summer to increase our stock of aronia bushes.

Next summer looks to be quite busy between expanding the vineyard terraces, growing flowers to sell, and propagating fruit bushes. We will also be focused on removing the thousands of saplings that have taken over a large portion of the lot and establishing a manageable grass cover. So much to do and so little time!

Is it colder above or below the snow? A quick mid-winter update

We were out on the terraces today checking on the the soil temperatures at 8 inches (20 cm) and 16 inches (40 cm) depth. While the air temperature was in the mid 20s Fahrenheit (-3 C), there is concern that another long cold spell could push the soil temperature below what is tolerated by some of our grapevine varieties. Even after piling more snow on the terrace around the soil temperature probes, there hasn't been much of a rise in temperature.

Stay tuned for more winter updates!