Today, at 3 PM, it was 21 degrees outside.

Yesterday at 3 PM, it was 84 degrees here in Glen Rose.

Today, at 3 PM, it was 21 degrees.  I wouldn't be surprised if we don't get into single digits, tonight.

I've got one vine past bud-burst in the greenhouse, but in the vineyard, there are a lot of vines on secondary buds and some vines with the entire bud killed.  At least, that's my interpretation.  I've attached some photos of buds (taken on warmer days).  In the photo, the 3 top images show secondary bud developing.  The dead buds have no fuzzy development, and the scales get shiny and slightly pull away from what must be a dessicated interior.  In two images, the primary died and fell off.   In the lower left, the whole bud seems to have died. 
























It would be nice to correlate a specific freeze to primary bud death, and deduce the critical temperature, but it didn't occur to me that bud development took off so early.  We have had 5 hard freezes in the generally warming trend since late January when I first saw signs of  bud activity.  In the dormant state, temps in the lower 20s would not be an issue, but as the buds enlarge, some vines lose the ability to survive.  By bud-burst, a temperature of around freezing will kill the bud on most vines.

In the first warm up, back in January, I noticed Muscat of Alexandria buds starting to swell.  Knowing that we had lots of freezes coming, I moved it into the greenhouse.  It will live in a pot for as long as it lives here.  It's purpose here is 'pollen', not grapes.  I also brought in one of two Victoria Red vines.  Despite having less bud development, the Victoria Red has reached bud burst.  The Muscat seems to have lost its primary buds.  It went through at least one freeze before I could get it transplanted.   That, or the transplanting, probably caused the primary bud loss.

This should be a great year for breeding.  The vines that flower here will be demonstrating a great talent, and those will be the ones we use for the next generation.