Wow! It is already March 16th, 2009. That means that once again the grapes will understand that the sun is out long enough and just warm enough to make the vines push their leaves out. Grape growers and winery owners can be heard asking each other, "are you at popcorn yet?" "Popcorn" is a term used to describe the swelling of the buds on the vine just before you can actually see green leaves. They get fuzzy, look a little yellowish, and swollen. Think of the kernals of corn in the bottom of the pot where the popcorn didn't pop all the way out -- that's what we call popcorn.
And this gives us grapegrowers an additional worry......frost. Once the vines begin their growth and the first set of leaves open, right behind these first set of leaves is what in a couple of months will be the grape clusters. Should the temperature dip below 32 degrees, these new clusters will freeze. At first they don't look bad, but within a week or 10 days the real damage is evident. Increasingly by the day, the new leaves and clusters begin to look like that head of lettuce that got left in the fridge under the rest of the produce. blackish, limp, and soggy. Not at all a pretty sight. Last year was a bad frost year and Due Vigne lost 2/3 of the crop of Napa Cab grown at Ron and Barbara Houle's vineyard. We are hoping fo a non repeat.
March 16th also reminds me that I still have three more rows to prune and all 3,000 vines to tie to the wire. Working feaversihly as it'll be at "popcorn" any day now! Stressful, but exciting.
Ken
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