Good Bloom, Good Set...for the most part

Bloom ended early this past week.  The first week of bloom was dry and sunny, we had cloudy and showery weather for the rest of the period.  Except for one block, fruit set throughout the vineyard was very nice with large berry counts per cluster.

Even without any significant rainfall, we had exceptionally vigorous shoot growth this spring, making for an expensive year of canopy management.  But, by mid-afternoon today we finished the bulk of this year's canopy management with shoots tucked and clipped up to the top wire, leaves and laterals pulled on the east side of the fruit zone, and vines hedged (twice already - once to prevent the long end-shoots from bringingin down the trellis, and then again yesterday/today to tip the middle shoots that lagged behind).  Usually we hedge twice each season, we'll be lucky if it's only one more time this year.

Things should slow down a bit for several weeks, as the berries/seeds develop.  With the warm (mid-90's), dry weather forecasted to begin in the next week or so, I won't feel so bad finally working on taxes inside with some A/C.

First Signs of Bloom

While tucking shoot tips under the top wire today I saw this, the first sign of bloom. I walked other blocks and saw flowers opening in those, too.  Like last year, this is the earliest bloom in recent years, with first signs of it on the same day.  It confirms that we are headed for another early harvest this year, perhaps even as early as last year's September 27 start of harvest.

After a very warm May, with 5 days hitting the upper 80's/lower 90's, we are having the highest early-season accumulation of heating degree days in recent years.  Through the end of May we had 375 heating degree days.

Despite nearly 12" less rainfall than normal during the dormant part of this season, with slightly less that 26" of rainfall since last season, we are still about 2" ahead of the January through May norm.

Although many of the shoots are at the top wire, we haven't had any significant rainfall since the middle of May; and, as a result, we are seeing significant unevenness is shoot development - with many of the middle shoots shorter than the end shoots.  This is causing a lot of additional shoot positioning work this season.

The forecast for the next month or so currently shows continued pleasant, sunny days - mostly in the mid- to upper-70s, with less than normal June rainfall (typically only about 1.5").  On the positive side, this bodes well for bloom; but I'd like to see a little rain sometime soon, to fill out the vines for fruit development and to get all the trellis work done.