An old friend happened to be in town, and came by to visit the vineyard. It was his first visit. I gave him my 'breeding grapes for Texas' story, with an emphasis on late frosts and the perfection of Glen Rose as a place to breed for late bloom. We then had a glass of Lenoir - Tempranillo from Red Caboose Winery I had purchased just for such an occasion. Wonderful.
I think this was the first out of town guest to visit the vineyard.
Before he left, he mentioned some nervousness after driving up the bluff to the house. "I didn't see any signs of a vineyard, but did see 4 cars. I expected 2 cars. You know how people in Texas are about privacy. I didn't want someone to walk out the door with a rifle."
This leads me to fantasize a bit. It would be nice to have a wine grotto with grape vines lining the path to it, and a vineyard off in the distance...
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Sunday, July 21, 2013
2012 crosses are planted!
The 2012 crosses have all been planted! The white tubes provide afternoon shade. There a 7 rows of seedlings, and one of blackberries. The 7th row was the last planted, and had a lot of hard clay for about 10' near the the eastern edge. The rows are on 16' spacing to allow for new rows in between this year's rows.
Some healthy seedling photos
Below are some photos I took today of the healthiest 2012 crosses. We had 3 inches of rain last week and some seedlings are putting on a growth burst. Click on the photo to enlarge.
On the left, Doaniana Montague x Dornfelder. On the right, Linny lincecumi x Tannat. Note the somewhat yellow leaves on the Linny cross (right side). Other members of this Linny cross seem to have the problem, too. Extra and Long John, two Munson lincecumi crosses, sometimes exhibit yellow leaves here (chlorosis?), so it may be a problem lincecumi has with the heat or the clay. The Montague x Dornfelder (left) is very reminiscent of last year's Dornfelder x OP (prob. self pollinated), at least in terms of leave geometry and color. These seedlings couldn't make it through the summer heat, though. In contrast, this 2012 Dornfelder cross is having no problems with the heat.
With that said, look at this Chalk Mountain cinerea x Extra cross. No yellow leaves here.
Finally, here is Doaniana Montague x French Mystery vine. I think this is the healthiest cross as a group.
On the left, Doaniana Montague x Dornfelder. On the right, Linny lincecumi x Tannat. Note the somewhat yellow leaves on the Linny cross (right side). Other members of this Linny cross seem to have the problem, too. Extra and Long John, two Munson lincecumi crosses, sometimes exhibit yellow leaves here (chlorosis?), so it may be a problem lincecumi has with the heat or the clay. The Montague x Dornfelder (left) is very reminiscent of last year's Dornfelder x OP (prob. self pollinated), at least in terms of leave geometry and color. These seedlings couldn't make it through the summer heat, though. In contrast, this 2012 Dornfelder cross is having no problems with the heat.
With that said, look at this Chalk Mountain cinerea x Extra cross. No yellow leaves here.
Finally, here is Doaniana Montague x French Mystery vine. I think this is the healthiest cross as a group.
Some reorganization here
I'm working on doing a better job distinguishing the 'October grape project' blog from
the 'Mills Vineyard' blog. In general, I want this to be more of a diary
of what goes on in the vineyard, and 'October Grape Project' is more of a
'big picture' view with a specific focus on breeding a grape for North
and Central Texas.
With this in mind, I'm moved the 'River Vineyard mysteries' post over from the 'October Grape Project'. It is a diary entry.
With this in mind, I'm moved the 'River Vineyard mysteries' post over from the 'October Grape Project'. It is a diary entry.
Moved from 'October Grape': River Vineyard mysteries
The river-vineyard has 5 of 6 rows planted. To check my
record keeping, I tried to 'balance' the 'new vineyard' spreadsheet,
which was started when I cleaned the seeds and has been updated
periodically ever since, against what I counted in the river-vineyard
and 14 remaining pots.
Here is what I discovered. The river-vineyard has 3 sets of mystery plants, plants with suspect lineage. First, there are offspring of Rich's 'mystery vine'. Rich's mystery vine is one of his favorites. Seedlings from this vine are among the most vigorous river-vineyard vines. Pedigree? Oh, well...
Second, there is the pot whose label said 'Missing spoon'. The pot was planted out and covers 14 dripper locations, the largest group we planted. I use plastic spoons covered with metalic tape to record the cross in each pot. This pot seems to have lost its spoon, so at some unrecorded moment this spring, I put a 'missing spoon' spoon in that pot.
After carefully checking my spreadsheet, all the river vineyard vines and remaining pots, there were only two spreadsheet entries that were not accounted for:
CA 06-38-1 x Carnelian (on 5/4/13, my records said there were 20 seedlings)
Doaniana Montague x Carnelian (on 5/4/13 there were 5 seedlings)
Since we planted 14+ seedlings, the 'missing spoon' pot was probably 'CA 06-38-1 x Carnelian'. The Doaniana x Carnelian pot was probably the one attacked by snails, and got removed at some point. (I only had one pot suffer from snails)
I'll leave the '?' on the label until the seedlings grow out and we can confirm the guess.
Finally, there was one pot with a label that wasn't in my spreadsheet: Z89-9-3 x Cabernet Sauvignon. The label is pretty clear about what it says, so I'm very sure it wasn't in my spreadsheet. What can I say, it is another mystery. I'm just going to add it to the spreadsheet now, and plant the pot. Additionally, there was an extra unplanted 'Doaniana Montague x Cab' pot. Having two Cabernet crosses omitted from the spreadsheet is troubling, but the labels are both explicit (and in my hand writing).
Mea culpa. My record keeping has flaws. All I can do is record the issues as I find them.
If you have gotten this far, here is a screen shot of my spreadsheet. The top 14 entries are "row 6" of the new river-vineyard. The 'planting or greenhouse' numbers are for 'dripper sites'. Generally, there are two seedlings at each dripper location.
Below that is an inventory of the seedlings still in pots. For these entries, the 'planting or greenhouse' number is a direct count.
The first 5 river-vineyard rows are shown in my 7/11/13 entry.
Click to enlarge...
Here is an update on this year's seedlings as of 7/8/13. Of note, the z89-9-3 x Jupiter has been the weakest cross as a group. I'm having to work to keep 3 seedlings alive, hiding them from the sun. Rich's Montague x French Mystery vine seems to be the healthiest.
I'm still planting seedlings as they get large enough to handle the sun. A new row will probably get planted this weekend.
Click on the list to enlarge it.
Here is what I discovered. The river-vineyard has 3 sets of mystery plants, plants with suspect lineage. First, there are offspring of Rich's 'mystery vine'. Rich's mystery vine is one of his favorites. Seedlings from this vine are among the most vigorous river-vineyard vines. Pedigree? Oh, well...
Second, there is the pot whose label said 'Missing spoon'. The pot was planted out and covers 14 dripper locations, the largest group we planted. I use plastic spoons covered with metalic tape to record the cross in each pot. This pot seems to have lost its spoon, so at some unrecorded moment this spring, I put a 'missing spoon' spoon in that pot.
After carefully checking my spreadsheet, all the river vineyard vines and remaining pots, there were only two spreadsheet entries that were not accounted for:
CA 06-38-1 x Carnelian (on 5/4/13, my records said there were 20 seedlings)
Doaniana Montague x Carnelian (on 5/4/13 there were 5 seedlings)
Since we planted 14+ seedlings, the 'missing spoon' pot was probably 'CA 06-38-1 x Carnelian'. The Doaniana x Carnelian pot was probably the one attacked by snails, and got removed at some point. (I only had one pot suffer from snails)
I'll leave the '?' on the label until the seedlings grow out and we can confirm the guess.
Finally, there was one pot with a label that wasn't in my spreadsheet: Z89-9-3 x Cabernet Sauvignon. The label is pretty clear about what it says, so I'm very sure it wasn't in my spreadsheet. What can I say, it is another mystery. I'm just going to add it to the spreadsheet now, and plant the pot. Additionally, there was an extra unplanted 'Doaniana Montague x Cab' pot. Having two Cabernet crosses omitted from the spreadsheet is troubling, but the labels are both explicit (and in my hand writing).
Mea culpa. My record keeping has flaws. All I can do is record the issues as I find them.
If you have gotten this far, here is a screen shot of my spreadsheet. The top 14 entries are "row 6" of the new river-vineyard. The 'planting or greenhouse' numbers are for 'dripper sites'. Generally, there are two seedlings at each dripper location.
Below that is an inventory of the seedlings still in pots. For these entries, the 'planting or greenhouse' number is a direct count.
The first 5 river-vineyard rows are shown in my 7/11/13 entry.
Click to enlarge...
Here is an update on this year's seedlings as of 7/8/13. Of note, the z89-9-3 x Jupiter has been the weakest cross as a group. I'm having to work to keep 3 seedlings alive, hiding them from the sun. Rich's Montague x French Mystery vine seems to be the healthiest.
I'm still planting seedlings as they get large enough to handle the sun. A new row will probably get planted this weekend.
Click on the list to enlarge it.
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